What books should an intelligent person have read?

11 comments to What books should an intelligent person have read?

  • smiletoexit

    I’ve found that list covers a lot of really significant books…

  • Rip Van W

    An intelligent person should be intelligent enough to answer that question :P

  • FIGJAM

    Are talking about classics? Fiction? Non-fiction?
    Because most intelligent people read any books they want or find interesting. I prefer history and philosophy books because they interest me. My dad like to read economic theory type books but i think that sound HORRIBLE.

    Some authors to think about (ALL fiction writers)
    Shakespeare
    Salinger
    Steinbeck
    Twain
    Virgil
    Rand
    Lewis (C.S. and Sinclair)
    Dostoevsky
    Dickens
    Joyce
    Austin

  • elohimself

    I read and enjoyed The Determination of Orbits by A. D. Dubyago, Introduction to Astronomy and Astrophysics by Smith Jacobs, and Numerical Analysis by Burden Faires.

  • rebecca2007

    Freakonomics

    Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity

  • Snow Globe

    Here are some lists of classic books from sites that recommend them for college-bound students. I think they are good basic lists. When you read an author that you really enjoy, try some others that he/she has written. I’m glad you are seeking to improve yourself — it’s a life-long quest.

  • mead_clarke

    I think that anything that makes you think and go on to analyze everyday life is important no matter who wrote it. The reason writers become famous is because they make you think and sharpen analytical skills. This is especially true with authors in the Western canon.

    But if you need a list…

    Personal favorites (from classics): Salinger, Hemingway, Austen, Chopin, any of the Brontes…

  • Sirius Black

    Classics my dear, always the classics. If you are not sure what a classic novel is, look it up, there is a long, never ending and continual list, start reading.

  • styx78321

    I’m not sure about intelligent people, but EVERYBODY should read the Harry Potter series. I love them to death!!

  • Katharina K

    Try reading the top 10 of unfinished books if you want to appear really intelligent :)

    1 Vernon God Little, DBC Pierre
    2 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
    3 Ulysses, James Joyce
    4 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis De Bernieres
    5 Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
    6 The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie
    7 The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
    8 War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
    9 The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
    10 Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky

    But really, you should just read the books you like.

  • lithisium

    I won’t even begin to pretend that I am intelligent, but I’ll recommend some of my favourite books.
    Dostoevsky – Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The House of the Death, Notes from Underground
    Kierkegaard – Fear and Trembling, Diary of a Seducer
    Willaim Burroughs – ***** Lunch, Queer, Port of Saints
    Zola – Therese Raquin
    Gore Vidal – Myra Breckinridge
    Oscar Wilde – Picture of Dorian Gray
    Augustan (sp?) Burroughs – Running with scissors, Dry

    Poetry – Ginsberg, Byron and Rimbaud.

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