Almost every one has read them. Should be on people's bucket list, since you can't read everything in the world in a single lifetime.
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
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. :-)
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.
Laws of Power.
Bump for #11
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!
A major influence on the Founding Fathers and many others.
Federalist Hamilton - - not Madison and Jay?
If your objective is to list works that shaped the Western World, then you must include Two Treatises of Government by Locke.
And how does Lord of the Rings fit into that list?
I’ve only read about four books (or collections) on that list.
I would put others there...
Typo ?
Half the country can't even read the titles of the books, let alone the actual book itself.
It’s a good list but western centric some of these should be included:
- Confucius The Analects
- Sun Tsu The Art of War
- Rashomon
- Genji Monogatori
A few others but those are biggies.
Also I’d really lace your 24 with A Tale of Two Cities.
This is a great list; disagree with the Communist Manifesto— i think it is utter prattle. Seems like Newton’s Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica should be on there, and something from Franz Kafka and C.S. Lewis; but then what to take off?
Literary works influencing modern culture should now include politically correct comic books.
Putting the entire Bible and the Complete Works of Shakespeare rather than some particular work are both somewhat cheating. And even if you don’t like it, any list of most influential books has to include the Koran.
Wealth of Nations? As applied to today’s economy it should be called “Destruction of Nations” or “Marx’s Dream”.