Books you must read to be considered well read

What does it mean to be "well read" today? Are there certain books that you must read to consider yourself well read? That can include classics, books that are popular enough to be culturally important or books that contain essential stories, ideas and/or characters that everyone who claims to be well read should know.
1

by
4.27 avg rating — 142 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
2

by
4.26 avg rating — 6,739,653 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
3

by
4.20 avg rating — 4,105,207 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
4

by
4.20 avg rating — 5,290,993 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
5

by
4.29 avg rating — 4,680,368 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
6

by
4.33 avg rating — 2,401,932 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
7

by
4.22 avg rating — 1,982,394 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
8

by
3.89 avg rating — 999,414 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
9

by
4.62 avg rating — 4,036,919 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
10

by
4.01 avg rating — 4,408,915 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
11

by
3.74 avg rating — 2,782,732 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
12

by
4.02 avg rating — 1,428,253 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
13

by
4.17 avg rating — 2,410,807 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
14

by
3.88 avg rating — 1,263,320 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
15

by
4.61 avg rating — 142,240 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
16

by
4.09 avg rating — 901,220 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
17

by
3.89 avg rating — 1,790,065 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
18

by
4.16 avg rating — 2,277,057 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
19

by
4.43 avg rating — 612,273 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
20

by
3.94 avg rating — 570,978 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
21

by
3.88 avg rating — 1,000,922 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
22

by
4.24 avg rating — 3,084,368 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
23

by
4.10 avg rating — 509,390 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
24

by
3.90 avg rating — 1,976,709 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
24

by
3.93 avg rating — 5,780,045 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
26

by
4.13 avg rating — 1,808,284 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
27

by
4.31 avg rating — 270,119 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
28

by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 757,877 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
29

by
4.14 avg rating — 182,172 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
30

by
4.11 avg rating — 99,956 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
31

by
3.80 avg rating — 3,826,336 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
32

by
3.77 avg rating — 201,889 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
33

by
4.17 avg rating — 359,363 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
34

by
4.31 avg rating — 834,792 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
35

by
3.44 avg rating — 905,785 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
36

by
4.44 avg rating — 311,127 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
37

by
4.09 avg rating — 715,428 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
38

by
4.02 avg rating — 977,731 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
39

by
3.80 avg rating — 862,000 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
39

by
4.12 avg rating — 2,752,669 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
41

by
4.06 avg rating — 17,634 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
42

by
4.29 avg rating — 1,586,733 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
42

by
3.89 avg rating — 2,773,331 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
44

by
3.74 avg rating — 141,704 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
44

by
4.01 avg rating — 26,554 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
44

by
4.31 avg rating — 1,456,666 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
47

by
3.84 avg rating — 145,644 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
48

by
3.83 avg rating — 647,501 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
49

by
3.91 avg rating — 299,486 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
49

by
3.81 avg rating — 132,351 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
51

by
4.14 avg rating — 1,554,966 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
52

by
3.92 avg rating — 1,003,066 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
53

by
4.28 avg rating — 1,039,753 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
54

by
3.71 avg rating — 216,374 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
55

by
3.52 avg rating — 235,526 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
55

by
3.59 avg rating — 254,320 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
57

by
3.70 avg rating — 3,139,443 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
58

by
4.23 avg rating — 772,143 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
59

by
3.89 avg rating — 430,282 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
60

by
4.03 avg rating — 370,139 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
61

by
3.91 avg rating — 233,943 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
62

by
3.84 avg rating — 374,800 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
63

by
4.28 avg rating — 1,562,977 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
64

by
4.10 avg rating — 913,521 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
65

by
4.28 avg rating — 406,727 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
66

by
4.19 avg rating — 578,315 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
66

by
4.02 avg rating — 304,305 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
68

by
3.93 avg rating — 498,914 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
69

by
3.86 avg rating — 81,828 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
70

by
4.08 avg rating — 855,305 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
71

by
4.21 avg rating — 372,462 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
72

by
3.99 avg rating — 877,176 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
73

by
4.08 avg rating — 168,660 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
74

by
3.90 avg rating — 147,121 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
75

by
3.83 avg rating — 1,324,119 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
76

by
4.02 avg rating — 83,042 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
77

by
4.03 avg rating — 1,338,480 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
77

by
4.29 avg rating — 26,620 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
79

by
3.59 avg rating — 295,348 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
80

by
3.84 avg rating — 218,488 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
81

by
4.26 avg rating — 15,678 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
82

by
3.82 avg rating — 406 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
83

by
4.17 avg rating — 399,791 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
84

by
4.03 avg rating — 1,001 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
85

by
4.45 avg rating — 2,690,054 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
86

by
4.20 avg rating — 710,483 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
87

by
3.93 avg rating — 23,993 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
87

by
4.29 avg rating — 6,829 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
89

by
4.02 avg rating — 637,693 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
90

by
4.30 avg rating — 322,022 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
91

by
3.08 avg rating — 84 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
91

by
4.13 avg rating — 209,205 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
91

by
4.39 avg rating — 2,822,270 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
91

by
3.78 avg rating — 9 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
91

by
4.20 avg rating — 2,448 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
96

by
4.19 avg rating — 20,558 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
96

by
3.95 avg rating — 176,384 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
96

by
3.59 avg rating — 9,229 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
96

by
4.24 avg rating — 333,707 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
96

by
4.35 avg rating — 1,030 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
184 books · 48 voters · list created August 16th, 2014 by Rachel Eliason (votes) .
29 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Rachel 464 books
146 friends
Clare 8326 books
347 friends
Soumya 1374 books
38 friends
Victoria 442 books
3 friends
Stephen 6596 books
298 friends
Viktor 909 books
18 friends
Kathleen 1657 books
15 friends
Mitali 1445 books
31 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-4 of 4 (4 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Rachel (new)

Rachel Eliason I am thinking that if we can get more than a hundred books on here and say 30+ people voting, I might make this a reading challenge, to read the top one hundred. Anyone else interested?


message 2: by Stephen (last edited Aug 18, 2014 04:03AM) (new)

Stephen Rachel, two things...

First, The copy of Brave New World that you selected is different than the one others have selected. The list can be de-duped but (because of the way GoodReads works) your choice is considered a separate choice and will never be combined with the others. You might consider deleting your vote and voting for the one that the others did.

Second, There are already some similar challenges that you might want to check out. Since they're already established, the discussions there might be more lively and I'm sure that you could make that even more true.

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...


message 3: by Rachel (new)

Rachel Eliason The way Goodreads handles different editions of the same book drives me nuts at times. Thanks.
The second group looks interesting. I am trying to avoid prize winners or list made by an individual person or group, because what interests me is what sort of consensus will occur on this list over time. Of course it would be interest to compare which books make the list on a crowd sourced site like this with what, say, a literary professor might select.


message 4: by Mitali (last edited Aug 18, 2014 09:31AM) (new)

Mitali Nice list! Just FYI:
The Great Gatsby, Pride and Prejudice and The Picture of Dorian Gray are on the list twice.
Also, you might want to choose an edition of Hamlet that is by Shakespeare instead of by Kenneth Branagh. ;)


back to top



Related News

Hollywood has been mining the world of books for a long time—since 1899, according to some reckonings. The practice has been ramping up in recent...

Anyone can add books to this list.