A short reading list for the young
I am omitting the English classics, like Shakespeare, Chaucer, etc. I
assume you are familiar with them. Here are some others of which you
might be less familiar. I have put a great variety of themes: from Literature to
History, from Philosophy to Politics. I have omitted Maths, Sciences and Arts, because
I don't want to make the list too long.
There are two motives for reading a book, one, that you enjoy it,
the other that you can boast about it.
Bertrand Russell
Books for general reading always smell badly; the odour of
common people always hangs about them.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
A classic is something that everyone wants to have read
and nobody wants to read.
Mark Twain
Books are good enough in their own way, but they are a mighty bloodless
substitute for life.
Robert Louis Stevenson
A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the
truth about its author.
G.K. Chesterton
ENGLISH
- Man and Superman George Bernard Shaw
- Pygmalion George Bernard Shaw
- The Black Girl in Search of God George Bernard Shaw
- Back to Methuselah George Bernard Shaw
- On Human Bondage Somerset Maugham
- Herzog Saul Bellow
- The Man who was Thursday G.K. Chesterton
- Orthodoxy G.K. Chesterton
- Brave New World Aldous Huxley
- 1984 George Orwell
- The Devil's Dictionary Ambrose Bierce
- Babel Tower A.S. Byatt
- The Portrait of a Lady Henry James
- Prisoner's Dilemma Richard Powers
- David Copperfield Charles Dickens
- Beyond Belief V.S. Naipaul
- Civil Disobedience Henry David Thoreau
- Utilitarianism John Stuart Mill
- Why I am not a Christian Bertrand Russell
- The Puttermesser Papers Cynthia Ozick
- The Adventures of Huckeleberry Finn Mark Twain
- Bluebeard Kurt Vonnegut
- A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole
- The Federalist Papers Alexander Hamilton
- The Story of Philosophy Will Durant
- Barrel Fever David Sedaris
- The Spanish Inquisition Henry Kamen
SPANISH
- El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
- El hermano asno Eduardo Barrios
- Terra Nostra Carlos Fuentes
- Ariel José Enrique Rodó
- La guerra del fin del mundo Vargas Llosa
- Rayuela Julio Cortázar
- El hombre mediocre José Ingenieros
- Réquiem por un campesino español Ramón Sander
- La raza cósmica José Vasconcelos
- El árbol de la ciencia Pío Baroja
- El sentimiento trágico de la vida Miguel de Unamuno
- San Manuel Bueno, mártir Miguel de Unamuno
- La agonía del cristianismo Miguel de Unamuno
- Nuestra América José Martí
- Calibán Roberto Fernández Retamar
FRENCH
- La confession d'un enfant du siècle Alfred de Musset
- Les Roi des Aulnes Michel Tournier
- Gilles et Jeanne Michel Tournier
- Querelle de Brest Jean Gênet
- Là bas J.K. Huysmans
- Au rebours J.K. Huysmans
- La Douleur Marguerite Duras
- Memoires d'Hadrien Marguerite Yourcenar
- L'Heptameron Marguerite de Navarre
- Moi Tituba, sorcière Maryse Condé
- Ségou Maryse Condé
- La Philosophie dans le boudoir Marquis de Sade
- La Révolte des Anges Anatole France
GERMAN
- Demian Hermann Hesse
- Faust Goethe
- The Magic Mountain Thomas Mann
- Thus Spoke Zarathustra Nietzsche
- The Oppermanns Lion Feuchtwanger
- Jud Süss Lion Feuchtwanger
- The Serapion Brothers E.T.A. Hoffmann
- Titan Jean Paul Richter
- The Man without Attributes Robert Musil
- Parerga et Paralipomena Arthur Schopenhauer
- The White Rose Inge Schölz
RUSSIAN, SERBIAN, PORTUGUESE, EVERYTHING ELSE...
- The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov
- Taras Bulba Gogol
- We Yevgeny Zamyatin
- A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
- The Decameron Boccacio
- The Dictionary of the Khazars Milorad Pavic
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera
- The Guide of the Perplexed Moshe Ben Maimon (The Rambam)
- O Alienista Joaquim Machado de Assis