List of the most important books to read?

According to Random House, this is the top 100 novels of the English language. The first list is chosen by a board of editors, the second by the general readership (probably only Americans, due to the heavy bias towards American lit- that sort of bias is a problem in any "canon").

ULYSSES by James Joyce

THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald

A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce

LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov

BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley

THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner

CATCH-22

DARKNESS AT NOON by Arthur Koestler

SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence

THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck

UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry

THE WAY OF ALL FLESH by Samuel Butler

1984 by George Orwell

I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves

TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf

AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser

THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers

SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut

INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison

NATIVE SON by Richard Wright

HENDERSON THE RAIN KING by Saul Bellow

APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA by John O'Hara

U.S.A. (trilogy) by John Dos Passos

WINESBURG, OHIO by Sherwood Anderson

A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forster

THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Henry James

THE AMBASSADORS by Henry James

TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald

THE STUDS LONIGAN TRILOGY by James T. Farrell

THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford

ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell

THE GOLDEN BOWL by Henry James

SISTER CARRIE by Theodore Dreiser

A HANDFUL OF DUST by Evelyn Waugh

AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner

ALL THE KING'S MEN by Robert Penn Warren

THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY by Thornton Wilder

HOWARDS END by E.M. Forster

GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN by James Baldwin

THE HEART OF THE MATTER by Graham Greene

LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding

DELIVERANCE by James Dickey

A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME (series) by Anthony Powell

