What are your "MUST READ" books?

[HarperValleyPTA]

Just to go back to Joan Didion, she's also (perhaps best) known as a political journalist, so if you're into the whole New Journalism scene and/or 60's and 70's American history, she's worth a read there too.

My books (at the moment

• Seconding To Kill a Mockingbird, 1984, The Bluest Eye, and A Good Man is Hard to Find
• Animal Farm - George Orwell
• Beloved - Toni Morrison
• John Donne's Holy Sonnets
• The Metamorphoses - Ovid
• any Shakespeare that's not a comedy sick
• Moby-Dick - Herman Melville
• Paradise Lost - John Milton
• De Rerum Natura ("On the Nature of Things") - Lucretius
• The Stepford Wives - Ira Levin ()

 

[ChrissyM]

Crime and Punishment is such a brilliant book, everyone should read it
In search of lost time -- quite an undertaking but well worth it
Money by Martin Amis!
Play it as it lays

Recent books I read and loved are 2666 by Roberto Bolano and anything by Stephen Amidon, especially "Human capital".

have you read the savage detectives by bolano?
just wondering how 2666 compares since the savage detectives was so dense and kind of difficult to get through (it took me a while)...
not sure if i'm ready for any more bolano just yet....

 

[anhphan]

the time traveler's wife... its AMAZING

 

[aycotqone]

The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Amazing book.

 

[anhphan]

^^ ill read that soon.. after i read "the thirteenth tale"

 

[claudestrawberry]

jonathan franzen - the corrections

i have many, many others that i love. but this is an absolute MUST READ. it's witty, profound and makes you think about family, politics, globalisation. eep! fantastic.

 

[DA3784]

Harry Potter

 

[fashion.fashoff]

i'm trying to locate alain robbe-grillet works i haven't read yet...

 

[olga.]

allan silitoe - the loneliness of a long distance runner. one of my favorite.

 

[MissMagAddict]

i don't think i've read any of didion's work...

Joan Didion is one of my favorite writers. I've read all her books. I once got to meet her when she stopped in my city on a book tour & it's one of the highlights of my life!

I re-read two of her essays every couple of months or so... and they never seem to get old... it's almost as if I've never read them before.

On Keeping a Notebook

Goodbye To All That

 

[shigily]

I loved reading Madame Bovary

 

[anhphan]

time traveller's wife has a sequel coming out this yr!! can't wait to read it!

 

[thunderstorm]

Few days ago I've finished reading John Fowles' "The Collector" and I'm still under a huge impression. While reading, I've had to stop from time to time to think about my own life.
This is a marvellous book, a pure piece of art. And definitely now it's my favourite one.

 

[wickedcrazyness]

time traveller's wife has a sequel coming out this yr!! can't wait to read it!

Me too!

I very much enjoyed The Time Traveller's Wife.

 

[eu-pt]

The Shack by Wm Paul Young


I have read aaaaa lot before, but this book was kind of life changing to me.

 

[dumbfairy]

Treasure Island by Stevenson. I don't know why this is my must read book. But I just love it.

 

[sobriquet87]

My top 10:

1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2. Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
3. Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
4. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
5. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
6. Property Of by Alice Hoffman
7. Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson
8. Night by Elie Wiesel
9. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
10. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

 

[tuetre]

The Catcher in the Rye, as mentioned a number of times
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

 

[inwhiterooms]

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak (wartime europe, beautifully written. unlike anything)
The Bronze Horseman Trilogy - Paullina Simmons (addictive storyline, wartime Europe)
Looking For Alaska - John Green (interesting storyline, teenagers in boarding school)
Bonjour Tristesse - Francoise Sagan (a french summertime)
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald (how could i not add this)

 

[Mantha]

The Gods of Newport-John Jakes
the Millenium trilogy-Stieg Larsson
Au Bonheur des Dames-Emile Zola
No Country for Old men-Cormack McCarthy
The Crucible-Arthur Miller
Lolita-Vladimir Nabokov
L'irrégulière-Edmonde Charles-Roux (Coco Chanel biography)