Karen's Reading Project

I came across an interesting bibliography a couple of years ago while at a library book sale, entitled "Lifetime Reading Plan."  It intrigued me, so I snapped it up, and it basically contains a list of the "greatest works" written that are available in the English language.  I also borrowed "Great Books of the Christian Tradition" from our library, and used both lists to come up with the list below.

I am planning on attacking this list (one book at a time!), partly for fun and personal enrichment, but partly to prepare myself as a teacher to teach the children how to defend the truth of what they believe.  It is important to know what foolishness we are up against in the world, so I am reading the great books containing truth as well as those containing the folly of man.

Here's a quote from the "Lifetime Reading Plan" that sums up where I'm coming from . . . "The Bible of course is more important than any book on the list, influencing constantly and deeply the lives of all Westerners, including those . . . who claim to be atheists."

Books marked with one asterisk indicate either Christian classics or great books of the Christian tradition.  Books marked with two asterisks indicate non-Christian books or other books which have shaped our world.  Some of the Christian classics can be found online here.

As I read each book, I will comment briefly on the bits that I liked . . .

**

1984

Orwell

George

*

Abandonment to Divine Providence

deCaussade

Jean Paul

*

Abolition of Man

Lewis

C. S.

*

Absolute Truths

Howatch

Susan

**

Adventures of Augie March

Bellow

Saul

**

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Twain

Mark

**

Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Twain

Mark

**

Aeneid

Virgil

*

Aids to Reflection

Coleridge

Samuel Taylor

**

Alice in Wonderland

Carroll

Lewis

**

All Quiet on the Western Front

Remarque

Erich Maria

*

American Hour

Guiness

Os

**

Animal Farm

Orwell

George

*

Anna Karenina

Tolstoy

Leo

**

Antigone

Sophocles

*

Apologia Pro Vita Sua

Newman

John Henry

**

Arms and the Man

Shaw

George Bernard

**

As I Lay Dying

Faulkner

William

*

Ascent of Mt. Carmel

John of the Cross

 

**

Ascent of Mt. Ventoux

Petrarch

 

*

Ash Wednesday

Eliot

T. S.

*

At the Back of the North Wind

MacDonald

George

*

Attack Upon Christendom

Kierkegaard

Soren

**

Autobiography

Mill

John Stuart

**

Bacchae

Euripides

*

Barchester Towers

Trollope

Anthony

**

Being and Nothingness

Sartre

Jean-Paul

**

Beowulf

**

Beyond Good and Evil

Nietzsche

Friedrich

**

Billy Budd

Melville

Herman

**

Birds

Aristophanes

*

Body

Colson

Charles

*

Bondage of the Will

Luther

Martin

*

Book of Bebb

Buechner

Frederick

*

Book of the Dun Cow

Wangerin

Walter

*

Born Again

Colson

Charles

**

Brave New World

Huxley

Aldous

*

Bread and Wine

Silone

Ignazio

*

Brideshead Revisited

Waugh

Evelyn

**

Brief History of Time

Hawking

Stephen

*

Brother to a Dragonfly

Campbell

Will

**

Brothers K

Duncan

David James

*

Brothers Karamazov

Dostoyevsky

Fyodor

**

Call of the Wild

London

Jack

*

Cancer Ward

Solzhenitsyn

Alexander

**

Candide

Voltaire

 

*

Canterbury Tales

Chaucer

Geoffrey

**

Capital

Marx

Karl

**

Castle

Kafka

Franz

**

Catch 22

Heller

Joseph

**

Catcher in the Rye

Salinger

J. D.

**

Cat's Cradle

Vonnegut

Kurt

**

Caucassian Chalk Circle

Brecht

Bertolt

*

Celebration of Discipline

Foster

Richard

*

Centuries of Meditations

Traherne

Thomas

**

Cherry Orchard

Chekhov

Anton

*

Christ and Culture

Niebuhr

H. Richard

*

Christian Letters to a Post-Christian World

Sayers

Dorothy L.