POINT COUNTER POINT by Aldous Huxley

THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway

THE SECRET AGENT by Joseph Conrad

NOSTROMO by Joseph Conrad

THE RAINBOW by D.H. Lawrence

WOMEN IN LOVE by D.H. Lawrence

TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller

THE NAKED AND THE DEAD by Norman Mailer

PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT by Philip Roth

PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov

LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner

ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac

THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett

PARADE'S END by Ford Madox Ford

THE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton

ZULEIKA DOBSON by Max Beerbohm

THE MOVIEGOER by Walker Percy

DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP by Willa Cather

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY by James Jones

THE WAPSHOT CHRONICLES by John Cheever

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess

OF HUMAN BONDAGE by W. Somerset Maugham

HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad

MAIN STREET by Sinclair Lewis

THE HOUSE OF MIRTH by Edith Wharton

THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET by Lawrence Durell

A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA by Richard Hughes

A HOUSE FOR MR BISWAS by V.S. Naipaul

THE DAY OF THE LOCUST by Nathanael West

A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway

SCOOP by Evelyn Waugh

THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE by Muriel Spark

FINNEGANS WAKE by James Joyce

KIM by Rudyard Kipling

A ROOM WITH A VIEW by E.M. Forster

BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh

THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH by Saul Bellow

ANGLE OF REPOSE by Wallace Stegner

A BEND IN THE RIVER by V.S. Naipaul

THE DEATH OF THE HEART by Elizabeth Bowen

LORD JIM by Joseph Conrad

RAGTIME by E.L. Doctorow

THE OLD WIVES' TALE by Arnold Bennett

THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London

LOVING by Henry Green

MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie

TOBACCO ROAD by Erskine Caldwell

IRONWEED by William Kennedy

THE MAGUS by John Fowles

WIDE SARGASSO SEA by Jean Rhys

UNDER THE NET by Iris Murdoch

SOPHIE'S CHOICE by William Styron

THE SHELTERING SKY by Paul Bowles

THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE by James M. Cain

THE GINGER MAN by J.P. Donleavy

THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS by Booth Tarkington

ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand

THE FOUNTAINHEAD by Ayn Rand

BATTLEFIELD EARTH by L. Ron Hubbard

THE LORD OF THE RINGS by J.R.R. Tolkien

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee

1984 by George Orwell

ANTHEM by Ayn Rand

WE THE LIVING by Ayn Rand

MISSION EARTH by L. Ron Hubbard

FEAR by L. Ron Hubbard

ULYSSES by James Joyce

CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller

THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald

DUNE by Frank Herbert

THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS by Robert Heinlein

STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND by Robert Heinlein

A TOWN LIKE ALICE by Nevil Shute

BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger

ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell

GRAVITY'S RAINBOW by Thomas Pynchon

THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck

SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut

GONE WITH THE WIND by Margaret Mitchell

LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding

SHANE by Jack Schaefer

TRUSTEE FROM THE TOOLROOM by Nevil Shute

A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY by John Irving

THE STAND by Stephen King

THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN by John Fowles

BELOVED by Toni Morrison

THE WORM OUROBOROS by E.R. Eddison

THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner

LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov

MOONHEART by Charles de Lint

ABSALOM, ABSALOM! by William Faulkner

OF HUMAN BONDAGE by W. Somerset Maugham

WISE BLOOD by Flannery O'Connor

UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry

FIFTH BUSINESS by Robertson Davies

SOMEPLACE TO BE FLYING by Charles de Lint

ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac

HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad

YARROW by Charles de Lint

AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS by H.P. Lovecraft

ONE LONELY NIGHT by Mickey Spillane

MEMORY AND DREAM by Charles de Lint

TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf

THE MOVIEGOER by Walker Percy

TRADER by Charles de Lint

THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY by Douglas Adams

THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers

THE HANDMAID'S TALE by Margaret Atwood

BLOOD MERIDIAN by Cormac McCarthy

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess

ON THE BEACH by Nevil Shute

A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce

GREENMANTLE by Charles de Lint

ENDER'S GAME by Orson Scott Card

THE LITTLE COUNTRY by Charles de Lint

THE RECOGNITIONS by William Gaddis

STARSHIP TROOPERS by Robert Heinlein

THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP by John Irving

SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES by Ray Bradbury

THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE by Shirley Jackson

AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner

TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller

INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison

THE WOOD WIFE by Terri Windling

THE MAGUS by John Fowles

THE DOOR INTO SUMMER by Robert Heinlein

ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE by Robert Pirsig

I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves

THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London

AT SWIM-TWO-BIRDS by Flann O'Brien

FARENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury

ARROWSMITH by Sinclair Lewis

WATERSHIP DOWN by Richard Adams

NAKED LUNCH by William S. Burroughs

THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER by Tom Clancy

GUILTY PLEASURES by Laurell K. Hamilton

THE PUPPET MASTERS by Robert Heinlein

IT by Stephen King

V. by Thomas Pynchon

DOUBLE STAR by Robert Heinlein

CITIZEN OF THE GALAXY by Robert Heinlein

BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh

LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST by Ken Kesey

A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway

THE SHELTERING SKY by Paul Bowles

SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION by Ken Kesey

MY ANTONIA by Willa Cather

MULENGRO by Charles de Lint

SUTTREE by Cormac McCarthy

MYTHAGO WOOD by Robert Holdstock

ILLUSIONS by Richard Bach

THE CUNNING MAN by Robertson Davies

THE SATANIC VERSES by Salman Rushdie

My personal additions- I'm mortified they weren't included:

Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen

Jane Eyre- Charlotte Bronte

Wuthering Heights- Charlotte Bronte

Great Expectations- Charles Dickens

A Tale of Two Cities- Charles Dickens

Vanity Fair- William Makepeace Thackeray

Mrs. Dalloway- Virginia Woolf

Middlemarch- George Eliot

The Portrait of a Lady- Henry James

Things Fall Apart- Chinua Achebe

Okay... I'll put them in order, an order which will give you a definite understanding of Christianity. Luke James Acts With those 3 books, you'll have a solid foundation, and an understanding of what Christianity is, without reading the entire bible. After that, I'd go back and read the other Gospels, then some of the more popular books of the Old Testament (Jonah, Psalms, Genesis, etc) as well as other books in the New Testament. (Epistles)

Well, that's going to be different for different people.

I can give you a list of books I am glad I have read to this point.

1. Moby Dick

2. A Christmas Carol

3. The Caves of Steel (Great introduction to future history)

4. Carrie (Stephen King just showing his roots)

5. Interview with a Vampire

6. Uncle Tom's Cabin

7. Ben Hur

8. Bio of a Space Tyrant (5 book series)

9. White Fang

10. The Brothers Lionheart

My list is is pread from science fiction, to classic to horror. You just have to find what your list is.

Personally, I like this site:

The Most Influential Novels and Books

The first list is pretty good, even if it doesn't have any really old books. But then there are other lists on the same web page that covers all time periods.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The Bible

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien

1984 by George Orwell

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

All Quite on the Western Front by E M Remarque

His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

Tess of the D'urbevilles by Thomas Hardy

Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

The Prophet by Khalil Gibran

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Middlemarch by George Eliot

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzenhitsyn

I got all this information from this website:

http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,17215...

http://www.amazon.com/Books-To-Read-Before-You-Die...

http://www.listsofbests.com/list/2222

http://www.librarything.com/groups/1001bookstoread...

http://www.ipa.org.au/files/58-2-BOOKS.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1001_Books_You_Must_R...

1) The Bible

2) The Stand

3) The Hitchhiker's "Trilogy" by Douglas Adams

4) Wounded Innocents by Richard Wexler

5) Dark Secrets within Child Protective Services by Teresa Cunio

Well, there's only one book I can think of that is truly a matter of life or death, and that's the Bible, the word of God.