What literature classics are a must read before you die?

check out manybooks.net Free classics online, downloadable.

and freeaudioclassics.com
 
Irvine Welsh "Filth" .Most of his books are good.Or Nick Caves "And the ass saw the angel".Well worth the effort if you can track these down.Also reccommend a "kiwi" book by Alan Duff called "Once were Warriors"Its now a bit a New Zealand icon but it shook the establishment when published.
 
Trying to list some that haven't been listed yet (that I noticed).

Gravity's Rainbow-Thomas Pynchon
The Man In The High Castle-Philip K Dick
Desert Solitaire-Edward Abbey
Infinite in all Directions-Freeman Dyson
Thus Spake Zarathrustra-Fredrich Wilhelm Nietzche
A Canticle for Liebowitz-Walter M Miller Jr.
Basin and Range-John McPhee
Cryptonomicon-Neil Stephenson
The Virginian-Owen Wister
A Century of Solitude-Gabriel Garcia Marquez
At Play in the Fields of the Lord-Peter Mattheson
Eyelids of Morning-Alistair Graham and Peter Beard
 
Junky by William S. Burroughs
You Just Can't Win by Jack Black
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
 
Sorry guys, but I don't need you to tell me what to read before I die. That's what I have the Oprah Book of the Month Club for.

Seriously, I am glad to see so many people agree with me on what is good literature. Not just the classics, but more esoteric stuff as well.

I'd like to add (in case it hasn't been listed yet):

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

And while it may not be exactly what the topic poster was looking for, there is a comic book in trade paper back called Astro City Confessions that I think is as good as any of the classic novels. Astro City is a great comic book series, but the Confessions storyline was just brilliant. Forgive me if this suggestion is un-cool.
 
Anything by Hunter S Thompson.

The Gosho ( honorable writings ) by Nichiren Daishonin.

The 47 Ronin.

The Hagakure.

The Lotus Sutra.

The entire Sherlock Holmes series.

Anything by Lovecraft.

Kiss The Boys Goodbye ( how the United States betrayed its own P.O.W.S in Vietnam ) by Monika Jensen-Stevenson & William Stevenson.
 
The "Little House" series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It's off the beaten path of "classical" literature, but I love the picture it paints of life on the American Frontier.
 
sorry to dredge this old thread up, but I see someone mentioned Blood Meridian by cormac mccarthy. I have to add The Border Trilogy - All the Pretty Horse, the Crossing, and Cities of the Plain also by McCarthy.

I have read way too many of the books posted on this thread, and those 4 by McCarthy are my personal favorites
 
Quite a few of the ones I like have been said, but I don't know if these have been mentioned:

Brave New World
Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
Labyrinths (a collection of short stories and essays by Jorge Luis Borges)
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Alice in Wonderland (at least, I haven't seen it on the list). Preferably the version annotated by Martin Gardner (?)
Romance of the Three Kingdoms (a Chinese work)
 
ADD said:
Maybe I missed it but no Faulkner? :(
Click to expand...

If that's the case, I recommend 'The Bear,' which is a joy to read. The rest of his stuff is odd, insofar as Faulkner seems constantly to be trying to stuff as much information and digression as possible into some of his sentences, which run on and on, so that you forget what you're reading by the time you get to the end of them. Reading should stretch your mind and fire your imagination, but it shouldn't be purposely made into an intellectually herculean task that leaves you with a headache from extreme mental labor. William Faulkner, along with Henry James and James Joyce, often forgot that.
 
Since we're on the subject and I mentioned the term "joy to read," I'd like to mention a book that is considered a classic among very few people, but is certainly a joy to read. I'm not a runner and haven't been since I was a kid, because I always end up with shin splints. I have always loved walking, instead. But, one of my favorite books of all time was written by George Sheehan, M.D., cardiologist and avid runner, back in the late seventies. It's called 'Running and Being' and it's a mix of reflection on everything from running, of course, to football and all other sports, life in general, philosophy, religion, God and more. I go back and read this guy every so often just for the shear joy of his prose and the wonder expressed in his thinking.

Another boook that is a joy to read is called 'The Universe and Dr. Einstein,' written by a science writer named Lincoln Barnett back in 1950. Here is another book, beautifully written and filled with wonder at the workings and majesty of the Universe. The book is forworded by Albert Einstein, himself, who says that Barnett captures the essence of Relativity theory and Quantum theory, as well, in a manner that is extremely accessible to the layperson, like myself.

Niether of the two books I mention are true classics, like Moby Dick or The Catcher in the Rye, but they are classics to me because they are fresh, every time I reread them and I always derive a great deal of pleasure and enlightenment from them. How many books do you read once and never desire to read them again? How few are there that you can read over and over and they just don't seem to get old?
 
May be i missed them. They have to be named.

William Faulkner: "Light in august".
Cormac Mc Carthy: "Blood meridian or the evening redness in the west".
Thomas Pynchon: "Mason & Dixon".

dantzk.
 
SG - I've read most of Faulkner - the guy is a genius. BUT, you really have to get into "Faulkner Mode" to follow it. Some of his books you need to read a couple of time. Also helps if you are from the south.

I think most people attempt Faulkner too early in life. As I Lay Dying is one of the best books I've ever read, but I didn't think so when I was in high school.
 
Harrison Bergeron. It's just a short story, but a classic in my book. Very memorable. It's in a collection called Welcome to the Monkey House, but you can usually find it somewhere on the Net. I just re-read again here:
http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/hb.html

A couple others that I don't think I saw mentioned yet:
=> The Sea Wolf --by Jack London
=> A Confederacy of Dunces --by John Kennedy Toole
=> Madame Bovary --by Gustave Flaubert
=> Life of Pi --by Yann Martel
 
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