Books everyone should read before they die

[Terracata]

I've just finished the last of my collection of books on my bookshelf (banned myself from getting any more until I'd read them all!). Now going to buy books one by one and need some suggestions. I'm not going to tell you what I like usually as I'd like to delve into lots of genres. What's your favourite, and why?

loved this. Quite thought provoking.

Also the Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss. So beautiful and multi layered it just gets better with every reading.

The Citadel by A.J.Cronin

Yessssss. So sad that she is being forgotten.

I'm reading 'A Second Hebridean Omnibus'. It's fantastic.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillian_Beckwith

It's like stepping out of your life onto a beach far, far away and collecting some funny things the sea washed up.

Then you go for some tea at a neighbour's house, and more people arrive, uninvited but welcome none the less.

There's a bit of dancing, singing and oatcakes, a few tall tales later you remember the chickens need feeding or else they will get the grump and not lay any eggs for your breakfast tomorrow.

Off to read more now.

I like biographies
'The salt path', by Raynor Winn about a homeless couple navigating Cornwall's south west coastal path is excellent

Yes this is a great book! I love how vivid the descriptions are, you really feel you are there. Beautiful book to read.

The Tattoist of Auschwitz is also a good read, very poignant.

Do They Hear You When You Cry by Fauzia Kassindja

Fauzia grew up in Africa in a tribe which practices FGM. Luckily for her her father doesn't agree with it. Then her father dies. And her uncle becomes head of the household. He marries her off to an older man who has many wives already, and wants her to be 'cut'. She escapes to America where she's put in prison until she can prove she's at risk if she is sent home.

It totally changed my opinion on immigration.

My two favourite books are Angelas ashes and one flew over the cuckoos nest. If you like psychological thrillers Johnathan Kellermans the devils waltz was brilliant.

@ZanyPombear

its better for me if they just name the book & author or it clutters up the thread & often gives the plot away. I don't find it onerous to look up a book on Google 🤷🏻‍♀️

A book I thoroughly enjoyed recently was Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. I keep thinking about it.

It depends what you like to read though I guess

I’m an English (namely American) literature lecturer and I always tell everyone to read three books I believe are vastly under-appreciated.

Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West

If more people read those three books, I would die a happy woman.

Great suggestions all of these, and particularly intrigued by yours, @Sartre!

I don’t think in terms of ‘ shoulds’ when it comes to reading as people’s tastes vary so much, but another shout out for The Dispossessed. Also by Ursula K Le Guin, The left hand of darkness, is intriguing.

Maybe the Moon (Armistead Maupin) is a great read, and brilliantly insightful about disability and difference.

For historical fiction, based on facts, Lady’s Maid (Margaret Forster) has been a favourite of mine for many years.

Anything by Graham Greene or Evelyn Waugh
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressel