Essential books everyone should read

[Violet Crown]

1 hour ago, Katy said:

A literature professor I had said the concept of literary skill is more about the conversation an author is having with allusions to the writers who have gone before than it is about talent.  IE: the author must be educated about literature and still say something original.

You didn't study under Harold Bloom by any chance?

[Lady Florida.]

2 hours ago, Quill said:

I remember as a child, Les Miserables was one of the books on my dad’s bookcase. I was probably around 7 years old. I was intrgued by the cover but kept reading it as “Less Miserables.” Like some people were less miserable than others. 

A friend of mine from France said that Les Miserables is taught from second grade - so somewhere around age 7. At least it was when she was in school in France; she's in her 40s now. She said they start with very simple stuff about Jean Valjean stealing bread and just keep it age appropriate. They add a bit more each year. By the time they're in the U.S. equivalent of high school and have to read the entire unabridged novel, the story is pretty familiar to them. 

[Robin M]

7 hours ago, Violet Crown said:

Should there be a step back to ask, Why should people read certain books? What presumably universal good do we want them to gain?

Great question. Because certain books expose people to ideas and morals and cultures of the past from which we learn and grow and expand our knowledge.  Not everyone is going to learn the same thing from the same book.    And I think the context, the time within the book was written needs to taken strongly into account. There are a lot of classics that can't be judged by today's standards. However, they have served as a stepping stone to understanding the past and ways folks may need to change in the present or future. There is much to learn from history.

Poisonwood Bible for example   has stuck with me for a long time.  I looked back at notes I had written.  Nathan Price, knowing nothing about the Congo or its people, is determined to start a church and save all the natives. While Nathan insists on the natives conforming to his view of the world, Orleana and her daughters do their best to survive, learning about the world they now are forced to reside it. The villagers are the ones that end up teaching the Prices about life, individuality, liberty, and death. 

[Violet Crown]

2 hours ago, Lady Florida. said:

A friend of mine from France said that Les Miserables is taught from second grade - so somewhere around age 7. At least it was when she was in school in France; she's in her 40s now. She said they start with very simple stuff about Jean Valjean stealing bread and just keep it age appropriate. They add a bit more each year. By the time they're in the U.S. equivalent of high school and have to read the entire unabridged novel, the story is pretty familiar to them. 

I'm passing that on to Middle Girl, who was just assigned the abridged Les Misérables. See kid, you're up to maybe third or fourth grade level! 

StellaM, I really like that bit about recognition and expansion of the self. But my training made me allergic to including the "author" in there anywhere.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Lady Florida. said:

A friend of mine from France said that Les Miserables is taught from second grade - so somewhere around age 7. At least it was when she was in school in France; she's in her 40s now. She said they start with very simple stuff about Jean Valjean stealing bread and just keep it age appropriate. They add a bit more each year. By the time they're in the U.S. equivalent of high school and have to read the entire unabridged novel, the story is pretty familiar to them. 

I do think it’s good to handle the BABs this way. I had a bunch of the Shakespeare for Kids books with this in mind. 

[Violet Crown]

7 minutes ago, StellaM said:

 

Oh, why is that ? Interested. 

One the one hand, I feel a connection with many authors, through their texts. On the other hand, I know that the author I feel connected to is one that was created by me, in response to reading, and may bear no resemblance to the person of the author. Gosh, it's complicated.

The department where I did my undergrad studies was dominated by (post-)New Criticism and Barthes. Your idea of self-creation of the "author" (Barthes would say "scriptor") seems to have something in common with Reader Response Criticism, where the constructed intention of the author is a significant part of interpretation. You might find Stanley Fish interesting to read, if a little dated (not that I think "dated" is a bad thing necessarily).

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Robin M said:

Great question. Because certain books expose people to ideas and morals and cultures of the past from which we learn and grow and expand our knowledge.  Not everyone is going to learn the same thing from the same book.    And I think the context, the time within the book was written needs to taken strongly into account. There are a lot of classics that can't be judged by today's standards. However, they have served as a stepping stone to understanding the past and ways folks may need to change in the present or future. There is much to learn from history.

