Top Ten Tuesday: Important Books

Posted April 8, 2014 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Top Ten Tuesday / 12 Comments

toptentuesdayIt’s Tuesday again which means time for another round of Top Ten Tuesday; I like joining in on this meme because I have a set topic to work with. Top Ten Tuesday is a book blogger meme that is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week the theme is: Most Unique Books. I’m not sure if I can find ten books that did something different from the norm, so I’m going to do books (that I’ve read) that are important for the way they helped shape or change the world of literature.

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  • We by Yevgeny Zamyatin – this novel is credited as the first dystopian novel.
  • A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle – May not be the first detective novel but it revolutionised the genre.
  • Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri – An collection of epic poems that dive into the realms of Hell, Purgatory and Heaven
  • The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald – for it’s commentary of the Jazz age and the American dream.
  • Red Harvest by Dashell Hammett – may not be the first pulp novel but it is credited for being Hard-Boiled fiction to a wider audience.

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  • The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger – for the way it adolescent alienation and angst
  • Catch-22 by Joseph’s Heller – a satirical look at the military and its bureaucracy
  • Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury – Censorship, book banning and the importance of literature.
  • The Stranger by Albert Camus – because we need a bit of existentialism in our literature.
  • Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (of course) – this novel deals with a wide range of topics; Romanticism, science, feminism and so on, as well as being a milestone in Horror and Science-Fiction.

12 responses to “Top Ten Tuesday: Important Books

  1. Lianne

    Great list! You’ve mentioned some great titles (We, The Divine Comedy, Catch-22, Frankenstein, Fahrenheit 451 (finally got around to reading this book earlier this year!), the Great Gatsby, A Study in Scarlet), all unique for their own reasons 🙂

    My TTT

    • Michael @ Literary Exploration

      Creating this list made me realise I still have a few books to read, like Moby Dick, The Canterbury Tales, The Odyssey/Iliad, etc.

    • Michael @ Literary Exploration

      I’m trying to sneak Frankenstein onto every TTT list, I love that book so much

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