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Just some more:

- Slaughterhouse-five, Kurt Vonnegut
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- Ubik, Philip K. Dick
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
- Lolita, Vladmir Noblakov
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
- Native Son, Richard Wright
- The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll, Alvaro Mutis

Out of these, I've read To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men. I'm half way through Grapes of Wrath right now, and will probably check out some of these when I'm done. I especially want to read some of Hemingway's books, Farewell to Arms in particular. Also, what's your opinion on Atlas Shrugged? I've heard a lot of polar reviews on it, ranging from it being one of the most important books of our time to it just being for confused teenagers. You seem like a pretty big literature buff, so I thought I'd get your opinion about it. Thanks!

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>>14111

Haven't read Atlas Shrugged. I did read The Fountainhead, of which Ayn Rand based her ideas of objectivism in. Atlas Shrugged is an even more extensive exploration of objectivism. In it, she discusses the mingling of individualism with society-- specifically of capitalism and greater reason.

Other than that, I know nothing of it. Ayn Rand is a great author to explore, because she was at least 30 years ahead of her time, while also not being pedantic.

Before jumping into Hemingway, first explore the historical contenxt of the book (i.e. the time in which it was written, relevant wars, etc). This is actually a good measure to apply to all books, especially ones written 100+ years ago. Authors write within their time, and usually do not anticipate that their books will be read by future generations.

>>14117
Thanks for the tips. I'll probably read Atlas at some point then. As for the research pre-reading, I tend to do that to an extent already, as it makes it much easier to relate to the characters in the book if I have a historical standpoint to work with.
You're a pretty cool dude. You don't see these kinds of threads on chans very often, so it's a very welcoming sight. Thanks for the help.

>>14117
This man speaks the truth. I read Sun Also Rises over the summer blindly over the summer and thought it was the worst thing ever. Now we're learning about the Expatriate movement and the Lost Generation in Academic Decathalon and the book actually makes sense now and I feel like I can appreciate it.

I also read The Old Man and the Sea not long ago, and while I loved that from the get go, my love for it increased greatly after doing a heavy bit of research on it.

>>14187
*The Sun Also Rises blindly over the summer
Excuse my retardation.

>>14108
Decent list of the essentials. I would add A Confederacy of Dunces by John Toole
>>14111
I'm going to avoid the temptation to bash Rand's philosophy but it's hard to find a serious literary critic who claims that her narrative style is anything special.

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Read:

The Tartar Steppe
The Pale King
Parallel Stories
Infinite Jest
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again
2666
Consider the Lobster

and ofc

Finnegans Wake

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>>14269

2666 was great. Infinite Jest is highly overrated.

>>14287

Not much of a metamodernist?

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>>14290

Now, I'm not trying to sound edgy or anything, but I think in the future, among many of the things that our predecessors will laugh at about us will be post-modernism. I think modernism started out as an incredible material, yet transcendent scope of art and nature, but it's now become a joke. It follows along with a certain dogma-- not unlike the extreme conservatism of the scientific method. So, no, I'm not a fan of metamodernism, nor am I of post-modernism. It's not a genre of thought-- I think it's more of an outlet for creative ideas in our complex world.

But hey, that's just like, my opinion, myan.

>>14295

Yes, I'm not a postmodernist

>>14295
Postmodernism is supposed to be a joke. You don't get it, man.

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I am surprised that nobody has mentioned this book yet. This book has absolutely changed my life, and I haven't even read it fully yet. If everybody on this planet would have read this book for at least once, we would have been living in a perfect world. Dale Carnegie is an absolute genius for writing this.

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>>14302

Adults are talking. Go play with your firetruck, son.

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>>14335

While we are talking about self help books, I suppose I'll name a few:

"A New Earth", Eckhart Tolle
"Models", Mark Manson
"How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life", Alan Lakein

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Bamp

>>14352
>While we are talking about self help books
Let's not OP. This thread started out well. Why don't we keep it that way?
Has anyone read Vernon God Little by D.B.C. Pierre? It got passed around my circle of friends and most of us thought that it was the Tom Sawyer of our generation.