Poisonwood Bible for example   has stuck with me for a long time.  I looked back at notes I had written.  Nathan Price, knowing nothing about the Congo or its people, is determined to start a church and save all the natives. While Nathan insists on the natives conforming to his view of the world, Orleana and her daughters do their best to survive, learning about the world they now are forced to reside it. The villagers are the ones that end up teaching the Prices about life, individuality, liberty, and death. 

Yes...I think when I think “everyone” should read a particular book, or even just thinking my kids should, it is because I hope they would draw the lessons from it that I did, or that are possible. 

There is also a secondary goal, which is to be part of The Conversation. It’s always nice to know where the reference is coming from when someone says the Headmaster is as charming as Delores Umbridge. Of course there will be references made sometimes that fly right over my head - any of the Star Wars prequels are lost on me - but it’s certainly nice to be on the interior of the knowledge base. For books, at least. 

[LMD]

19 minutes ago, Quill said:

I do think it’s good to handle the BABs this way. I had a bunch of the Shakespeare for Kids books with this in mind. 

Isn't this basically what SWB says irt Homer/ancient texts? It's one of the first ideas that wooed me to classical homeschooling. After sitting in my literature lectures and the professor ranting at us because no-one knew anything about Dante, Milton, homer...

Fahrenheit 451 was a bit meh for me. I can see why they use it as a shorter/easier 1984 for high schoolers. It had some interesting ideas and a couple of striking scenes, but I think if you read 1984 first it really doesn't pack the same punch iykwim.

I loved moby dick. I thought it was lovely. I did it on audio book though!

On the too young thing, I'm guilty of that with my oldest too and try hard to not do it anymore! Dd read TKAM this year age 13. She picked it up herself and I wasn't involved at all. Apparently, it took her a long time to get the white and black characters straight in her head! I don't know what that says about us, but she didn't immediately/easily pick up on the stereotype characterisations...

[Violet Crown]

18 minutes ago, Quill said:

Yes...I think when I think “everyone” should read a particular book, or even just thinking my kids should, it is because I hope they would draw the lessons from it that I did, or that are possible. 

There is also a secondary goal, which is to be part of The Conversation. It’s always nice to know where the reference is coming from when someone says the Headmaster is as charming as Delores Umbridge. Of course there will be references made sometimes that fly right over my head - any of the Star Wars prequels are lost on me - but it’s certainly nice to be on the interior of the knowledge base. For books, at least. 

Right, while I'm poking my nose in recommending authors, I assume you've read E. D. Hirsch? If you haven't, you'd like him. His ideas about cultural knowledge have a lot of resonance for homeschoolers.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Violet Crown said:

Right, while I'm poking my nose in recommending authors, I assume you've read E. D. Hirsch? If you haven't, you'd like him. His ideas about cultural knowledge have a lot of resonance for homeschoolers.

Yes, I did once have several E.D. Hirsch books. I did often think it was maybe especially necessary for an always-homeschooled kid to not be lost on cultural knowledge. That used to be a more common assumption about homeschoolers than it seems to now be - that homeschoolers don’t know what Pokèmon is and were never allowed to read Harry Potter. 

[LMD]

They know what Pokemon is, it's eeeeeeeevil! My kids play Pokemon cards and we get a decent amount of side eye for it from certain quarters lol.

[Guest]

51 minutes ago, LMD said:

They know what Pokemon is, it's eeeeeeeevil! My kids play Pokemon cards and we get a decent amount of side eye for it from certain quarters lol.

I once heard two kid debating about HP in my co-op art class. 

The one was like, “I’m not allowed to read or watch Harry Potter because it’s magic.” 

The other said, “But you read the Hobbit and that is magic, too.”

Can’t fault that logic! 

