1000 books to read before you die
Desert Solitaire
-Edward Abbey (1927–1989)
Flatland
-Edwin A. Abbott (1838–1926)
My Dog Tulip
-J. R. Ackerley (1896–1967)
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
-Douglas Adams (1952–2001)
The Education of Henry Adams
-Henry Adams (1838–1918)
Watership Down
-ichard Adams (1920–2016)
Half of a Yellow Sun
-Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977)
The Oresteia
-Aeschylus (ca. 524 bc –ca. 456 bc )
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
-James Agee (1909–1955) and Walker Evans (1903–1975)
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
-Edward Albee (1928–2016)
Little Women
-Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
-Sherman Alexie (born 1966)
Voices from Chernobyl
'Chronicle of a Nuclear Disaster—and History of the Soul'
-Svetlana Alexievich (born 1948)
The House of the Spirits
'A Hidden History of Love, Passion,and Politics'
-Isabel Allende (born 1942)
Skellig
'A Modern Fairy Tale'
-David Almond (born 1951)
A Coffin for Dimitrios
'An Intricate Puzzle from a Pioneer of the Modern Suspense Novel'
-Eric Ambler (1909–1998)
Lucky Jim
'A Comic Storm in the Groves of Academe'
-Kingsley Amis (1922–1995)
Fairy Tales
'Once Upon a Time, and Again and Again'
-Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875)
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
'The Radiant First Chapter of an Incomparable Life'
-Maya Angelou (1928–2014)
The Arabian Nights
'The Enchantment of Storytelling'
The Clouds
'The World’s Oldest Comic'
-Aristophanes (ca. 446 bc –ca. 386 bc )
Nicomachean Ethics
'How Do We Live Well?'
Aristotle (384 bc –322 bc )
Old Herbaceous
'Goodbye, Mr. Chips in a Country House Garden'
Reginald Arkell (1882–1959)
Study Is Hard Work
'How to Learn'
William H. Armstrong (1911–1999)
THE FOUNDATION TRILOGY
'An Imperial Space Opera'
Isaac Asimov (1920–1992)
Instead of a Letter
'The Detours of Disappointed Love'
Diana Athill (born 1917)
Cat’s Eye
'Self-Portrait of the Artist in Middle Age'
Margaret Atwood (born 1939)
Aubrey’s Brief Lives
“One of the most enchanting books ever written.”—Ogden Nash
John Aubrey (1626–1697)
Edited by Oliver Lawson Dick
Confessions
'The Story of a Soul'
Saint Augustine ( ad 354– ad 430)
Meditations
'An Emperor’s Enduring Wisdom'
Marcus Aurelius ( ad 121– ad 180)
Pride and Prejudice
'In a Class by Itself'
Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility
'Two Sisters v. Society'
Jane Austen
Mansfield Park
'Money, Manners, and Marriage'
Jane Austen
Emma
'Learning Life’s Lessons'
Jane Austen
Northanger Abbey
'An Austen Curiosity'
Jane Austen
Persuasion
'A Tale of Second Chances'
Jane Austen
Tuck Everlasting
'A Fable of a Girl’s Escape from Forever'
Natalie Babbitt (1932–2016)
The Baburnama
MEMOIRS OF BABUR, PRINCE AND EMPEROR
'The First Autobiography in Islamic Literature'
Babur (1483–1530)
The Poetics of Space
'Phenomenology of the Daydream'
Gaston Bachelard (1884–1962)
The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution
'Ideas That Launched a Nation'
Bernard Bailyn (born 1922)