Reading list
Everything that I truly enjoyed reading and would gladly recommend.
I don't read as many novels as I did in childhood, partly for want of time, but mostly because I've grown more opinionated: I tend to screen out low-stakes and low-impact books. As a result, many titles on this list are childen's books— which only enhances their quality, and makes this list all the more useful for those children who are most in need of a good book.
I'm also a huge fan of short stories. I like them much more than novels. A good short story is sharp, imaginitive; it leaves us room to fill in the gaps. It forces us to find our bearings in an unfamiliar world, if only for a few fleeting pages: brief enough to suspend us in awe and ignorant wonder. That's why I've included so many short stories on this list.
One star indicates "excellent," two stars indicate "should read," and three stars indicate "must read."
Nineteen-Eighty Four by George Orwell
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Name of this Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
In Catilinam by Cicero
Jabberwocky by Lewis Caroll
The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John C. Bogle
R.U.R. by Karel Čapek
The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason
The Royal Game by Stefan Zweig
Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang
White Noise by Don DeLillo
Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Lily B. on the Brink of Cool by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs
The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant
One Up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Pedestrian by Ray Bradbury
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe
A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin