Name some of the great books that should be read by anyone who wants to be considered well-educated?

Answer 1

There's a book at bookstores, maybe at your library, called 1001 Books to Read Before You Die. It breaks books down by time period. It's by no means exhaustive, but it's a good place to start. Plus it gives a little description so you can decide if it's something you want to read. Some of the "classics" are murder to get through!

Answer 2

I think it's more important to read widely to be well-educated rather than a magical formula of certain books. I've had plenty of education and still never managed to finish "Great Expectations."

I would recommend "Pride & Prejudice," "Huckleberry Finn," "The Canterbury Tales," "Bleak House" and "Middlemarch" off the top of my head.

A better way might be to suggest authors whom you should read at least once - it's up to you which book you choose.

Jane Austen
Charles Dickens
Joseph Conrad
William Shakespeare
George Eliot
Mark Twain
Henry James
Edith Wharton
Sophocles
John Steinbeck
George Orwell

I could go on for some time...

Answer 3

Well, I always recommend to read the classics, specially The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer and The Aeneid by Virgil. Sophocles' and Aeschylus' tragedies are simply awesome. The Bible is imbued in so many things that one hardly notices it at all, so it's always good to read it (I mean this in a not religious way, the Bible has been read by countless generations of writers, so this is helpful when you encounter an obscure reference) Beowulf, Shakespeare's plays, Dante's Comedy, Dostoievsky's novels, Kafka's 'The Trial' and 'The Castle', Borges' short stories, you name it. As someone else pointed out, it's not about a formula, it's about what interests you, and it's not just about knowing something, these books must actually mean something to you. These are not quick reads by contemporary standars, in fact, they should be carefully reread over and over.

Answer 4

I think my college degree was really about paying someone else for a reading list. So rather than giving you a big list, which the academics would describe as "classic," I'll tell you to go for a literary movement, read everything in it, understand what makes it a movement, and then you're set. (You'll also be quite educated, hahahaha) You'll be able to discuss various works, whether you've read them or not, based on your understanding of its place in history.

If you just want to kill yourself with reading, try the Norton Anthologies.

Answer 5

1. Hamlet (Shakespeare)
2. Crime & Punishment (Dostoyevsky)
3. The Republic (Plato)
4. The Divine Comedy (Dante Alighieri)
5. Oliver Twist (Charles Dickens)

-not in any particular order :o)

Answer 6

So many...Anything by Dante, Camu, Lange, Hemingway, Adler, Millay, mythology, Bible, Koran, Upanishads. Anything on Quantum Theory/Analysis. Any and absolutely everything by the beat poets.

Try *Gutenberg Project* for free copies of classics........

Answer 7

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Answer 8

absolom..absolom...by william faulkner