I consider myself intelligent, though not necessarily well-read. If I had to chose only 10 books in the world, what books should I read to be considered "educated" and well-read?
I assume the Bible is one....
2006-09-21 17:54:25 · 16 answers · asked by inquiringmindwantstoknow 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Books & Authors
War & Peace...& good luck with that! Why does an "intelligent" person need to read certain titles just so they can say they did & try to impress others. Why don't you just read something that INTERESTS you? Funny notion, I know. I don't suppose that will impress anybody to say you read a book for pleasure only. Shocking.
2006-09-21 18:03:46 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
In no particular order, the following are a good start:
1. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
2. The Divine Comedy
3. To Kill a Mockingbird
4. The Fountainhead
5. Anna Karinina
6. The Great Gatsby
7. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
8. Ulysses
9. The Count of Monte Cristo
10. Don Quixote
The above provides a pretty nice sampling of literature.
2006-09-22 11:47:38 · answer #2 · answered by Tara P 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The beautiful thing about literature is that you could choose almost ANY ten pieces of fine literature and be the better for having read them!
But here are my ten favorite pieces literature (not necessarily novels, or even books -- ranked in no particular order):
1. Paradise Lost - John Milton
2. Bartleby the Scrivner - Herman Melville
3. The World According to Garp - John Irving
4. The Possessed (also known as The Devils) - Fyodor Dostoevsky
5. The Nose - Nikolai Gogol
6. The Scarlet Letter (or anything else by) - Nathaniel Hawthorne
7. Common Sense - Thomas Paine
8. Macbeth (or anything else by) - William Shakespeare
9. A Good Man is Hard to Find (or anything else by) - Flannery O'Connor.
10. Leviathan - Thomas Hobbes
2006-09-21 18:16:00 · answer #3 · answered by Joseph 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Um... my personal opinion is that it would take a lot more than ten books to really make a person well-read. That being said, here are some good books to start with!
1. Hamlet by William Shakespeare - it's a classic for a reason.
2. Sophocles' 3 Theban plays - ditto
3. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth - not super-classic, but good reading!
4. any Carl Hiaasen books - he's really cynical, & extremely funny
5. Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth by Gitta Sereny - particularly if you're into WWII history
6. poetry by Theodore Roethke, W. B. Yeats, Philip Larkin - I'm kind of uncertain about what to recommend if I don't know the person, so I recommended three authors...
7. Sandman comic by Neil Gaiman, Bleach manga by Kubo Tite - if you like a little art with your storyline
8. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco - lovely, beautifully written historical fiction
9. Virtual Light by William Gibson - or any book by him; they're all good science-fiction
10. The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi - and if you really want to impress people, tell them you read it in the original Japanese!
xD
2006-09-21 20:44:38 · answer #4 · answered by Tanuki Girl 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Plato's Republic
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhyss
Beowolfe
Ulysses by james joyce
The Iliad by Homer
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Catcher in the Rye
Perfume by Patrick Suskind
A Clockwork Orange
To Kill A Mockingbird
The Scarlet Letter
The Great Gatsby
OK - more than 10 but these are necessary - Oh and dont forget Shakespeare - forget 10, if you want to be well read and well rounded, you are going to need to read a lot more
2006-09-22 20:31:57 · answer #5 · answered by krisr22 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
1. The Wold According to Garp by John Irving
2. Bagombo Snuff Box by Kurt Vonnegut
3. Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson
4.The Stand by Stephen King
5. A Brief history of Everything by Ken Wilbur
6. The Language of God by Francis S. Collins
7. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
8. Enders Game by Orson Scott Card
9. Blue Beard by Kurt Vonnegut
10. Sideways by Rex Pickett
2006-09-21 18:34:58 · answer #6 · answered by Ralph 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
At least one Kurt Vonnegut book.
As Ralph said, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Something by Tolstoy, certainly.
At Swim-Two-Birds. This is a sneaky one but is guaranteed to get you in good with the few members of the elite intelligentsia who have read it.
Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
The Old Man and the Sea, by Hemingway
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson
Dozens of others but I know these are a good place to start. If anyone says that anything by Dan Brown is an essential book, well. . . .
2006-09-23 19:01:41 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
This Site Might Help You.
RE:
What 10 books should be read by an educated person for that person to be considered "learned"?
I consider myself intelligent, though not necessarily well-read. If I had to chose only 10 books in the world, what books should I read to be considered "educated" and well-read?
I assume the Bible is one....
2015-08-16 14:42:17 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, These come up in conversation a lot:
Clockwork Orange
Dante
The Tao of Pooh
Phantom of the Opera
The sun also rises
King Lear
I like:
The Earth Path
The entire Harry Potter Series
The Te of Piglet
And you should probably readsomething by Chaucer.
2006-09-21 18:09:44 · answer #9 · answered by blindedbyred 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Communist Manifesto, Night, Mein Kamf, A Tale of Two Cities, Paradise Lost, The Sound and The Fury, The Canterbury Tales, Moby Dick, A Misummer Night's Dream, and The Last of the Mohicans
2006-09-22 17:47:39 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