College Bound Reading List
This was compiled from several prominent lists. I suspect that some entries are based on the preferences of the original list composer rather than universal agreement (I certainly don’t agree with all entries and would have added others), but this is a beginning for those interested in advanced reading.
Abelove, JoanGo and Come Back
Achebe, ChinuaThings Fall Apart
Ackerman, DianeA Natural History of the Senses
Adams, DouglasA Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Adams, HenryThe Education of Henry Adams
Adams, RichardWatership Down
Addison, JosephCommerce of Everyday Life
Adler, SabineLovers in Art
AeschylusThe Oresteia, Eumenides, Lysistrata, Prometheus Bound
AesopFables
Agee, JamesA Death in the Family, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
Albee, EdwardWho’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Zoo Story, The Sandbox
Albom, MitchTuesdays with Morrie
Alcott, Louisa MayLittle Women, The Inheritance
Alexander, CarolineThe Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition
Alexie, ShermanThe Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Reservation Blues…
Alighieri, DanteThe Inferno, The Divine Comedy
Allende, IsabelHouse of the Spirits, Daughter of Fortune
Allison, DorothyBastard Out of Carolina, Two or Three Things I Know for Sure
Alter, PeterGenesis
Alvarez, JuliaHow the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, In the Time of Butterflies
Ambrose, Stephen E.D-Day, Undaunted Courage, Citizen Soldiers…
Amis, KingsleyLucky Jim
Amis, MartinMoney
Anaya, RudolfoBless Me, Ultima, Serafina’s Stories
Anderson, Laurie HalseSpeak
Anderson, M. T. Feed
Anderson, SherwoodWinesburg, Ohio
Angelou, MayaI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, And Still I Rise
AnonymousBeowulf
Ansary, TamimWest of Kabul-East of New York
Anzaldua, GloriaBorderlands
ApolloConcrete Candy
Armstrong, KarenThe Battle for God
Arnold, MatthewCulture and Anarchy
Arnow, HarrietThe Dollmaker
Aronson, MarcWitch Hunt: Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials
Ashe, Arthur Days of Grace
Attenborough, DavidThe Living Planet: A Portrait of the Earth
Atwood, MargaretThe Handmaid’s Tale, The Blind Assassin, Cat’s Eye, Alias Grace,
Surfacing
Auden, W. H. Poems
Auel, Jean M.Clan of the Cave Bear
Austen, JanePride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, MansfieldPark
Azimov, IsaacI Robot, Foundation series
Baca, Jimmy SantiagoCry
Bach, RichardIllusions
Bagdasarian, AdamForgotten Fire
Bahrampour, TaraTo See and See Again
Baker, RussellGrowing Up
Baldwin, JamesGo Tell It On the Mountain, The Fire Next Time, Another Country
Ballard, AllenWhere I’m Bound
Balzac, Honore dePere Goriot
Bambara, Toni CadeGorill, My Love
Banks, RussellCloudsplitter, Continental Drift, Rule of the Bone
Baraka, Amiri Dutchman
Barker, PatRegeneration
Barth, JohnThe Sot-Weed Factor
Bates, Karen GrigsbyPlain Brown Wrapper
Beckett, SamuelWaiting for Godot
Beerbohm, MaxZuleika Dobson
Bell, WilliamForbidden City
Bellamy, EdwardLooking Backward: 200-1887
Belloli, Andrea P.Exploring World Art
Bellow, SaulSeize the Day, The Adventures of Augie March, Henderson the Rain King, Humboldt’s Gift, Herzog
Benet, RosemaryJohnny Appleseed
Bennett, ArnoldThe Old Wives’ Tale
Berenbaum, MichaelThe World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust as Told in the US
Berg, A. ScottLindbergh
Berger, ThomasLittle Big Man
Bernstein Carl & WoodwardAll the President’s Men
Berry, WendellLife is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition
Best, JoelDamned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from Media…
Bird, IsabellaA Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains
Bishop, ElizabethThe Complete Poems
Bissinger, H. G.Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream
Blake, WilliamSongs of Innocence and Experience, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Tiger Tiger
Bloch, Ariel and ChanaThe Song of Songs