*

Christian Perfection

Fenelon

Francis

*

Christianity and Liberalism

Machen

John Gresham

*

Christian's Secret of a Happy Life

Smith

Hannah Whitall

**

Christmas Carol

Dickens

Charles

*

Chronicles of Narnia

Lewis

C. S.

*

Church Dogmatics

Barth

Karl

*

Circle of Quiet

L'Engle

Madeleine

*

City of God

Augustine

 

**

Civil Disobedience

Thoreau

Henry David

**

Civilization and Its Discontents

Freud

Sigmund

*

Cloud of Unknowing

   

**

Clouds

Aristophanes

*

Cocktail Party

Eliot

T. S.

**

Collected Works of Edgar Allen Poe [Short Stories]

Poe

Edgar Allan

**

Communist Manifesto

Marx

Karl

**

Complete Essays of Montaigne

Montaigne

Michel Eyquem de

*

Complete Fairy Tales of George MacDonald

MacDonald

George

**

Complete Poems of Robert Frost

Frost

Robert

**

Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley

Shelley

Percy Bysshe

**

Complete Poetry of John Keats

Keats

John

*

Confessions

Augustine

 

**

Confessions

Rousseau

Jean Jacques

*

Cost of Discipleship

Bonhoeffer

Dietrich

*

Courage to Be

Tillich

Paul

*

Creed or Chaos

Sayers

Dorothy L.

*

Crime and Punishment

Dostoyevsky

Fyodor

**

Critique of Pure Reason

Kant

Immanuel

**

Daisy Miller

James

Henry

*

Dark Night of the Soul

John of the Cross

 

**

David Copperfield

Dickens

Charles

*

Dead Souls

Gogol

Nikolai

**

Death in Venice

Mann

Thomas

**

Death of a Salesman

Miller

Arthur

*

Death of Ivan Ilyich

Tolstoy

Leo

**

Decameron

Boccaccio

Giovanni

*

Declaration of Sentiments

Arminius

Jacobus

**

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Gibbon

Edward

**

Democracy and Education

Dewey

John

**

Democracy in America

Tocqueville

Alexis de

*

Descent Into Hell

Williams

Charles

**

Descent of Man

Darwin

Charles

*

Descent of the Dove

Williams

Charles

*

Diary

Brainerd

David

*

Diary of a Country Priest

Bernanos

Georges

**

Discourse on Method

Descartes

Rene

*

Divine Comedy

Alighieri

Dante

*

Divine Milieu

Teilhard de Chardin

Pierre

*

Doctor Zhivago

Pasternak

Boris

*

Does God Exist?

Kung

Hans

**

Doll's House

Ibsen

Henrik

**

Don Quixote

Cervantes

Miguel de

**

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Stevenson

Robert Louis

**

Dream Tigers

Borges

Jorge Luis

*

Dust of Death

Guiness

Os

*

Ecclesiastical History

Eusebius

 

**

Education of Henry Adams

Adams

Henry

*

Either / Or

Kierkegaard

Soren

**

Emma

Austen

Jane

*

End of Christendom

Muggeridge

Malcolm

*

End of the Affair

Greene

Graham

**

Endgame

Beckett

Samuel

**

Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

Hume

David

**

Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Locke

John

**

Essays

Bacon

Francis

**

Essays

Emerson

Ralph Waldo

**

Ethics

Spinoza

Benedict de

*

Everlasting Man

Chesterton

G. K.

*

Everything That Rises Must Converge

O'Connor

Flannery

*

Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ

Guyon

Madame Jeanne

*

Family Reunion

Eliot

T. S.

**

Far From the Madding Crowd

Hardy

Thomas

**

Fathers and Sons

Turgenev

Ivan

**

Faust

Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von

*

Fear and Trembling

Kierkegaard

Soren

**

Federalist Papers

Madison

James & others

*

Fire of Love (trans. M. L. del Mastro)

Rolle

Richard

*

First Circle

Solzhenitsyn

Alexander

**

Five Characters in Search of an Author

Pirandello

Luigi

**

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Hemingway

Ernest

*

Four Quartets

Eliot

T. S.

**

Frankenstein

Shelley

Mary

*

Freedom of the Christian

Luther

Martin

**

Frogs

Aristophanes

 

