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Updated by Gretta Wallace on Jun 19, 2014
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Book List

These are all the books I'd like to read in my lifetime.

1

Plato - The Republic

Plato - The Republic

Plato’s masterpiece is not only the foundation-stone of Western philosophy, but also a stunning work of literature in which Plato shows his full range as a writer. The Republic is presented as a dialogue between Socrates and a series of interlocutors, as they attempt to devise the perfect state.

2

Jean-Paul Sartre - The Age of Reason

Jean-Paul Sartre - The Age of Reason

Mathieu Delarue is a philosophy professor who needs to procure an abortion for his mistress. Over the course of the novel, we follow him as he is forced to make tough decisions and take a hard look at himself and his life. Sartre shows us, slowly, painfully, how freedom suffocates Mathieu – lacking direction, the multitude of choices available to him is also his downfall.

3

Aldous Huxley - Brave New World

Aldous Huxley - Brave New World

Huxley’s brilliant dystopian novel is a dire warning about societies which allow themselves to be consumed by the seeking of pleasure.

4

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels - The Communist Manifesto

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels - The Communist Manifesto

Written by the famous Karl Marx and his comrade Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto is a blueprint for a new type of society without the rampant exploitation that Marx saw in the Europe of his day

5

George Orwell - 1984

George Orwell - 1984

It’s widely acclaimed for its haunting vision of an all-knowing government which uses pervasive, 24/7 surveillance tactics to manipulate all citizens of the populace.

6

Boris Pasternak: - Dr. Zhivago

Boris Pasternak: - Dr. Zhivago

Romantic young doctor’s idealism is trampled by the atrocities of the Russian Revolution.

7

Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita

Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita

Scholar’s sexual obsession with a prepubescent "nymphet" is complicated by her mother’s passion for him.

8

JD Salinger - The Catcher in the Rye

JD Salinger - The Catcher in the Rye

Holden Caulfield has been synonymous with "cynical adolescent." Holden narrates the story of a couple of days in his sixteen-year-old life, just after he's been expelled from prep school, in a slang that sounds edgy even today and keeps this novel on banned book lists.

9

Victor Hugo - Les Miserables

Victor Hugo - Les Miserables

An ex-convict struggles to become a force for good, but it ends badly.

10

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Monomaniacal Captain Ahab seeks vengeance on the white whale that ate his leg.

11

Cormac McCarthy - The Road

Cormac McCarthy - The Road

A story of love from a father to his son. I dare you to read it and not shed a tear at the end.

12

William Golding - Lord of the Flies

William Golding - Lord of the Flies

A fascinating insight into human nature and society through the eyes of children.