If you’ve ever stared at your overflowing TBR pile and thought, “I could really use someone to just tell me what to read,” this list is your new best friend. An online thread of book-obsessed readers did exactly that: they shared the stories that changed their lives, broke their hearts, made them think, and made them laugh in public transit like weirdos.

That conversation inspired a Bored Panda-style roundup of 70 books everyone should read at least oncethen the list got cross-checked against classic “must-read” lists from places like PBS’s The Great American Read, TIME’s 100 Best Novels, Goodreads community lists, and other big-name recommendations.

The result? A wildly varied reading checklist that covers everything from talking animals and space hijinks to brutal dystopias, quiet family dramas, and nonfiction that will rearrange your brain. You definitely don’t have to love every book on this list. But read enough of them and you’ll start to understand why certain stories get passed around like wisdom-filled memes from one generation to the next.

How This “Books Everyone Should Read” List Came Together

The heart of this list comes from real readers in an online thread answering a simple but dangerous question: “What’s a book everyone should read at least once in their lives?” People chimed in with heartfelt favorites, comfort reads, traumatic classics (looking at you, high school reading lists), and modern novels that feel like instant canon. Bored Panda turned those replies into a curated list, highlighting the most upvoted and most passionately defended titles.

To make the list more universal (and not just “books one subreddit likes”), we also looked at major U.S. book listsPBS viewers’ most-loved books, Goodreads community rankings, TIME and New York Times “all-time” favorites, and popular “books everyone should read at least once” roundups. This mashup of internet enthusiasm and critical acclaim gives you a list that feels crowd-powered and canon-aware at the same time.

Is it definitive? Of course not. Book people love to argue. But it’s a very solid place to start if you want a reading list that will stretch your brain, your heart, and your attention span.

70 Books Everyone Should Read At Least Once

Here’s the big list. Think of it less as homework and more as a buffet: you don’t have to devour everything at once, but it’s fun to try a bite of each style.

1. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams – A gloriously absurd sci-fi road trip that gently reminds you the universe is huge, life is weird, and you should always know where your towel is.
2. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee – A small-town childhood story that slowly reveals itself as a sharp, compassionate look at racism, justice, and what it means to stand up for what’s right.
3. Animal Farm by George Orwell – A deceptively simple fable about farm animals that turns into a brutal lesson on power, propaganda, and how revolutions can repeat the patterns they tried to escape.
4. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury – In a world where books are burned, one fireman starts to wonder what’s so dangerous about ideas, and why constant distraction feels strangely empty.
5. 1984 by George Orwell – A chilling vision of surveillance, censorship, and language turned into a weapon; it’s disturbingly relevant no matter what decade you’re in.
6. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien – An epic quest full of hobbits, dark lords, and surprisingly moving speeches about friendship and hope when everything looks hopeless.
7. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen – Witty, romantic, and savagely observant, this novel proves that misunderstandings, family drama, and social expectations are timeless problems.
8. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald – A glittering, tragic snapshot of the Jazz Age that asks whether the American Dream is a beautiful lie dressed in sequins.
9. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger – A teenage narrator wanders New York and rants about phonies while quietly breaking your heart with his loneliness.
10. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë – A Gothic romance starring one of literature’s toughest introverts, who insists on her own moral compass in a world that wants to control her.
11. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë – Dark, stormy, and messy in the best way, it’s a story about obsession, revenge, and how generational drama can outlive everyone involved.
12. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling – The entry point to a magical world that turned millions of people into readers and made owls the unofficial mascot of childhood escapism.
13. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis – Four kids step through a wardrobe and learn about courage, sacrifice, and the consequences of infinite Turkish delight.
14. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott – A warm, occasionally heartbreaking novel about four sisters growing up, chasing dreams, and figuring out what “a good life” really means.
15. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White – The gentlest possible way to learn about friendship, loyalty, and mortalityplus, it makes you see spiders in a whole new light.
16. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery – An exuberant orphan with too many feelings and not enough chill finds a home and shows that imagination can be a survival tool.
17. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak – Narrated by Death himself, this WWII story about a girl who steals books manages to be devastating and hopeful at the same time.
18. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood – A dystopian world where women are controlled and reduced to their reproductive status, told with eerie calm that makes it even more unsettling.
19. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley – A controlled “utopia” where everyone is entertained and medicated raises the question: what if comfort and happiness cost you your humanity?
20. Lord of the Flies by William Golding – A group of boys on an island accidentally run the worst possible student government experiment in history.
21. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho – A simple, mystical story about following your personal legend, listening to omens, and occasionally talking to the wind.
22. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky – A murderer with a superiority complex slowly loses his mind under the weight of guilt, philosophy, and a very persistent detective.
23. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky – Big questions about faith, free will, and morality wrapped inside family chaos and courtroom drama.
24. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez – A sweeping magical-realist saga where love, war, and weirdness swirl through generations of the same family.
25. Beloved by Toni Morrison – A haunting exploration of slavery’s legacy, memory, and motherhood that refuses to look away from pain or from love.
26. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith – A coming-of-age story that shows how poverty shapes a child’s view of the world without ever stripping away her hope.
27. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck – A Dust Bowl-era migration story that examines injustice, dignity, and the stubbornness of human solidarity.
28. East of Eden by John Steinbeck – A modern reimagining of the Cain and Abel story set in California, full of flawed people trying to decide whether they’re doomed or free.
29. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton – A raw, teen-written classic about class, loyalty, and what it costs to “stay gold” in an unfair world.
30. Dune by Frank Herbert – Political intrigue, desert ecology, religious myth, and giant sandworms collide in one of the most influential sci-fi novels ever written.
31. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien – A cozy adventure that starts with second breakfast and ends with dragons, treasure, and a very changed hobbit.
32. The Color Purple by Alice Walker – Told through letters, this novel traces one woman’s journey from abuse and silence to strength, sisterhood, and self-definition.
33. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin – A sprawling fantasy of clashing families, shifting alliances, and the reminder that winter (and consequences) always comes.
34. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins – A dystopian reality show where survival becomes rebellion, and one girl with a bow accidentally becomes a symbol of revolution.
35. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini – A story of friendship, betrayal, and redemption set against decades of Afghanistan’s turbulent history.
36. Life of Pi by Yann Martel – A boy, a lifeboat, and a tiger: an adventure that doubles as a meditation on belief, storytelling, and what we choose to accept as “true.”
37. The Road by Cormac McCarthy – A bleak, post-apocalyptic trek where a father and son cling to each other and to the idea of “carrying the fire.”
38. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green – A YA romance between two teens with cancer that mixes dark humor with an unflinching look at love and mortality.
39. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – A tiny philosophical fable that argues adults are weird and that the most important things are invisible.
40. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank – A real teenager’s diary written while hiding during WWII, reminding us that “history” is always lived by actual people.
41. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi – A graphic memoir of growing up in Iran during and after the Islamic Revolution, mixing political upheaval with teenage angst.
42. Maus by Art Spiegelman – A groundbreaking graphic novel that uses animal figures to tell a very human story about the Holocaust and inherited trauma.
43. Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons – A deconstruction of superheroes, morality, and power that helped redefine what comic books could do.
44. Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari – A fast-paced tour through human history that argues our ability to believe shared stories is our superpower and our problem.
45. Educated by Tara Westover – A memoir of a woman raised in a survivalist family who fights her way into education and, eventually, her own identity.
46. Becoming by Michelle Obama – A candid, warm look at the former First Lady’s life, from childhood on the South Side of Chicago to the White House.
47. Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl – A Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist reflects on suffering, purpose, and why meaning matters more than happiness.
48. The Martian by Andy Weir – A stranded astronaut science-nerds his way through disaster after disaster with math, duct tape, and sarcasm.
49. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr – Two livesone French girl, one German boyintersect during WWII in a lyrical, devastating story.
50. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern – A lush, dreamy fantasy about a magical competition inside a traveling circus that only opens at night.
51. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón – A boy finds a forgotten book and stumbles into a labyrinth of secrets in postwar Barcelona.
52. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss – A musician-magician recounts how he became a legend, pausing frequently to break your heart.
53. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde – A gorgeous, wicked little tale about vanity, corruption, and a portrait that ages in your place.
54. Dracula by Bram Stoker – The original vampire thriller, full of letters, diaries, and an immortal guy who really needs boundaries.
55. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley – A young scientist plays god, creates life, and then absolutely fumbles the whole “responsibility” part.
56. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway – A seemingly simple story about an old fisherman and a giant marlin that doubles as a meditation on struggle and pride.
57. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway – Members of the “lost generation” drift through Europe, drinking, bullfighting, and trying to figure out what comes after war.
58. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut – A time-jumping, darkly funny anti-war novel that insists, “So it goes,” even when nothing feels okay.
59. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller – Bureaucracy, war, and circular logic collide in a novel that’s somehow both hilarious and horrifying.
60. American Gods by Neil Gaiman – Old gods and new tech gods battle for relevance in a surreal road trip across modern America.
61. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro – A quiet, devastating dystopia about friendship, memory, and what it means to be “made” for a purpose.
62. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver – A missionary family moves to the Congo, and four daughters narrate the fallout of arrogance, culture clash, and history.
63. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini – Two Afghan women, initially strangers, form a powerful bond while enduring decades of war and oppression.
64. Normal People by Sally Rooney – A modern love story about two people who can’t quite line up their timing, communication skills, or feelingsbut can’t let each other go.
65. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir – One man wakes up on a spaceship with no memory, tasked with saving humanity using science, spreadsheets, and a very unusual friend.
66. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig – A woman trapped between life and death explores all the lives she could have lived and learns what makes a life worth staying for.
67. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt – After surviving a bombing, a boy steals a painting that becomes a symbol of grief, guilt, and beauty he can’t let go of.
68. The Help by Kathryn Stockett – Set in 1960s Mississippi, women on both sides of the racial divide collaborate on a risky book that exposes everyday racism.
69. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn – A twisty thriller about a missing wife, an unreliable husband, and the image of “the perfect marriage” ripped to shreds.
70. The Secret History by Donna Tartt – A group of elite college students do something terrible and then slowly unravel under the weight of their secret.