**

Gargantua and Pantagruel

Rabelais

Francois

**

Genealogy of Morals

Nietzsche

Friedrich

*

Genesee Diary

Nouwen

Henri

**

Gimpel the Fool

Singer

Isaac Bashevis

*

Glamorous Powers

Howatch

Susan

**

Glass Menagerie

Williams

Tennessee

*

Glittering Images

Howatch

Susan

*

God Who Is There

Schaeffer

Francis

*

God, Revelation and Authority

Henry

Carl F. H.

*

Godric

Buechner

Frederick

*

Good Man is Hard to Find

O'Connor

Flannery

**

Grapes of Wrath

Steinbeck

John

**

Gravity's Rainbow

Pynchon

Thomas

*

Great Divorce

Lewis

C. S.

**

Great Gatsby

Fitzgerald

F. Scott

*

Gulag Archipelago

Solzhenitsyn

Alexander

*

Gulliver's Travels

Swift

Jonathan

*

Hamlet

Shakespeare

William

*

Handful of Dust

Waugh

Evelyn

**

Hard Times

Dickens

Charles

**

Heart of Darkness

Conrad

Joseph

*

Heart of the Matter

Greene

Graham

**

Heartbreak House

Shaw

George Bernard

*

Heaven: the Heart's Deepest Longing

Kreeft

Peter

**

Hedda Gabler

Ibsen

Henrik

*

Henry IV, parts 1 and 2

Shakespeare

William

**

Herzog

Bellow

Saul

*

Hobbit

Tolkien

J. R. R.

*

How Should We Then Live?

Schaeffer

Francis

**

Humboldt's Gift

Bellow

Saul

**

I and Thou

Buber

Martin

**

Iceman Cometh

O'Neill

Eugene

*

Idiot

Dostoyevsky

Fyodor

*

If

Carmichael

Amy

**

Iliad (trans. Richmond Lattimore)

Homer

 

**

Imaginary Invalid (trans. Richard Wilbur)

Moliere

*

Imitation of Christ

Kempis

Thomas a

**

Importance of Being Earnest

Wilde

Oscar

* Incredulity of Father Brown Chesterton G. K.

*

In His Steps

Sheldon

Charles

* Innocence of Father Brown Chesterton G. K.

*

Institutes of the Christian Religion

Calvin

John

*

Interior Castle

Teresa of Avila

 

**

Interpretation of Dreams

Freud

Sigmund

*

Introduction to the Devout Life

Sales

Francis de

**

Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis

Freud

Sigmund

**

Invisible Man

Ellison

Ralph

**

Jane Eyre

Bronte

Charlotte

*

Jesus Christ and Mythology

Bultmann

Rudolf

*

Jesus Rediscovered

Muggeridge

Malcolm

*

John Ploughman's Talks

Spurgeon

Charles

** Jo's Boys Alcott Louisa May

*

Journal

Fox

George

*

Journal

Wesley

John

*

King Lear

Shakespeare

William

*

Kingdoms in Conflict

Colson

Charles

*

La Vita Nuova

Alighieri

Dante

**

Labyrinths

Borges

Jorge Luis

**

Lady Windermere's Fan

Wilde

Oscar

**

Last Dialogues of Socrates

Plato

 

*

Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic

Niebuhr

Reinhold

**

Leaves of Grass

Whitman

Walt

*

Lectures on Revivals of Religion

Finney

Charles

**

Les fleurs du mal (Flowers of Evil)

Baudelaire

Charles

**

Les Miserables

Hugo

Victor

*

Letters and Papers from Prison

Bonhoeffer

Dietrich

*

Letters of Abelard and Heloise

Abelard

Peter

**

Letters to a Young Poet

Rilke

Rainer Maria

**

Leviathan

Hobbes

Thomas

**

Life of Samuel Johnson

Boswell

James

*

Life of St. Antony

Athanasius

 

