Her writing simplistic is the very reason people like her books, though.

I also think your "People who really enjoy reading" comes off as very arrogant. Some people might have not have the time to read as children because other duties kept them away from it, some might no have been encourged to read and are only now developing that skill and might feel intimidated by the big classics. Some youngsters might read the books because of Tik Tok but where I live they are often bought in the English Edition and here it helps that they are simple because they can improve their English Skills while at the same time read an entertaining story.

Anything that gets people to read is a good thing in my opinion and should not be looked down upon as "mindless thrill" but a book like any other.

I think the argument is that it's not "literature", it's more like a fable in the self-help section. I enjoyed it when I was young, but it's not at the same level of the other classics. And it's pretty short, so it doesn't feel like a good dive in a world.

Remains of the Day has been added.

Garlic Ballads seems interesting. I mean, who doesn't love a banned book?

It is not the duty of the writer to educate their readers about good and bad relationships.

And her writing about it might just be from her experience of people actually romanticizing toxic relationips in real life and her trying to capture it. Ask any person in a toxic relationship....and many of them will tell you that they love their partner or father of their child despite the abuse. Abused children are often the same. Human actions often do not make sense and I think writers ought to be allowed to capture that without being labelled as problematic. Now what I have a problem with are the covers of her books. They make the books look like typical romance books. It would be better to sell her books as something different.

Also many people who read her books do recongize they are toxic. A friend of mine read some of her books and said "She really captures the toxicity well." She had two boyfriends who were utter toxic. The first one was a control freak who isolated her from her friends and later became a creep and the second one cheated on her because he assumed they were in an open relationship.

As much as they are classic, having 2 books of the same author seems too much (of course is your list). I'd drop one of them and add something by E.A. Poe

Fiction:

• Bleak House - Charles Dickens (I'd choose this over Great Expectations)
• If on a Winter's Night a Traveler - Italo Calvino
• The Shipping News - Annie Proulx
• Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf (I'd choose this over A Room of One's Own)
• The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Bronte
• The Golden Gate - Vikram Seth
• I, Claudius - Robert Graves

Non-fiction:

• The Right Stuff - Tom Wolfe
• Annals of the Former World - John McPhee

Plays:

• Travesties - Tom Stoppard
• Angels in America - Tony Kushner
• Faith Healer - Brian Friel

Poetry:

• Complete Poems of W. B. Yeats
• Complete Poems of W. H. Auden

With all due respect to The Hunger Games and The Help - they aren't classics.

I'm adding both! Never Let Me Go appeals to me more from first impressions, but The Remains of the Day is seemingly more significant based on my searches(?). So, both have been added

Depending on how modern of classic you are looking for, I’d add

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (late 70s) The Fellowship of the Ring (50s) Brideshead revisited (1945) And Then There Were None (1939) Phantom of the Opera (1910)

I also second The Picture of Dorian Gray, Virginia Woolf and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (it’s a 2000s book)

Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar.
The Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges.

Fair! I'm not gonna lie, I did exclude books that I personally have some issues with. So, it would make sense that others feel the same way about some on my list. A lot of these books were referenced multiple times on various sites, so surely, they mean something to someone

I'll keep the Alchemist, unless a convincing argument can be made otherwise

XD that's good, they really are great books.

As I Lay Dying is a must

I remember liking White Fang in school, and honestly it would be nice to reread it. I'm adding both to the list!

As a brazilian, in my opinion, you should take The Alchemist out of the list and put The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas (also known in the US as Epitaph of a Small Winner) by Machado de Assis in its place. Paulo Coelho is very popular in the world but not really seen as this great author, Machado de Assis is considered by many the best and most important writer from our country.

Nothing against Paulo Coelho, you can read The Alchemist, but Brazil has lots of great authors and he is not even close to the top.

Added!

I'm not going to lie.. I struggled with Les Miserables thousand pages, and online resources say that in total Remembrance of Things Past is over four thousand pages long. If I were to read it, It might only be the first volume of the set

Did you read all 7 volumes, and how long did it take if you did?

[deleted]

and while you're at it, Call of the Wild

White Fang by Jack London

Edit: sorry, I thought you were just asking for classics. Ignore the idiot everyone!

I love a lot of these books! But a few might not be old enough to be a classic. I feel like even modern classics probably need to have a decade or two to age into that position.

Which books of theirs do you recommend?

I’d keep it! The Alchemist isn’t for everyone but a lot of these books are divisive. I liked the book.

What is the worst thing about The Alchemist?

Added!

Catcher in the rye