Home More Recommendations

  • Douglas Adams

    • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Series

  • Richard Adams

    • Watership Down

  • Isaac Asimov

    • I, Robot

    • Foundation

  • Jane Austen

    • Pride and Prejudice

  • Mary Beard

    • SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome

  • Alison Bechdel

    • Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

  • Octavia E. Butler

    • Kindred

  • Arthur C. Clarke

    • 2001: A Space Odyssey

  • Wilkie Collins

    • The Moonstone

      One of the first mystery novels in history, and also my absolute favorite of the genre.

  • Umberto Eco

    • The Name of the Rose

  • Frank Herbert

    • Dune

      First in a series. I didn't get past number three. But this one is genius.

  • S.E. Hinton

    • The Outsiders

  • Peter Irons

    • A People's History of the Supreme Court

  • Norton Juster

    • The Phantom Tollbooth

  • E.L. Konigsburg

    • From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

    • The View from Saturday

  • Madeleine L'Engle

    • A Wrinkle in Time Trilogy

      There are actually more in the series than the first three, but I prefer to pretend it's a trilogy.

  • Ursula K. Le Guin

    • The Earthsea Cycle

      Some of the best fantasy I've every read. One and three are my favorites, but they're all worth reading.

    • The Wave in the Mind

  • C.S. Lewis

    • The Chronicles of Narnia

    • Till We Have Faces

      I don't know why this book isn't better known. It's easily one of the best things Lewis ever wrote.

    • The Space Trilogy

    • Surprised by Joy

  • Lois Lowry

    • The Giver Series

    • A Summer to Die

  • George MacDonald

    • At the Back of the North Wind

  • Scott McCloud

    • Understanding Comics

      A comic book about comics as an artistic medium. Even (or especially) if you're not into comics, it's a fascinating and mind-expanding read.

  • Arthur Miller

    • The Crucible

  • Alan Moore

    • Watchmen

  • Robert C. O'Brien

    • Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

  • Flannery O'Connor

    • Mystery and Manners

  • Nicholas Ostler

    • Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World

      I learned so much more about world history from this than from any textbook.

    • Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin

  • Katherine Paterson

    • Bridge to Terabithia

  • Chaim Potok

    • The Chosen

  • Ayn Rand

    Yeah, I know. But really, these ones are genuinely worth reading. But please feel free to skip Atlas Shrugged.

    • The Fountainhead

    • Anthem

  • Mary Renault

    Mostly historical fiction set in ancient Greece. I haven't read everything yet, but what I have read has been consistently excellent.

    • The Theseus Series

    • The Alexander the Great Trilogy

      Number three is more of an epilogue than a standalone story. It's good, but not essential.

    • The Last of the Wine

  • J.K. Rowling

    • The Harry Potter Series

  • Carl Sagan

    • Cosmos

  • Art Spiegelman

    • Maus

      World War II and the holocaust as told by the author's father, in the form of a comic book where all the characters are anthropomorphic animals. It sounds weird, but it works.

  • J.R.R. Tolkien

    • The Hobbit

    • The Lord of the Rings

    • The Silmarillion

      Often gets lumped in with the supplementary materials, but it really deserves better than that. Sometimes I even think it's my favorite of Tolkien's.

  • Bill Watterson

    • Calvin and Hobbes

  • Andy Weir

    • The Martian