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If you've ever wanted to dig into a classic book, but don’t know exactly where to go for a list that lists the best of the best books? Ever have someone like a teacher, friend, parent, suggest a novel from their best of lists that they tell horror must reads if you are literary fans.
Well, I can't give you the specifics of all the best of the best books that I cherish, but I can offer you a few ideas of my own, share a few more titles that you may be interested in reading it you are not quite sure what you want to read if you are stuck for ideas or are one who wants to catch up with all the most popular and most-read (besides The Bible, that is) books in all history.
Best of the Best Books by Title
1984 (Nineteen Eighty-Four), by George Orwell
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger
Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
The French Lieutenant’s Woman, by John Fowles
Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov
Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
Native Son, by Richard Wright
On the Road, by Jack Kerouac
Seize the Day, by Saul Bellow
Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Best of the Best Books by Author
James Joyce-- Don’t let Joyce intimidate. Jump right into Ulysses or Finnegan’s Wake. Or, if your prefer to start “easier”, began with The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Toni Morrison – gobble up everything Morrison has to offer, especially being sure to cover The Bluest Eye, Sula, Tar Baby, and Song of Solomon.
Ayn Rand –again a bit more on the intellectual side of the equation, Rand still puts forth unparalleled philosophical fiction (unparalleled in her century, that is… except for maybe Camus and Sartre, of course).
Ernest (Papa) Hemingway — If you like the minimalist, realist style, read all of it, most notably The Sun Also Rises and A Moveable Feast, and be sure to check out the earlier works. If you prefer Hemingway’s more popular themes of war, for example, read A Farewell to Arms, as your first novel.
James Baldwin — just read it all, twice.
Phillip K. Dick –here are you want to read all three times. Yes, it's that good.
Virginia Woolf – Woolf’s writing is is probably best described as stream-of-consciousness, and is in a voice hearkening back to a time and a mindset (writerly, at that), so be sure to take a look at Mrs. Dalloway or To the Lighthouse.
John Irving — A most accessible and engaging writer, Irving brings us such poignant works as Hotel New Hampshire and the World According to Garp, which was made into a movie starring Robin Williams. And such provocative novels as A Prayer for Owen Meany.
John Updike –if you prefer a contemporary but a full writing style, Updike will delight and amuse you with his brilliance and the ease to which you can assess and understand his genius. Read about the ex-basketball star, following him through the decades of his life in the Rabbit quatrology, or share in the passion, or touch upon mysticism in The Centaur.
Well it is my hope that this information enough to keep you reading into your formative years and then a whole lot after. And hopefully, too, I think this will probably give you a few ideas to hunt down a few titles on your own. You will find at least a few titles for your own best of the best list to share with those that you care about.
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