Best list I’ve found by far is at the following link:



It’s a weighted list-of-lists from critics, readers, fellow authors. I’m about 70% of the way through it right now. My favorites so far:

* War and Peace (Prince Andrey probably my favorite character ever)
* The Sun Also Rises (Hemingway’s writing style is so simple and understated)
* Beloved (I never fully thought about the horrors of slavery for families and mothers until I read this book)
* Lolita (saddest and most disturbing book I’ve ever read, but extremely well-written)
* The Brothers Karamazov (Doestevsky’s sense of humor is awesome and his philosophy is brilliant)
* Madame Bovary (I hadn’t even heard of this book until I found this list; super well-written)

In college, I always used to think the Mount Everest of books was War and Peace, then I came to realize that many considered it to be Ulysses, and now I realize it’s Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. I’m saving that one for last...