Are you confused about which book to read next … look no further … there are lists and lists, and lists for all sorts of preferences here!
‘One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.’
Carl Sagan – Astronomer, Cosmologist, Astrophysicist, Astrobiologist
This list is a compilation of Modern Day Classics (Fiction and Non-Fiction).
When choosing your next book consider the following for a balanced selection:
Make sure you have a balance between male and female authors.
Try and pick books set in different cultures.
Make sure you have read a couple of translated texts.
Try and spread your selection across history and into the future.
The story of an invisible man; invisible ‘simply because people refuse to see me’. This first novel by R. Ellison was published in 1952 when America’s society was about to go through a huge change; R. Ellison illustrates the turmoils through Invisible Man’s adventures like getting expelled from a Southern college to being in a Harlem race riot.
A delightful novel that oscillates between 2008 – 10, Northampton, USA and mid 1200s in the land of Rumi and Shams of Trabriz, the Middle East. A great introduction to Rumi and his influence on self discovery as you follow Ella through her modern tribulations. A sublime and enchanting read.
England; upper classes in the 1800s; Female Author – A good book to start reading Austen.
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
Russia; 1800s; Male Author – Translation
“I think … if it is true that there are as many minds as there are heads, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts.”
England; Late 1800s; Male Author – If reading Hardy for the first time, this is a good novel to start with.
“A strong woman who recklessly throws away her strength, she is worse than a weak woman who has never had any strength to throw away.”
USA; Dystopian Future; Female Aut hor
“Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.”
“But people will do anything rather than admit that their lives have no meaning. No use, that is. No plot.”
England; Dystopian Future; Male Author – A must read for the current political situations.
USA; 1920s Jazz Age; Male Author
“And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.”
“In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.
“Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”
England; 1800s; Male Author – A good one to start with if choosing your first Dickens to read.
“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour.”
“Reflect upon your present blessings — of which every man has many — not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”
USA; Civil War; Female Author