World's Greatest Literature

[North King]

There are a quite a few that have been mentioned which I agree with; in addition, I'll say: Catch-22 (Joseph Heller), The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald), Candide (Voltaire), and Brave New World (Aldous Huxley).

 

[Red Door]

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain should be read by all teenagers and all those who are entering a change in maturity.

The Odyssey by Homer could also be included.

Call of the Wild - Jack London

 

[Rambuchan]

As many of these as possible

In the Indian literature section he has omitted The Panchatantra.

This is a crucial piece of story telling, which has greatly, if somewhat subtly, informed much of the Western canon. Within it are contained many of the narrative devices, and indeed whole stories, which later appear in The 1001 Nights. This in turn, not only via the translations of Gallant, has influenced Chaucer (devices), Shakespeare (eg. Taming of the Shrew) and many more works that would be too endless to list.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Tom Clancy - The Hunt for Red October
Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Crime and Punishment
Alexandre Dumas - The Three Musketeers
Victor Hugo - Les Miserables
Tim O'Brien - The Things They Carried

 

[scherbchen]

Girlfriend in a Coma - Douglas Coupland, literally the best book I have ever read (ofc subjective)

A Game of Thrones - George R R Martin, well written unorthodox fantasy? burn him!

Don Quijote - Cervantes, but then again I'm a Spanish major

Diary of - Christoph Colombus

Die Blechtrommel - Günther Grass

A Short Hostory of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson, if - like me - you never really got natural science but enjoy it and you are a friend of entertaining essays

Rayuela - Cortazar, still struggling with it though

Mansfield Park - Jane Austen, what is a list without Jane Austen?

my advice to everyone who likes to read every once in a while: don't burden yourself with the "classics" (and yes, the Quijote and the Blechtrommel I mentioned definetily count... don't do it). Read whatever catches your fancy, it does not have to make you a better or more ducated person. Read for the fun of it, do not view it as obligatory homework you have to do because it is, somehow, expected of you. If you enjoy it, keep going, ask friends for books, browse the web. Just don't go pursuing some list some guy gave you or try to keep up with the Joneses, because you can't. If you keep checking how many pages are left before you get through your current book, it is - for now - not for you, maybe it never will be. That does not make you illiterate or dumb or uneducated. Read what you want to read and see where it gets you. If you do not like reading, you are probably still a very likeable and intelligent being

 

[JJ Boston]

I feel like everyone owes it to themselves to read something by Ernest Hemingway at some point in their lives.

Tolstoy too, especially Anna Karenina.

 

[Merkinball]

JPN: Just break into War and Peace. It's really not that long once you get going. Some of it is just so beautifully written that the pages just fly by.

I mean, we read War and Peace for my Tolstoy class, and on top of that we read his complete short stories, among a lot of other stuff and it wasn't a problem. JUST READ IT! It's beautiful.

Personally though, I like Anna Karenina better. It's probably more beautiful than War and Peace (but there's a transition of style as you progress through it), and with that, it's more thought provoking and eye opening. This book made me wish I was serf in 19th century Russia.

Also, the Sevistople Sketches might, just might be my favorite piece from Tolstoy. I'm also very fond of The Death of Ivan Ilych.

My favorite piece of prose ever though, is The Metamorphosis by Kafka.

Two other favorites that stick out in my mind, and two books that I can read at any time (I haven't been able to get into a book for two years now), are Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut which I'll usually read in a sitting...perfect literature. And the Great Gatsby, which could aslo be done in a sitting if you're committed. Trite, but great literature.

 

[Felix Luce]

Anything by Marquis de Sade.

 

[robo-snickers]

playboy, everyone dad should give their 6 year old one and make him read it and open his eyes to a whole new world! never to young

 

[Japanrocks12]

All of the works of Haruki Murakami. Seriously, he's an amazing writer.

I'm working my way through Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev

 

[nonconformist]

you need to read some Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (RIP)

A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, and Cancer Ward, particularly. The early stuff can be passed by

Boys From Brazil, Ira Levin

Der Prozess/The Trial-Franz Kafka

 

[De Lorimier]

A Short History Of Progress by Ronald Wright. I've been passing it around my friends since I finished it.

 

[REDY]

It should be long thread, everybody has different taste. One of my favorites who werent mentioned is Remarque, but you should read only one or two works, they are somewhat similiar. So take Three Comrades and All Quiet on the Western Front. Btw I now read anton myrers The Last Convertible.

 

[Japanrocks12]

Eugene O'Neill has plenty of awesome works worth reading. However, the one that struck a chord with me the most is The Hairy Ape, mostly because it shows what man is capable of doing to other man and it deals with the themes of isolation and social acceptance.

 

[Yui108]

Nearly everything by Hugo. Last Day of a Condemned Man, Les Miserables, Toilers of the Sea, and Notre Dame de Paris to name a few. As well 1984, the Iliad, and something by Shakespeare. Possibly a divine comedy.

 

[Tee Kay]

For all you atheists out there.

 

[Bast]

 

[Gooblah]

Jane Austen is definitely a classic author. I also recommend reading Anthem by Ayn Rand. It's comparable to Fahrenheit 451 or 1984 or Brave New World.

The Namesake by some Indian author. God, I forgot her name, but it really struck a chord with me.

 

[lovett]

When asked to choose the most critical four books, Bloom chose:

1. The collected works of Shakespeare

Frankly, I'd disagree wth this. Shakespeare wrote his fair share of mediocre plays, and there's no need to plough through them in order to get to a Hamlet or King Lear. Bar Titus Andronicus all his tradgedies are certainly required reading. His histories tend to be good too, although only a few are real masterpieces. However, his comdies vary wildly. Certainly some are brilliant (Twelth Night and The Merchant Of Venice come to mind) but some are simply not up to par. There's no real benefit in reading The Merry Wive Of Windsor or Pericles, Prince Of Tyre other then being able to brag about having read all Shakespeare's works. It wouldn't hurt to leave out As You Like It or The Comedy Of Errors either.

 

[Gooblah]

Oh right, I forgot a few:

For all my Indian nationalist relatives and friends:
The Mahabharatha
The Ramayana
The Panchatantra

Greek?
The Odyssey
King Oedipus
Roman?
The Aeneid