Essential Reading List- what needs to be read?

[lgoasklucyl]

I would agree with the poster who suggested 'Brave New World'.

I would also add:
'Fahrenheit 451'
'Slaughterhouse Five' (or a few others by Vonnegut)
'Thus Spoke Zarathustra' or 'Human, all too Human'
Among others...

[Army of GOD]

Sorry, I get excited about books.

- Siddhartha - Loved this book; although I couldn't get past the idea that it was just the Odyssey.

Really? I've never made the connection between the two and I still find it difficult...

[sully800]

Hound of the Baskervilles

Dang, there was a copy of that on my bookshelf when I was little and it always used to give me nightmares despite never reading it. Thanks for the repressed memories!

[thegreekdog]

Sorry, I get excited about books.

- Siddhartha - Loved this book; although I couldn't get past the idea that it was just the Odyssey.

Really? I've never made the connection between the two and I still find it difficult...

Journey-type stuff, meeting weird people. I may be wrong though... it's been about 15 years since I read Siddhartha.

[lord voldemort]

Harry Potter...any book that stays on the top selling list for a decade should be in there...and its no longer a childrens book...
twilight is good too.

[pimpdave]

Babysitter's Club
Sweet Valley High
Goosebumps
Encyclopedia Brown
Hardy Boys

[pimpdave]

Choose Your Own Adventure

[jonesthecurl]

Choose Your Own Adventure

I loved the TSR Endless Quest ones, especially the two "Tarzan" ones.

[Frito Bandito]

I think David Copperfield is well worth the effort.

[thegreekdog]

Choose Your Own Adventure

I loved the TSR Endless Quest ones, especially the two "Tarzan" ones.

I like the GI Joe choose your own adventures. Did I type "like?" I meant "liked."

[pimpdave]

WELL I MEAN LOVE.

[pimpdave]

And now, to be serious.


The Last of the Mohicans
The Deerslayer
Catch-22
The Stranger (or, L'Etranger, if you prefer)
Catcher in the Rye
The Happy Return (and all of the Hornblower novels)
Mystic River
Ashenden or, The British Agent
Of Human Bondage

most of the other stuff already mentioned.

[MeDeFe]

Harry Potter...any book that stays on the top selling list for a decade should be in there...and its no longer a childrens book...
twilight is good too.

If this is sarcasm it is too subtle, because you make it look like you're serious I will treat it as such.


While the early HP books were not completely without a certain charm and the finale held a a twist or two that, while not entirely surprising, certainly lifted the overall quality from lying in the gutter to begging on the sidewalk, the quality of the series as a whole is best described by just that metaphor. JK Rowling is sitting on the sidewalk, begging the greater minds walking by for the leftovers of genius and attempting to emulate them, but sadly failing.

To get to your second suggestion... if the HP series is begging on the sidewalk, Twilight is a feral brute living in the sewers, hunting rats and scavenging on the poisonous and rotten filth HP tried to eat but couldn't swallow because of a merciful gag reflex. There simply is nothing redeeming in Twilight to make up for the perverted vision of family the author conjures. Stephenie Meyer's writing is about as aesthetically pleasing as roadkill in summer and her world view as appealing as watching someone being hung, drawn and quartered.



Now, if you were referring to John Campbell's excellent short story titled Twilight I will agree that it is good, though I will beg to differ about that "too".

[Imaweasel]

Harry Potter...any book that stays on the top selling list for a decade should be in there...and its no longer a childrens book...
twilight is good too.

If this is sarcasm it is too subtle, because you make it look like you're serious I will treat it as such.


While the early HP books were not completely without a certain charm and the finale held a a twist or two that, while not entirely surprising, certainly lifted the overall quality from lying in the gutter to begging on the sidewalk, the quality of the series as a whole is best described by just that metaphor. JK Rowling is sitting on the sidewalk, begging the greater minds walking by for the leftovers of genius and attempting to emulate them, but sadly failing.

To get to your second suggestion... if the HP series is begging on the sidewalk, Twilight is a feral brute living in the sewers, hunting rats and scavenging on the poisonous and rotten filth HP tried to eat but couldn't swallow because of a merciful gag reflex. There simply is nothing redeeming in Twilight to make up for the perverted vision of family the author conjures. Stephenie Meyer's writing is about as aesthetically pleasing as roadkill in summer and her world view as appealing as watching someone being hung, drawn and quartered.



Now, if you were referring to John Campbell's excellent short story titled Twilight I will agree that it is good, though I will beg to differ about that "too".

[PLAYER57832]

I would not call "Harry Potter" high reading, but I enjoyed it...
and anything that gets lots of kids reading is beneficial. (though a "must read" for kids would be in another list).


Anyway.