Bolt, RobertA Man for All Seasons
Borges, Jorge LuisLabyrinths
Boswell, JamesThe Life of Samuel Jonson, Boswell’s London Journal
Boulle, PierreBridge Over the River Kwai
Bowen, Catherine DrinkerMiracle at Philadelphia
Bowen, ElizabethThe Death of the Heart
Bowles, PaulThe Sheltering Sky
Boyle, T. C. Tortilla Curtain
Bradbury, RayFahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Illustrated Man
Bradford, RichardRed Sky at Morning
Bradshaw, GillianThe Sand Reckoner
Bradstreet, AnneWorks of Anne Bradstreet
BrassaiBrassai: Letters to My Parents
Brathwaite, Edward KamauRoots
Brecht, BertoltMother Courage and Her Children
Bronowski, JacobThe Ascent of Man, Science and Human Values
Bronte, CharlotteJane Eyre
Bronte, EmilyWutheringHeights
Brooks, GwendolynSelected Poemjs
Brown, DavidInventing Modern America: From Microwave to the Mouse
Brown, DeeBury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Browning, RobertMy Last Duchess
Bryant, William C. Thanatopsis
Bryson, BillA Short History of Nearly Everything
Buck, Pearl S. The Good Earth
Bulosan, CarlosAmerica is in the Heart
Bunyan, JohnPilgrim’s Progress
Burgess, AnthonyA Clockwork Orange
Burnett, Frances HodgsonThe SecretGarden
Burroughs, William S. Naked Lunch
Butler, OctaviaParable of the Talents, Kindred
Butler, SamuelThe Way of All Flesh
Byatt, A. S.Possession
Caesar, JuliusGallic Wars
Cain, James M.The Postman Always Rings Twice
Caldwell, ErskineTobacco Road
Calvino, ItaloInvisibleCities, The Baron in the Trees
Campbell, JosephThe Power of Myth
Camus, AlbertThe Stranger, The Fall, The Plague
Canada, GeoffreyFist Stick Knife gun
Cao, LanMonkeyBridge
Capote, TrumanIn Cold Blood
Card, Orson ScottEnder’s Game, Sarah
Carlyle, ThomasFrench Revolution: A History
Carroll, JimBasketball Diaries
Carroll, LewisAlice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Carson, RachelSilent Spring, The Sea Around Us
Carver, RaymondCathedral
Castellanos, RosarioThe Nine Guardians
Castillo, AnaSo Far from God
Cather, WillaMy Antonia, Death Comes for the Archbishop, O Pioneers
CatullusPoems
Cervantes, Miguel deDon Quixote
Chambers, AidanPostcards from No Man’s Land
Chandler, RaymondThe Big Sleep
Chang, JungWild Swans: Three Daughters of China
Chaucer, GeoffreyThe Canterbury Tales
Chbosky, StephenThe Perks of Being a Wallflower
Cheever, JohnThe Wapshot Scandal, Stories of John Cheever, Falconer
Chekov, AntonThe Cherry Orchard
Chesteron, G. K.The Innocence o Father Brown
Chevalier, TracyGirl with a Pearl Earring
Chin, FrankDonald Duk
Chopin, KateThe Awakening
Christie, AgathaThe Mousetrap and Other Plays, Mysterious Affair at Styles
Churchill, WinstonThe Crisis, The Gathering Storm
Chute, MarchetteShakespeare of London
Cisneros, SandraHouse on Mango Street, Caramelo
Clancy, TomThe Hunt for Red October
Clark, Walter van TilburgThe Ox-Bow Incident
Clavell, JamesShogun
Clift, EleanorFounding Sisters and the Nineteenth Amendment
Coelho, PauloThe Alchemist
Coleridge, Samuel TaylorThe Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Collins, WilkieThe Moonstone
Colon, JesusThe Way it Was and Other Writings
Colton, LarryCounting Coup: A True Story of Basketball and Honor on the …
Congreve, WilliamThe Way of the World
Connell, EvanDeus Lo Volt: Chronicle of the Crusades
Conover, TedNewjack: Guarding Sing Sing
Conrad, JosephHeart of Darkness, Lord Jim, Victory, The Secret Agent, Nostromo
Conroy, PatPrince of Tides, The Water is Wide
Conway, Jill KerrThe Road from Coorain
Cooke, AlisairAlistair Cooke’s America
Cooper, James FenimoreThe Last of the Mohicans, The Deerslayer
Corio, DavidThe Black Chord
Cormier, RobertThe Chocolate War, After the First Death
Corso, PhilipThe Day After Roswell
Corwin, MilesAnd Still We Rise: The Trials and Triumphs of Twelve Gifted…
Crane, StephenThe Red Badge of Courage, Maggie: Girl of the Streets
Craven, MargaretI Heard the Owl Call My Name
Crichton, MichaelJurassicPark
Criddle, Jan D.To Destroy You Is No Loss: The Odyssey of a Cambodian Family
