A Roundup -- 50 Classics Everyone Should Read Before They Die

A Roundup of the 50 Classics Books 

Everyone Should Read Before They Die

This past week I put on my geek hat again, this time to roundup the top 50 classics everyone should read before they die. 

My method: I consulted 20 lists found online. My favorite lists were: Harvard Book Store Top 100 books and a list of 100 books to read before college, created by College Board in 2022. These two lists added many more recent books, or modern classics, compared to the others. Two or three lists only included books from the 20th century, like Time Magazine's Top 100 of all "Time" only included books from the time period in which they were a published magazine, 1923 to present. One list, oddly, included no books by Russian authors. I couldn't figure out why, but that may account for the reason Tolstoy and Dostoevsky titles aren't closer to the top.

A few more particulars: 

• My publication date cutoff to be included was 25 years ago. Many, many wonderful books, really great modern classics, should be on this list but I decided that is for a different list. One list creator limited her titles to only those with publication dates over 75 years ago, meaning she missed To Kill a Mockingbird among many. There is no standard number for what makes a book eligible to be called a "classic". Atonement just squeezed in with a 2001 pub. date, and Harry Potter titles were included because the first books were published before the deadline.
• I organized the list alphabetically by title. 
• The Great Gatsby was the only book on every single list with 20 votes. 
• Though I have them numbered 1-50, titles with the same number of votes should really have the same place. For example, 1984 thru TKAM all got 16 votes so they should all be in 3rd place, then BNW and WH got 15 votes each so they should both hold 8th place. That is too confusing so I just left it at 1-50.
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is the correct name but some lists called it "Alice in Wonderland" which implied the sequel, Through the Looking Glass. Whatever the name I was happy to see children's lit included on the list.
• Some list creators had five or six titles by one author, with Dickens and Faulkner getting the most multiple votes per list. At one point I made up my mind I wouldn't include more than two titles per author, just to spread the wealth around, but it wasn't necessary. Only one Dickens' book made the top 50 and none of Faulkner's.
• I also decided to leave plays off the list and then decided to break my own rule by including Hamlet, the best of the best, as a placeholder for all other great plays (Waiting for Godot; Romeo and Juliet; The Cherry Orchard; Our Town, etc.)
• Though there really aren't any surprises on this list, it is still mainly populated by old, dead white men writers. But I felt a shift was occuring. There are ten women authors named, I expected Austen and the Bronte sisters but was delighted to see the list included Morrison, Atwood, and Walker among them. Also there is at least one book each from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. And to my count there are seven people authors of color included.
• Over 300 book titles were suggested with many super popular classics, like the Iliad/Odyssey, falling just below my cutoff threshold.

How I hope to use this list: I've read 38 of the top 50 books. I am determined to read all of the top 30, which means I only have six titles to go to complete that small subgoal for myself: Anna Karenina; Crime and Punishment; Moby-Dick; War and Peace; Midnight's Children; Don Quixote. Though all are big, dense books, I know I can do it. Classic books aren't necessarily my favorite books but I am never sorry I read them and I often feel like I have joined myself in union with all readers over the centuries when I complete them. My One-Big-Book of 2026 is Moby-Dick, so that is where I will be starting.

How you can use this list: My recommendation to you, if you aren't a classic book reader, is start with books that are shorter and not so threatening. Start with Great Gatsby. It is a short and easy read. When you are done, reward yourself by watching one of the movies made from it. Next pick a children's classic. Try The Little Prince if you've never read it. Next try a modern classic like A Handmaid's Tale or Atonement. You are actually making progress. Now read one you've always wondered about like A Picture of Dorian Gray, Fahrenheit 451, or 1984. After you are done with that reread any you've read before, or were supposed to have read in school, like Little Women or To Kill a Mockingbird. You may be surprised how much you like it now that you are an adult not being forced to read it. Lastly make of list of five others you'd like to read. Before you know it you will have ten classics under your belt and I bet you won't want to stop.

Must-read Classics

(Numbers after the titles represent how many lists out of 20 it was on. Star next to the numbers reflect the books I have read.)

1. Great Gatsby / Fitzgerald  -- 20*
2. Pride and Prejudice / Austen -- 18*
3. 1984 / Orwell -- 16*
4. Anna Karenina / Tolstoy -- 16
5. Catch-22 / Heller -- 16*
6. Jane Eyre / Charlotte Bronte --16*
7. To Kill a Mockingbird / Lee --16*
8. Brave New World / Huxley -- 15*
9. Wuthering Heights / Emily Bronte --15*
10. Catcher in the Rye / Salinger -- 14*
11. Crime and Punishment / Dostoevsky --14
12. Little Women / Alcott -- 14*
13. Moby-Dick / Melville -- 14
14. One Hundred Years of Solitude / Garcia Marquez -- 14*
15. Great Expectations / Dickens -- 13*
16. Lolita / Nabokov -- 13*
17. War and Peace / Tolstoy -- 13
18. Animal Farm / Orwell -- 12*
19. Beloved / Morrison -- 12*
20. Frankenstein / Shelley --12* 
21. Lord of the Rings series / Tolkien --12*
22. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn / Twain -- 11*
23. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland / Carroll -- 11* 
24. Count of Monte Cristo / Dumas -- 11*
25. Handmaid's Tale / Atwood -- 11*
26. Les Misérables / Hugo -- 11*
27. Midnight's Children / Rushdie -- 11
28. Slaughterhouse-Five / Vonnegut -- 11*
29. Call of the Wild / London -- 10*
30. Don Quixote / Cervantes --10
31. Dracula / Stoker --10
32. Grapes of Wrath / Steinbeck --10*
33. Invisible Man / Ellison --10
34. Little Prince / Saint-Exupéry -- 10*
35. Madame Bovary / Flaubert -- 10
36. Stranger /Camus -- 10
37. Ulysses / Joyce -- 10
38. Charlotte's Web / White -- 9*
39. Color Purple / Walker -- 9*
40. Fahrenheit 451 / Bradbury -- 9*
41. Middlemarch / Eliot -- 9*
42. Gone with the Wind / Mitchell -- 9*
43. Hamlet / Shakespeare -- 9*
44. Harry Potter series / Rowling -- 9*
45. Heart of Darkness / Conrad -- 9
46. Picture of Dorian Gray / Wilde -- 9*
47. Tess of the D'Urbervilles / Hardy -- 9*
48. Atonement / McEwan -- 8*
49. Brothers Karamazov / Dostoevsky -- 8*
50. Things Fall Apart / Achebe -- 8*

Are there any surprises to you? I was a little surprised that Harry Potter books made the cut and that Gone with the Wind is still getting mentioned since it has fallen on hard times lately with its references to "happy slaves."

If you are curious how many votes your favorite classic book got on my round-up and it isn't on the above top 50 list, leave a comment with the title name, I'll consult my spreadsheet and get back to you.