The Jungle

by Upton Sinclair

7/5/2008 9:26:10 PM

les jeux sont faits

7/5/2008 9:31:28 PM

The Stranger by Albert Camus
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

7/5/2008 9:31:44 PM

interesting thread title; but wouldnt it be better in entertainment?


and couldnt you just ask this question in the what are you reading thread?


but if omar allows it i can see why..."what are you reading" is not the same as "books to make you well read"

7/5/2008 9:32:34 PM

Of Mice And Men
The Art Of War

7/5/2008 11:08:20 PM

this thread suggests wanting to appear to be well read.

so just read the wikipedia synopses for your list and call it a day.

7/5/2008 11:11:57 PM

it'd be cool to live in the 19th century

when you could actually claim to have read all the good books

and people would've believed you

now it's pretty much hopeless to try

just read what turns you on and put down the shit that doesn't

call it a day

7/6/2008 2:25:26 AM

Upton Sinclair was admirable in his critique of the meatpacking industry but why did he have to be so boring about it

7/6/2008 2:29:42 AM

The Awakening
Chopin

7/6/2008 3:21:12 AM

Once upon a time, Snewf made a thread talking about the modern literary canon... I did a quick search for it, but I'm sure it's been purged. I think it was probably at least 2 years ago, if not longer.

7/6/2008 4:44:18 AM

1984 by George Orwell
Invisible Man and War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

7/6/2008 5:17:27 AM

I don't know that this book would make you well, but I love it and I have read it several times: Catcher in the Rye

Twice I have read it in a day.

7/6/2008 5:19:11 AM

catcher in the rye is the gospel for people who think they're special and could possibly be borderline psychotic

but are only that way b/c they think it'd be cool to be so

7/6/2008 8:48:36 AM

Grapes of Wrath

I think I was the only kid in my sophomore english class that enjoyed that book.

7/6/2008 8:50:44 AM

You're right, I read the Grapes of Wrath and hated it. What's up with the entire chapter about nothing but dust? And yes I realize it is about the Dust Bowl, but why so boring?

7/6/2008 11:38:18 AM

^please never post in a book thread again

7/6/2008 11:42:31 AM

why geography matters

7/6/2008 11:43:53 AM

I liked the Chapter about the turtle, probably the most meaningful chapter in the book.

7/6/2008 12:28:06 PM

the Pelican Brief by John grisham

7/6/2008 12:55:21 PM

7/6/2008 1:44:18 PM

i'm going to go ahead and say john grisham books do not make one "well read" (whatever that means anyway). and neither does the da vinci code.

hopefully those were sarcastic posts. if not then...oops.

the awakening is good
1984...obviously awesome. i also enjoyed animal farm although that isn't mentioned as frequently
i really like catcher in the rye as cliche as that is. but i've enjoyed most salinger works that i've read
grapes of wrath, obviously a classic. i like of mice and men better though
invisible man by h.g. wells is one of my favorites


others that haven't been mentioned yet: one flew over the cuckoo's nest, cat's cradle, slaughterhouse 5, timequake (i dunno, i like vonnegut), black boy (by richard wright) is another book i really really really enjoyed, i guess faulkner is someone that people either love or hate but probably worth reading sometime in life. i enjoy his short stories more than the novels though.

and finally most of what has been mentioned in this thread is fiction there obviously excellent non-fiction to be found.

7/6/2008 2:01:06 PM

http://www.bartleby.com/59/ The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy

I use this as an outline for further reading. I found it help me, since as an engineering student at state I only took one english/literature class, and it focused on Jamaican literature(What a joke, no on the island even knows how to write. It was the professor's "area of interest" simply because he got to take a trip down there every summer.).

[Edited on July 6, 2008 at 2:49 PM. Reason : .]

7/6/2008 2:48:49 PM

Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury

7/6/2008 3:03:01 PM

We had to read most of these books in Middle School and High School. I kind of wish I read them though...I only had the attention span to get through stuff like Equus, and Night

7/6/2008 3:06:15 PM

William Faulkner - As I Lay Dying

7/6/2008 3:08:57 PM

^that was a good book

7/6/2008 3:22:56 PM

Quote :

"We had to read most of these books in Middle School and High School. "

That makes sense. To be well-read, you have to be familiar with the things that most reasonably educated people in this society have read. You wouldn't be too well-read if you have read nothing but these types of books, but I don't think you can be if you haven't read them.

