What books do you think are essential reading?

[JazzerMcCreary]

I’m turning 29 tomorrow. I’ve decided that as I’ve either done or have no interest in doing the typical ‘pre 30 bucket list’ activities, I’m going to try to read 30 new books over the next year.

So tell me, what books would be on your list?

As a few have already said... To Kill A Mockingbird.
Have a lovely birthday!

John Connolly - A Charlie Parker thriller.

"We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves" by Karen Joy Fowler
"The Friend" by Sigrid Nunez

Placemark

@Monkeyrules I would love to read Interview With A Vampire by Anne Fine!

I'll add (someone else has finally mentioned Pratchett)

The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovanni Guareschi
Lindsey Davis's Marcus Didius Falco series - The Silver Pigs is the first

It's not a fiction book but book 'the subtle art of not giving a fuck' changed my outlook on life.

Sleepers
Memoirs of a Geisha

@Lotsolove

Anything by Mave Binchy.

Love her. Makes me laugh that Colm Toibín gets critical acclaim for basically writing Maeve Binchy books.

The dictionary. All books are just basically a remix of it.

The Great Gatsby (my all time favourite)
The English Patient
Memoirs of a Geisha

A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle
A Secret History by Donna Tartt
A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis
Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
Into the Wild by John Krakauer
1984 by George Orwell
Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
Generation X by Douglas Copeland
The Electronic Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe

The Secret History*

Definitely agree Into the Wild.
And that's brought to mind Touching the Void - Joe Simpson

The 'Rivers of London' series

The five people you meet in heaven

If nobody speaks of remarkable things

Rebecca
The five people you meet in Heaven
Wuthering Heights
Half of a Yellow Sun
Their Eyes Were Watching God
A Certain Age

The Handmaids Tale
The Stand
Assassins Apprentice
Wintersmith
The Power
Invisible Women

The Cider House Rules (John Irving)
The Paris Wife (Hemingway)
The Book of Negroes (Lawrence Hill)
On the Beach (Neville Shute)
The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood)

Norwegian Wood
The Windsinger trilogy
Across the Nightingale Floor
Jude the Obscure
It
A Scots Quair
Shardlake books
The Pillars of the Earth trilogy
Wheel of Time
Heart of Darkness
Things Fall Apart
Grapes of Wrath
Metamorphosis
Huis Clos
A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Dracula

Dorian Gray
Elantris
Boudicca quadrilogy by Manda Scott
Shogun

Some non-classics that I’ve enjoyed that I haven’t seen mentioned yet:
Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Mothership by Francesca Segal
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amon Towles

@Monkeyrules I am a sucker for reading my favourite books over and over again. But my very most favourite I ration myself. And Fire and Hemlock is one of those. Absolutely stunning.

Love all Diana Wynne Jones. All marvellous, Maybe start with Deep Secret then the follow up The Merlin Conspiracy? Then the Howl books? Then Chrestomanci?

Bur I digress. Other suggestions:-
Arms and the Women (Reginald Hill)
The Stranger House (Reginald Hill)
Three Men in a Boat (Jerome K Jerome)
Piranesi (Susannah Clarke)
Night Watch (Terry Pratchett)
A Perfect Spy (John Le Carre)
Great Expectations (Charles Dickens)
The World is Not Enough (Zoe Oldenbourg)
Cold Comfort Farm (Stella Gibbons)
The Flounder (Gunter Grass)

That should keep you going for a while
Memoirs of Hadrian (Marguerite Yourcenar)

Anything by Saki, and everything by Stella Gibbons (author of 'Cold Comfort Farm'). Saki has the humour of Noel Coward without being a snob. Stella Gibbons writes about things that thrust the early 20th century into the current day, and vice-versa. I find her so funny, whilst also learning about feminist politics over time. Such a clever woman, and so underrated. There's no point being a clever novelist carrying a message if you're boring. These two are the opposite of that.

I second Legend David Gemmell time for a re-read
Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkien - recently re-read
Anything by Guy Gavriel Kay - Tigana being my favourite
Night Circus and Starless Sea Erin Morgenstern both superb
The Graveyard Book Neil Gaiman
If you're only going to read 1 Terry Pratchet then Monstrous Regiment
Laini Taylor Daughter of Smoke & Bone Trilogy and Strange the Dreamer & Muse of Nightmares
Wind in the Willows - childhood favourite and I still re-read
Chronicles of Thomas Covenant - Stephen Donaldson and his Mordants Need duology

Consider the lilies by Iain Chrichton Smith
The Changeling by Robin Jenkins
Joseph Knight by James Robertson
Beside the ocean of time by George MacKay Brown
The house with the green shutters by George Douglas Brown

The Remains of the Day
Wuthering Heights
Atonement