10. Atlas Shrugged — I made it about a third of the way through before I set the book down and it got lost.
9. On the Origin of Species — Haven’t read it, don’t particularly want to.
8. Les Miserables / A Tale of Two Cities — I think I read the condensed/children’s versions when I was a kid.
7. 1984 — Read it, depressing end.
6. Democracy in America, The Federalist Papers, and The Constitution — unread, partial, read.
5. The Wealth of Nations — Unread.
4. Moby Dick — Read it.
3. The Art of War, Sun Tzu — [partially-]Read
2. The Prince — Unread
1. Ulysses — Unread
I’m totally maxed out on Les Miserables. I read it two or three times in the unabridged but I have an amazing ability to skip over passages in books that I find boring so I listened to it on audiobooks when it finally came out. I had to listen to every word of Hugo’s socialist BS and it so bogged down the story that I was fed up with it by the time I finished. The sewer parts are awesome though and I totally love the Archbishop. Watch the latest movie. The archbishop is played by the man who created the role of Jean ValJean in the original stage play.
I have The Prince sitting in a drawer. Perhaps I need a different translation.
10. Atlas Shrugged — If, for no other reason than to understand the need for an editor, everyone should have to read it.
9. On the Origin of Species — never picked it up.
8. Les Miserables / A Tale of Two Cities — the first, yes, second never made it through, though I was probably in elementary or jr. high...
7. 1984 — Depressing and prescient, though off by a couple decades
6. Democracy in America, The Federalist Papers, and The Constitution — once, thrice, numerous.
5. The Wealth of Nations — Unread.
4. Moby Dick — read various versions—the original is a bear at times even an ursus arctos horribilis.
3. The Art of War, Sun Tzu — numerous times; classic and timeless
2. The Prince — forever one of the defining books on politics. This and Sun Tzu were some of my first free e-books. Read then on a Palm PDA... :)
1. Ulysses — Unread-no interest at all...
10. Atlas Shrugged — Own several copies but have only read sections of it, never cover-to-cover (Have read The Fountainhead)
9. On the Origin of Species — Nope.
8. Les Miserables / A Tale of Two Cities — No, but I read a lot of old American and English novels in college: Bleak House, Vanity Fair, Moll Flanders, Pamela, The Vicar of Wakefield, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, etc.
7. 1984 — Nope.
6. Democracy in America, The Federalist Papers, and The Constitution — Read them all in college.
5. The Wealth of Nations — Have read parts. I own very nice two-volume hardcover reproduction of the original that I got from the Laissez-Faire bookstore in the early 1980s and refuse to part with.
4. Moby Dick — Read it as part of a summer course in at Columbia. Read lots of it on the subway and train between NJ and NYC.
3. The Art of War, Sun Tzu — Nope.
2. The Prince — Yes, in high school.
1. Ulysses — Another book that I own but have never finished. I also owned a record of the first chapter. I can tell you that the novel begins with the words “Stately plump, Buck Mulligan....”
Some “classics” I have never read include Animal Farm, Catcher in the Rye, The Old Man and the Sea and the Grapes of Wrath.