Must-reads by end of young adulthood vs. must-reads before you die...

[mande2013]

What are people's thoughts? I'm 27, and there's still plenty of reading I 'need' to do. My biggest priorities are as follows: Balzac (read some but not all), Proust, Tolstoy, Beckett, Dostoevsky (read some but not all), Melville, Kafka, Joyce, Faulkner (read some but not all), Dante, Moliere. I'm quite drawn to French and Russian literature and am interested in reading whatever I can get my hands on from either of these two traditions. There are certain more recent figures I'd like to read as well like Cormac McCarthy, Thomas Bernhard, and some of the Italian anti-fascist stuff (i.e. Pasolini, Moravia, Sciascia).

So I'm wondering, what should I prioritize to have read by my early thirties and what stuff is a must-read in general but not necessarily by the end of young adulthood? Thanks.

[Red Terror]

Read Moliere's The Misanthrope (translated into English by Richard Wilbur). I found it to have been an absurdly easy read. I read it in a space of a day. Next, read Anna Karenina. Then Don Quixote.

[mande2013]

Well I speak French, so I'll just read The Misanthrope in the original! I bought it yesterday in fact.

[ennison]

Before I die? Hmm. Oh I've read enough. I'll let some f;4,5r read to me. A few psailm. Prefer some pipe tunes though. The Death of Virgil. I'd like someone to read that bi-lingually to me.

[Eiseabhal]

You mean in German and Gaelic Ennison? I think it is a sign of age to like the idea of someone reading to you. I have pile of books here which I am unlikely to get round to reading ( Why are they here then?) but every week I find my interest piqued by another text. It is an unsatisfiable urge.

[YesNo]

It occurred to me that maybe a list of famous books that one should not bother reading before one dies would be useful. But that might be implied in a list of books one must read. Everything not on that list of must-reads one shouldn't bother reading.

[Pompey Bum]

It occurred to me that maybe a list of famous books that one should not bother reading before one dies would be useful. But that might be implied in a list of books one must read.

Brilliant idea, YN! I've even devised a rating system.

The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell :puke::puke::puke::puke:

A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel :puke::puke:

A Tale For the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki :puke::puke::puke:

A Brief History of Seven Kilings by Marlon James :puke::puke::puke::puke:

The Kills by Richard House :puke::puke::puke:

[milagros]

Hello: I think that Harold Bloom's List is a good beginning and guide.