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Or re-read. Some of these may be titles you read under
duress in high school, but now you're older, and hope to be
more mature, and, well, it's unrequired. These are novels to
which readers will return for a long time.
Penguin Classics
Penguin has mined its huge store of classic reprints
for recommendations. Guides for reading groups have synopsis
and discussion questions.
The Best English-Language Fiction of the Twentieth
Century
A Composite List and Ranking by Brian Kunde
Lots of people have tried listing the best novels of
the century. Here's an attempt to reconcile 4 of those lists
into a master list. It's also an interesting comparison of
what different groups voted for. The four basic lists were
from
Modern
Library, (a publisher of classic works), a poll of
librarians,
booksellers,
and
students
of publishing.
The books below offer a more comprehensive view
of what's worth reading. Check our catalog for the location.
Search it for keyword "best books" for more
suggestions.
1001 Books You Must Read Before You
Die
Z 1035 A1 A15 2006
Bloomsbury Good Reading Guide
2006 e-book, earlier editions
PN3326 .B56 2003
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Prentice Hall Good Reading Guide
PN3353Z .M46 1988
- Clever use of diagrams of take you to related books,
e.g. Golding's Lord of the Flies leads to books on themes
"surviving", "evil and children", "the devil", and "the
wilderness".
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The List of Books
Z 1035 R24 1981
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About 3000 titles, fiction and
nonfiction, coded with symbols like "minor masterpiece",
"infuriating, possibly illuminating".
-
The Well-educated Mind; a Guide to the
Classical Education You Never Had / Susan Wise
Bauer.
Z 1003 B324 2003
Discusses how to read fiction, memoirs,
history, drama and poetry followed by annotations of
recommended reading in that genre.
An English Library
Z 1035 E59 1990
Literature in all its forms: fiction, poetry,
essays, and on to biography, philosophy and history.
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A Reader's Guide to 20th Century Writers
PR 471 R43 1996
- Concise descriptions of English language authors and
their major works. Opinionated enough to be useful.
-
The Readers Adviser; a Layman's Guide to
Literature
Z 1035 B7 1994
- A 3 volume set on standard authors in all fields.
Particularly useful to identify and compare
editions--different translators of Homer, say.
-
Reader's Catalog; an annotated list of
over 40,000 of the best books Z
1035 R263 1997
- An attempt to replicate a good bookstore in one volume.
The Z 1035 area on Level One has a broader selection of
similar books, including several which suggest systematic
paths through the classics.
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