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Will Durant's 100 Books: An Update

Description: In 1929, Will Durant compiled a list of 100 books that a person ought to read for a well-rounded education. This list is an attempt to update Durant's list with a more modern selection, and will try to cover the same breadth of knowledge while remaining accessible.
Members: 4 participating members
YeastOfEden, ManWithAnAgenda, ahef1963, dandalf

Rank Title Author Added

1

The Portable Shakespeare: Seven Plays, the Songs, the Sonnets, Selections from the Other Plays

by William Shakespeare

301 members

4.2

3 Members: ahef1963, YeastOfEden, ManWithAnAgenda

2

Things Fall Apart

by Chinua Achebe

19,923 members

423 reviews

3.8

3 Members: ahef1963, YeastOfEden, ManWithAnAgenda

3

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

by Yuval Noah Harari

11,264 members

357 reviews

4.2

2 Members: ahef1963, YeastOfEden

4

The Story of Art

by E. H. Gombrich

4,520 members

36 reviews

½ 4.3

2 Members: YeastOfEden, dandalf

5

The Divine Comedy

by Dante Alighieri

20,774 members

181 reviews

4.1

2 Members: YeastOfEden, ManWithAnAgenda

6

by God

1,895 members

47 reviews

½ 4.4

2 Members: ahef1963, YeastOfEden

7

by Marcus Aurelius

13,518 members

136 reviews

4.1

2 Members: YeastOfEden, ManWithAnAgenda

8

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome

4,251 members

83 reviews

4.1

2 Members: YeastOfEden, ManWithAnAgenda

9

by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

29,480 members

428 reviews

4.1

2 Members: YeastOfEden, ManWithAnAgenda

10

23,308 members

333 reviews

4

2 Members: ahef1963, YeastOfEden

11

27,657 members

427 reviews

½ 4.3

2 Members: YeastOfEden, ManWithAnAgenda

12

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

4,861 members

37 reviews

3.9

2 Members: YeastOfEden, ManWithAnAgenda

13

A History of Knowledge: Past, Present, and Future

by Charles Van Doren

1,348 members

5 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: YeastOfEden

14

A Short History of Nearly Everything

22,505 members

400 reviews

4.2

Member: YeastOfEden

15

Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy

by Simon Blackburn

1,348 members

10 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: YeastOfEden

16

The Body: A Guide for Occupants

2,530 members

87 reviews

4.1

Member: YeastOfEden

17

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

by Michael Pollan

7,372 members

200 reviews

4

Member: YeastOfEden

18

How the Mind Works

by Steven Pinker

4,656 members

40 reviews

4

Member: YeastOfEden

19

Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches: The Riddles of Culture

by Marvin Harris

1,173 members

18 reviews

3.8

Member: YeastOfEden

20

History of the World

by J. M. Roberts

2,362 members

18 reviews

3.9

Member: YeastOfEden

21

The Power of Myth

by Joseph Campbell

7,562 members

70 reviews

4.2

Member: YeastOfEden

22

China: A History

529 members

8 reviews

3.8

Member: YeastOfEden

23

Monkey King: Journey to the West (A Penguin Classics Hardcover)

127 members

2 reviews

4.2

Member: YeastOfEden

24

The Life of Greece

1,756 members

9 reviews

4.1

Member: YeastOfEden

25

The Portable Greek Historians

by M. I. Finley

536 members

4 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: YeastOfEden

26

38,017 members

370 reviews

4

Member: YeastOfEden

27

50,704 members

442 reviews

4

Member: YeastOfEden

28

Euthyphro / Apology / Crito / Meno / Phaedo

2,632 members

16 reviews

3.9

Member: YeastOfEden

29

Nicomachean Ethics

9,717 members

55 reviews

3.9

Member: YeastOfEden

30

22,016 members

193 reviews

3.9

Member: YeastOfEden

31

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

by Omar Khayyám

2,845 members

34 reviews

4

Member: YeastOfEden

32

Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes

by Tamim Ansary

957 members

36 reviews

4.2

Member: YeastOfEden

33

Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World

869 members

16 reviews

4.2

Member: YeastOfEden

34

The Pursuit of Glory: The Five Revolutions that Made Modern Europe: 1648-1815 (Penguin History of Europe)

by Tim Blanning

772 members

11 reviews

3.9

Member: YeastOfEden

35

Civilization: The West and the Rest

by Niall Ferguson

1,276 members

26 reviews

½ 3.5

Member: YeastOfEden

36

The Pursuit of Power : Europe 1815-1914

by Richard J. Evans

548 members

15 reviews

4.1

Member: YeastOfEden

37

Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia

by Orlando Figes

1,752 members

16 reviews

4.2

Member: YeastOfEden

38

Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future

by Friedrich Nietzsche

9,557 members

74 reviews

3.8

Member: YeastOfEden

39

The Oxford History of the American People

by Samuel Eliot Morison

908 members

4 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: YeastOfEden

40

The Fatal Shore

by Robert Hughes

3,778 members

54 reviews

4

Member: YeastOfEden

41

by Simone de Beauvoir

2,282 members

17 reviews

4.1

Member: YeastOfEden

42

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

by Ludwig Wittgenstein

4,017 members

44 reviews

4.1

Member: YeastOfEden

43

4,764 members

58 reviews

4

Member: YeastOfEden

44

To Hell and Back: Europe 1914-1949

749 members

14 reviews

4

Member: YeastOfEden

45

The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order

by Samuel P. Huntington

3,237 members

36 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: YeastOfEden

46

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

by Yuval Noah Harari

4,907 members

130 reviews

4

Member: YeastOfEden

About This List

Started: YeastOfEden
September 2022
Type: Numbered and unnumbered, Adding restricted

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Related Tags

Ancient Greece (1,788) art (1,723) classic (6,200) classics (11,150) epic (3,267) epic poetry (1,950) fiction (16,222) Greece (2,015) Greek (2,964) Greek literature (1,612) history (9,976) Homer (2,020) literature (7,753) mythology (5,351) non-fiction (8,677) novel (2,564) philosophy (9,252) poetry (10,748) read (2,526) religion (1,713) Russia (1,339) science (4,037) to-read (13,817) translation (1,675) unread (1,746)

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