7/6/2008 4:03:52 PM

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

7/6/2008 5:49:11 PM

Quote :

"The Awakening Chopin"

If this is the root of feminism then we should all hate feminism. This book is nothing but 200 pages of, "I hate having adult responsibilities and living with the consequences of my actions." Simply dreadful.

7/6/2008 6:36:40 PM

Fuck Faulkner

worst "great" writer I have ever read

7/6/2008 6:46:03 PM

Quote :

"just read what turns you on and put down the shit that doesn't call it a day"

amen

7/6/2008 6:47:14 PM

^^ I would have to give that title to Nathaniel Hawthorne, but that's just me.


Other than what I have had to do for school, I have never forced myself to read a book I don't enjoy, especially so I can tell people I'm "well read."

7/6/2008 6:56:06 PM

The Stranger by Camus
Anything by Konrad

7/6/2008 8:14:23 PM

the great gatsby - f. scott fitzgerald

to kill a mocking bird - harper lee

catch 22 - joseph heller

crime and punishment - fyodor dostoyevski (sp?)

i don't think this quite fits in the dan brown/john grisham category, but i really liked tuesdays with morrie by mitch albom

7/6/2008 8:22:55 PM

A Call to Arms.

7/6/2008 8:36:58 PM

Gogol - Dead Souls

barring that, any other Russian literature

7/6/2008 8:41:10 PM

worst "great" writer I have ever read

charles fucking dickens

CUT THE FUCKING WORDS DOWN PLEASE

7/6/2008 8:47:06 PM

Moby Dick - Melville
The Leather Stocking Tales - James Fenimore Cooper
For Whom the Bell Tolls, A Farewell to Arms, The Sun Also Rises - Hemingway
The Canterbury Tales -Chaucer
A Light in August, As I Lay Dying, Absalom! Absalom!, and The Sound and the Fury - Faulkner
The Stranger - Camus
Heart of Darkness - Conrad
SlaughterHouse 5 - Vonnegut
anything Pynchon (The Crying of Lot 49 or Gravity's Rainbow)
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting - Milan Kundera
Beowulf
The Metamorphosis - Kafka

to name just a few...

[Edited on July 6, 2008 at 10:28 PM. Reason : The Prince - Machiavelli]

7/6/2008 10:27:17 PM

Heart of Darkness should never be read by ANY one

7/6/2008 10:28:45 PM

The Cheerleader
by Ruth Doan MacDougall

7/6/2008 10:28:54 PM

i have the jungle on my shelf right now!

7/6/2008 10:29:17 PM

the awakening was the most god-awful shit i have ever read

with that said

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn is one of the best books I've ever read

7/6/2008 10:29:25 PM

Quote :

"Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand"

Also- The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

7/6/2008 10:29:25 PM

i liked heart of darkness; moby dick is teh devil though

7/6/2008 10:30:39 PM

"James Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses" by Mark Twain
http://ww3.telerama.com/~joseph/cooper/cooper.html

Here's the cliff notes: james fenimore cooper a punk and his shirt look like a dishrag

[Edited on July 6, 2008 at 10:30 PM. Reason : .]

[Edited on July 6, 2008 at 10:32 PM. Reason : Jesus don't all post at once]

7/6/2008 10:30:42 PM

Quote :

"Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand"

Ayn Rand should be included on a well read list.

The base answer is that bartleby has a great list of books people should have read.

7/6/2008 10:31:21 PM

7/6/2008 10:31:31 PM

[Ishmael by Daniel Quinn is one of the best books I've ever read]
I agree!

Treasure Island started my interest in reading.

I think Harry Potter is doing well with the kids today

7/6/2008 10:32:29 PM

the radcliffe list, perhaps?

http://www.cnn.com/books/news/9807/22/radcliffe.list/list.html

[Edited on July 6, 2008 at 10:43 PM. Reason : also, the picture of dorian gray by oscar wilde]

7/6/2008 10:36:05 PM

Quote :

"Heart of Darkness should never be read by ANY one"

I hated the book, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be included on a reading list for those who want to be well read. Conrad said "My task is to make you hear, to make you feel - and, above all, to make you see. That is all, and it is everything." - such should be the task of any great piece of literature.

7/6/2008 10:41:36 PM