*

Life Together

Bonhoeffer

Dietrich

*

Lilith

MacDonald

George

*

Little Flowers of St. Francis

Francis of Assisi

 
** Little Men Alcott Louisa May
** Little Women Alcott Louisa May

**

Long Day's Journey Into Night

O'Neill

Eugene

**

Lord of the Flies

Golding

William

*

Lord of the Rings

Tolkien

J. R. R.

*

Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book

Percy

Walker

**

Love in the Time of Cholera

Garcia Marquez

Gabriel

**

Lysistrata

Aristophanes

 

*

Macbeth

Shakespeare

William

**

Madame Bovary

Flaubert

Gustave

**

Magic Mountain

Mann

Thomas

**

Major Barbara

Shaw

George Bernard

**

Man and Superman

Shaw

George Bernard

*

Man Born to Be King

Sayers

Dorothy L.

*

Man Who Was Thursday

Chesterton

G. K.

**

Man's Search for Meaning

Frankl

Viktor

*

Many Waters

L'Engle

Madeleine

**

Master Builder

Ibsen

Henrik

**

Meaning of Relativity

Einstein

Albert

**

Meditations

Aurelius

Antoninus Marcus

*

Merchant of Venice

Shakespeare

William

*

Mere Christianity

Lewis

C. S.

**

Metamorphosis

Kafka

Franz

**

Middlemarch

Eliot

George

*

Mind of the Maker

Sayers

Dorothy L.

**

Misanthrope (trans. Richard Wilbur)

Moliere

**

Moby Dick

Melville

Herman

**

Modern Man in Search of a Soul

Jung

Carl

*

Modern Times

Johnson

Paul

*

Monoloium

Anselm of Canterbury

 

*

Monsignor Quixote

Greene

Graham

**

Mont St. Michel and Chartres

Adams

Henry

*

Moral Man and Immoral Society

Niebuhr

Reinhold

**

Mother Courage and Her Children

Brecht

Bertolt

*

Moviegoer

Percy

Walker

**

Mr. Sammler's Planet

Bellow

Saul

**

Mrs. Dalloway

Woolf

Virginia

*

Murder in the Cathedral

Eliot

T. S.

*

My Confession

Tolstoy

Leo

*

My Utmost for His Highest

Chambers

Oswald

*

Mystery and Manners

O'Connor

Flannery

*

Mystery of Being

Marcel

Gabriel

*

Mystical Paths

Howatch

Susan

*

Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church

Lossky

Vladimir

*

Mysticism

Underhill

Evelyn

**

Myth of Sisyphus

Camus

Albert

**

Narcissus and Goldmund

Hesse

Hermann

*

Nature and Destiny of Man

Niebuhr

Reinhold

**

Nausea

Sartre

Jean-Paul

**

New Atlantis

Bacon

Francis

*

New Seeds of Contemplation

Merton

Thomas

**

Nicomachean Ethics

Aristotle

 

**

No Exit

Sartre

Jean-Paul

*

Nobel Lecture

Solzhenitsyn

Alexander

**

Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci

da Vinci

Leonardo

**

Odyssey (trans. Robert Fitzgerald)

Homer

 

**

Oedipus the King

Sophocles

 

**

Old Man and the Sea

Hemingway

Ernest

*

On Being a Christian

Kung

Hans

**

On Liberty

Mill

John Stuart

*

On Religion: Speeches to Its Cultured Despisers

Schleiermacher

Friedrich

*

On the Incarnation

Athanasius

 

*

On the Love of God

Bernard of Clairvaux

 

**

On the Nature of Things

Lucretius

 

*

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Solzhenitsyn

Alexander

**

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Garcia Marquez

Gabriel

**

Orestia (trans. Richmond Lattimore)

Aeschylus

**

Origin of Species

Darwin

Charles

*

Orthodoxy

Chesterton

G. K.

*

Othello

Shakespeare

William

**

Our Town

Wilder

Thornton

*

Out of the Silent Planet

Lewis

C. S.

*

Paradise Lost

Milton

John

**

Passage to India

Forster

E. M.

**

Penitent

Singer

Isaac Bashevis

*

Pensees

Pascal

Blaise

**

Pere Goirot

Balzac

Honore

*

Perelandra

Lewis

C. S.

**

Phenomenology of Spirit

Hegel

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich

*

Phenomenon of Man

Teilhard de Chardin

Pierre

**

Philoctetes

Sophocles

 

