The world of literature is vast, and it can be overwhelming to decide which book to pick up next. While everyone’s reading preferences are different, there are certain books that everyone should read at least once in their lifetime. These books have stood the test of time and have had a significant impact on literature and society.
Here are the 100 best books you should read before you die:
1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
2. 1984 by George Orwell
3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
4. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
5. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
6. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
7. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
8. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
9. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
10. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
11. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
12. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
13. The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
14. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
15. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
16. The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer
17. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
18. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
19. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
20. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
21. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
22. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
23. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
24. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
25. Dracula by Bram Stoker
26. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
27. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
28. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
29. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
30. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
31. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
32. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
33. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
34. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
35. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
36. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
37. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
38. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
39. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
40. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
41. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
42. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
43. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
44. The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
45. The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
46. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
47. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
48. The Call of the Wild by Jack London
49. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
50. The Princess Bride by William Goldman
51. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
52. Watership Down by Richard Adams
53. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
54. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
55. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
56. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
57. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
58. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
59. The Giver by Lois Lowry
60. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
61. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
62. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
63. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
64. The Dark Tower series by Stephen King
65. Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
66. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
67. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
68. Beloved by Toni Morrison
69. The Color of Water by James McBride
70. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
71. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
72. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
73. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
74. The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
75. The Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer
76. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
77. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
78. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
79. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
80. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
81. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
82. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
83. Wild by Cheryl Strayed
84. Kinflicks by Lisa Alther
85. Another Country by James Baldwin
86. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
87. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
88. The Stranger by Albert Camus
89. Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
90. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
91. We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
92. The Trial by Franz Kafka
93. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
94. Animal Farm by George Orwell
95. Dubliners by James Joyce
96. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
97. Brave Story by Miyuki Miyabe
98. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
99. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
100. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
Reading is a great way to expand your knowledge and perspective. These 100 books are just a few of the many great books out there that you should read before you die. Whether you’re an avid reader or just starting, these books will challenge and entertain you while leaving a lasting impact on your life. Remember, the more you read, the more enriched your life will be.