>>14108
Enders Game was phenomenal, as was 1984, but I couldn't get into To Kill a Mockingbird. The A Song of Ice and Fire series and The Girl With The Dargon Tattoo series should be added to this list. They are modern classics.

>>14108
Speaking of my main nigga François-Marie Arouet, have you guys read Zadig? I enjoyed it more than Candide to be honest.

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>>14582

Well my little mongloid, I too was once adamantly against anything self-help. But the trick is to find something very focused. not any of that Dr. Phil bullshit. The self-help books that I listed were about masculinity, reducing impulsiveness, becoming self aware, and managing your time effectively. The lessons I learned within these books were lessons I should have been taught by parents.

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>>14594
>The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series should be added to this list.

Considered it. Best of Scandinavian thrillers.

>>14269

Add "The Family That Couldn't Sleep: A Medical Mystery" to the list

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Moar Plz. Would like to add a few books:

- The Man WHo Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Oliver Sachs
- Altered Egos, Todd E. Feinberg
- The World Without Us, Alan Weisman
- Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse
- The Elements of Style, William Strunk and E. B. White
- The Art of War, Sun Tzu

The Child Thief - Brom

Only must read of this century.

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>>15124

Sounds meh, but maybe I'll look into it.

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Honk honk

Battle Royale, anyone?

Stephen King: Pet Sematary

I'd like to add breakfast of champions to this list.

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- The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
- Choke, Chuck Palahniuk
- Invisible Monsters, Chuck Palahniuk
- Lullaby, Chuck Palahniuk
- Diary, Chuck Palahniuk
- Snuff, Chuck Palahniuk
- The Talisman, Stephen King
- The Dark Tower Series, Stephen King
- Harry Potter Series, J.K. Rowling
- Wicked Series, Janet Evanovich
- Hunger Games Series, Suzanne Collins

I tried to read classics, like The Old Man and The Sea by Hemingway, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, some of the Isaac Asimov books, etc, but got bored with them really quickly. I would bet most people who swoon over classics haven't read them or don't really like them at all, but want to seem cultured.

inb4 "3 mainstream 5 me" yea, you go ahead and let that keep you from a good book.

>>18701
>does not list fight club
>lists all of chuck's other books

>>18704
I have this thing about seeing movies and THEN reading the book... just can't bring myself to do it :<

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>>18704
Also, those I listed were the only Palahniuk books I've read, and all of them were the in league with the greatest.

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Every fucking book from Mikhail Bulgakov but Master and Margarita is probably the best.

Justine, Marquis de Sade
Morbidly entertaining, and written in a weird style worth knowing.

>>18701
>hunger games series
I remember reading these when one by one as they came out. Sad to see a good book turn into another twilight saga. They are in no way a must read, and the first one is a harry potter equivalent to those who haven't read them.

>>18780
you're insane, it's psychological beauty. the end will make you feel like you're going insane, because she sort of is, and if you're like me, your imagination puts you in her shoes. it hurt, knowing she was going to be forced to live when all of those people she loved died.

>>18780
>>18834
>book become popular
>immediately put on the shit tier
I just can't stop thinking that way and no one will persuade me to read Hunger games, the Game of Thrones, or whatever.

>>18701
r u srs

>>18883
Forgot to greentext
>harry potter

>>18701
I agree with you to an extent. I tried reading Inferno and I was just not a fan of it at all. Old Man and the Sea and Asimov I really do enjoy though. I can understand being bored by Old Man and the Sea, but Asimov? I guess to each his own. Also, I can't help but notice you didn't include his only known work, Fight Club. Did you not care for it or have you just not read it?

>On a Pale Horse
By Piers Anthony.
Maybe you mentioned it, but this thread is too long. Posting from school, ain't nobody got time fo dat.
Also...
Damn. OP already mentioned 1984.

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Not going to critique anybody's choices because I'm a snob and I don't want to get into that.
I will however add this, because it wasn't done yet.