We have 17 more books that we believe everyone should read at least once in their lives. Keep reading to find out which books made our list!
If you haven’t seen the first list, we recommend you do so by clicking here before complaining about a book being left out. With that out of the way, we can focus on the books that were chosen. We read your recommendations as well as going back and seeing which ones we missed. You can see the full list below.
17 Books That Everyone Should Read At Least Once in Their Lives
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
- East of Eden by John Steinbeck
- Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
- Gulliver’s Travel by Jonathan Swift
- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick
- The Secret History by Donna Tartt
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank
- The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
- Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
- The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
- Watership Down by Richard Adams
- The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Books that Everyone Should Read
A book that was mentioned a lot in the comments was Catch-22. It may have slipped our minds but we agree that it should have been included on the first list. The same goes for The Count of Monte Cristo. That is an amazing novel that I recommend to everyone that enjoys great works of literature.
We included amazing novels such as Watership Down and Song of Solomon on this list. Many of these books are books you would read in school and for good reason. When else will these books come across your path again?
One novel that probably feels out of place would be Donna Tartt’s The Secret History. But once you read it, you will see why we included it on this list. In our opinion, it is a classic and any novel that spawns a new subgenre is worth reading.
Conclusion
That is all for our list of 17 novels that everyone should read at least once. That is a total of 40 books in total so far. What novels should we include in the next post? Let us know in the comments below!
Another sign this is generate by a bot – John Steinbeck wrote East of Eden, not Ernest Hemingway. And it’s Ernest, not Earnest. Or maybe you’re reading too much Oscar Wilde.
perhaps they meant The Garden of Eden by Hemingway, a better book in my opinion than the Steinbeck (though I think mist readers rate them the other way around)
One and one only: Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. Too often missed. Damned shame.
Or maybe a human is capable of making mistakes…Shocking, I know.
Gone with the Wind!! Nothing like the movie!!!
I would have liked if the book links were to used online bookstores or bookshop.org that helps support local bookstores. Amazon does not need the sales but local small business owners do.
It is Gulliver’s Travels; not Gulliver Travels.
Also, in just two short sentences the word “book” is used four times. No human who reads would do this. I believe it is AI.
None of these stupid lists include “A Confederacy of Dunces”, a Pulitzer Prize winner and a fabulous read
It’s a disgrace that this book is omitted, especially considering that the poor author was ignored during his lifetime. And yet trash like “Watership Down” and Steinbeck’s worse novel are singled out.
Add “Gulliver’s Travels” to the list.
“Travel” should be plural.
Yep can’t read an article with so many errors.
Glad others noticed the errors! Good grief!
Ditto. Sad to see such an error, Mr. Malaprop.
Only ONE book by an African-American author???!!!!!
I very much hope Mr. Ahaqir you will next mention Gibran Kahlil Gibran book “The Prophet”
As I mentioned to you earlier it is translated into 22 languages and is the most read book world wide after the Bible and the Qur’an.
Stockholm – Sweden.
Could this have been compiled by AI? When you use CHATGPT, you should always check the facts (and the spelling).
Do we have some books free to read
No, 1984?
Too English
A list with no reasons *why*; what a FAIL.
A list with North American writers and the odd Russian, a slightly biased bot
Atlas Shrugged is my all time favorite.
All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Western Nights Neues in the original German) should have been listed.
I would definitely add Caste, Sapeiens, and the Warmth of Other Suns
Thank you for including WATERSHIP DOWN on your list! It’s one of my favorite 20th Century British novels (along with Orwell’s 1984 and A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess). Kudos!
What most people need to read “Animal Farm”
Any list of novels everyone should read in their lifetime that doesn’t include Kurt Vonnegut is not worth reading or writing.
Henry miller
Can a pig eat bacon by carmine Gagootz
“The River Why,” by David James Duncan
I read this in HS, it still resonates today.
“That is a total of 40 books in total so far.” Come on!! “Total” twice in one short sentence? The bot should have its English improved.
I believe that your list is pretty good however I think you should add Robert Heinlein’s ” A stranger in a strange land” and Tolkien’s “The Hobbit”
Confederacy of Dunces.
Maybe not everyone but everyone who writes or reads these articles and comments. To those leaving comments, if you haven’t read this one do so. I am really not in your league in literature but that one is legitimate.