Crow Dog, MaryLakota Woman
Crutcher, ChrisWhale Talk
Cummings, E. E. Complete Poems 104-1962
Cuomo, Kerry KennedySpeak Truth to Power: Human Rights Defenders Who Are Changing…
Curie, EveMadame Curie
Dai, SijieBalzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Dana, Richard HenryTwo Years Before the Mast
Dangarembga, TsitsiNervous Conditions
Danticat, EdwidgeBreath, Eyes, Memory, The Farming of Bones
Darwin, CharlesThe Origin of Species
Davies, RobertsonFifth Business, The Cunning Man, Cornish Trilogy
Davis, WadeLight at the Edge of the World: A Journey Through the Realm of …
de CrevecoeurLetters from an American Farmer
Defoe, DanielRobinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders
Delany, Sara and A. ElizabethHaving Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years
de Lint, CharlesTrader, Memory and Dream, Yarrow, Someplace to be Flying…
DeLillo, DonWhite Noise
Dershowitz, Alan M.Why Terrorism Works: Understanding the Threat, Responding to …
Diamant, AnitaThe Red Tent
Diamond, JaredGuns, Germs, and Steel
Dick, PhilipMan in the HighCastle
Dickens, CharlesGreat Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, Bleak House, David Copperfield, Hard Times, Our Mutual Friend…
Dickey, JamesDeliverance
Dickinson, EmilyThe Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson
Didion, JoanEssays, Play It As It Lays
Dillard, AnniePilgrim at Tinker Creek
DiLampedusa, GiuseppeThe Leopard
Dinesen, IsaakOut of Africa
DiPrima, DianeRecollections of My Life as a Woman: The New York Years
Doctorow, E. L.Ragtime
Donleavy, J. P.The Giner Man
Donne, JohnThe Complete Poetry of John Donne
Doolittle, H. D. HildaHelen in Egypt
Dostoevsky, FeodorCrime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov
Dorris, MichaelA Yellow Raft in Blue Water
Douglass, FrederickNarrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Dove, RitaOn the Bus with Rosa Parks
Doyle, Arthur ConanThe Hound of the Baskervilles, Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Doyle, RoddyPaddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
Doyle, WilliamAn American Insurrection: The Battle of OxfordMississippi 1962
Dreiser, TheodoreAn American Tragedy, Sister Carrie
Dry, RichardLeaving
du Beavoir, SimoneThe Second Sex
DuBois, W. E. B.The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches
Dumas, AlexandreThe Three Musketeers, The Man in the Iron Mask, Count of Monte Cristo
Du Maurier, DaphneRebecca
Dunn, KatherineGeek Love
Durant, WillStory of Philsophy
Durrell, LawrenceThe Alexandria Quartet
Ebenstein, AlanToday’s Isms
Eddison, E. R. The Worm Ouroboros
Edmonds, E. G. Trickster Stories
Eggers, DaveA Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Ehrenreich, BarbaraNickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
Eliot, GeorgeThe Mill on the Floss, Adam Bede, Middlemarch, Silas Marner
Eliot, T. S.The WasteLand, Murder in the Cathedral, Notes Toward…
Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Elliott, StephenA Life Without Consequences
Ellis, Joseph J.Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation
Ellison, RalphInvisible Man
Emecheta, BuchiBride Price
Emerson, Ralph WaldoSelf Reliance and Other Essays
Enzensberger, HansThe Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure
Epstein, NorrieFriendly Shakespeare
Erdrich, LouiseThe Beet Queen, Tracks, Love Medicine, Antelope Wife
Escandon, Maria AmparoEsperanza’s Box of Saints
Esquivel, LauraLike Water for Chocolate
EuripedesMedea
Fadiman, AnnThe Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
Fagan, BryanThe Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History 1300-1850
Farrell, James T.The Studs Lonigan Trilogy
Faulkner, WilliamAs I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury, Light in August, Bear,
Absalom-Absalom, The Unvanquished, Intruder in the Dust, Go Down
Moses, The Reivers
Faulks, SebastianBirdsong
Ferlinghetti, LawrenceEndless Life
Feynman, RichardWhat Do You Care What People Think?
