<p>I am not “well read”, so at some risk I submit a few books that have lasting meaning for me:</p>
<p>Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee - Dee Brown
Gods and Generals - Jeff Shaara
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
The Great Santini - Pat Conroy</p>
<p>For someone proclaiming to be not “well read” you have listed some very fine books. I think you are more “well read” than you think yourself to be.</p>
<p>I know I’m going to be laughed at for saying this but I’d also recommend graphic novels.</p>
<p>a) They’re different
b) They’re entertaining
c) They can have a moral compass, plot/storyline, setting, themes, like other books.</p>
<p>They’re still “comic books” in the same sense, but nowadays there are graphic novels out there that present themselves as literature–good literature. But that’s just me. They’re just a different form of literature imo.</p>
<p>And -of course- a little Nabokov, Tolstoy, Eugenides, Dostoevsky, and Steinbeck never hurt…</p>
<p>I say try a bit of everything. That’s a great way to be well-rounded.</p>
<p>1) “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” By Milan Kundera
2) “Orlando” By Virginia Woolf
3) “Of Human Bondage” By Sommerset Maughm (not sure of the author’s spelling)
4) “Extinction” By Thomas Bernhard
5) “The growth of the Soil” By Knut Hamsun
6) “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”
7) “The New York Trilogy” By Paul Auster
8) “White Noise” By Don Delillo
9) “Going to Meet the Man” By James Baldwin
10) “The Golden Notebook” By Doris Lessing</p>
<p>The classics no doubt.</p>
<p>East of Eden</p>
<p>Two summers ago my son, who was 20 at the time, asked if I would pick up the book for him because a friend had recommended it. I did and he started reading it immediately and began commenting on how much he liked it. I ran out and got a copy for myself and began reading as quickly as possible so that I could catch up with him. We enjoyed discussing the book as we read it–and it was such a treat. (We don’t see eye-to-eye on much of anything. :()</p>
<p>Last summer my daughter had to pick an author to read for her summer AP reading. We suggested Steinbeck so that one of her choices could be East of Eden. She loved it, too. :)</p>
<p>Oh! I had forgotten A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. What a fantastic book, and even the movie, though it left out most of the juicy parts of the novel, was good. </p>
<p>A Passage to India</p>
<p>Absolute fav of the sci/fi genre: Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card. None better, ever.</p>
<p>Don’t forget a little bit of Sartre and de Beauvoir. A little existentialism never hurt anybody! :)</p>
<p>OP, as I see from your CC Profile, you express an interest in history.</p>
<p>May I suggest two truly excellent and masterfully written works of historical fiction:</p>
<p>“An Instance of the Fingerpost” by Iain Pears (A unique and ingenious tale, told from multiple perspectives, interwoven with politics, religion, and the birth of modern science, set in Restoration England circa 1663)</p>
<p>“The Dante Club” by Matthew Pearl (A thrilling murder mystery set against a social and intellectual backdrop in mid 19th century Boston, featuring such notables as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Oliver Wendell Holmes and a controversy about teaching Dante at Harvard U.)</p>
<p>You may also enjoy “Gravity’s Rainbow” by Thomas Pynchon, “The Alienist” by Caleb Carr, “The Name of the Rose” by Umberto Eco, “Angels and Demons” (superior in plot and characterization to The DaVinci Code) by Dan Brown</p>
<p>You might give these two modern oddities a try:</p>
<p>A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace</p>
<p>I am a firm believer in the “classics.” Many of which have been listed in previous posts. </p>
<p>Do yourself a favor and begin with:</p>
<p>“Great Expectations” or “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens
“Pride and Prejudice” or “Emma” by Jane Austen
“Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte</p>
<p>All three authors are highly palatable for a dilletante.</p>
<p>After you get your feet wet, so to speak, go to Amazon.com and register if you don’t already have an account. Create a list of books that you have enjoyed, and you will receive recommendations and also see what other buyers have purchased who have enjoyed the same books. It’s an easy way to get some suggestions based on your personal taste.</p>
<p>Enjoy.</p>
<p>Happy reading…</p>
<p>you know, we had a semester dedicated to Latin American literature where we read Allende and Garcia Marquez, and far and far, everyone seemed to like Allende more. Granted, I think I prefer Garcia Marquez, but I Thought this was interesting. A lot of kids really did enjoy ‘House of the Spirits’ – yes, even the guys. I wouldn’t call it chick lit, either. It got very, very graphic later on</p>
<p>Don’t forget poetry. In my mind a well-read person shouldn’t be scared to pick up a books of poems. He should have a decent sense of how poetry works, even if he doesn’t read a lot of it.</p>