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Homer. Shakespeare. Tolstoy. Orwell. Arendt. Morrison.
Ask instead: 1️⃣ Which one shaped my thinking the most? (For me: 1984 ) 2️⃣ Which one am I intimidated by? ( Ulysses … still) 3️⃣ Which one doesn’t belong on the list? (Let the debate begin.) 100 most important books
The goal is to understand why those 100 books survive .
They aren’t just "good reads." They are: ✅ Mirrors that show us who we are (Dostoevsky). ✅ Maps that explain how we got here (Adam Smith, Marx, de Beauvoir). ✅ Weapons that challenge power (Douglass, Wollstonecraft, Solzhenitsyn). ✅ Windows into worlds we’ll never physically visit (García Márquez, Achebe). 👇 Homer
It’s noticing which voices were left out. (Only 15 women? Only 5 non-Western authors on that old list?)
At first, I felt the familiar pang of inadequacy. I’ve only read about 30 of them. Orwell
What’s the #1 book you believe is MISSING from most "100 most important" lists? If you want the actual list I referenced, comment “LIST” and I’ll DM it. But honestly? Build your own. That’s the real education.
But then I realized: the goal isn’t to finish the list.
It’s realizing that importance is subjective. A book that changed your life might not make the canon.