I want to read classic or important books

[PointOfTipping]

I would really like to start reading important books- not sure how much time I'm going to have to do it so think realistically I want to compile a list of 10 and aim to do them this year. I'd be happy to be honest if I manage at least five.

The only one I have on my list so far is War and Peace. I love literature yet feel like I don't know anything about significant books - would anyone like to nominate any titles?

I haven't rtft (sorry) but I'm attempting something similar. I'm focusing on the Booker prize list.

www.penguinrandomhouse.com/the-read-down/booker-prize-winning-books

I'm slowly making my way through it (in no particular order).

These were the principal texts from the reading lists I remember from my high school days:

The Odyssey
The Ilyad
The Inferno
The Bible
Beowolf
Paradise Lost
The Canterbury Tales
Hamlet
Othello
Twelth Night
Wuthering Heights
Jayne Eyre
Pride and Prejudice
Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience
Vanity Fair
Candide
Tartuffe
Huis Clos
Madame Bovary
Les Fleurs du Mal
Therese Desqueroux
The Stranger
A Room of One's Own
The Bell Jar
The Cherry Orchard
All Quiet on the Western Front
Slaughterhouse 5
Crime and Punishment
A Tale of Two Cities
Catcher in the Rye
The Scarlet Letter
The Awakening
Mrs Dalloway
Of Mice and Men
The Jungle
Slaughterhouse 5
Catch 22
The Great Gatsby
A Light in August
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
The Colour Purple
Streetcar Names Desire
Our Town
Ulysses

Harold Bloom came up with a list of essential books of the Western Canon which is a good list to start from (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Western_Canon:_The_Books_and_School_of_the_Ages), but it omits many modern books (aka books after mid 20th century) and many non western texts.

There are lots of 'books you should read' lists but they are very biased towards white men writing in English in the 19th and 20th centuries. Plus a smattering of JKRowling and other not very well written modern novels. How long ago does something have to be written to be considered a classic? Some writers go very out of fashion for a while (the Victorians hated Jane Austen).

Try and mix things up so if you are going for 5 in a year then how about:

1. A non-white author (The Color Purple or Beloved or I know Why the Caged Bird Sings or Midnight's Children or you could just read Dumas)
2. A novel translated into English (Madam Bovary or Anna Karenina)
3. A novel written by a woman (avoiding the 19th century big hitters what about Orlando or Nights at the Circus or Oranges are not the only Fruit or work your way through the Virago back catalogue)
4. A novel not written in Europe or North America (The House of Spirits or 100 Years of Solitude would be good options for South America)
5. Non-fiction (A Room of One's Own, The Double Helix, Goodbye to All That)

But to go back to a white man writing in English what about 'The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy'? Might be worth watching 'A Cock and Bull Story' to get a flavour for how mad it is.

I'm also a Vilette hater! V yawnsome

@Gilead you could also try Born on A Blue Day about autism, or something by Temple Grandin

Anyway, for OP:
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
The Gaia Hypothesis by James Lovelock
No Logo by Naomi Klein
Invisible Women by Caroline Criado-Perez
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson

There's quite a few books already mentioned that I'd have recommended but I'm not sure anyone has suggested;

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimanda Ngozi Adiche

The book affected me very deeply for months after I read it. I think it's an incredible novel.

Books I'm glad I've read and love (all mentioned above I think):

Wolf Hall / Bring up the Bodies
I Capture the Castle
Pride and Prejudice
Wives and Daughters
Count of Monte Cristo
Middlemarch
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Turn of the Screw
I know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Personally I'd rather never read again than drag myself back through the utter tripe that is Dickens or Wuthering Heights.

The catcher in the Rye
Lord of the Flies
One flew over the cuckoos nest
Animal farm

To kill a mockingbird

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Bronte
She Came to Stay - Simone de Beauvoir
The Women’s Room - Marilyn French
Women in Love - DH Lawrence
The Pursuit of Love - Nancy Mitford
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Candide - Voltaire

How could I forget The Bell Jar? I love Sylvia Plath. It was one of those books that changed my thinking. I was 16.

Gilead, I'm autistic too. I also think Jayne Eyre is autistic too.

Thanks, have read most of the books written by autistic people, but always grateful for suggestions.

Any Doris Lessing, my favourites are the Martha Quest series and The Golden Notebook. Also Nadine Gordimer is good.

I hate Jane Eyre. I’m not sure she’s autistic, but Rochester is an abusive arse!

1984
Animal Farm
Of Mice and Men
Pride and Prejudice
Dracula
The Day of the Triffids
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
Of Love and other Demons

Plays are often overlooked...
The Crucible
The Glass Menagerie
A Streetcar Named Desire

I loved War and Peace. I also enjoy most of Jane Austen, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Emily Bronte. Also another vote for Rushdie's Midnight Children and Oscar Wilde but I couldn't cope with George Eliot due to the book being written in dialect! If you don't mind something with political bias then Ayn Rand makes interesting reading. I also think that reading some non-fiction is worthwhile - try Rachel Carson's Silent Spring or Helen Macdonald's H is for Hawk.

I'm uncomfortable with her marrying Rochester when he's diminished and (more) damaged than before the fire. I think it would be better for her to be rich and marry him when he was whole, and still be the one with the power. But I am looking at it with modern views. I always thought Rochester was damaged by the knowledge that his potent sexuality made a woman realise her sexuality and it driving her completely insane. I felt a bit sorry for him. I think he pushed people away because he was worried about hurting them.

Sorry, should have said spoiler alert.

He locked his first wife in the attic and tried to commit bigamy!

Thank you so much for this thread. I'm going to print it out. It may take me the rest of my life to get half way through this list

I love this thank you so much!

Wondering how long it would take me to read them all...

Jeez I can't believe a pp has described the whole of Dickens as utter tripe.

Pointoftipping@ hi I read loads so happy to read along with you.

I agree tobee. I reread A Tale of Two Cities just recently after over 30 years and had forgotten just how good he is. HIs chilling portrayal of how twisted and intolerant a mob, even one which starts with a good cause, can still be a warning for today's intolerant woke society.

Yes, many of these books are by dead white people, but their impact is still evident today. I recently saw the updated Cyrano de Bergerac and it was incredible and still relevant. DS loved the performance and could relate to its story.

Lists do tend to be Western centric and this is simply to do with the development of written literature and the fact that it is simply more developed and voluminous in the West until relatively recently.

Factfulness by Hans Rosling. Singularly the most important book I've read.

Classics wise glad you bought 1984 as that would be my one choice. You're able to bring analogies into every day conversation which I think helps keep a book alive and memorable.

I recently saw the updated Cyrano de Bergerac and it was incredible and still relevant.

The 199x film with rhyming subtitles by Anthony Burgess is sublime ...

Lists do tend to be Western centric and this is simply to do with the development of written literature and the fact that it is simply more developed and voluminous in the West until relatively recently.

There's always the Bhagavad Gita