4.26 avg rating — 101,786 ratings

"Please read this. It's not the most scholarly book, but it really opens your eyes to the plight of the native Americans during the period of the opening of the West."

4.29 avg rating — 4,758,698 ratings

"Classic love story, full of people pretending to be nice while talking crap. Great period piece."

3.83 avg rating — 1,183,328 ratings

"Greek classic and good representative of the oral tradition in the West."

4.11 avg rating — 517,159 ratings

"Horrors experienced by the soldier, and in a mostly pointless war."

3.94 avg rating — 576,341 ratings

"Couldn't decide on a Shakespeare tragedy to vote on so I chose my favorite Shakespeare comedy! This one is lots of fun. Great snarkiness."

3.88 avg rating — 1,008,726 ratings

"The one Dickens book I really like. So quotable. Cool French Revolution setting, great characters--Sydney Carton rules!"

4.08 avg rating — 171,263 ratings

"Oh, the good old 14th century. An example of an epic poem, shows how people used to look at religion, sin, virtue, and philosophy."

3.53 avg rating — 237,246 ratings

"More 14th-century goodness. Many different themes and tones. Can be earthy and humorous, or intellectual, or religious. Great picture of medieval life."

3.70 avg rating — 3,178,071 ratings

"OMG. So awesome. Metaphors laid on pretty heavily, but it's still cool. Depressing view of human nature. Good intro to literature."

3.71 avg rating — 218,534 ratings

"Ok, here's a Shakespeare tragedy. Probably my favorite. Got the Roman setting, psychology and power."

3.74 avg rating — 410,616 ratings

"An African voice for this list. I remember it being a great book."

4.65 avg rating — 123,490 ratings

"I tried to avoid voting for books I found too popular in nature, but I couldn't pass this one up. Very influential comic strip. Lots of philosophy, science, psychology, pop culture."

4.37 avg rating — 866,471 ratings

"Haven't read this yet, but I really need to."

4.57 avg rating — 236,423 ratings

"Ok, so I've been looking all over for this book. Highly regarded Western."