Your selection of must-read novels

[makker]

Title says it all. What would be the essential novels you would recommend people to read?

I would start off with Master and Margharita, Catch-22, Catcher in the Rye and 1984.

However, my #1 would be Camus's The Stranger (L'Etranger). Absolute classic, especially as I can somehow relate to the protagonist.

 

[AntiHero84]

Brave New World
Sound and the Fury
Siddhartha
Invisible Man

 

[Valor]

Originally Posted by AntiHero84

Brave New World
Probably my favorite book of all time, but not sure it's a must read

Originally Posted by makker

Title says it all. What would be the essential novels you would recommend people to read? I would start off with Master and Margharita, Catch-22, Catcher in the Rye and 1984. However, my #1 would be Camus's The Stranger (L'Etranger). Absolute classic, especially as I can somehow relate to the protagonist.
All decent, but not really must reads. The Bible Illiad/Odyssey Aeneid On Being and Essence Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Communist Manifesto The Republic Critique of Pure Reason I Ching Dialects of Confucius Hayy ibn Yaqdhan Bhagavad Gita

 

[AntiHero84]

I think the OP just mentioned novels.

 

[Valor]

Originally Posted by AntiHero84

I think the OP just mentioned novels.

Good point.

Lolita.

 

[Harold falcon]

Originally Posted by makker

However, my #1 would be Camus's The Stranger (L'Etranger). Absolute classic, especially as I can somehow relate to the protagonist.

I loved The Stranger. Still re-read it every couple years.

Childhood's End is a favourite of mine.

 

[Blackhood]

Just finished Childhood's End a few days ago and read Rendezvous with Rama this morning. Both Sci-Fi classics.

I would throw in a vote for Life of Pi. I've also developed a real passion for Solomon's Mines, the language and attitude is very modern despite being late 1800s (IIRC).

 

[JTK]

East Of Eden (described this book to a friend yesterday as being as good as our last dinner and bottle of wine at Maestro's, both of which were awesome)
Grapes of Wrath (yeah, I'm a huge Steinbeck fan!)
Shantaram (an absolutely amazing story!!! Read before the movie comes out!)
Middlesex

 

[stevester1]

All quiet on the western front

 

[msza]

Don Quixote. Or, the first 50 or so pages at least. It is basically the same joke over and over for 1000 pages, but you absolutely must read some of it.

 

[Abraxis]

Neal Stephenson - Cryptonomicon
Eiji Yoshikawa - Taiko (And Musashi probably)
KJ Parker - The Folding Knife

 

[dhaller]

Some greats have already been mentioned; I have to add...

Cormac McCarthy - "Blood Meridian"

Ken Kesey - "Sometimes a Great Notion"

Don Delillo - "White Noise"

Cervantes - "Don Quixote"

Ad while it's not a novel - it's a collection of short fiction - I have to add the ouvre of Jorge Luis Borges, the best collection of which is the excellent "Labyrinths" (if you don't read Spanish).

DH

 

[volatility smile]

Originally Posted by makker

However, my #1 would be Camus's The Stranger (L'Etranger). Absolute classic, especially as I can somehow relate to the protagonist.

Don't forget The Plague/La Peste, I think it's better than The Stranger imo, but hey, they're both good books.

 

[deadly7]

Harry Potter!!!!!

In all seriousness, there are too many books out there that I've recommended. I always fall back to Orson Scott Card's Ender Quartet and the parallel Bean series. Entertaining adult fiction full of character development.

 

[rennavate]

Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace.