10 ESSENTIAL Easy Reads of Western Literature

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Are you curious to understand the history and influence of the West, but don't know where to begin? These 10 easy reads serve as a quintessential foundation of the study of Western Civilization, and are the perfect jumping off point for your literary adventure!
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[@josephandashlynmcfatridge4966]

My husband looked at me in horror near the beginning of the video when I remarked I had not read any Plato. He then insisted I must read Plato's Apology as a good start. Klavan then recommended Plato's Apology... Guess I'm reading Plato's Apology.

[@daniellamunoz8894]

Yesss! Then The Republic next, Gorgeas is great too! All of Plato's dialogues are easy to read and very interesting. Would not recommend any Aristotle for an easy read, those are very hard to read even if they're equally interesting, very unfortunate.

[@robinolsen7210]

@@daniellamunoz8894 The Magna Moralia is a fairly easy read, although some scholars now dispute its authorship. Also, Platos Protagoras is a good companion to Gorgias and the Republic.

[@cowboybeboop9420]

Honestly I don`t understand you Americans. "Crime and Punishment" as well as all of Dostoevsky`s books are foundational for the Orthodox civilization. Plato has nothing to do with the West nor do the Ancient Greeks. In fact most of the stuff the Ancient Greeks have done had nothing to do with the modern West. My lands the Balkans gave birth to all of these guys from Plato, Aristotle, Athenian Democracy, etc and eventually we got so hurt and disgusted by this stuff that we went another way and built a very different world. A lot of the West ideas actually come from German tribes and they get completely ignored and described as barbarians.

[@morridx]

@@daniellamunoz8894 Aristotle is not easy, I would still say that a familiarity with his Nicomachean Ethics and his Politics are essential to understanding the world today.

[@CarloRossi54523]

How many children do you want?

[@jarom4277]

1. The Bible (Luke) 2. The Bible (Romans) 3. Plato's Apology (Grube) 4. Antigone 5. Ovid Metamorphoses 6. Suetonius (Caligula) 7. Sir Gawan and the Green Knight 8. Heart of Darkness 9. Huckleberry Finn 10. The Great Gatsby

[@tonyascancook]

thank you...

[@JBB685]

God bless you! They should add that in the description

[@jesusmysavior2424]

Thank you , I also took note of “Crime and Punishment “, is it on the list?

[@JBB685]

Actually #1 is Luke and #2 is Romans, your 5 and 6 are the same recommendation.

[@shell..47]

Thank you

[@CesarVialpando420]

I’d love to see Andrew do more literature based videos. As a conservative patron of the arts, I feel pretty alone amidst the utter desecration of the greats by the left. Shakespeare has been cancelled in some universities in the UK (where I am from)

[@johnnotrealname8168]

Although ultra-violent, I tend to prefer Shakespeare's Roman tragedies to his later work except maybe Macbeth.

[@jaysams1608]

C D, likewise. I love the arts, in particular literature. It’s difficult to find a conservative person who also shares an interest in the arts to discuss and share that interest with.

[@overlex]

Right? Ever since he famously replied to this PC culture warrior student, asking “What Books on Feminist literature have you read that makes you such an expert on women?” and Klavan magnificently replied: “Unfortunately for you, I’ve read All of them” 😂

[@mydogsareneat]

I was left. until they targetted art. Im nothing now. Openly.

[@gastondeveaux3783]

But the right, and MAGA are banning books left and right.

[@thomaspomeroy5678]

He appointed his Horse as a Senator. He wanted a Stable Government.😁

[@PeterRogersMD]

That's a good one!

[@jupiter5719]

Stopppp xd

[@tonytynan1955]

We'd need more than one horse

[@scottcarroll9201]

Listen, I know Crime and Punishment is a tough book to read. It's intimidating, staring at all those pages filled with characters who have weird names, but I GUARANTEE, if you persevere and make it to the end of that book you will not regret it. And you will probably consider it the greatest fiction book you've ever read. It's that life-changing.

[@gigahorse1475]

It’s my favorite book… the only one that actually made my heart pound. I loved every minute of reading it.

[@STB-jh7od]

I read for entertainment as well as education, so if a book is this hard to read, NO THANKS.

[@jeanarmstrong4182]

Much easier if you listen to, and then find some teaching videos. Both easily found on KZbin. I dislike the main character which diminished my enjoyment of the story.

[@alexdowd02]

@@STB-jh7od it’s not that hard to read it just takes a little getting used to at first, also depends on the translation, but it’s such a good book that you will entertain yourself thinking about it after your done reading

[@bobjrfdny7360]

Ive been wanting to try Dostoevsky for a long time, his books have been recommended to me by many people that I look up too. What is the best one to start with or “get my feet wet”.

[@menandermenandros5532]

If you're looking for just a good fiction read, The Count of Monte Cristo will always be a masterpiece. You gotta read it unabridged though. None of that half the length crap.

[@daniellamunoz8894]

OMG yesssss I read this for the first time a year ago and it's one of my all-time favorites! One of the most satisfying and entertaining reads ever

[@peterbardy1296]

Great choice indeed. It's always a toss-up for me what I like more the count or Le mis. I love them equally.

[@antilikka]

I read this and almost died. It’s so frigging long, but I love I can say I read it now

[@peterbardy1296]

@@antilikka Lol , it's a monster

[@Grahamshawx]

An excellent book, superbly written and one of the greatest novels on revenge you could ever find. No happy endings here though!

[@RC-xo7ds]

Andrew, thanks for another great entry. Please consider turning this into a series. You do an excellent job making these classics feel relevant and essential for understanding and navigating contemporary issues.

[@RC-xo7ds]

Possibly offer as Premium content for DW subscribers.

[@14xx07]

Totally true! I’m wowed by the way Claveny charms us with these books!

[@strellasmith777]

Advice from a literature teacher: if you are brand spanking new to classical literature, I recommend starting with the “children’s books.” Read The Chronicles of Narnia, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Tom Sawyer, The Hobbit, The Princess and the Goblin. Then move on to more difficult reads. The Lord of the Rings, Huck Finn, Jane Eyre, C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy, A Christmas Carol, Pride and Prejudice. Then you can tackle the big leagues. Crime and Punishment, Les Miserables, MacBeth, The Iliad, Odyssey, The Divine Comedy. Most importantly always, always read your Bible! The Gospels are a great start, but Genesis and Exodus have some rollicking good stories too! Psalms is beautiful. Proverbs full of wisdom. Romans is for practical, Christian living. If you’ve been raised on a steady diet of television and social media, it will take some time to adjust your brain to reading great books, but it is incredibly worth it! Happy adventures in the world of stories!

[@janetbell78]

Excellent advice!!

[@conniesobotka4491]

His son, Spencer Klavan had a podcast, “Young Heretics”, that examines many of these books. I recommend it, especially if you tend to read books rather straightforwardly.

[@kamilziemian995]

Thank you. I just subscribe to "Young Heretics".

[@jonathancurtis5122]

His son, to whom he has no relation.

[@kamilziemian995]

@@jonathancurtis5122 Can you expand?

[@emmawagner471]

Ooh! Thanks for the recommendation! Will check it out👍

[@bradyhayes7911]

@@kamilziemian995 that's just a joke Klavan always says when he refers to his son "Spencer Klavan, no relation"

[@toplaycool21]

I am developing a classic novel collection. I have Oliver Twist, The Great Gatsby, Frankenstein, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Rob Roy, Tom Sawyer, The Odyssey, Pinocchio, Great Expectations etc.

[@daviddafflon4392]

Great expectations is such a wonderful book. My mother offered it to me and it ended up being my favorite book. Great collection my friend!

[@talithakoum3922]

Great start! I'd recommend the _Iliad, Aeneid, Divine Comedy, Julius Caesar, Richard III, Macbeth, Hamlet, The Tempest, Pride and Prejudice, A Christmas Carol, Jane Eyre, Middlemarch, Huckleberry Finn, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Screwtape Letters_ and _To Kill a Mockingbird._

[@davidvolsky7713]

Thank you, Andrew, if you happen to read this comment. This is the type of content I really enjoy.

[@josephvadalamusic]

This is fantastic and helpful, thank you, Klavan. Keep up the "foundational literature" type stuff!

[@saytr4]

Just resolved to go get a library card today. Thanks Klavan.

[@WebSurfingIsMyPastime]

Bro, u can download all these books for free online in pdf form, instead of waiting on them and having to worry about returning them to the library

[@lizgonzalez491]

I love that you started with the Bible.

[@14xx07]

Wow. Thank you so so much. Your way of articulating the reasons of why they are significant is awesome. In the days where schools no longer appreciate history and seek to destroy it, I’ve been trying to get into reading about what they are so desperate to destroy.. maybe before they completely achieve it. I’m definitely gonna check them all out!

[@CornerTalker]

Adults are having trouble reading adult classics because they didn't read the kids' classics. Grade School: Treasure Island, The Secret Garden, The Hobbit, Call of the Wild and White Fang, Wind in the Willows, Alice X2, Tom Sawyer, the Jungle Books, Black Beauty. High School: To Kill a Mockingbird, Great Expectations, Lord of the Rings, Kidnapped, Heart of Darkness, Of Mice and Men, Lord of the Flies, Night, The Good Earth, Taras Bulba and the Overcoat by Gogol, Huck Finn, Animal Farm and 1984, War of the World and the Time Machine, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight More Mature books: The Odyssey (Lattimore), Turn of the Screw, Ovid's Metamorphoses, David Copperfield, Frankenstein, Pride & Prejudice, Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle, The Wind in the Willows These are books I think are excellent AND I actually enjoyed reading.

[@sanniepstein4835]

I would add The Yearling, Lone Cowboy, and the Narnia books. My mother read Huck Finn to us in grade school and that seems appropriate to me.

[@talithakoum3922]

_The Wind in the Willows_ is fine for grade school if you read it out loud. Agreed with the person who recommended the Narnia series. I'd add _Anne of Green Gables_ and _Little Women._

[@CornerTalker]

@@talithakoum3922 absolutely.

[@Ty-nm6qb]

Klavan mentions Les Miserables as a book that is a little too advanced. I recently read an updated translation and was completely mesmerised! Very readable. The searching, philosophical analysis that Victor Hugo weaves throughout the (brilliant) narrative is wonderful. Great insight into redemption and the pitfalls of clinging coldly to iron-clad principles laid down by man rather than striving to know God through humanity. I highly recommend it. Definitely repays dedicated reading and you can skip over the long digressions (e.g, battle of Waterloo) which are slightly opaque.

[@lenoredelorenzo7855]

Well what version is it??

[@michaelglandt901]

This is a truly amazing enlightened monologue. A great beginning for anyone wanting to really understand and appreciate classical "Western" thought.

[@JW-ue1xg]

Music is a good way to get into Western civilisation - Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Schubert

[@gebert87]

I recently started using audio-books. i love it. i can't always concentrate to read normally.

[@jpwright87]

For me it's the opposite. I have to rewind audiobooks constantly.

[@MollyOKami]

I understand. When I first read one of my all-time favorite stories, The Count of Monte Cristo, it wasn't the 1,500+ pages that was the problem, but all of the French words & phrases made it intimidating (I also know Spanish & American Sign Language, I've made my investments in language 🤣). Using the audiobooks, it made it more accessible to help me get over those spots. Nowadays, I read them without any problems because I heard the audiobook in my head playing it. Plus it's fun to listen to a good book while I'm working.

[@robynbeach3198]

I can't focus on an audio books

[@peterbardy1296]

I can only listen to them in the car. Unfortunately, listening to them in bed. I dose off. Taking advantage of a long drive works best for me. Atlas Shrugged on audio was an amazing experience.

[@gebert87]

@@jpwright87 i rewind too, if my mind wander off too much

[@josephaseven8461]

Started this reading list today! Some familiar items, some non-familiar items. Looking forward to it all. Thanks Klavan!

[@Pappy_1775]

It might be too new and too long but I will always put "The Lord of the Rings" on every must read list (and hurry before Amazon destroys it).

[@roninelenion4805]

Very true. I read _The Lord of the Rings_ for the first time when I was thirteen and it changed my life.

[@Ryan-mech-muffin]

Reading Tolkien changed my entire life. Not an overstatement

[@michaelvigil3436]

I really got into Harry Potter and have been interested in something more adult like LOTR but even The Hobbit seems far more intricate then what I’m used to reading, is there anything I can do to better understand and appreciate the stories as a new reader? Also I usually listen to audiobooks while working as opposed to actual reading.

[@roninelenion4805]

@@michaelvigil3436 There are a lot of characters to keep track of in both stories, which is something I hear that some readers struggle with. I watched the movies before reading the books, so I was able to put a face to names and an image to location. A fan cut of _The Hobbit_ called the Cardinal Cut was made to be more book accurate and is available to view for free. If you don't want to watch any of the movies, something that might be able to help is to keep a list of names and places. Maps are available to view online of Middle-earth and those that map out the journeys taken in the respective books. Since LotR and TH are older books, there are a lot of great audiobooks available for free on KZbin. If you'd like to discuss the book or ask questions of someone a bit more familiar with the stories, several social media platforms have groups/communities dedicated to Tolkien. I hope that this helps. On a different note, I recommend _The Inheritance Cycle_ by Christopher Paolini as a more "adult" fantasy novel, if you're interested. Just like Tolkien, Paolini's world has different races, languages, and regions. The stories are more complex than children's literature, but not quite so intricate and the language isn't as elevated as Tolkien. I see it as a sort of middle ground.

[@Ryan-mech-muffin]

@@michaelvigil3436 I mean, there is Sparksnotes. I'd say just read more and you'll understand more with time.

[@heathercoverly1076]

Oh my gosh! I love all of these. Antigone is the first Greek play I saw and fell in love.

[@evanboothe5649]

Just last semester I took an introductory Ancient and Medieval Studies class and we read the Metamorphoses and the Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. They were very good. We also read Einhard’s Life of Charlemagne and Notker’s Deeds of Charlemagne. Both of them are very short and I think would fit well on a list like this.

[@fooberdooge3103]

It's a bit of a hard read at first, but "Le Morte d'Arthur" is another great piece of late medieval literature dealing with the Arthurian legend.

[@TallisKeeton]

I read it years ago when I was at hospital with some flue :) But actualy I prefer Beowulf, Kalevala, and Mabinogion.

[@starshiplazyboy475]

I agree. I feel "The Story of King Arthur and His Knights" by Pyle is an easier read and (having read a number of good and bad books on Arthurian legend) I believe it to be every bit as good as "Le Mort d'Arthur", but that's just my opinion.

[@Anyone690]

Klavan every month or so u should do more of these

[@bigtuna8149]

I read The Great Gatsby for my AP Literature class and it is one of my favorite books ever. It's fantastic and I had no one in my class who agreed with me. But everyone should read it, it's a masterpiece.

[@peterbardy1296]

Carter, you must have shared a classroom with barbarians. 😆 🤣 Absolute classic. FSF was part of a golden era of post WW1 authors.

[@michaelhart1072]

It depends how it’s taught. If you teach it poorly to kids without a reference frame then it really isn’t all that good

[@bigtuna8149]

@@michaelhart1072 It was given to us as a summer reading assignment and we were welcome to interpret it our own way. We wrote an essay on it discussing whether "it lives up to the hype" and a majority of the class completely hated the book. We never truly discussed the book itself, but we have referenced it several times and it is apparent my teacher is on the same side as my fellow students.

[@theancientsam]

Thanks for saying so I have been curious about picking mine up I have a copy I only ever read the first page but even the first page the first thing that Dad says makes me think just remember when you're arguing with someone to try to put yourself in their place or something like that remember that not everyone is has the privilege that you do or something. Anyway I guess I'll read it. I bumped into someone a couple weeks ago who said that he had to read it in college and it bored him to tears but he looked like a woke individual

[@kylekatarn5964]

I can't believe that was in an AP Lit class. I read that in regular English in High School.

[@saifonlawrence2044]

Anything,everything Steinbeck....genius and easy to read

[@brennacastor2990]

Husband and I went to the Green Knight movie on a whim, not knowing what it was about. We both absolutely loved it. Thank you for reminding me about it, I want to read the story now!

[@cecemeyers6028]

I read it in college as an early twenty something. No clue what it was about but watching the movie I started to remember parts of the book that originally had no meaning. A lot of artistic license was used for sure for the film. but will likely a very underrated movie. Pity.

[@ABull8]

Go for Tolkien's translation. He is meticulously faithful to rendering the sound and feel of the o riginal verse. The other stories (Pearl and Sir Orfeo) are well worth it too.

[@roninelenion4805]

I read a simplified adaptation of it when I was around ten, and then read a real translation nine years later. That was an interesting experience.

[@kilmouski4220]

My husband and I adored that movie.

[@brennacastor2990]

@@ABull8 Ooh, excellent! Thank you!

[@SweetMamaG]

Antigone was 9th grade required reading. It was pretty good I guess, but 14 year olds don't typically have an appreciation.

[@Hard_Boiled_Entertainment]

I'd say the New King James is great for modern English while preserving the beautiful poetry of the old King James.

[@crobeastness]

its missing 7 full books and half of 2 others. instead, i would recommend the douey-rheims if you want the old poetry.

[@Hard_Boiled_Entertainment]

@@crobeastness Ah the Apocrypha!

[@crobeastness]

@@Hard_Boiled_Entertainment no, there are other written material that is the apocrypha. Duetercanical books are different. They are Cannon.

[@Hard_Boiled_Entertainment]

@@crobeastness Yeah, Maccabees etc. Protestants call it the Apocrypha

[@crobeastness]

@@Hard_Boiled_Entertainment i never understood why when they weren't ever part of the apocrypha. Those are separate books.

[@aribbonatatime]

You can never have too much Bible. After that my favorite is Pilgrim's progress. Wonderful allegory of our life here on earth and some of the best prose in English literature that I've come across. "A Christmas chorale" and a "tale of two cities". Both good. I also like poetry. Tennyson and burns are some of my favorite. Tennyson's "Idyls of the king" is one of my favorite books. I need to read more myself but there's a few that I would recommend.

[@summerlakephotog8239]

I’m surprised that The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius was not mentioned. It really set the tone for the Christian ethic of the Middle Ages - very influential. Also the writings of the Roman stoics like Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus shaped the spiritual beliefs of some of our Founders and in the late 20th Century were integral to Tom Wolfe’s best novels. Finally, I found For Whom the Bell Tolls to be a great exposition of what happens in country made up of two factions with irreconcilable differences. It’s a page turner that makes you think about our immediate future.

[@christianebers]

Been needing to redo my reading list and book collection to be more imminently awesome! Thanks

[@cariboubearmalachy1174]

I would choose Protagoras for Plato/Socrates. It's the most entertaining of the dialogues, and really explains both what philosophy is for and most vividly portrays Socrates as a character.

[@Fardawg]

10:34 The monster in the mythology was called Cetus (hence the constellation being Cetus). The monster being called a "kraken" comes from the 1981 movie "Clash of the Titans." A kraken is actually a legendary Norwegian sea monster that was possibly a giant squid or octopus in reality.

[@philipsheppard4815]

I should have scrolled down further, I just posted the same thing! Hard to take him seriously when he doesn't know the difference between Ovid and Ray Harryhausen.

[@donovanmedieval]

Several years ago, I set myself the task of listening to all of my library's audiobooks with stories that are settled supernaturally, or with preindustrial weapons, in the order in which they were set, not necessarily the order in which they were written, but if two or more things were set at the same time, I would listen to them in the order they were written. I started with the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid, then switched to the Old Testament, and then I discovered the Great Courses lectures from The Teaching Company, which had been around the corner from where I live, but they moved as soon as I started checking out their lectures from the library. I made it to the late 19th century by October of 2018. Since it was October, I decided to listen to Dracula. I didn't finish it until well into November. I haven't continued since then, because of other things that came up in my life since then.

[@IanFleming808]

“The Master and Margarita” is the most underrated work of fiction that needs to be made into a movie.

[@chadvonswan]

Watch the Russian version on KZbin

[@peterbardy1296]

@chadvonswan I have seen it. Not bad at all. There is also Brothers karamazov movie on worth a watch as well.

[@peterbardy1296]

I loved Master and Margarita, and I followed it by reading Heart of the Dog.

[@uhm6577]

Yes! I love book lists. I need more of these.

[@bigdog3x20]

Excellent list. I would also suggest that anyone interested in Western thought, art, and culture develop a basic understanding of the traditional Christian Mass since that is foundational.

[@HappyGeekSquad]

I am excited to finish these books. I struggle with reading, but I determined to finish these novels

[@MrPodvig]

If you want to get better at reading, read. Read anything you like. Just keep at it.

[@peterbardy1296]

@@MrPodvig Good advice.

[@patriciahorgan2584]

Love your list - you are a great teacher. I know this is a list of short books - and so most longer novels are not there - but I would include Jane Austin's Persuasion - her best and quite short novel. It was the soldiers in the trenches in WW1 that brought Jane Austen back to the forefront of English Literature. There are no good adaptions - it is the novel that is so great. E M Foster said that Jane Austen was not as great a novelist as the Russians - but the greatest novelist in English literature.

[@kakarotwolf]

I have a lot of admiration and respect for this man 🙏

[@seanmoran2743]

At lot of this is down to how bad our education systems have become

[@williamgiovinazzo8523]

He makes a good point, start out with a select few that you can handle and then build from there. If I have been asked to compose such a list, I would not have selected the books he listed, but after listening to him I think his list is better than anything I might have come up with. Good list of books.

[@kaytepike1615]

I love the New King James Version. Moby Dick and To Kill a Mockingbird would be two must reads for literature. They're both pretty long, but I thought they were very accessible and enjoyable.

[@annbrucepineda8093]

Please include A Raisin in the Son by Lorraine Hansberry. It has to do with the difficulty but necessity of keeping a manly man in the home. In memory of Sir Sidney Poitier.

[@marlonmoncrieffe0728]

'A Raisin in the SUN' but anyway, yeah. It is a great play. Not till 'Ruined' by Lynn Nottage have I read such a great work of American drama by a black female playwright.

[@toplobster1040]

We just read this for school and I absolutely LOVED A Raisin in the Sun!

[@lieutenantflyboy]

I’d add: “The Western way of War” (Hanson), “The Influence of Sea Power Upon History” (Thayer Mahan), and “On War” (Von Clausewitz)

[@marchess7420]

On War as a shorter and easier read? in my opinion thats a tough one. i would humbly sugest that anyone interested in von Clausewitz's important analysis read the late Harry Summers clausewitzian analysis of the Vietnam war.

[@Ax18NY]

Chronological Order... Iliad + Odyssey - Homer Fragments - Heraclitus Oresteia - Aeschylus Oedipus the King - Sophocles Georgics + Aeneid - Virgil Metamorphoses - Ovid Gospel of John (most beautiful, daring, poetic, timeless Gospel) Confessions + City of God - St. Augustine Divine Comedy - Dante Hamlet + Othello - Shakespeare Don Quixote - Cervantes

[@somercet1]

The Iliad is amazing, and we have many poetic translations in English. Heraclitus is also amazing, I hope we may yet find his full book, about which Socrates said, "What I understood of it was very good, but for the rest of it only a Delian pearl diver could sound its depths."

[@JP-kg3ko]

The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis. Holiness of GOD by RC Sproul. Pilgrim’s Progress by Bunyun. To understand Christianity is to understand classical western man.

[@sfjsb6334]

The green light at the end of Daisy's dock

[@excelsior999]

I suspect that a significant percentage of young people who will graduate from college this June have not read even one of the books on Andrew's List. The reasons for this sad state of affairs are multitudinous. For one thing, most of the recommended books have one or more words that are multisyllabic, such as "multitudinous" (and "multisyllabic"). Then there is the fact that all of them are more than 147 characters in length. If someone could just write a condensed version of, say, the Bible, which did not exceed the limitations that exist in Twitter Land, it might be a best seller (especially if it contained a lot of pictures). Also, there has to be something terribly amiss with a list of books which were written by dead Caucasian males, for (as every Wokester knows) people should be judged by the color of their skin rather than by the content of their character (or, in the case of artists, by the merit of their created works). Nice try, Andrew, but it's time to Fall into Line and Get with The Program.

[@mr_fusion85]

Great list. Already read some of them. Have a couple more already in my collection I need to get to.

[@eugeniemartin6630]

Your commentary always delivers!

[@markusfreund6961]

Those are some fantastic recommendations! Without any claim to completeness I'd add comprehensive editions of Greek and Norse/Germanic mythology, respectively, The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, Paradise Lost by John Milton, Moby Dick by Herman Melville, Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche, Winnetou I-III by Karl May, The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, 1984 by George Orwell and Momo by Michael Ende.

[@bobbylee9727]

The only three books I have read twice are: "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville, "1984" by George Orwell and "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller. If I had one of these three to read for a third time it would be Melville...America's Dostoyefsky.

[@jonathanfoutz8931]

Same here. IMO, Moby Dick is better than Gatsby.

[@eattabagovdix7169]

Tolkien's LOTR/Hobbit, several by Shakespeare and going more modern would be the Harry Potter books. Extraordinary literature

[@HankBukowski]

Catch-22 and A Confederacy Of Dunces are the funniest books I've ever read.

[@eattabagovdix7169]

@@HankBukowski Conf of Dunces isnt THAT funny. I own it and still dont understand why ppl rave about that book.

[@HankBukowski]

@@eattabagovdix7169 You don't understand people? Shocking. Take it easy, sweetheart. Loved that review from the "I don't get it so it sucks" book club.

[@praline4157]

Thank you for this. This is the kind of content I hoped would proliferate on the internet.

[@derekgreen7319]

Great short books to start with Of mice and men Old man and the sea Chronicle of a death foretold Animal farm Heart of darkness Picture of Dorian grey

[@strawman6085]

Only follow Derek’s reading list if you wish to lose the will to live.

[@derekgreen7319]

@@strawman6085 right because you shouldn't read if the book doesn't give you the warm and fuzzies.

[@derekgreen7319]

@@strawman6085 if that's how you feel about these books then I find it unlikely that you've read all of them.

[@strawman6085]

@@derekgreen7319 I've read Of Mice and Mean, Old Man and the Sea, and Animal Farm. Seen the movie Picture of Dorian Grey, Heart of Darkness. So yeah, I know the stories.

[@strawman6085]

@@derekgreen7319 Because you should only read a book if it's doom and gloom. Maybe you need to lighten up and expand you horizons.

[@saint_double_k]

I have the Tolkien version of The Green Knight. It's fantastic.

[@JoseMora-wc5zz]

Buying it now.

[@stephanieellenbogen5570]

Thank you, this was so great!

[@Pocketrose3]

Thank you for this video!!

[@davidrandell2224]

1: “The Final Theory: Rethinking Our Scientific Legacy “, Mark McCutcheon. 2: “The Unique and Its Property “, Max Stirner 1844/2017 Landstreicher translation. 3: “The Bible Came from Arabia “, Kamal Salibi plus his 3 other bible study books. 4: No Treason: the Constitution of No Authority “ 1,2, and 6, Lysander Spooner. That’s it folks!

[@ginov.7039]

Awesome synopsis of great literature thank you

[@lk8856]

Wonderful list. Thank you.

[@vsrobertson]

This is great. Three of those books are on my high school son’s reading lists for next year.

[@unimacuni.]

Loved the list Drew. 😍

[@Smallpotato1965]

One of my favorite authors who is now almost forgotten, alas, is Rumer Godden. She wrote, roughly, between the 1950's and 1980's, and the one 'easy reading' one I'll recommend here is a Fifties one: 'An Episode of Sparrows'. It's sometimes described as a 'children's book', but wrongly, in my mind. It's a book where a couple of children play a leading role, like Twain's Huckleberry Finn, but that doesn't make the story juvenile. The book is set in the early Fifties, in London, where there are still parts which were bombed during WWII. It centers around a couple of streetchildren from an impoverished street and two spinster sisters from the rich street adjacent to it. What throws some people off Godden is, what I call, her timeline style. I'm sure there is a name for it (Andrew might know). She will, say, start at the end of the story, go back to the beginning and interweave the rest of the narrative with small flashbacks or leaps into the future. She does this so skillfully that its never jarring and at the end you will have connected all the little dots and feel the richer for it. Which makes this book feel difficult. It's not. It's a delightful tale of a hard-as-nails little girl, a restaurant owner with Big Dreams and small pocketbook, a young boy who acts tougher than he is and an old and sick rich lady who never experience Life. And they, and many others, touch eachothers lives, if they know if or not.

[@Moses-mm2yk]

Literally went out and bought all of these. Besides Huck, already have it.

[@MrTValleyguy]

I would have put Beowulf in there but good list

[@swirlcrop]

I haven't read all the books on your list but your list is fantastic. I love the way you added Antigone which is probably the most under rated play in all of Western literature. I would have added a few more like Les Miserables, Frankenstein, A Tale of Two Cities and Moby Dick.

[@isurfox4129]

Great Segment, keep it up, we need you

[@user-ks5cg5cd7m]

A reachable version of Homer’s epic is Rosemary Sutcliff’s Black Ships before Troy and The Adventures of Odysseus. I listened with my kids. It is a great middle school / high school listen / read. I liked it as an adult. Very well written. Also, the Book of the Ancient Romans by Dorothy Mills is a book that we are enjoying in our house this year. These are easy to read but adults get a lot more from it than kids,

[@Joombajuice]

Read crime and punishment with only maybe 12 books under my belt and I loved it! It’s still my favorite book ever. I think about it everyday!

[@kwall1464]

Thanks for the list, those are some great suggestions. I’m one of those people who hates reading but I want to, want to, read. I recently read Crime and Punishment and Frankenstein, then I understood why they’re such classics , it’s worth the time and effort to read either of them. Something I found helpful was a podcast that was also a sort of book club. The woman read two chapters, summarized those two chapters and then had a commentary on those chapters, then repeats that all again. She also had an online Facebook discussion going on (I did not participate in the discussion part). That might be a good way to get through some of those more difficult books. The woman who I listened to was Lisa VanDamme, she’s done this with a bunch of books, you can find her wherever you get you podcasts.

[@TheBridget272]

I love Frankenstein! I haven't tackled C&P yet. Have you tried Jane Eyre? It's my favorite book of all time.

[@kwall1464]

@@TheBridget272 I never read the novel but I did see the play and really liked it! Thanks for the suggestion!

[@jfkshotfirst6940]

I was hoping to see Cicero's treatise on friendship.. still great recommendations as always.

[@kennethcrowther2277]

Glad you put Conrad in there. Heart Of Darkness is amazing!

[@cherylsahagun2492]

I’m surprised that John Bunyon’s Pilgrims Progress wasn’t recommended, but I think I did hear that short was one of the criteria. It is not s that short, but it is an amazingly good allegory of the Christian life.

[@onepiecefan74]

I think Klavan is catholic. Their pretty stingy about non catholic works.

[@rudyredcat425]

Slough of despond. I studied that in University

[@wmfilms123]

@@onepiecefan74 he’s not catholic

[@KeepingTheIronThroneWarm]

A point I wish you had stressed is how RARE the West is. It doesn't make Westerners unique, it makes the situation and its conditions unique. Conditions (e.g., sanctity of life, freedom of speech) that allow categorical development the world never saw before in any culture and likely never will again. This is why the West and its values should be guarded at all cost.

[@christophergutierrez7363]

The Kraken actually comes from Norse mythology, but the sea monster in Ovid's Perseus myth in the Metamorphoses did inspire Ray Harryhausen's interpretation in 1981's Clash of the Titan. Loved this video! Thank you!

[@JoseVelazquez-su5nm]

Interested to hear what Andrew thinks about the new adaptation of "The Green Knight" with Dev Patel.

[@98pointseven]

Great list, Andrew. I think you hit the nail in every case except maybe with Fitzgerald. Personally I never liked Gatsby much. But trying to find one short novel that represents the philosophical heritage of the Western World in the early 20th century is tough. ALL of Plato's dialogues are good reading. Especially The Republic, Gorgias, Meno, Ion (in which Socrates interviews a laughable show-biz professional), and The Symposium (in which Socrates and his philosopher friends get drunk together and discuss the love-god Eros. NSFW.).

[@MrsPPNC]

Enjoyed this book list 👍

[@TG-kl7qy]

Lol to the name-dropping of Crime and Punishment, Les Mis, and Hamlet, three books I had to read in freshman and sophomore year of high school

[@philipdcrump]

Great list Andrew.

[@CB-vt3mx]

Don't bypass Virgil's Aenid on your reading journey. also, if you want to explore the early church, I recommend Augustine.

[@CB-vt3mx]

Don't bother with The Great Gatsby. Frankly, it is not one of the top 10,000 books of US origin. I recommend instead, Bradbury's Farenheit 451 or Huxley's Brave New World to see into the center of the mind of the dystopian paths our culture can take on the road from Damascus to DC.

[@jjjackson5183]

And later, anything by C.S. Lewis.

[@jjjackson5183]

@@CB-vt3mx Animal Farm.

[@butterflygirl141]

Librarians and independent booksellers have great recommendations as well, for anyone looking for classics.

[@timmy18135]

Western literature 1. The Republic 2. Aristotle's metaphysics 3. Antigone 4. Jerusalem delivered 5. The Prince 6. Devine Comedy 7. Leviathan 8. Candide 9. Federalist papers 10.war and peace

[@gymjunkie35]

We call the NIV the “nearly inspired version”, NASB is the way to go.

