I’m going to try to make it through this list of books. There’s no real time frame, but if I could do it in a year or two, I’d be happy with myself. These are all the books I should have read coming up through school. Some of these I’ve actually read but I could not pay proper attention to them simply because I was either cramming for a test or I had several other books to read at the same time. Some of these I just couldn’t understand because I was too young, too silly, or lacking in the right mind set.
I challenge anybody to join me in this read-a-thon. Feel free to jump in or out at your leisure. I’ll highlight the book I’m currently reading. Maybe we can prompt some book discussion, or something. I don’t know.
- 1984 by George Orwell
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (FAIL: 1/17/2012)
- Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (3/4/2010)
- Animal Farm by George Orwell
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- Antigone by Sophocles
- Arabian Nights by Antony Galland
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- Call of the Wild by Jack London
- Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
- Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
- Colour Purple by Alice Walker
- Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (02/11/2011)
- Crucible by Arthur Miller
- Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
- Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Dracula by Bram Stoker (01/06/2011)
- Emma by Jane Austen
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (9/29/2010)
- Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
- Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (FAIL: 9/22/2010)
- Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
- Handmaiden’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
- Hamlet by William Shakespeare
- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (03/24/2010)
- Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo (10/14/2010)
- Iliad by Homer
- Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
- Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks
- In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (04/10/2011)
- Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
- King Lear by William Shakespeare
- Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
- Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
- Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
- Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding
- Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
- M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang
- Macbeth by William Shakespeare
- Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert (03/07/2011)
- Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
- Middlemarch by George Eliot
- Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
- Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Hall
- My Antonia by Willa Cather (1/10/2011)
- Night by Elie Wiesel
- Odyssey by Homer
- Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
- Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
- Othello by William Shakespeare
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
- Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
- Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
- Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (5/17/2011)
- Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (10/22/2010)
- Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
- Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
- Stories of Anton Chekov by Anton Chekov
- Stranger by Albert Camus
- Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
- Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki
- Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
- Tartuffe by Moliere
- Tempest by William Shakespeare
- Tess of the D’urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
- Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
- Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- Turn of the Screw by Henry James (3/31/2010)
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (10/20/2010)
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (4/2/2010)
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May I recommend Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace? It seems like you’re tackling more traditional classics, which is great. But seeing as how this is a pretty ambitious endeavor on its own, I figured I’d pimp my favorite novel out there, which is also a pretty ambitious endeavor on its own.
Thanks for the suggestion. There is definitely going to be a round two to this whole thing. I know I’m missing many great works, not to mention more recent entries as you’ve suggested. Thanks!
Oh Lord! You got through Age of Innocence? Good girl, but that one is quite a commitment.
Night by Wiesel will change your life… well, not really change change it.. just make you miserable for about a week then anytime you think of the holocaust. It’s a must read though. Little Women is such a delicious book (I say delicious because I devour it), I get cravings for it from time to time. Don’t bother with Little Men, it’s not half as good. Glass Menagerie- now that is an essential book. My Antonia is a little dry (it was for me- you might enjoy it)- that and Anne of Green Gables were pretty rough. May I recommend The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood? It’s not classical, but it will be eventually.
You have some great books on there- some I’ve been meaning to read myself so maybe after my classes I’ll jump on the list with you.
The Age of Innocence was pretty rough, but once I got to the middle it started to improve.
I have already read Night by Elie Weisel. You’re right, that is an excellent book and it really makes you think about a lot of things. It made me wonder what I would do had I been in his situation. It’s hard to say. We all want the best for our family and friends, but we also have this inborn sense of survival.
When I finish this list, I’ll start on a Part Two because I know I’ve left off so many great works. I’ll be sure to add everything else you’ve suggested! Thanks.