Fielding, HelenBridget Jones’s Diary
Fielding, HenryTom Jones, Joseph Andrews
Fitch, JanetWhite Oleander
Fitzgerald, F. ScottThe Great Gatsby, Tender is the Night, Babylon Revisited
Flagg, FannieFried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café
Flannery, SarahIn Code: A Mathematical Journey
Flaubert, GustaveMadame Bovary
Flexnor, EleanorA Century of Struggle: The Woman’s Rights Movement in the US
Ford, Ford MadoxThe Good Soldier, Parade’s End
Ford, RichardThe Sportswriter
Forster, E. M.A Passage to India, Howard’s End, A Room with a View
Foster, ThomasHow to Read Literature Like a Professor
Fowles, JohnThe French Lieutenant’s Woman, The Magus
Fox, PaulaBorrowed Finery
Frank, AnneThe Diary of a Young Girl
Frank, E. R.Life is Funny
Frank, FrederickWhat Does It Mean to be Human?
Frank, MitchUnderstanding September 11, Answering Questions about the Attacks on America
Frank, PatAlas, Babylon
Franklin, BenjaminThe Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Frazier, CharlesColdMountain
French, AblertBilly
Friedan, BettyThe Feminine Mystique
Friel, BrianDancing at Lughnasa
Frost, RobertThe Poetry of Robert Frost
Fuentes, CarlosThe Death of Artemio Cruz
Fugard, AtholMaster Harold…and the Boys
Gaarder, JosteinSophie’s World
Gaddis, WilliamThe Recognitions
GhandiNon-violent Resistance
Gaiman, NeilAmerican Gods
Gaines, ErnestThe Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, A Lesson Before Dying,
A Gathering of Old Men
Galarza, ErnestoBarrio Boy
Galeano, EduardoOpen Veins of Latin America
Galsworthy, JohnThe Forsyte Saga
Garcia, CristinaDreaming in Cuban
Garcia Marquez, GabrielOne Hundred Years of Solitude
Gardner, JohnGrendel
Garfunkel, TrudyOn Wings of Joy: The Story of Ballet from the 16th Century to Today
Garland, AlexThe Beach
Gates Jr., Henry LouisThe Bondwoamn’s Narrative by Hannah Crafts
Geras, AdeleTroy
Ghosh, AmitavThe GlassPalace
Gibran, KahlilThe Prophet
Gibson, WilliamNeuromancer
Ginsberg, AllenHowl and Other Poems
Giovanni, NikkiMy House
Glancy, DianeStone Heart: A Novel of Sacajawea
Glaspell, SusanTrifles
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang vonFaust
Gogol, NikolaiThe Overcoat, Dead Souls
Goldberg, MylaBee Season
Golding, WilliamLord of the Flies, The Inheritors
Goldman, WilliamThe Princess Bride
Goldsmith, OliverShe Stoops to Conquer, The Vicar of Wakefield
Gordimer, NadineJuly’s People
Gordon, George (Lord Byron)Lord Byron: Poems
Gordon, NeilThe Company You Keep
Gordon, SheilaWaiting for the Rain
Gould, Stephen JayThe Hedgehog, The Fox, and the Magister’s Pox: Mending the…
Gourevitch, PhilipWe Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will be Killed…
Grass, GunterThe Tin Drum
Graves, RobertI Claudius
Green, HenryLoving
Greenberg, JanHeart to Heart: New Poems Inspired by Twentieth Century Am. Art
Greenberg, JoanneI Never Promised You a Rose Garden
Greene, GrahamBrighton Rock, The Heart of the Matter, The Power and the Glory, The Third Man
Grey, ZaneRiders of the Purple Sage
Griffin, John HowardBlack Like Me
Guest, JudithOrdinary People
Gunther, JohnDeath Be Not Proud
Guterson, DavidSnow Falling on Cedars, East of the Mountains
Haddon, MarkThe Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Hagedorn, JessicaDogeaters
Halaby, LailaWest of the Jordan
Haley, AlexRoots, The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Hamilton, AlexanderThe Federalist, Federalist Papers
Hamilton, EdithMythology
Hamilton, JaneA Map of the World, The Book of Ruth
Hamilton, Laurell K. Guilty Pleasures
Hammett, DashiellThe Maltese Falcon, Red Harvest
Hamper, BenRivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line
Hansberry, LorraineA Raisin in the Sun
Hanse, Drew D. The Dream: Martin Luther King Jur. and the Speech that Inspired a…
