"seek ye out of the best books"

I have always loved to read. I used to read a book a day during middle school (they weren't the thickest books in the world but they weren't picture books either)!

A while ago I became distraught while flipping through this silly book I have that I pretty much live by, 101 Things To Do Before You Die by Richard Horne. One of the things I was supposed to be doing before I die was to 'read the greatest books ever written' and included was a list of 85 classic books. I had read 4. Here I was a high school and college graduate, I considered myself to be semi-smart, I mean I watch Jeopardy almost every night! But it hit me like a ton of bricks- I was not well-read and it truly bothered me.

So being the determined and driven person that I am I googled "classic literature list" and found two list that I liked (one was divided into three categories, Adult, Young Adult and Children). I compiled two lists and came up with this master list. I am finding these books a yard sales and thrift stores for a quarter or dollar a piece, and I am going to be marking the books off one by one as I read them. Then when, someday, I read them all I will start over. This is how I am going to go from semi-smart to completely smart.

Feel free to use my list to make yourselves completely smart too!