a lot of wonderful things going on here: family loyalty, coming of age, a few nice

action scenes, and some really memorable characters (of which every Dickens novel
has a few).

Bleak House by Charles Dickens

This is a legal drama, believe it or not, that basically exposes how painfully the
wheels of justice can turn and how some court cases can drastically affect the lives of
many. It does delve a bit into specifics of how the law worked at the time in England,
but get past that and you have an interesting novel with a lot of subplots that are all
tied together by a painful and dramatic trial.

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau spent two years living in a self-made cabin on Walden Pond and during that
time, he took down his thoughts on the value of solitude and self-reliance. This is a
wonderfully thought-provoking book on what it means to be an independent and self-
reliant person, mixed in with some great tales of independence and nature.

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

This is just a really wonderful action story, with double crosses, fights, romance, and
humor. There have been countless film adaptations of this and the various sequels to
the story, and no wonder – it’s just a really fun adventure.

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

I have never read a better story about a person growing, changing, maturing, and
developing a strong sense of right and wrong than this one. The slow change in Jean
Valjean from the beginning to the end of this book, along with his interactions of
people of various moralities, is simply wonderful to read. There are about a dozen
deeply memorable characters in this novel who will stick with you for a long time.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

This is a horror story, but also a very timely commentary on the public face that
people put out there while they sometimes hide darker things. Wilde can’t write a
novel without incorporating some humor, but there is a lot of thoughtful darkness in
this novel.

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

This tells the tale of Siddhartha, a man who simply wants to understand how life
works. He starts off being an ascetic in that he gives up worldly possessions, but
eventually he moves on from there through various stages and eventually reaches
some powerful conclusions about life.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

In 2007, Time declared this to be the greatest novel ever written. Oprah picked it for
her book club. Read it. You will be glad that you did.
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
This is, hands down, my favorite collection of poetry. It includes my single favorite
poem and countless other great poems, including the amazing I Sing the Body
Electric. If you read a book of poetry in your life, make it this one.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

This is an amazing story about an individual driven to madness by the darkness of the
Congo wilderness and the darkness of the reality of European colonialism of Africa.
Marlow’s discovery of Kurtz after a long ride up the river is just chilling. The book
was re-made into the powerful film Apocalypse Now.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

As my wife once said, “They don’t write romance novels this well any more.” While
there’s a romance going on, the book also looks at upbringing, morality, education,
gender, and marriage in upper middle class England in the early 19th century. Austen
had great observations and could also create some very strong characters.

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

A man survives for twenty eight years on a tropical island, surviving cannibals and
attacks by mutineers while also building some semblance of a life for himself. It’s a
powerful novel of self-reliance and adventure.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

There’s a wonderful adventure story here, but what makes Huck Finn stand out is the
stark pictures of prejudices and education at the time is how Huck Finn largely
ignores society’s ideas of right and wrong to do what he thinks is the right thing. He
does this over and over again, which causes him endless problems with polite society.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin

This is a wonderful telling of the story of a truly amazing life. Not only is it a great
record of an absolutely vital early American, it’s also quite fun to read. Franklin is one
of those people with such a varied and impressive life that you can’t help but be
amazed with all of the things he achieved.

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

This is a harrowing story about workers in a meat-packing plant around the turn of the
twentieth century. The descriptions of the work that they do will really shock you and
make you want to investigate where your food comes from. The novel ended up
having an enormous impact on the food industry in the early twentieth century.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read this novel. It’s just a lot of fun. What
happens if you take a very intelligent modern man and drop him into King Arthur’s
world? That’s the premise here, and Twain tells it with humor and thoughtfulness.

The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells

What sort of evil things might you do if you were invisible? And what does that say
about the person that you actually are? Those are the real questions asked in this great
science fiction novel.

The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne

This is somewhat a sequel to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, but this one is better and
you don’t really need to have read the first novel to enjoy it. Several people become
shipwrecked on a strange island where things don’t always happen as you might
expect them to.

From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, as it is a very entertaining fictionalization of what
people in the late 19th century believed that travel to the moon would actually be like.
Mostly, this novel is a “space race” of sorts, with an individual overcoming all kinds
of obstacles to develop and build a device to launch a man to the moon. The sequel
Around the Moon is also entertaining, but more fanciful.

The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells

What’s the line between science fiction and horror? This novel rides that fine line.
Doctor Moreau lives on a strange island where he creates sentient beings by
combining the parts of various animals. The novel dwells quite a lot on the issues of
pain in the name of progress and animal cruelty, while telling a strong story.

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

I found Vanity Fair to be incredibly funny. It makes fun of society as a whole,
particularly the hypocrisy of people and how they’ll willingly step on someone’s neck
to reach a few inches higher. It ends up with an intriguing murder mystery, one that I
used to frequently argue about with an old friend.

Roughing It by Mark Twain

On a rather different note, Roughing It is Mark Twain’s memoirs of his years spent in
the wild West. Twain’s humor is evident here, but it’s also a great adventure story that
reveals quite a lot about the nature of the old West.

Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott

If you’re interested in knights, chivalry, and Robin Hood, you’ll enjoy Ivanhoe. It’s as
simple as that. It’s a very fun adventure story, vibrant and yet realistic, though the
language is just a touch dated in places.

Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche

This is a very powerful look at what morality is and how we can internally and
externally determine right and wrong based on objective truth, not on the ideas of the
society around us. More often than not, they overlap, but a sense of what’s right based
on what we objectively know to be true is a much more powerful guide than just
following what others tell us.

The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

This is a wonderful adventure story set during the French-Indian War of the 1750s. Be
careful when reading Cooper, though; if you’ve read one book by him, you’ll get a
feeling that you’re just re-reading the same book if you read more. One is very well
worth reading, though, and I suggest this one.

Accelerando by Charles Stross

Accelerando is a 2005 science fiction novel that Stross has released as a free e-book
for anyone to read. It’s actually a series of nine somewhat interconnected short stories
telling the story of a family before, during, and after a technological singularity – in
other words, a merging of man and machine for a level of superintelligence that
neither could achieve on their own. It’s a very enjoyable read with lots of thought-
provoking ideas.

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Little Brother is a 2007 novel by Cory Doctorow that describes how four teenagers
respond to a terrorist attack in San Francisco. During the aftermath of that attack, the
Department of Homeland Security tries to crack down on civil rights in the area, and
the main characters fight back against it in various ways, often utilizing technology in
a clever way. Much like Accelerando, this one is a great new novel that’s free for
anyone to read.

Hopefully, you now have plenty to read without exploding your pocketbook.