[@kimmeeb]

My congregation uses the NASB. I personally prefer the ESV; still pretty accurate, I just find it easier to read and understand, and it's the version I usually recommend to people. It's also easier to find in bookstores in my experience 😂

[@jerryshunk7152]

You mean NWT don't you?

[@mikeyk212]

I havnt read many books but I really enjoyed a memoir by Irish writer John McGahern . Great book.

[@kennethcrowther2277]

I forget its name off hand but Morris West's novel about Brunei is incredible. Also, the Vatican trilogy is a good place to start with him; The Devil's Advocate, The Shoes Of The Fisherman, and Lazarus. One of my very favourites is The World Is Made Of Glass about a patient of Jung's.

[@thetyperpiper]

I had two surprises on your list: First, I have 12 Caesars and was surprised you mentioned it. That is a good one, but apparently you got more out of it than I did. Still on my shelf, so I'm putting that on my night stand (TBR). Second, The Great Gatsby: I read that one in high school many decades ago and didn't think it was that great. Good, maybe, but great? Not so much. Maybe with experience under my belt, it might be worth a second look. Thanks for the list.

[@katie7674]

"...and I said to my son Spencer (no relation)..." 😂

[@natesmith4050]

Thank you Andrew 👍🏻

[@josephanton2059]

Conrad was very sympathetic to man. Lord Jim is my favourite Conrad book

[@LN-Lifer]

Oh cool. I was hoping he would do a clip of just this part

[@SeasideDetective2]

I'm not sure if I'd call the Bible "Western." It's arguably quasi-Eastern, since only a portion of it is written in Greek; the rest is written in languages that were never spoken in Europe.

[@bigmonkee639]

Yeah but people see it as western only because the west was influenced so much by it

[@sammygoodnight]

The Iliad and the Odyssey are not really 'Western' either, by that standard. But "Western" = Greco-Roman classical tradition + Christianity + the Western European cultures.

[@SeasideDetective2]

@@bigmonkee639 Was ancient Egypt Western, then? (Our alphabet ultimately derives from that civilization.) And is India Western, since the numerals we use were first written by Indians? How much "Western influence" must be derived from a culture in order for Westerners to be able to claim it as their own?

[@bigmonkee639]

@@SeasideDetective2 that is difficult to answer. I wouldn't say so. But if a whole culture is heavily based off something from somewhere else does that make that work their own in a sense? I don't have an answer to that

[@charlesgray226]

Good advice, and all these suggestions are worthwhile. I would quibble slightly. From Conrad, I prefer Typhoon. From Clemens, I prefer Saint Joan.

[@Frankincensedjb123]

When I talk "essentials" to my college students, I rarely mention fiction. Not sure what all that fiction does for one on a practical, everyday basis, but I'm guessing not much, considering the state of the nation and the massive decline this country is in. For essential reads, I work based on what most people need, most of the time, in most situations, thus the following: 1. The Declaration of Independence (TJ) 2. The US Constitution (J Madison) 3. Letter from Birmingham Jail (MLK) 4. The Law of Success in 16 Lessons (Napoleon Hill) 5. As a Man Thinketh (James Allen) 6. Thick Face Black Heart (Ching-Ning Chu) 7. Common Sense Economics (Gwartney et al.) 8. A Patriot's History of the United States (Larry Schweikart) 9. The World's Religions (Huston Smith) 10. The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus (DVD 14-Disc Box Set) You need to know the law of the land and its economy, the very water in which we swim 24/7/365. You also need to understand the general underpinning of what the majority of those on earth have believed and for most of human history, thus The World's Religions. You also best understand how you tick and how you tick within the confines of greater society, thus #s 5 and 6. And if you don't understand at least the basic history of your country, your understanding of a lot of contemporary culture, law, and social underpinnings is beyond you and out of grasp, and we can't have that, can we? Finally, if you don't have one, you best get a good sense of humor, and there's nothing better to get you there than the general insanity and chaos of the Python to loosen up that tight ass of yours before you go kaput. Good luck! This is a good start. As for other essentials: The Federalist (Alexander Hamilton); Blacks, Rednecks, and White Liberals (Thomas Sowell); Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong (James Loewen); On the Shoulders of Giants: The Great Works of Physics and Astronomy (Stephen Hawking); Brief History of Time (Stephen Hawking); 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About Science (James Trefil). And now that you've got a solid foundation, the time is yours to use wisely and insightfully. You are free to move about the cerebral cabin. Good luck.

[@kimberly5411]

I am so grateful for this list. I love literature but have never delved anything prior to the 1700’s. Since hearing this, I am about to finish Antigone. It is just as wonderful as you said, and I will be seeking out many of the others. Thanks so much!

[@oldmanfromscenetwentyfour8164]

I would have thought the Grapes of Wrath making the list.