[happi duck]

On 11/17/2018 at 8:01 PM, happi duck said:

Neither Wolf Nor Dog: On Forgotten Roads With an Indian Elder by Kent Nerburn

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Eta: these are my favorite books

These happen to be my favorite books that I reread every few years but I also listed them because I feel they can change, for the better, how people treat other people.

[Kareni]

On 11/17/2018 at 6:47 PM, Quill said:

...my favorite money book of all time is Your Money of Your Life by Joe Dominguez ...

The above is a book that really spoke to my husband.

I don't have a list of essential books that EVERYONE should read; I can just hope that we each read something that resonates with us.

Regards,
Kareni

[DoraBora]

The Tales Christ Told  Beautifully and simply written, April Armstrong adds historical context and descriptive details to make Jesus' parables come alive.  I adore this book because it is accessible to school aged children and to adults.  (The scripture references for each parable appear as footnotes on the first page of each parable.)

The Chosen  I also loved Asher Lev

Don't Waste Your Life  John Piper's call for us to remember how brief and precious is our time on earth

Knocking on Heaven's Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death  I read Being Mortal, and found it to be very helpful, but Katy Butler's book about her experiences with her ailing father (and the very different end-of-life choices her mother made) struck a chord with me.  It is so easy to fall into the trap of medically prolonging life and suffering.  There's a checklist of sorts at the end of the book about things you can do to support aging family members (or to remember for your own old age).  Very practical.

Miss Read books -- For anyone who enjoys Mitford books, these novels are set in England during the 20th century.  They feature far less specifically Christian content, but they are clean and enjoyable.

[HS Mom in NC]

Lots of good stuff a has already been listed.  I'll add mostly to the non-fiction section.

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande is about elder dependence and end of life issues that everyone faces as the dependent but many also deal with as caretakers.  One very important takeaway is that what a person says they want at those stages can be very different at 60 than it is at 75.

They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-1945 by Milton Mayer is about long ingrained prejudice in a culture and how it plays itself out under certain conditions. A caution against getting dragged out into the cultural tide.
 

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown is a book about carefully setting and focusing on a few priorities and letting go of everything else, and so relevant to today's society.  It's set in a business and personal context, but the principles are universally transferable. 

So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love by Cal Newport is about what actually makes people successful and competitive in the job market.

Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster is about the biblical practices of Christian meditation, prayer, fasting, study, simplicity, solitude, submission, service, confession, worship, guidance, and celebration. There are other companion materials for more personal application.

Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis is wonderfully entertaining and poignant while being so dang insightful and convicting for Christian living. The enemy is subtle.

I read the Asher Lev books as a teen/young adult and loved them.  The Solzhenitsyn books listed upthread impacted me too. Dave Ramsay is really worth reading-I gave my older kids Total Money Makeover in their late teens. Hillbilly Elegy was an eye opener.

I agree that the abridged/simpler narrative versions of weightier works are very helpful in laying a solid foundation.
 

[Terabith]

On 11/19/2018 at 8:11 AM, moonflower said:

Some books I think I spoiled by reading too early (or being required to read too early).  I read Fahrenheit 451 I think in like 5th grade?  Or 6th, maybe.  I didn't love it then, thought it was too scary.  Really I don't think it's a children's book, ideally.

I read Fahrenheit 451 in ninth grade, I think, and I think I was ready for it then.  I don't know that my current ninth grader would be, however.  But, I agree that I think often kids are asked to read books too young.  In a lot of cases, even high school is too young.  

That said, I read 1984 over and over and over, starting in sixth grade or so.  It really resonated with me at a deep level.  I'm not sure what it was, but it spoke to me.  The list of what has meant a lot to me changes a lot over time.  I was an English major and I've read and loved a lot of classics, but the books that sparked my soul are often embarassingly juvenile.  Lot of children's books, lot of science fiction and fantasy.  I got stuff out of reading the classics, but with a few exceptions (1984, To Kill a Mockingbird, poetry) most of it was just cultural literacy.  Some were great stories.  Great writing.  But not touching my heart stuff.  

[Guest]

I’m selfishly bumping this because I’m happy for continued contributions. 🙂