What are some MUST-READ books reasonable for an 18 year old?

Answer 1

"Brave New World" by Alduos Huxley. This book is a great reflection on our society today and what it may be in the future, along with other underlying concepts. Whatever you do, don't stop reading, it's the largest and most reliable source of wisdom available to people our age.

Answer 2

That depends on the 18 year old. At that age I had read Shakespeare and translated Hamlet into modern English. I probably had read books which were college level, but I suggest at least start with Of Mice and Men, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, The Hobbit, and the Ghost of the Cavalier(the later is especially short at 108 pages). It also depends on the 18 year old's tastes.Maybe also the Hardy Boys if you can find the series now. And Tarzan of the Apes. My suggestions might have been a little different if the 18 year old was a girl.

Answer 3

These books are part of the literary canon, but they should be manageable for a 18-year-old:

Pride and Prejudice, or anything by Jane Austen
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Roots by Alex Haley
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Most, if not all, of them are available for $1-5 from Dover Thrift Editions.

Answer 4

These are my favorite books

Dresden file book series by Jim Butcher.There are 8 books in the series beginning with stormfront.It narrates the story of Harry Dresden,chicago's only professional wizard who works as a detective.He stands between the general population who is ignorant about the supernatural world and the monsters - vampires,werewolves,fallen angels,fey.He is aided by Bob,a talking skull.Karrin Murphy-a police officer and Thomas-a white court vampire.

Another supernatural detective series is Nightside book series by Simon R.Green.John Taylor, the main character, is a private eye specializing in finding things. He literally has a private eye, one he can open and find anything. This power only works in the nightside, but anytime he opens it, his enemies (and he does not know who they are, but they have been hunting him since he was young) pick up on his presence like his gift is a homing devise. He as quite a reputation, some of which is true, some not and it gets him into trouble, or sometimes out of it, but it is the fact that some of it has nothing to do with him so much as that he is his mother's son. A mother he never knew and no one will tell him about. One big case is covered in each book, but underlying tensions build up higher and higher running through out the series.

Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini.When his best friend, a young clergyman, is killed in a mockery of a duel by an arrogant noble, just to quiet his eloquent expressions of democratic ideals, Andre-Louis Moreau vows revenge. From that point, through meteoric careers as a consummate actor and scenario writer, then as a fencing master, and finally a politician, the brilliant Moreau keeps thwarting the aims of the aristocratic Marquis de la Tour d'Azyr. However, the nobleman causes pain to Moreau as well, and the time must come when the two will meet to settle their enmity once and for all. You are not likely to guess how their confrontation finally turns out. Set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, this swashbuckling novel is exciting throughout, and it presents one of the most dashing heroes in fiction, a man who can fight equally well with his mind, his mouth, his pen, and his sword, a man who stirs up events wherever he goes.

The door to december by Dean Koontz.A psychiatrist's daughter was kidnapped by her ex-husband years ago. When the daughter is finally found, the real fight begins. One by one the people who held her captive become mysteriously tortured and killed. Everyone is afraid the young girl will be next.

The mystery unravels as to what happened to the young girl while she was kidnapped. The young girl, Melanie, is unable to speak, but her mother soon learns that the young girl went through extreme torture as her father used her for a rat in his experiments.

Read both Odd thomas and Forever odd by Dean Koontz.These books are about Odd Thomas who see dead people and is compelled to solve crimes.

The Cop and the Anthem by O.henry.Its about a young tramp Soapy who tries desperately to get arrested so that he can spend the winter in jail.He eats in expensive restaurents,steals,insults women,cause general mayham.But to no avail.he just doesn't get arrested until...
The Gift of the Magi,From the cabby's seat,Last leaf all by the same author are terrific stories.

Answer 5

I would recommend the Red Badge of Courage by Stephan Crane. It gives a realistic perspective of what soldiers faced themselves during the American Civil War. Very well written and not difficult to follow. It is only about 200 pages.

Answer 6

Here is my list of books you should have read before hitting 18. Let's see how you did:
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
What's the Matter With Kansas? by Thomas Frank
Oedipus Rex, Oedipus At Colonus, and Antigone by Sophocles
The Complete Works of Aristotle by Aristotle (obviously)
The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang
Romeo and Juliet, MacBeth, Hamlet, King Lear, and Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
A Farwell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
A History of the Standard Oil Company by Ida Tarbell
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Das Kapital by Karl Marx
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Beasts of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala
Being and Nothingness by Sarte
Beyond the Pleasure Principle by Sigmund Freud
Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes
Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
IBM and the Holocaust by Edwin Black
The River by Edward Hooper
Ideal State of Democracy by Pericles
Jan Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Leviathon by Thomas Hobbes
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Social Contract by Rousseau
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
The Twelve Caesars by Suetonious
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Utopia by Sir Thomas More
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Praise of Folly by Erasmus

Hopefully you've read some of these in school and quite a few others for pleasure as these books are what I believe one requires to be culturally literate. Some are philosophy, others classic fiction, and still others are nonfiction pieces about specific events in history. Now they may not be to your tastes, but these are the books that are constantly alluded to in newspapers and daily conversation.

Answer 7

Beowulf, The Canterbury Tales, The Richest Man in Babylon, Pride and Prejudice, The U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence...that should give you a good start.

Answer 8

The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy

http://josephmurphy.wwwhubs.com/

Answer 9

The original Frankenstien, by Mary Shelly-to this day the best version out there. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern by Shakespear, a spin-off from Hamlet. Kind of hard to follw, but very funny. The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Answer 10

the actuality of the Bible isn't in its background, its technological expertise nor its sociology. it somewhat is in its message. each and all of the failings you alluded to are area of its recording of background. 3 issues to be conscious: the previous testomony for hundreds of years became handed down in oral custom in the previous being written down. while first written down the memories from different oral traditions have been mixed, extremely crudely as a results of fact the background became not the concentration, to make a single narrative. One should not be stunned via contradictions... for that rely i could have been extra stunned if there have been none. the 2d difficulty to remember is that the Jewish concept of background became a tactics, a tactics different than our own. we want certitude... the "what, while, the place, how". To the classic Jewish author none of those have been substantial. What became substantial to them became the "why". I overlook the place it somewhat is yet there's a passage which spoke approximately 5 Israelis killing something like 5000 of the enemy. historic actuality as all of us comprehend it? maximum not extremely. what's authentic is that the human beings believed that the only reason they gained the conflict became as a results of fact God became on their area. lower back, the actuality is in its message. The Bible is the story of a human beings's journey and boost in faith. as with all direction you have ever taken in college you start up out being uncertain regarding the undertaking rely, you slowly comprehend the place it is going, then you definately benefit a miles less attackable know-how. on the top of the direction you would be able to think of you recognize "all" approximately it... then you definately start up a sophisticated learn direction and comprehend how little you recognize. i check out what i concept and spoke approximately regarding faith while i became youthful, and that i'd desire to very almost chortle... my know-how has grown that lots. you detect a similar difficulty interior the Bible.