'Must-Have Books'

"Lost Horizon" by James Hilton (It is an amazingly excellent book.)
Sherlock Holmes books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle(my favorite author)
"The Lost World" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger
"Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Ripley novels by Patricia Highsmith(I've read the first three. They're great.)
"Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens
"Kim" by Rudyard Kipling
"Seven Pillars of Wisdom" by T.E. Lawrence(my favorite historical figure)
Works of Charles Fort
"Conquest of Gaul" by Julius Caesar
"The Civil War" by Julius Caesar
"The Vinland Sagas" a Penguin Classics book containing the sagas about the Norse discovery of America
"History of the Kings of Britain" by Geoffrey of Monmouth
 
"The New York trilogy" - Paul Auster
"Ghost Story" - Peter Straub
"Eugenie Grandet" or "Le Pere Goirot" - Honore de Balzac
The collected poetry of Lagerquist and Fröding (swedish)
"Hyperion" and "The fall of Hyperion" - Dan Simmons
The book of the New Sun - Gene Wolfe
"Darwins dangerous idea" - Daniel C Dennet
The history of philosophy - Marc-Wogau (or similar antology)
"History of the world" - J M Roberts (or similar)

And many more. Perhaps:

"The transparent society" - David Brin
"The hero with a thousand faces" - Joseph Campbell

And maybe... And... And then....
 
One that I totally forgot to mention was "The Importance of Being Ernest", but Oscar Wilde. Actually, all of Oscar Wilde is pretty good, one fo my favourite playwrights/authors.

I just started reading "A Fine Balance" by Rohinton Mistry. It's about people living in India in the mid 70's under Indira Gandhi. So far it's pretty good, but I just picked it up last night, so haven't gotten very far into it.

I think there should be a JREF book club, if only because they already have a political book clue.
 
The Tale of Genji by Murisaki Shikibu
-- The Confessions of Lady Nijo (only if you like Genji)
The Mahabharta
The Ramayana
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
The Qur'an

More contemporary works that I haven't seen on the list . . .

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
many stories by H.P Lovecraft

some non-fiction that really made me think

Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol
No Logo by Naomi Klein
 

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