MLA's "30 Books Every Adult Should Read Before They Die"

As noted in the description, “Some selections are trilogies, so there are actually more than 30 works on the list.”

I fixed the list so that it reflects 30 selections instead of 36 books.

Yes, I know the title of the list given here is “MLA’s 30 Books Every Adult Should Read …” I was unable to find an official list from the MLA, only a press release stating the following:

In answer to the question “Which book should every adult read before they die?” the librarian survey received an eclectic response. ...

The press release uses the words “top 30.” I guess you’d have to take it up with the MLA or their public relations agency if you think they should have been more specific.

Somebody keeps changing the list. There are 34 books on the list.

I’m sure Philip Pullman is a wonderful author and all, but does he really get to have THREE books on the list? Surely you need to be dead to get that kind of recognition!

Clearly. No Dostoevsky, no Nabokov, no Gogol – I was half expecting Terry Prachett to show up. The fact that so many books that are clearly not classics are on this list (The Curious Incident.., Lovely Bones) renders it even sillier. Who makes up this nonsense?

no “best of” list is complete without a Dostoyevsky…

There is no works on here from George Orwell?

I did not like “The time travler’s wife at all!” it was very confusing.

I must say, you haven’t read The Alchemist until you’ve read it in the original (Brazilian) Portuguese.

you wrote that, “the most influential Russian cities are very close to Europe and have actively traded ideas with it for centuries.”
These influential cities have also traded ideas with the East. For example, Mongolia, China, Korea, and Japan, to name a few.(Hello, The Mongols ruled Russia for, oh, about 400 years. If that’s not a cultural influence, then I’m not quite sure what is. Or we could consider the Russo-Japanese war of 1905, or we could consider the USSR’s involvement in countries such as Cambodia and Vietnam when they were seeking spheres of influence, or we could consider all of the other Soviet States that comprised the USSR, many of which are now considered “eastern” or “Middle Eastern” territory. Maybe you should read up on your history a bit, hmm?) If you were ever to go to Russia, you would see that a large percentage of the population is Asian. Also, a large part of the population is Muslim (hence, conflict in Chechnya, etc.)
Now if you want to talk geography, ‘One Day in the life of Ivan Denisovich takes place in Siberia. I believe that would be the…. EASTERN part of Russia? As in, it would be defined as being in the East?
And if we want to talk about dead white men, let’s try to keep in mind that Khalil Gibran is not white, and his book the prophet has nothing to do with the West whatsoever. Let’s try reading the books before we force them into convenient categories for us to criticize, shall we?
one last point- you mentioned that geographers are currently debating on whether Russia is part of Europe or not. Well, this debate has been going on within and outside of Russia since Russia was first formed. That question’s not gonna be answered any time soon.
If you think that Russia is so “Western” (I mean, it’s had the same history as the rest of Europe, right? Democracy, participation in the Enlightenment, supporters of the Catholic Church- oh, wait, my bad, Russia hasn’t had any of these things. I guess I was thinking of France.) then why don’t you try visiting. You’ll find it’s not Western at all. And, I’ll finally add in this long tirade, Russians don’t really want to be Western. So what, exactly, do you think makes Russia part of Europe?

Im glad to see poisonwood bible on this list… it changed my life!