Books to read before you die

I would have to say at least one Austen, or you'll never know true satire. I also think Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, as it's full beautiful and historically enlightening, even if you have no personal links to it. Also, Chocolat by Joanne Harris -- it's delightful, highlights the absurdities of faith and narrates lovingly communal spirit.

And just for the hell of it, Jane Eyre. It changed my life, so I expect it has changed others'.

Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Crime and Punishment by Fiodor Dostoevsky
The Egyptian by Mika Waltari
Lord of the Flies by William Golding (it was Golding, wasn't it?)
Anne Frank's Diary
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

I'm reading (or have read) everyone of those except for Crime and Punishment. I should read it some time, though.

Auralia's Colors by Jeffery Overstreet (can't say it enough)

Death Star (forgot the authors' names)

The Candlestone by Bryan Davis (If you don't read anything else in the series, read this.)

White Fang by Jack London (little annoying sometimes, but aweseome)

Oh Baby - Randi Reisfeld, H. B. Gilmour
^ Strictly girls only book hehe it's got a great ending.

Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley
On The Road -- Jack Kerouac
The Handmaid's Tale -- Margaret Atwood
Slaughterhouse-Five -- Kurt Vonnegut
One Hundred Years Of Solitude -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Lord of the Rings -- JRR Tolkien
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay -- Michael Chabon
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy -- Douglas Adams
His Dark Materials Trilogy -- Philip Pullman
A Clockwork Orange -- Anthony Burgess
Birdsong -- Sebastian Faulks
The Great Gatsby -- F. Scott Fitzgerald
Histories -- Herodotus
If on a Winter's Night a Traveller -- Italo Calvino

The Lije Baley series, or pretty much everything robotic - Isaac Asimov
To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee Collins
Responding to Prose - I don't know
Tuesdays With Morrie - Mitch Albom
The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens - Sean Covey (a lot more interesting than the one for adults)

I really can't stomach LoTR - not a fan of fantasy. But I agree with Demi on the bottom three.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens - Sean Covey (a lot more interesting than the one for adults)

My sister had to read that for her school as part of the orientation.

Any books I want to read, I want to read before I die. That's all there is to it.

Branded Hearts......its very romantic! I'm reading it now....*turns back to book*

-Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
-Passing by Nella Larson
-Looking for Alaska by John Green

I guess those are my top three.

A short history on nearly everything -Bill Bryson
Twilight series - Stephanie Meyers
The Christopher killer - Alane Fergusson

Noughts and Crosses, Knife Edge, and Checkmate - series by Malorie Blackman
http://www.malorieblackman.co.uk/noughtsandcrosses/index2.html

Check out the link ^

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

My Sisters Keeper by Jodi Picoult
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
As well as anything else that was written by Jodi Picoult ^_^

XxxDo

The Saga of Seven Suns- Kevin J. Anderson
Animal Farm- George Orwell
Flowers for Algernon- Daniel Keyes
Anything by Danielle Steel

Dreamer wrote:
Any books I want to read, I want to read before I die. That's all there is to it.

If I've got to be undead, I intend to spend eternity catching up on all the books I never bothered to read in life.


Yay, people are mentioning so many good classics! That's exciting. Most of my more recent suggestions (Good Omens, American Gods, Lord of the Rings, some Terry Pratchett -- though I would've suggested "Witches Abroad" rather than "Small Gods") have already been taken, but I'll throw out some late 19th/early 20th century writers you-all should definitely read, because they're brilliant and unappreciated:

(an awful lot of these are short stories:)

Saki ("The Schwartz-Metterklume Method"; "Laura"; "The Toys of Peace")
Shirley Jackson ("The Lottery", "We Have Always Lived in the Castle"; "The Haunting of Hill House")
John Collier ("The Chaser", "Good Nights and Fancies")
C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters
Flannery O'Connor ("A Good Man Is Hard to Find"; "Good Country People")


Going a little bit farther back, I love E.T.A. Hoffman's "Sandman" and Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter".

I don't know if it's a must-read, since it's very mythpunk, and very stylized, but I just read Catherynne M. Valente's "Orphan Tales: In the Night Garden" and it's BRILLIANT, and beautiful and magical. If you're looking for a book that's the grown-up/modern version of fairy tales, you should read it.

Any and all of the classics. You HAVE to read a bit of Shakespere in your lifetime.

I reccomend the book "The Giver" by Lois Lowry.
Amazing book, to be read cuddled in a quiet corner by yourself in the middle of the night. You really have to concentrate and take it all in.

A good Shakespeare play is Othello.

You should also read Beastly by Alex Flinn
and the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer