23 Books to Read Before You Die

There are thousands of books out there to read. Choosing which ones to read can be difficult. That is why we decided to curate a list of 23 books to read before you die. Keep reading to see which books made the list!

Before I dive into the list, I know that it is going to ruffle a lot of feathers. Unlike other lists, this one was entirely off of feelings. When making this list, I thought about which books to add, I considered the impact of the novel as well as if not reading the novel would change anything. You can see the full list below.

23 Books to Read Before You Die

• 1984 by George Orwell
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
• Beloved by Toni Morrison
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
• Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
• Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
• The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
• The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
• The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

1984 by George Orwell

A sci-fi novel that has risen to popularity in modern times is 1984 by George Orwell. When some ideas in this sci-fi and dystopian novel came true, people’s interest in the novel rose. This novel touches on various issues such as mass surveillance, a controlling regime, and disinformation.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Santiago has a dream about a treasure and isn’t sure whether he should give up everything he has and pursue this dream. He decides to sell everything he owns and journeys towards the place his dream told him to go. This leads him to a journey where he meets a bunch of people, finds himself and learns a beautiful lesson about life along the way. Read The Alchemist and find out for yourself why it is one of the best selling books of all time.

Beloved by Toni Morrison

A powerful novel that everyone should read is Beloved by Toni Morrison. It is a story of a former Kentucky slave that is haunted by her past life. The novel went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It is considered one of the best works of fiction and there is no other novel like it.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

One of my favorite novels of all time is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It tells a chilling story about a family that hides a Jewish man in Germany during World War II. The writing is incredible but what I love the most is using death as a narrator. If you haven’t read this timeless classic, then you are missing out.

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

A classic novel that readers see to either love or hate is The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. After revisiting this novel, I do believe it deserves the recognition it has gotten over the decades. There is a lot to take away and the novel is even more relevant in this day and age. I do think the novel hasn’t aged as gracefully as other classics but it still captures childhood innocence that we are all familiar with.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Like many readers, I first read To Kill a Mockingbird in high school and couldn’t put the novel down even if I wanted to. The story is told by the viewpoint of Jean Louise Finch and tells the story of Atticus Finch defending Tom Robinson, a black man who has been accused of raping a white woman in Maycomb, Alabama.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

One of my favorite classics of all time has to be The Count of Monte Cristo. It is an adventure novel unlike anything else. The book is entertaining and has held up well centuries later. Who doesn’t love a good revenge story? Even after a couple centuries, this novel is still considered one of the best works of literature.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Set in 1925 and told from Nick Carraway’s point of view, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is an American classic novel that captures the 1920s. The novel tells the story of Jay Gatsby, a millionaire with a mysterious past who wants to reunite with his former lover Daisy Buchanan.

Like many great novels, this one was inspired by true events based on a romance Fitzgerald has with a socialite as well as parties he attended in Long Island in 1922. The novel was considered a commercial failure, selling less than 20,000 copies and Gatsby considered himself a failure with nothing to be remembered for.

But that changed when his novel surged in popularity when the Council on Books in Wartime gave soldiers free copies. This led to his novel being re-examined by critics and scholars and his novel was this introduced to American high school curriculum and the mainstream media ina American.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

One of the most popular dystopian novels must be The Handmaid’s Tale. Some people may have read it in school while others read it for fun but either way, it is an impactful novel. Another classic dystopian novel that is up there is 1984. They both tackle serious issues and make us imagine the worst-case scenarios. 

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

One of my all-time favorite novels and series on the list has to be The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The writing is brilliant and the humor is timeless. The fate of planet Earth is at stake yet Adams has the reader laughing throughout the book. This novel changed the way I saw sci-fi novels and became a lifelong fan after reading the series.

Conclusion

That wraps up our list of the 23 books to read before you die. This list could easily have been much longer. However, making it short and to the point felt like a great starting point. Because we all know someone who loves books isn’t going to stop at 23 books.

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