*

Pia Desideria

Spener

Phillip Jakob

**

Pickwick Papers

Dickens

Charles

*

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Dillard

Annie

*

Pilgrim's Progress

Bunyan

John

*

Place of the Lion

Williams

Charles

**

Plague

Camus

Albert

*

Poems

Auden

W. H.

*

Poems

Coleridge

Samuel Taylor

**

Poems

Dickenson

Emily

*

Poems

Donne

John

*

Poems

Herbert

George

*

Poems

Hopkins

Gerard Manly

*

Poems

Thompson

Francis

**

Poems

Yeats

William Butler

**

Poetical Works

Byron

Lord (George Gordon)

*

Poetical Works of John Milton

Milton

John

*

Poetical Works of Robert Browning

Browning

Robert

**

Poetics

Aristotle

 

**

Portrait of a Lady

James

Henry

**

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Joyce

James

**

Positive Philosophy

Comte

Auguste

*

Power and the Glory

Greene

Graham

*

Practice of the Presence of God

Brother Lawrence

 

*

Prayer and Modern Man

Ellul

Jacques

**

Prayer for Owen Meany

Irving

John

*

Prayer: the Heart's True Home

Foster

Richard

*

Presence of the Kingdom

Ellul

Jacques

**

Pride and Prejudice

Austen

Jane

**

Prince

Machiavelli

Niccolo

**

Principles of Psychology

James

William

*

Private Devotions

Andrewes

Lancelot

**

Prometheus Bound

Aeschylus

 

**

Prose Edda

Sturluson

Snorri

*

Proslogium

Anselm of Canterbury

 

**

Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

Weber

Max

*

Pursuit of God

Tozer

A. W.

**

Rabbit, Run

Updike

John

*

Ragman and Other Cries of Faith

Wangerin

Walter

**

Red and the Black

Stendhal

 

**

Red Badge of Courage

Crane

Stephen

**

Remembrance of Things Past

Proust

Marcel

**

Republic

Plato

 

*

Revelations of Divine Love

Juliana of Norwich

 

**

Rights of Man

Paine

Thomas

**

River Why

Duncan

David James

*

Robinson Crusoe

Defoe

Daniel

*

Rock

Eliot

T. S.

*

Romeo and Juliet

Shakespeare

William

*

Rule of St. Benedict

Benedict

 

**

Saint Joan

Shaw

George Bernard

*

Saints' Everlasting Rest

Baxter

Richard

* Scandal of Father Brown Chesterton G. K.

*

Scandalous Risks

Howatch

Susan

**

Scarlet Letter

Hawthorne

Nathaniel

**

School for Wives (trans. Richard Wilbur)

Moliere

*

Screwtape Letters

Lewis

C. S.

**

Seagull

Chekhov

Anton

*

Second Coming

Percy

Walker

* Secret of Father Brown Chesterton G. K.

**

Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke

Rilke

Rainer Maria

*

Selections from his sermons

Donne

John

*

Serious Call to the Devout and Holy Life

Law

William

*

Sermons

Chrysostom

John

**

Sermons

Emerson

Ralph Waldo

*

Sermons

Spurgeon

Charles

*

Sermons on the Song of Songs

Bernard of Clairvaux

 

*

Seven Storey Mountain

Merton

Thomas

*

Severe Mercy

Vanauken

Sheldon

*

Short Stories

Gogol

Nikolai

*

Short Stories

Tolstoy

Leo

*

Sickness Unto Death

Kierkegaard

Soren

**

Siddhartha

Hesse

Hermann

*

Silence

Endo

Shusaku

**

Six Enneads

Plotinus

 

