The Library of Congress had an exhibit entitled "Books That Shaped America." This list is not an endorsement of the best of the best, but an assortment of books that have had an influence on American life. I found the list intriguing and thought I would see what I can read of these in the five year span from October 2012 to September 2017. My goal would be to read 80 of these in the next five years.
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I am only noting recent reads, not counting that I may have read the book in high school as I find my memory doesn't serve me very well.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain - 1884
Alcoholics Anonymous by Anonymous - 1939
American Cookery by Amelia Simmons - 1796
The American Woman's Home by Catherine E. Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe - 1869
And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts - 1987
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand - 1957 (Read March 2013)
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley - 1965
Beloved by Toni Morrison - 1987
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown - 1970
The Call of the Wild by Jack London - 1903
The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss - 1957
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller - 1961
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger - 1951
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White - 1952
Common Sense by Thomas Paine - 1776
The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care by Benjamin Spock - 1946
Cosmos by Carl Sagan - 1980
A Curious Hieroglyphick Bible by Anonymous - 1788
The Double Helix by James D. Watson - 1968
The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams - 1907
Experiments and Observations on Electricity by Benjamin Franklin - 1751
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury - 1953
Family Limitation by Margaret Sanger - 1914
The Federalist by Anonymous - 1787
The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan - 1963
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin - 1963
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hermingway - 1940
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell - 1936
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown - 1947
A Grammatical Institute of the English Langague by Noah Webster - 1783
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck - 1939
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - 1925 (Read Jan 2014)
Harriet, the Moses of Her People by Sarah H. Bradford - 1901
The History of Standard Oil by Ida Tarbell - 1904
History of the Expedition Under the Command of the Captains Lewis and Clark by Meriwether Lewis - 1814
How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis - 1890
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie - 1936
Howl by Allen Ginsberg - 1956
The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O'Neill - 1946
Idaho: A Guide in Word and Pictures by Federal Writers' Project - 1937
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote - 1966
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison - 1952
Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer - 1931
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair - 1906
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman - 1855
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving - 1820
Little Women, or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy by Louisa May Alcott - 1868
Mark, the Match Boy by Horatio Alger Jr. - 1869
McGuffey's Newly Revised Eclectic Primer by William Holmes McGuffey - 1836
Moby-Dick; or The Whale by Herman Melville - 1851
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass - 1845
Native Son by Richard Wright - 1940
New England Primer by Anonymous - 1803
New Hampshire by Robert Frost - 1923
On the Road by Jack Kerouac - 1957
Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women's Health Book Colective - 1971
Our Town: A Play by Thornton Wilder - 1938
Peter Parley's Universal History by Samuel Goodrich - 1837
Poems by Emily Dickinson - 1890
Poor Richard Improved and the Way to Wealth by Benjamin Franklin - 1758
Pragmatism by William James - 1907
The Private Life of the Late Benjamin Franklin LL.D. by Benjamin Franklin - 1793
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane - 1895
Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett - 1929
Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey - 1912 (Read April 2013)
The Scarlet Letters by Nathaniel Hawthorne - 1850
Sexual Behavior in the Human Male by Alfred C. Kinsey - 1948
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson - 1962
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats - 1962
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois - 1903
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner - 1929
Spring and All by William Carlos Williams - 1923
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein - 1961
A Street in Bronzeville by Gwendolyn Brooks - 1945
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams - 1947
A Survey of the Roads of the United States of America by Christopher Colles - 1789
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs - 1914
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston - 1937
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - 1960
A Treasury of American Folklore by Benjamin A. Botkin - 1944
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith - 1943
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe - 1852
Unsafe at Any Speed by Ralph Nader - 1965
Walden; or Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau - 1854
The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes - 1925
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak - 1963
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum - 1900 (Read January 2014)
The Words of Cesar Chavez by Cesar Chavez - 2002
[Notice: Original posting 2013-12-22 at Plethora of Books Blog: http://bookchallenges.weebly.com]
Tags: Top List
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain - 1884
Alcoholics Anonymous by Anonymous - 1939
American Cookery by Amelia Simmons - 1796
The American Woman's Home by Catherine E. Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe - 1869
And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts - 1987
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand - 1957 (Read March 2013)
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley - 1965
Beloved by Toni Morrison - 1987
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown - 1970
The Call of the Wild by Jack London - 1903
The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss - 1957
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller - 1961
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger - 1951
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White - 1952
Common Sense by Thomas Paine - 1776
The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care by Benjamin Spock - 1946
Cosmos by Carl Sagan - 1980
A Curious Hieroglyphick Bible by Anonymous - 1788
The Double Helix by James D. Watson - 1968
The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams - 1907
Experiments and Observations on Electricity by Benjamin Franklin - 1751
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury - 1953
Family Limitation by Margaret Sanger - 1914
The Federalist by Anonymous - 1787
The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan - 1963
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin - 1963
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hermingway - 1940
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell - 1936
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown - 1947
A Grammatical Institute of the English Langague by Noah Webster - 1783
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck - 1939
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - 1925 (Read Jan 2014)
Harriet, the Moses of Her People by Sarah H. Bradford - 1901
The History of Standard Oil by Ida Tarbell - 1904
History of the Expedition Under the Command of the Captains Lewis and Clark by Meriwether Lewis - 1814
How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis - 1890
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie - 1936
Howl by Allen Ginsberg - 1956
The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O'Neill - 1946
Idaho: A Guide in Word and Pictures by Federal Writers' Project - 1937
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote - 1966
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison - 1952
Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer - 1931
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair - 1906
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman - 1855
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving - 1820
Little Women, or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy by Louisa May Alcott - 1868
Mark, the Match Boy by Horatio Alger Jr. - 1869
McGuffey's Newly Revised Eclectic Primer by William Holmes McGuffey - 1836
Moby-Dick; or The Whale by Herman Melville - 1851
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass - 1845
Native Son by Richard Wright - 1940
New England Primer by Anonymous - 1803
New Hampshire by Robert Frost - 1923
On the Road by Jack Kerouac - 1957
Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women's Health Book Colective - 1971
Our Town: A Play by Thornton Wilder - 1938
Peter Parley's Universal History by Samuel Goodrich - 1837
Poems by Emily Dickinson - 1890
Poor Richard Improved and the Way to Wealth by Benjamin Franklin - 1758
Pragmatism by William James - 1907
The Private Life of the Late Benjamin Franklin LL.D. by Benjamin Franklin - 1793
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane - 1895
Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett - 1929
Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey - 1912 (Read April 2013)
The Scarlet Letters by Nathaniel Hawthorne - 1850
Sexual Behavior in the Human Male by Alfred C. Kinsey - 1948
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson - 1962
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats - 1962
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois - 1903
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner - 1929
Spring and All by William Carlos Williams - 1923
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein - 1961
A Street in Bronzeville by Gwendolyn Brooks - 1945
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams - 1947
A Survey of the Roads of the United States of America by Christopher Colles - 1789
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs - 1914
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston - 1937
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - 1960
A Treasury of American Folklore by Benjamin A. Botkin - 1944
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith - 1943
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe - 1852
Unsafe at Any Speed by Ralph Nader - 1965
Walden; or Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau - 1854
The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes - 1925
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak - 1963
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum - 1900 (Read January 2014)
The Words of Cesar Chavez by Cesar Chavez - 2002
[Notice: Original posting 2013-12-22 at Plethora of Books Blog: http://bookchallenges.weebly.com]
Tags: Top List