4.26 avg rating — 102,157 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 — 4,786,630 ratings

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

3.83 avg rating — 1,189,215 ratings

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

4.11 avg rating — 518,978 ratings

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

3.94 avg rating — 577,671 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 — 1,011,157 ratings

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

4.09 avg rating — 171,937 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 — 237,665 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 — 3,192,667 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 — 219,060 ratings

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

3.74 avg rating — 411,815 ratings

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

4.65 avg rating — 123,553 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 — 873,315 ratings

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

4.57 avg rating — 238,841 ratings

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