**

Slaughterhouse Five

Vonnegut

Kurt

**

Social Contract

Rousseau

Jean Jacques

*

Something Beautiful for God

Muggeridge

Malcolm

*

Songs of Experience

Blake

William

*

Songs of Innocence

Blake

William

**

Sonnets

Petrarch

 

**

Sons and Lovers

Lawrence

D. H.

**

Sorrows of the Young Werther

Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von

**

Sound and the Fury

Faulkner

William

*

Spirit of the Disciplines

Willard

Dallas

*

Spiritual Dialogue

Catherine of Sienna

 

*

Spiritual Exercises

Ignatius of Loyola

 

**

Steppenwolf

Hesse

Hermann

*

Story of a Soul

Therese

de Lisieux, St.

**

Stranger

Camus

Albert

**

Streetcar Named Desire

Williams

Tennessee

*

Strength to Love

King

Martin Luther

**

Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Kuhn

Thomas S.

**

Subjection of Women

Mill

John Stuart

*

Summa Theologica

Aquinas

Thomas

**

Sun Also Rises

Hemingway

Ernest

*

Swiftly Tilting Planet

L'Engle

Madeleine

**

Symposium

Plato

 

*

Table Talk

Luther

Martin

**

Tale of Two Cities

Dickens

Charles

**

Tartuffe (trans. Richard Wilbur)

Moliere

 

*

Teaching a Stone to Talk

Dillard

Annie

*

Technological Society

Ellul

Jacques

*

Telling the Truth: the Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy Tale

Buechner

Frederick

**

Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Hardy

Thomas

*

Testament of Devotion

Kelly

Thomas

*

Thanatos Syndrome

Percy

Walker

*

That Hideous Strength

Lewis

C. S.

**

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hurston

Zora Neal

*

Theological Ethics

Thielicke

Helmut

*

Theology of Liberation

Gutierrez

Gustavo

*

Therese Desqueyroux

Mauriac

Francois

*

Thomas Wingfold, Curate

MacDonald

George

*

Thoughts in Solitude

Merton

Thomas

*

Through Gates of Splendour

Elliot

Elisabeth

**

Thurber Carnival

Thurber

James

**

Thus Spake Zarathustra

Nietzsche

Friedrich

*

Till We Have Faces

Lewis

C. S.

**

To the Lighthouse

Woolf

Virginia

**

Tom Jones

Fielding

Henry

*

Training in Christianity

Kierkegaard

Soren

*

Treatise on Religious Affections

Edwards

Jonathan

**

Trial

Kafka

Franz

**

Tristram Shandy

Sterne

Laurence

**

Trojan Women

Euripides

 

*

True Humanism

Maritain

Jacques

**

Turn of the Screw

James

Henry

*

Ultimate Prizes

Howatch

Susan

**

Ulysses

Joyce

James

*

Underground Man

Dostoevski

Fyodor

**

Varieties of Religious Experiences

James

William

*

Vipers Tangle

Mauriac

Francois

*

Waiting Father

Thielicke

Helmut

*

Waiting for God

Weil

Simone

**

Waiting for Godot

Beckett

Samuel

**

Walden

Thoreau

Henry David

*

War and Peace

Tolstoy

Leo

*

Warden

Trollope

Anthony

*

Waste Land

Eliot

T. S.

*

Way of a Pilgrim

anon. Russian monk

 

*

Way of Perfection

Teresa of Avila

 

*

Way of the Heart

Nouwen

Henri

**

Wealth of Nations

Smith

Adam

*

Weight of Glory and Other Essays

Lewis

C. S.

**

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Albee

Edward

**

Wild Duck

Ibsen

Henrik

*

Wind in the Door

L'Engle

Madeleine

* Wisdom of Father Brown Chesterton G. K.

*

Wise Blood

O'Connor

Flannery

**

Women in Love

Lawrence

D. H.

*

Word of God and the Word of Man

Barth

Karl

**

Wordsworth: Poems

Wordsworth

William

*

Wrinkle in Time

L'Engle

Madeleine

*

Writing Life

Dillard

Annie

**

Wuthering Heights

Bronte

Emily

Don't disturb me, this book is *really* good!