Definitely Tolkien, both the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
Ender's War trilogy.
Mercedes Lacky Arrow's Flight Series & Last Herald Mage Series
Ann McAffrey's Pern (anything, but the classics are the first 3).
Chaim Potok's the Chosen
Chaos: making a new science by James Gleick (for semi-serious reading, gets into the who new theory in an easy-to read way).
John Muir... a bit dated and long-winded, but still worth reading.
My Side of the Mountain (OK, its for kids, but I liked rereading it with my son)
The Tracker, by Tom Brown
David Copperfield
Lord of the Flies
Grapes of Wrath
The Jungle
1984 By George Orwall (a bit dated now, but still...)
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Jack London's tales


OK, that's enough of a list, but it is far from complete.


Definitely not "high literature", but fun:
Piers Anthony's Xanth Tales (he's up to over 30 now, I believe The first is A Spell for Chameleon, but you don't have to read them all to enjoy the series at all).
Robert Jordan's Cycle of Time .. but ONLY the first 1-2... after that it just drags.

[edocsil]

Harry Potter...any book that stays on the top selling list for a decade should be in there...and its no longer a childrens book...
twilight is good too.

This causes me great physical pain. The Twilight series read like a tabloid, and yes I have read them. When the last Harry Potter came out, BOTH of my sisters bought a copy. I laughed and made a guess at the plot of the book. Pathetically I was spot on for most of it. The book was so predictable. I liked the first few, but after that they lost their originality.


I do like WOT, but you need to be a fairly hardcore fantasy addict to appreciate those.
McAffrey and Mercedes Lacky are both decent authors, and 1984 is a must read, so much literature alliterates to it.

IMHO Grapes sucked. I never really understood its purpose.
TKaM is right up there with Grapes.

Most the other classics that were mentioned were good reads.

[Symmetry]

Harry Potter...any book that stays on the top selling list for a decade should be in there...and its no longer a childrens book...
twilight is good too.

This causes me great physical pain. The Twilight series read like a tabloid, and yes I have read them. When the last Harry Potter came out, BOTH of my sisters bought a copy. I laughed and made a guess at the plot of the book. Pathetically I was spot on for most of it. The book was so predictable. I liked the first few, but after that they lost their originality.


I do like WOT, but you need to be a fairly hardcore fantasy addict to appreciate those.
McAffrey and Mercedes Lacky are both decent authors, and 1984 is a must read, so much literature alliterates to it.

IMHO Grapes sucked. I never really understood its purpose.
TKaM is right up there with Grapes.

Most the other classics that were mentioned were good reads.

On the Wheel of Time front, I've got to say I can't stand them. Too much lifted from LoTR and Dune, the bloated "length for lengths sake" nature of the whole series, all the standard stuff that makes so much recent fantasy so dull.

I stopped a few books ago (can't recall the number), but the plot basically had nothing happen over 600 pages. At the start of the book some of Bene Gesserit knock-offs are thinking about crossing a river. At the end they cross the river. If the characterisation was better I could live with that, but it's nothing special.

Sorry- rant over.

[HapSmo19]

Juggs
Hustler
Various technical manuals translated from japanese to english by a mexican

[muy_thaiguy]

Harry Potter...any book that stays on the top selling list for a decade should be in there...and its no longer a childrens book...
twilight is good too.

This causes me great physical pain. The Twilight series read like a tabloid, and yes I have read them. When the last Harry Potter came out, BOTH of my sisters bought a copy. I laughed and made a guess at the plot of the book. Pathetically I was spot on for most of it. The book was so predictable. I liked the first few, but after that they lost their originality.


I do like WOT, but you need to be a fairly hardcore fantasy addict to appreciate those.
McAffrey and Mercedes Lacky are both decent authors, and 1984 is a must read, so much literature alliterates to it.

IMHO Grapes sucked. I never really understood its purpose.
TKaM is right up there with Grapes.

Most the other classics that were mentioned were good reads.

On the Wheel of Time front, I've got to say I can't stand them. Too much lifted from LoTR and Dune, the bloated "length for lengths sake" nature of the whole series, all the standard stuff that makes so much recent fantasy so dull.

I stopped a few books ago (can't recall the number), but the plot basically had nothing happen over 600 pages. At the start of the book some of Bene Gesserit knock-offs are thinking about crossing a river. At the end they cross the river. If the characterisation was better I could live with that, but it's nothing special.

Sorry- rant over.

It is a series that you either like it or hate it. And most fans will admit that the middle books were lacking, but the last couple were intruiging, to say the least.

[thegreekdog]

If one would like to read good modern (and by modern, I mean written in the last 30 years or so) I recommend the following authors/series:

George R.R. Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire
Gene Wolfe - The Book of the New Sun
Patrick Rothfuss - The Name of the Wind

[pimpdave]

If one would like to read good modern (and by modern, I mean written in the last 30 years or so) I recommend the following authors/series:

George R.R. Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire
Gene Wolfe - The Book of the New Sun
Patrick Rothfuss - The Name of the Wind

Gene Wolfe is really good, and I'm really not even into fantasy outside of Tolkien.