Amazon’s 20 Books to Read in a Lifetime

There are tons of amazing to read but how do you choose a book to read? We decided to look at Amazon’s 20 books to read in a lifetime for recommendations. Keep reading to see which books you must read at least once!

The internet is filled with thousands of lists and I love seeing how different each list is. No list is the same and that is also true for Amazon’s lifetime list. And yes, we know that Amazon ultimately wants us to buy books but they have a well-respected book-centered team at Amazon.

This list is from a longer list of 100 books but we will be looking only at the first 20 books listed by Amazon. There is no explanation as to how Amazon chose these books. But we can speculate that it is based on how iconic and influential the books are.

Any list that has 1984 and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is going to be unique and turn some heads. They are definitely novels that everyone should read in their lifetime. You can see the full list below!

Amazon’s 20 Books to Read in a Lifetime

• 1984 by George Orwell
• Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
• A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
• Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
• The Bad Beginning: Or, Orphans! (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 1) by Lemony Snicket,
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
• Selected Stories 1968-1994 by Alice Munro
• Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
• Charlotte’s Web by E. B White 
• Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese 
• Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney 
• Dune by Frank Herbert 
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury 
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream by Hunter S. Thompson (Author), Ralph Steadman (Illustrator)
• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn 
• Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown 
• Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

1984

The first novel on the list is the clsassic sci-fi novel  1984 by George Orwell. When some ideas in this sci-fi and dystopian novel came true, people’s interest in the novel rose. The novel touches on issues such as mass surveillance, a controlling regime, and disinformation. Orwell wrote the novel as a warning that was turned out to be very accurate.

Dune

A novel that jumps out from the sci-fi genre has to be Dune by Frank Herbert. Whether or not you have read much sci-fi books, there is a good chance that you heard about this novel. It is a sci-fi novel that has amazing world building and has resonated with many readers. Many critics consider this the best sci-fi book ever written.

Fahrenheit 451 

Guy Montag’s job is to destroy books and burn down the houses that hide them. That is his life and he doesn’t question it until one day when his young neighbor tells him of a time when people didn’t fear books. Guy starts to have doubts and questions everything he has come to believe as facts.

Few novels capture the mass hysteria of fear that people have of books “poisoning” people’s mind like Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury. He wrote this book as a warning much like Orwell and we are seeing firsthand today as book bannings have increased exponentially over the past couple of years. These novels derive from a place of fear and a warning to never let this become reality.

Conclusion

That’s all for Amazon’s 20 books to read in a lifetime list. There are some amazing books on this list and it is hard to argue with Amazon’s choices. Some picks may not be your typical picks but they are important works of literature. What did you think of this list? Let us know in the comments below!

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