What are you reading? Something from the New York Times Best Seller List? Your kid's Science book? A Comic Book? A Classic? Junk mail? If you answered yes, that's a Very Good thing. If you are not currently reading something then it is time to crack open a book (or two or more).
Read something all the time. Always have a book handy, either bound or electronic format. Always have a book you can dive into no more than arm's length away.
Reading is essential to life. Reading is what opens our minds and expands our horizons. When you read you increase your vocabulary, keep you mind performing at peak levels, increase your knowledge of the world, and among other things you experience the world through the eyes and thoughts of someone else.
If you are not too sure what to read first, that's OK.
Here is a list of 77 books that I highly recommend. These are what I consider REQUIRED READING FOR LIFE. These books are listed in NO particular order but they are ALL in one of two lists: "Read" and "Not Yet Read".
1. The Iliad by Homer (Read)
2. The Odyssey by Homer (Not Read)
3. On the Road by Jack Kerouac (Not Read)
4. Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (Not Read)
5. 1984 by George Orwell (Read)
6. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (Read)
7. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Read)
8. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (Read)
9. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (Read)
10. Maus by Art Spiegelman (Read)
11. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (Read)
12. Lord of the Flies by William Golding (Read)
13. Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes (Read)
14. The Trial by Franz Kafka (Not Read)
15. Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare (Read)
16. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (Read)
17. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (Read)
18. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Not Read)
19. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (Read)
20. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (Read)
21. Kim by Rudyard Kipling (Read)
22. 52 Pick-up by Elmore Leonard (Not Read)
23. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Not Read)
24. East of Eden by John Steinbeck (Not Read)
25. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (Read)
26. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (Not Read)
27. Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper (Read)
28. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller (Not Read)
29. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (Read)
30. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (Read)
31. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (Read)
32. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (Read)
33. The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis (Read)
34. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (Read)
35. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (Read)
36. Dracula by Bram Stoker (Read)
37. The Time Machine by HG Wells (Read)
38. The War of the Worlds by HG Wells (Read)
39. The Sword in the Stone by TH White (Not Read)
40. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (Not Read)
41. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (Read)
42. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (Not Read)
43. The Book of Daniel by EL Doctorow (Not Read)
44. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (Not Read)
45. Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis (Not Read)
46. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (Read)
47. The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe (Not Read)
48. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (Read)
49. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (Read)
50. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (Not Read)
51. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway (Not Read)
52. The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope (Not Read)
53. The Call of the Wild by Jack London (Read)
54. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Read)
55. Moby-Dick or, The Whale by Herman Melville (Read)
56. Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian (Not Read)
57. The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Rudolp Erich Raspe (Not Read)
58. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (Not Read)
59. Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott (Read)
60. Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne (Not Read)
61. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (Read)
62. Slaughter-House Five by Kurt Vonnegut (Not Read)
63. The Island of Dr Moreau by HG Wells (Not Read)
64. The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor (Not Read)
65. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (Not Read)
66. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (Read)
67. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Not Read)
68. Lake Wobegon Days by Garrison Keillor (Not Read)
69. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (Read)
70. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (Not Read)
So grab yourself a book and start reading. If you are curious, as of this writing, I have started reading The Odyssey by Homer.
Thanks. -Dave Guerra
P.S. I do invite you to join the conversation and tell me what you think about any of the postings so far.
As always you can read this blog post in its original location at http://daveguerra.blogspot.com
Here are some Technorati Tags: • 100 Days, 100 Ways
• Read more • Always Read • See the world from a different perspective • Read the Classic
• Crack Open A Book • Dave Guerra • Leadership • Leading • Leadership Development • Professional Development • Lead, Follow, or Get out of the way • Ready, Fire, Aim! • If it ain't broke, break it. • Hire Crazies • Ask dumb questions • Pursue failure • Spread Confusion • Ditch Your Office • Read Odd Stuff • Avoid Moderation • Higher, Admire, Desire, Require, Satire, Inquire, On Fire, All Possible Scenarios • Give to the American Red Cross • Hire A Hero
No comments:
Post a Comment