Posted on 02/13/2017 11:09:14 PM PST by goldstategop
1. Iliad
2. Odyssey
3. Bible
4. Dialogues Of Plato
5. Ethics Aristotle
6. Politics Aristotle
7. Voyage Of Argo Apolonius Of Rhodes
8. Metamorphoses Ovid
9. Aeneid Virgil
10. City Of God Augustine
11. Summa Theologica Thomas
12. Divine Comedy Dante
13. Decameron Boccacio
14. Essays Montaigne
15. Don Quixote Cervantes
16. Complete Works Shakespeare
17. Pensees Pascal
18. Wealth Of Nations Smith
19. Federalist Hamilton
20. Communist Manifesto Marx and Engels
21. Les Miserables Hugo
22. War And Peace Tolstoy
23. Ulysses Joyce
24. In Search Of Lost Time Proust
25. Lord Of The Rings Tolkien
Instead of Proust or Marx you should have included The Pilgrim’s Progress
And if you haven’t read it you should. I agree with another poster CS Lewis...any and all
I read Moby Dick as an adult, after having “read” it in high school, meaning I didn’t actually read it.
I read it at the beach one year, on vacation, and I loved it. I was in my forties.
Great book. Everybody says it’s a great book, and it is a great book.
One thing I learned was why I didn’t actually read it in high school, as the thought constantly occurred to me, “How could anybody expect a kid to read this?”
‘nuf said.
Yeah sometimes you just don’t have enough life experience to appreciate some things
Great list! You might have excluded non-fiction, but ok. And since “everyone has an opinion”...
- Faust by Goethe
- Rules for Radicals by Alinsky (sigh)
- Principia by Newton
- Two Treatises of Civil Government by Locke
- Atlas Shrugged by Rand
- Meditations on First Philosophy by Descartes
- 100 Years of Solitude by Marquez [Latin American representation]
- Fear and Trembling by Kierkegaard
- Civization and its Discontents by Freud (sigh)
Any list that fails to have the Bible as runaway Number One . . .
Maybe you can help me out. Many years ago, I read a book or short story, about a man who wanted to experience the world. He ended up being captured by Bedouins, and no matter what experience he endured, he was extremely philosophical about it. He finally ended up getting his tongue cut out, but even then, he looked upon that as an interesting experience. I’ve racked my brain trying to remember the title and author, without success. I was thinking it was Pascal, but apparently not. Hope someone can solve my mystery.
The Genius of Christianity or his posthumous memoirs (Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe) by Chateaubriand, and
The True Believer by Eric Hoffer.
So many others, though... I've heard the most dedicated and 'healthy' readers can read
LOL! You left out Harlequin Romances. Knew a woman once, who bragged about the number of books she read per week. She was referring to Harlequin Romances. I had to stifle the laughter. But then, who am I to judge? Agatha Christie is one of MY favorite authors.
You and your sons received a fine education in the liberal arts!
Personaly, I can't stand TLOTR and that series, plus THE HOBBIT, prior to the boring movies, weren't books that all that many even heard of.
Montaigne's essays? Well, I've read them ( own my mother's copy which is illustrated with Dali paintings ), but haven't ever known many people , all of whom are very well educated, who even know his name, let alone read any of his work.
Proust? REALLY ? And James Joyce?
What about UNCLE TOM'S CABIN, by H.B. Stowe and all of the works by Dickens? These books changed American and Brit views about all kinds of different social problems/institutions and have been read and enjoyed worldwide.
Not anything at all by Orwell?
Nobody reads Augustine anymore and I bet that most Catholics aren't familiar with his writings and haven't been for a very long time.
You did put up an interesting list, but I doubt that you'll get anyone to agree with it in toto. :-)
Hi!
Good list. The KJV Bible (1611) and First Folio Shakespeare (1623) would be a good start. Lincoln had about one formal year of schooling but he was a student of these and that’s about as solid a rock bottom of bedrock to build any education on. In a campaign piece on Lincoln William Dean Howells wrote “that Mr. Lincoln is a diligent student of Shakespeare, to know whom is a liberal education.” Just so. To me these two excavate more deeply into the human heart than anything ever written. Again, a very good list.
You left out a whole bunch of 19th century authors as well.
Laws of Power.
Bump for #11
Goethe instead of Mann and Dumas pere and Fils instead of Camus.
Bet you catch rainwater in your nose, every time it rains. Seriously, come ON; you know “most people” have not read the books on your list. I’m not criticizing your list. I am more well read than the average American, but I have only read a few from your list. I’m working on it, but I don’t move in academic circles, and it is frustrating to read great literature, and have no one to talk with about it. I enjoy reading; it is one of life’s greatest pleasures, but I can enjoy light reading, almost more than serious reading. Reading about ideas certainly does educate a person, but reading about happenings is fun. I would be hard pressed to condense a twentieth century “must read” list down to twenty-five books. Most books popular with the general public would not make a serious list. One book that is almost too marvelous to behold, is Daniel J. Boorstin’s, “ The Discoverers: A History Of Man’s Search To Know His World And Himself”. What a grasp of the magnificent, this man had!
You can't be serious!
Leaving out the most outstanding philosphers of the 20th Century...
No, not Santayana and Eric Hoffer.
Calvin and Hobbes...
A major influence on the Founding Fathers and many others.
LOL! There’s just no way to limit this list to twenty-five! There’d be no room for ANY of the great works of Stan Lee, not to mention Ed Wood! (I insist upon screenplays being included; if Shakespeare’s plays get in, it would be immoral to leave out Ed.)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.