Hardy, ThomasTess of the D’Urbervilles, The Return of the Native, Jude the
Obscure, Mayor of Casterbridge…
Harjo, JoyHow We Became Human
Harper, HennGive Me My Father’s Body: The Life of Minik, the New York Eskimo
Hart, Elva TrevinoThe Barefoot Heart: Stories of a Migrant Child
Hart, H. L. A.The Concept of Law
Hatch, JohnMississippiSwamp
Hawking, StephenA Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes, The Universe in a Nutshell
Hawthorne, NathanielThe Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables
Hayden, Torey L.Ghost Girl, Somebody Else’s Kids
Hays, DavidMy Old Man and the Sea: A Father and Son Sail Around Cape Horn
Hazlitt, WilliamTable-Talk: Essays on Men and Manners
Heame, VickiAdam’s Task: Calling Animals by Name
Heaney, SeamusThe Cure at Troy: A Version of Sophocles’ Philoctetes, Opened Ground
Heat-Moon, Williams LeastBlue Highways, Columbus in the Americas
Hedges, ChrisWar is a Force that Gives Us Meaning
Heilbroner, RobertWorldly Philosophers
Heinlein, RobertStrangers in a Strange Land, The Door into Summer, Puppet Masters
Hellenga, RobertThe Sixteen Pleasures
Heller, JosephCatch-22
Hellman, LillianThe Little Foxes, Watch on the Rhine, The Children’s Hour, Pentimento
Hemingway, ErnestA Farewell to Arms, The Old Man and the Sea, The Sun Also Rises,
For Whom the Bell Tolls, Islands in the Stream
Henry, O.Stories
Herbert, FrankDune
Herbert, GeorgeThe Complete English Poems
Herriott, JamesAll Creatures Great and Small
Hersey, JohnHiroshima, A Single Pebble
Hesse, HermannSiddhartha, Demian, Steppenwolf
Hillengrand, LauraSeabicuit
Hilton, JamesGood-bye Mr. Chips, Lost Horizon
Himes, ChesterYesterday Will Make You Cry
Hoffer, EricTrue Believer
Holdstock, RobertMythago Wood
Holliday, LaurelChildren of Israel, Children of Palestine: Our Own True Stories
Holthe, Tess UrizaWhen Elephants Dance
HomerThe Iliad, The Odyssey
Hongo, GarrettYellow Light: Poems
Hornby, NickHigh Fidelity
Horvitz, Leswlie A. Eureka! Scientific Breakthroughs that Changed the World
Hosseini, KhaledThe Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns
Howe, PeterShooting Under Fire: The World of the War Photographer
Hoyt, Erich & Ted SchultzInsect Lives
Hudson, W. H.Green Mansions
Hughes, RichardA High Wind in Jamaica
Hughes, LangstonSelected Poems, Short Stories, The Ways of White Folks
Hugo, VictorThe Hunchback of Notre Dame, Les Miserables
Hulme, KeriThe bone People
Hurston, Zora NealeTheir Eyes Were Watching God, Dust Tracks on a Road, Mules and Men
Huxley, AldousBrave New World, Point Counter Point
Hwang, David HenryM. Butterfly
Ibsen, HenrikA Doll’s House, An Enemy of the People, Hedda Gabler, Ghosts, Wild
Duck, Peer Gynt
Irving, JohnA Prayer for Owen Meany, The World According to Garp
Isherwood, ChristopherThe Berlin Stories
Ishiguro, KazuoThe Remains of the Day, Never Let Me Go
Jackson, PhilSacred Hoops
Jackson, ShirleyThe Haunting of Hill House, The Lottery
Jacobs, HarrietIncidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
James, HenryThe Portrait of a Lady, The Turn of the Screw, Daisy Miller, The American, Washington Square, The Aspern Papers, Wings of the Dove,
The Ambassadors, The Golden Bowl
Jen, GishTypical American
Jewett, Sarah OrneCountry of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories
Jin, HaWaiting
Johnson, CharlesMiddle Passage
Johnson, James WeldonAutobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
Jones, JamesFrom Here to Eternity
Jones, LeRoiBlues People
Jonson, BenVolpone
Joravsky, BenHoop Dreams
Joyce, JamesA Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses, Dubliners, The Dead, Finegan’s Wake
Kafka, FranzThe Trial, The Metamorphosis, The Castle, The Caretaker
Kaplow, RobertMe and Orson Welles
Karlsen, CarolThe Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England