English language books everyone should read

[Scipio]

A Soldier of the Great War
Intruder in the Dust
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Great Gatsby
Ivanhoe
The Human Stain
Hornblower and the Atropos
The Prisoner of Zenda
The Hound of the Baskervilles
The Crying of Lot 49
Catch-22

[garbon]

Grapes of Wrath (however much I personally dislike the book, I think it's essential reading)

I'm the same although I don't know why it's essential reading. For me learning about the Depression and Dust Bowl + reading horrific news around the world today served the same purpose.

That said, I haven't read it since the summer between sophmore and junior year in high school.

[merithyn]

Grapes of Wrath (however much I personally dislike the book, I think it's essential reading)

I'm the same although I don't know why it's essential reading. For me learning about the Depression and Dust Bowl + reading horrific news around the world today served the same purpose.

That said, I haven't read it since the summer between sophmore and junior year in high school.

For some, hearing personal stories about the Depression and the Dust Bowl makes the history more real. In addition, the personal choices that occurred throughout the book, I think, makes one seriously consider what he or she may have done or not done under the circumstances.

I just think it could have been said in fewer words.

[garbon]

Pride & Prejudice
Vanity Fair
Middlemarch
Nineteen Eighty-Four
To The Lighthouse

(Definitely not anything by Edith Wharton )

[Caliga]

Atlas Shrugged 

[sbr]

Translations are okay

I got to agree with Pedrito, the inclusion of translations doesn't make sense.

It's about shit people who speak English can read, not some statement on English literature.

[merithyn]

(Definitely not anything by Edith Wharton )

No love for Ethan Frome, huh?

[alfred russel]

How about the King James Bible? It had quite a cultural impact.

[garbon]

(Definitely not anything by Edith Wharton )

No love for Ethan Frome, huh?

I've only read The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth. After both, I wanted my time and money back.

[CountDeMoney]

Watership Down. 

Bunnies.

[garbon]

How about the King James Bible? It had quite a cultural impact.

Putting the bible down as fiction...no I'm not touching that one.

[crazy canuck]

How about the King James Bible? It had quite a cultural impact.

Its a translation and so considerable debate as to whether it should be included.  Also a bad translation.

[Scipio]

How about the King James Bible? It had quite a cultural impact.

Its a translation and so considerable debate as to whether it should be included.  Also a bad translation.

It may be inaccurate, but the language is certainly magisterial and as a work it is stupendous.

[Rasputin]

Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, Puddin' Head Wilson, and a Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman

Frank Herbert's Dune

Ts Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral

Hemingway's Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber

Roth's Goodbye Columbus

Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird

Rand's Atlas Shrugged and Fountainhead

Orwell's Animal Farm

Huxley's Brave New World (which proved far more prohetic)

Tolkien's Lord of the Rings

If we expanded into non fiction I would add

Tuchman's Guns of August and

Frankyl's Man's search for Meaning

[Eddie Teach]

It's about shit people who speak English can read, not some statement on English literature.

That's not how most are interpreting it, else we'd be seeing War and Peace, Crime and Punishment, Les Miserables, Don Quixote, etc.