In absolutely no order: 1. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. An amazing, hilarious, and (imo) heart breaking classic. Alonso Quixano and Sancho Panza are some of my most favorite characters in Literature, and also my most favorite duo, second only to Mephistopheles and Faust, and speaking of which... 2. Faust (Goethe). This is perhaps one of the greatest works of art I have ever read. I wish I could read it in the Original German, as the english translation I read was beautifully crafted as it is. I mean, here's one of my favorite quotes ever: This is play of truly epic proportions. heaven and hell, love, death, ambition, regret, damnation, salvation... It has everything. 3. The Castle by Franz Kafka. A lot of people don't seem to love the Castle, but it's perhaps my most favorite Kafka work, and I've read everything he's ever done except Amerika. Something about the castle is very subliminal. If you asked me why I specifically prefer it over The Trial or any other of his amazing works, I couldn't really tell you. I think, however, that the Castle is Kafka at his purest. All of the characters are all so erratic and (imo) rat-like (best way to characterize them), and yet they feel so human in a darkly comedic fashion. It's so sad that this novel was never finished, ending in such a disappointing manner and with no ending, aside from a speculation of how it was supposed to end. 4.Ulysses by James Joyce. I bought this book mostly because I heard it was a difficult novel, and I LOVE challenges, and since I paid 12 bucks for it, I figured that would be the safety that would force me to read it. Little did I know, James Joyce and I are like brothers! I loved the Stream of Consciousness style of writing, I love the hilarity that the novel is soaked in, and I love the fact that he can make using the bathroom read like a poetic triumph of the human spirit. Stephen Dedalus is one of my favorite characters and someone I can relate to on a level not like any other character. I read Ulysses once a year, starting on Bloomsday. I loved Ulysses so much, I read most of his other works and can vouch for them as well, The only works of his I haven't read yet are his plays and Finnegans Wake, which I plan to read some day. 5.Symposium by Plato. A dialogue on Love that is so filled to the brim with content that I've read the dialogue more than 5 times in different translations and I still keep on finding new insights. If you think Plato was just a philosopher, reading the Symposium will convince you that if he didn't go into Philosophy, we would be praising him for creating some of the best plays ever written. He masterfully chooses each character, all of their words and actions carefully calculated with meaning and purpose. What seems like an unfinished conversation point or interruption actually is part of a larger point (most of the time very ironic and contradicting what certain characters say on love) It's also one of the most enjoyable dialogues to read because the subject matter is something that is always interesting to everyone. Aren't we all fascinated by love?Glitter is coined to meet the moment's rage;
The genuine lives on from age to age
Well I think some people might not be interested in erotic love between men and boys but they are missing out, cause the Symposium is pretty damn good. Bad thing about the Symposium is that if you don't know the history, characters and their relation to each other you will miss out on about 70% of the jokes, but it's pretty funny all the same. If you want to get the most out of it, study up on Athens at that time and the doings of the characters in the book before you read it. And keep in mind when it was written and where these characters were in at in their lives. Anything by Plato is worth reading even if you don't know the context, but context makes it infinitely better.
I give you 4 out of five. I slightly prefer Pierre Menard's Don Quixote. I would give my eye teeth that Plato would have never been a philosopher.