Name a book you think everyone should read at least once?

34 comments

1. Whatever book interests you, in whatever genre you prefer, of whatever length you like. No one should force themselves to read any book that doesn’t interest them, outside of structured learning.

2. The Highway Code.

3. Sapiens. I feel I know my place in the world much better after reading that.

4. The Colour of Magic / The Light Fantastic.

   Everyone should have a bit of exposure to Pratchett.

5. The 5 people you meet in heaven

6. 1984; Its an amazing book overall but I especially think understanding the meaning of doublethink and the manipulation of language and logic is particularly important in the modern day.

7. I think The Road is so utterly bleak that it actually becomes uplifting. I’d recommend everyone gives it a go just so I can see whether that’s the case for everyone!

8. Animal Farm

9. The Very Hungry Caterpillar

10. Grapes of Wrath

11. Fahrenheit 451.

12. The Tiger that came for tea….

13. Good Omens. Pratchett and Gaiman are both brilliant authors – they combined well for this.

14. All Quiet on the Western Front

15. The selfish gene by Richard Dawkins

16. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist

17. To Kill a Mockingbird for sure.

18. Rogers Profanasaurus.

19. Lolita and Heart of Darkness. Both so perfectly written (by authors for whom English wasn’t their first second language!). Masterpieces.

20. The stand (unabridged) – Stephen king

    Short history of nearly everything – bill bryson

21. Honestly most the books considered staples of society that ‘everyone should read’ aren’t that good, deep or engaging. Most of which are listed in this thread.

    People gotta stop overthinking and just go read Cat in the Hat or Biff and Chip and be happy.

22. Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes

23. I’m going to have to say the bible. Not because i’m overly religious but it’s a worthwhile read for just the once. I particularly like the bit when he gets his first letter for Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry.

24. Do androids dream of electric sheep? – P. K Dick

    Or

    Profession – I. Asminov

    Both short and keep your interest enough to want you to keep reading more (other books like them) , plus these authors inspire a lot of film tropes or have been made into movies not always under the same name.

25. Brave new world

26. Who owns England…I bang on about this book but I think it’s so important for the general public to know how little land we have access to

27. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Through the disregard of the rights of black people in America, cells were taken from a dead woman and grown. Her cells are immortal and used for countless medical discoveries including the polio and covid vaccines.

    All should know her name.

28. The curious incident of the dog in the night time

29. Dune. I’ve read it several times and it’s great.

30. Lord Of The Rings

31. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy

    British Sci-Fi comedy at it’s finest!

32. A lot of the books that people list as must reads you only read because you ‘should’ read them. The message is important but it’s since been written in an alternative that is more accessible, more modern or frankly better than the original.

    Choosing just one? Too hard. But these are the books that stand out in my life.

    His Dark Materials trilogy to open your mind at a young age.

    The Shining to show you the dark side of yourself

    Red Rising to show you what grit looks like

    Moby Dick to show you that just because it’s on a ‘must read’ list, doesn’t mean it’s worth reading

    Any Terry Pratchett to hold a mirror up to the world

    The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to laugh

33. The man who mistook his wife for a hat by Oliver Sacks

    Bad science by Ben Goldacre

    The health gap by Michael Marmot

    Factfulness by Hans Rosling

    Hello World by Hannah Fry

    A field guide to lies and statistics

    Gödel Escher Bach

    Kant’s critique of pure reason

    Plato’s republic

    Aristotle’s Nicomachean ethics

    Hume’s treatise of human nature

    Descartes’ Meditations

    Spinoza’s ethics

    Schopenhauer’s the world as will and representation

    Nietzsche’s thus spoke Zarathustra

    Diary of a young girl by Anne Frank

    The little Prince

    To kill a mockingbird

    Proust’s in search of lost time

    Finnegan’s wake by James Joyce

    Don Quixote

    Crime and punishment

    The idiot

    Tales from the 1001 nights

    Borges’ Labyrinths

    Vonnegut’s cat’s cradle

    Flower for algernon

    Sophie’s world

    If on a winters night a traveler

    Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco

    Rimbaud’s season in hell

34. The Handmaid’s Tale. It illustrates just how quickly a country can be overthrown and decide that a group you belong to is enemy #1 and must be controlled through violence and torture. Plus they just kill off a lot of people deemed undesirable.

    It’s encouragement to fight against discriminatory restrictions on any group people because that’s how it all starts and we have to keep an eye on that shit.

    Plus Serena Joy is the perfect villain, especially in the show. She’s based on a real woman that people like Reagan and Thatcher loved. Her name is Phyllis Schlafly and she’s evil. I don’t feel about any villain what Yvonne Strahovski has made me feel about Serena Joy.