Serious Thoughts: 50 Books you Should Read Before you Die

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So, the other day I was on Facebook, you know, like your typical college student with three billion pages to read a night, and I found one of those list challenge where you go through a list of things and mark all the things on the list you've done. Anyway, I found one that was called '50 Books to Read Before You Die'. Anyway, I read a lot, so I thought it I would try it, but out of 50, I'd only read 19, and, while most of the books on the list are famous and well known and note-worthy, I don't think my life would be significantly different if I hadn't read Frankenstein. Which, by the way, was like the dullest book I've ever read.

I don't really like this whole idea of list of "necessary" books. It's hard to create a list of books that everyone should read before they die because, obviously, not everyone likes the same sort of thing. That's not to say that I don't think dark or boring books can be valuable. For example, Heart of Darkness was one of densest, darkest, most interesting books I ever read, but I probably wouldn't read it again. Like, that's not the sort of book you want to read when you're having a bad day.

I mean, if you only read 50 books in your life, they should be books that you enjoy and that stick with you in positive, meaningful sort of way. Like, sometimes, I get cravings for certain books, like 'hm, it's been two months since I've read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, I should probably remedy that situation'. And, when that happens, I end up re-reading the entire Harry Potter series and doing homework NEVER.

So, instead of making a list of books that you should read before you die, I'm going to go all English major on you and make a list of 50 of my favorite books.

  1. The Crucible by Arthur Miller
  2. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
  3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
  4. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling 
  5. The Cuckoo's Calling by J.K. Rowling
  6. Beowulf
  7. The Epic of Gilgamesh
  8. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis 
  9. The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis 
  10. Ivanhoe by Sir. Walter Scott
  11. Treasure Island by Robert Lewis Stevenson
  12. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman 
  13. Stardust by Neil Gaiman 
  14. East Wind: West Wind by Pearl S. Buck
  15. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 
  16. Persuasion by Jane Austen
  17. "Song of Songs"
  18. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Elliot
  19. The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
  20. The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
  21. Richard III by William Shakespeare
  22. King John by William Shakespeare
  23. Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
  24. Macbeth by William Shakespeare
  25. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
  26. The Oresteia by Euripides 
  27. Lysistrata by Aristophanes
  28. The Scarlett Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne
  29. The House of the Seven Gables by Nathanial Hawthorne
  30. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
  31. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien 
  32. Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
  33. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
  34. Electra by Euripides
  35. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
  36. Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
  37. The Fall of Arthur by J.R.R. Tolkien
  38. Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose
  39. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
  40. Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
  41. Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz
  42. "A Madman's Diary" by Lu Xun
  43. "TV People" by Haruki Murakami
  44. The Children of Odin by Padraic Colum
  45. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery  
  46. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens 
  47. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  48. Many Waters by Madeline L'Engle 
  49. An Acceptable Time by Madeline L'Engle
  50. Pavilion of Women by Pearl S. Buck
Just sayin' 

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