Summary: (sorry, it’s more than 5)
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
- Traveling with the Secret Seven by Enid Blyton
- The Famous Five by Enid Blyton
- Harry Potter (all) by J.K. Rowling
- Goose Bumps by R.L. Stine
- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
- The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
- Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
- The Count of Monte Cristos by Alexandre Dumas
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Also, I’d state the above aren’t necessarily my top picks, but more picks that would suit a wide-range of people: young to old.
Let’s start off by picking a work of fiction, I’d have to settle on The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Every child should go through the phase of reading the works of Enid Blyton. Traveling with the Secret Seven and the Famous Five should be a part of everyone’s childhood. At the end of the journey should be the Harry Potter books waiting to be devoured with awe, happiness, and of course - some tears. Hey, even something as simplistic as Goose Bumps was pivotal in paving my passion for literature.
The teenager should read different varieties of books - crime, thriller, comedy, basically any books written for teenagers. I believe these are the books that shape a person into what they are growing up to be. Adolescent years are there to explore the soft side and the rebellious side and the vulnerable side of oneself through such books. I would suggest books like The Alchemist, The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged etc.
In the prime of youth, after a few failures in life and regretting a lot of choices in college, after realizing that living according to the extreme philosophies of a lot of the books from one’s teenage is silly, one should move on to the classical works - The Count of Monte Cristos and the To Kill a Mocking Bird to truly appreciate the quality of writing. One should laugh at the actions of Jeeves in the works of PG Wodehouse and revel in the seriousness and beauty of Nabokov’s Lolita. Though I am not a fan of dark and serious books, I would recommend spending time reading books on the deepest of human psyche to understand and become a better person.
Then, one should clean the dust off their bookshelf and retrieve the old set of Calvin and Hobbes to read it once again hoping to experience childhood only to realize it applies to life as it exists on that day and remember to put it away for a future reading. I can’t pick the books for you. This was all what I wish I had done better.
However, the one thing that keeps coming to me is the importance of History. Every single person who can get their hands on a book should spend time learning history. I understand schools may teach you history, but that is nowhere close to the history of the world. History teaches culture and how culture changes with time. It teaches us the causes and consequences of wars. It teaches us how it isn’t just wars that cause trouble, but even economic problems. More importantly, it will educate a person on mankind and how we are all very much the same.