What books should everyone have read

[remainin]

...by the time they're 20?

I'm trying to compile a list of "essential reading" for my teen DS. What do you think should be included?

As this is a TES list and not a poster's choice, here's what I'd redact:

6. The Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling

Overhyped twaddle - only worth reading if you like that kind of thing.

12. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne

No - dangerously misleading about the realities of the Holocaust. Appalling book.

17. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

I usually like Sebastian Faulks but found this utterly turgid.

=71. I am David by Anne Holm

I had to read this at school when I was 13 - utter tosh.

91. Forever by Judy Blume

Not Judy Blume's finest by any means - try almost any other.

1984 and animal farm - George Orwell

I know why the caged bird sings - maya angelou

Games people play - Eric Berne

Affluenza - de Graaf, Wann and naylor

Profit over people - Noam Chomsky - he’ll read as much Chomsky as possible!

The Bible or any comparable scripture from another faith such as the Koran or Torah. I say this as an agnostic, because so much of the world's culture and knowledge is founded on ancient scriptures - of course, if your DC have a religious faith, such reading might also bring spiritual benefits. was going to put something very similar myself, whatever their religious or spiritual perspective I would say it's good to read at least 2 of the main texts of the most prominent religions

Dante’s divine comedy

Faust - Goethe

Frankenstein - Shelley

A modest proposal and gullivers travels - swift

Pride and prejudice - Jane Austen

Jane eyre - Charlotte Brontë

Dubliners or a portrait of the artist as a young man - Joyce

But generally speaking steer him away from mostly reading books by privileged white men!

This is tough to do especially with older books as it was so much harder for anyone else to be published then.

Gah hate when autocorrect happens after you've left a sentence

That should read

HELL read as much Chomsky as possible

On the origin of species by Charles Darwin
Animal Farm & 1984 by George Orwell
The wealth of nations by Adam Smith.

The Female Eunuch.

@Graphista

Gah hate when autocorrect happens after you've left a sentence

That should read

HELL read as much Chomsky as possible

Lol, I thought you were trying to say that Chomsky was so engaging that once he’d read one he’d be hooked!

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel to be fair I think that's also true

Philodox
Kazuo Ishiguro Remains of the Day

That's my favourite one of his also; everyone always seems to say Never Let Me Go so it makes me happy to see other people love Remains of the Day :)

I love Lord of the Rings, Beowulf, Christmas Carol and Shakespeare. I read some of these at school and they've really stayed with me.
Its difficult to say what books people 'should' read as what some might consider a gem others will call utter twaddle. I think it's great to try a range, fantasy like Tolkien, classics like Dickens or Shakespeare and a modern classic such as Catch 22. This provides a variety and then your daughter will know if she enjoys these types or not. Its also important in my mind to explore new authors and try books that are very different to what I usually read to keep things fresh.

@unmarkedbythat ROTD is such a different book to NLMG isn't it? I like Artist Of The Floating World too.

The Sneeches by Dr Seuss. Such a brilliant and memorable lesson in tolerance.

Riders and Rivals by Jilly Cooper.

Black Beauty. Thought i could never bear to read it again.

Should read "though".

Riders and Rivals by Jilly Cooper.

I'd also ask why you are making the list. Entertainment? Seeing the world through a variety of perspectives? Education? As a shared cultural experience?

I'd only make my children read the Remains of the Day as a punishment for something REALLY bad.

TES list is a bit hit and miss for me. Some of those books are pretty dry by my reckoning but I'd say they've hit on pretty much the right samples from Dickens and Forster, even though there's a rubbish showing from early 20th century women. Malorie Blackman, Pullman and Zuzek are all brilliant. I agree with the PP that the Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is an appalling, even exploitative account of the Holocaust (I'd have had the wonderful Europa Europa on there instead).

Major TES points lost for the nauseating schmaltz that is Atonement and the Hunger Games which is really appallingly written. Compared with the Blackman trilogy it looks really crude and amateur.

Personal taste of course, but as far as the Brontes are concerned Charlotte's Villette is a far superior novel to Jane Eyre in every way (even though some of her coincidences still stretch credibility). And compared with Emily and Charlotte, Anne has always been very undersung.

I'm with Percheron - Black Beauty is a bucket of shit (and I'm a horse-lover and into riding)! Not wild about Little Women either: even the title grinds my gears ...

Massive Dante fan here too but I'm not sure how that would fare with the under 20s.

Animal Farm by George Orwell
1984 by George Orwell
Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
I Claudius and Claudius the God by Robert Graves
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Games People Play and I'm OK, You're OK
The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker

A Game of Thrones - George R R Martin
Dune - Frank Herbert
I, Robot - Isaac Asimov
Feersum Ennjinn - Iain M Banks
Perdido Street Station - China Mieville

The book I wished I'd read when a teen is 'I Capture the Castle', Dodie Smith. Re-read 'Jane Eyre', appalingly mawkish and sensationalist. No one mentioned 'Vanity Fair', which is hilarious.

The time travellers wife
Tully
Everything else by Paulina Simons
Gone girl
The girl on the train
Captain Corelis mandolin

I'm so glad people are objecting to the Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. That book annoyed me so much.

Some very heavy suggestions here.
I'd forgotten Hardy!
Jude the obscure,
Tess of the durbevilles
Evelyn waugh.... Scoop... Decline and fall

Balzac, old goriot

Zola... Nana.

Dickens a tale of two cities.

Yy to I capture the castle!