Books I think everyone should read

[sharpdressedscot]

Great thread, by the way.

Some of favorites have already been mentioned, so I won't re-list them.

Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien & Christopher Tolkien

The Camulod Chronicles by Jack Whyte
1. The Skystone
2. The Singing Sword
3. The Eagles Brood
4. The Fort at the Rivers Bend
5. The Saxon Shore
6. The Sorcerer
(He also wrote Uther & The Lance Thrower, but these 1st 6 are best. They are all half fiction.)

Enjoy

I'm reading those Camulod Chronicles right now, I have to say they're my favorite series thus far. I can't believe I forgot this series.

[Big Mikey]

Focusing on the phrase "reading for pleasure" I would recommend 'Uncle John's Bathroom Readers'. You can read a bit, put it down and when you come back you don't have to go back three pages to get reaquainted. There are no plot lines to follow, no lengthy character developement and you might just learn something.

In a more esoteric vein, I would recommend the O.E.D. Between its covers lie every great book ever written.

[beloitpiper]

Other than what has already been posted, I'll add:

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
The Good Soldier Schweik by Jaroslav Hašek
Love In The Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Night by Elie Wiesel
Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

[Sheep In Wolf's Clothing]

If you are adding the Holmes stories to the list, I would reccomend
The Annotated Sherlock Holmes by William S Baring-Gould

I would just add to the growing list:
White Fang By Jack London
Down and Out in Paris and London By George Orwell
The Old Man and the Sea By Ernest Hemingway
Tresure Island By RL Stevenson
If I Lived My Life Again By Sir Winston Churchill
And anything written by Lama Surya Das

Happy Reading,
Sara

[Yaish]

Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein. It should be mandatory reading for all boys and girls in high school. It is NOTHING like the movie BTW.

In addition to Beloitpipers recommendation of Gun, Germs, and Steel I'd also add
Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches to the list. If you want to understand why we are the way we are today, those two books will show you.

[Livingston]

Doesn't everyone do that?

Some people don't read unless they're forced to. [GASP] They just don't know what they're missing.

[Howard Clark]

Good to know that so many kilties are also compulsive readers

[OFCJAX]

"World War Z"
Max Brooks

Starship Troopers was on the Commandants reading list when I was active duty. Awsome book.

[Moosedog]

I tend to go by authors:

Mark Twain
Will James
Arthur Ransome
Elie Wiesel
Farley Mowat
Thomas Hardy
Checkov and Dostoevsky

And we seem short on women so, depending on your genre---

Willa Cather
Mari Sandoz
Mary Austin
Patricia Cornwell
Marguerite Porete
Edna Ferber
Audre Lorde
Madeleine L'engle
Anne Morrow Lindburgh
and, in honor of Earth Day, the amazing Rachel Carson

Hmmm, this ended up being lists of authors I'm glad I have read, not of what I think others should. I'm grateful I had exposure to lots of books growing up.

Moosedog

[Darkislander]

Wish I could take an interest in book reading. I have not read a book since school years. I prefer listening to music.