I have included some classics, certainly not all are worth reading despite what my teachers said. I have read Catcher in the Rye and to be blunt, it was the most boring and pointless pile of excrement ever written.
Here is my list (the first 25 should be mandatory reading in school):
1984- Orwell. The man was a genius , he predicted so much.
Brave New World- Huxley. This is how America is currently.
Johnny Got His Gun- Trumbo. The ultimate anti-war story. Its devastating.
Grapes of Wrath- Steinbeck.
Frankenstein- Shelley. Social commentary on how man's inventiveness can get out of control.
Dracula- Bram Stoker.
Brothers Grimm- collected work.
Poe- anything and everything.
HP Lovecraft- see above.
Bradbury- see above.
Heinlein- see above.
Jules Verne- see above.
H.G. Wells- see above.
H.G. Wells- see above.
Moby Dick-Melville. Ever want something so bad, it drives you insane?
For Whom the Bell Tolls- Hemingway
The Jungle- Upton Sinclair. You'll never eat meat again.
The Things They Carried- Tim O'Brien. A story about the horrors of Vietnam.
Lord of the Flies- Golding. Kids are cute...usually.
Beowulf- Anonymous. There is a warrior in all of us.
Faust- Goethe.Would you make a deal with the devil?
Inferno- Dante.
The Odyssey- Homer.
Leviathan- Hobbes.
When Rabbit Howls- Truddi Chase. A story about child abuse, guaranteed to make you cry.
Civil Disobedience- Thoreau
Clockwork Orange- Burgess
Dune- Herbert. Sci-fi like its never been done before.
The Road- McCarthy. One of the bleakest post-apocalyptic tales ever told.
Lord of the Rings- Tolkien. A story that is more than meets the eye.
The Picture of Dorian Grey- Wilde. What price vanity?
Common Sense- Thomas Paine.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Next- Ken Kesey. Sanity is overrated.
Catch-22- Heller.
FRINGE:
Demon Haunted World- Sagan.
Portable Atheist- Christopher Hitchens.
Naked Lunch- Burroughs. Sex? Check. Drugs? Check. Total mindf***? Oh yes.
Books of Blood- Barker. Absolutely horrific, and mesmerizing.
The Great and Secret Show- Barker.
Infinite Jest- Wallace.
Old Twentieth- Haldeman. One of the most innovative sci-fi tales ever.
Fight Club-Chuck Paluhniuk.
Helter Skelter- Bugliosi About the Manson Family murders.
Andromeda Strain- Crichton.
Hunter Thompson- everything. The man was hilarious.
Philip K. Dick- everything. Ever see Bladerunner? It was inspired by one of his stories.
Last Exit to Brooklyn- Selby, Jr.
Post Office- Bukowski.
A Feast of Snakes- Harry Crews. Dirty gritty southern literature.
BIOS:
Benjamin Franklin- Walter Isaacson.
Einstein- Isaacson.
Secret Life of Houdini- William Kalush.
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt- Edmund Morris.
Leonardo- Serge Bramly.
Tesla: Man out of Time- Cheney. This man got the shaft from so many.
POLITICS:
The New Pearl Harbor- David Ray Griffin. Think you know everything about 9/11?
Ghost Wars- Stephen Coll. Who was Bin Laden?
Family of Secrets- Russ Baker.
JFK and the Unspeakable- James Douglass.
COMEDY:
Tenacity of the Cockroach- The Onion. Funny as hell interviews with pop culture icons including Conan O'Brien, Alice Cooper, Rick James, John Waters and Henry Rollins.
Braindroppings- George Carlin. One-liners and lists.
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