What It’s Really Like To Take On a 70-Book Reading Challenge

Seeing this list all at once can be both inspiring and intimidating. Seventy books is a lotno matter how fast you read, this is more marathon than sprint. But the people who jump into “read before you die” lists and online book challenges often describe the experience as surprisingly life-changing, not because they finish quickly, but because of how their tastes and perspectives shift along the way.

At first, many readers start with comfort picks: fantasy epics they’ve heard about for years, page-turning thrillers like Gone Girl, or emotionally intense but accessible stories like The Kite Runner or The Book Thief. Those titles are like on-rampsonce you’ve knocked out a few, you feel brave enough to tackle heavier classics like Crime and Punishment or Beloved.

Some people in these online threads admit they used to avoid “serious” books because they assumed they’d be boring or impossible to understand. Then they meet a novel like One Hundred Years of Solitude or Slaughterhouse-Five and realize that “literary” doesn’t mean “fun-free.” Many classics are as wild, funny, or emotionally chaotic as any modern bestsellerthey just come with older clothes and longer sentences.

Others discover that certain books hit very differently depending on when you read them. 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 feel one way when you’re a teenager rebelling against authority, and another way entirely when you’re an adult watching debates over censorship, surveillance, and information overload play out in real time. Normal People might punch you in the gut at 22 and feel like a nostalgic ache at 35.

Readers also talk about the emotional whiplash of this kind of list. One month you’re laughing with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; the next you’re quietly shattered by Man’s Search for Meaning. You move from the cozy safety of Anne of Green Gables to the raw heartbreak of A Thousand Splendid Suns. That contrast is part of the magic: you start to see how many different moods and questions books can hold, and how quickly you can travel between worlds without leaving your couch.

Then there’s the social side. Online, readers love posting progress updates, rating each book, and arguingkindly or notabout which titles deserve their legendary status. Someone will swear The Catcher in the Rye “saved their teenage soul,” while someone else grumbles that Holden Caulfield just needs therapy and a nap. Debates over whether Dune is brilliant or boring can go on for dozens of comments. That friction doesn’t ruin the list; it proves it’s alive.

What most people agree on is this: you don’t have to love every book to get something out of reading it. Maybe a classic feels like chewing cardboard, but it gives you language and context for a thousand other references in movies, memes, and conversations. Maybe a modern bestseller doesn’t quite land for you, but you finally understand what your friends have been yelling about for years.

If you decide to take on this 70-book challenge, the smartest strategy is to mix it up. Pair a difficult book with an easy one. Alternate fiction and nonfiction, heavy and light, long and short. Let mood guide you instead of guilt. And remember that “everyone should read this” doesn’t mean “you’re a failure if you don’t like it.” Reading is personal. This list is an invitation, not a test.

By the time you’ve made your way through even a fraction of these titles, you’ll have visited dozens of countries, lived inside hundreds of minds, and argued with more imaginary people than you can count. You might not agree that every one of these books belongs on a universal must-read listbut you’ll be able to say, from your own experience, why. And that’s the real win.

Conclusion

“Books everyone should read at least once” lists will always be subjective, but they’re a fantastic way to push yourself out of your usual genre bubble and into stories that have shaped countless readers. This particular list, born from an online thread and polished with help from major best-books lists, gives you 70 chances to laugh, cry, argue, and think more deeply about the world.

Will you love them all? Absolutely not. Should you try as many as you can, at your own pace, with your favorite beverage nearby? Absolutely yes.

Sources consulted for background research and book list cross-checking.

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