Originally Posted by orwell2k
So tough to pick a few must-haves - the list just seems to explode!
I did a quick listing below of books I find I always return to over the years, hence qualifying them for me as 'must-haves' in my library - paper and e-formats. I have loosely grouped them as 'classics' and 'modern' - implying older works (mainly pre-20th century) are classics, though the exact date is blurry if you look at authors from the late 1800s). Including Shakespeare seems like a cop-out, but there you go!
I am always on the lookout for new things to read, but when I am at a loss for something really excellent to read, or just need to re-imerse myself in something I truly admired, I will often pull out one of the following, depending on mood, circumstances, etc.
Most of the modern works are at least a generation or three from writing, so they have stood the test of time in some sense. They also include some favourite SciFi works.
I have included a couple of writers in a 'maybe' list, as I didn't want to exclude them but was unsure if they are really 'must-haves.' They could be regarded as what a friend of mine fondly terms 'airport books' - the glossily covered, 'trashy' items you pick up en route at an airport because you have no choice! I'm not sure we can call Michael Crichton 'literature', but I admired his efforts in writing State of Fear and find his ideas on science and society interesting. On the other hand Robert Goddard is still writing and has such a brilliant style and employs a nice mix of historical facts and modern intrigue that I enjoy most of his works.
But one interesting book to note is the latest from 2007, The Painter of Battles by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. I only read this in January 2010 and was so impressed with it I have already put it on my 'must-have' list and am considering a re-read - highly recommended! I predict it will become a classic of the future.
Some 'classics':
Homer, The Odyssey and The Iliad
Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
Cervantes, Don Quixote
Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure
Shakespeare (if pushed to pick a favourite as all-encompassing it would be Hamlet)
More 'modern' works:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes Myteries
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four (how could I not include this!)
H.G. Wells, The Time Machine
Jerome K Jerome, Three Men in a Boat
Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita
Yukio Mishima, The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea
Joe Haldeman, The Forever War
J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
Roberto Bolaño, 2666
Arturo Pérez-Reverte, The Painter of Battles (2007) ** (highly recommended!)
Maybe List:
Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
Michael Crichton, State of Fear
Robert Goddard, Borrowed Time
Enjoy!
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