What are some life-changing ancient books/epics everyone should read?
I doubt if these works will be life-changing; that’s a high, and frankly impossible, bar to set. But a few works from the classical period in the West that should be part of any educated person’s background would include:Homer, The Iliad and the Odyssey—the foundation of the epic tradition in the West.A sampling of the Greek drama—perhaps Aristophanes, The Frogs and Lysistrata; Aeschylus, the three plays in the Orestia; Sophocles, Oedipus Rex; Euripedes, The Bacchae, Medea, Electra, and Helen.Several dialogues of Plato—at least Symposium and Apology.The Epic Of Gilgamesh from Mesopotamian literature; The Story Of Sinuhe from Egyptian.Virgil, The Aeneid—the great Latin epic.Ovid, Metamorphoses—one of the great sources of Graeco-Roman myth.Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars.Catullus, Poems.There are classics of non-Western literature that could be added, like the Ramayana, the Confucian classics, and The Tale Of Genji. My background and focus are primarily in the Western tradition.
What are some of the best classic fiction books?
It is really difficult to create a list of 20 from among all great classics, and then there's always so much room for disagreement from one list to the next.In my opinion, however, these are the 20 classics you must read, and if and once you are done, simply select more works from authors on this list.01. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien02. Don Quixote de la Mancha - Cervantes03. To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee04. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens05. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte06. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen07. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky08. Moby Dick - Herman Melville09. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger10. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov11. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas12. As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner13. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens14. Call of the Wild and White Fang - Jack London15. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald16. Middlemarch - George Eliot17. Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle18. In Search of Lost Time - Marcel Proust19. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert20. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad