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drbetteridge's "Recommended Reading for the Real Person"

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I consider myself intelligent and educated, but not very familiar with classic literature. At times I have dabbled with the classics, but the truth is- many of them are just too boring. I’m an avid reader, but now at 40, I have realized that I don’t have to read dull literature to be well read. It doesn’t make a person any more intelligent, only persistent and immune to napping. I originally borrowed someone else’s list, and am working on adding my personal favourites.

  1. 2.
    A Bell for Adano
    by John Hersey

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  2. 3.
    A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century
    by Barbara W. Tuchman

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  3. 5.
    A Doll's House - Literary Touchstone Edition
    by Henrik Ibsen

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  4. 6.
    A Bend in the River
    by V. S. Naipaul

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  5. 7.
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    A Fable
    by William Faulkner

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  6. 8.
    The Adventures of Augie March (Penguin Classics)
    by Saul Bellow

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  7. 9.
    A Farewell to Arms (Scribner Classics)
    by Ernest Hemingway

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  8. 13.

  9. 15.
    A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories
    by Flannery O'Connor

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  10. 16.
    The Aeneid
    by Virgil (trans. Robert Fagles)

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  11. 17.
    "A Confederacy of Dunces"
    by John Kennedy Toole

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  12. 18.
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    Aunt Phillis's Cabin
    by Mary Eastman

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  13. 20.
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    The Analects of Confucius
    by Confucius

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  14. 23.
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    A Day No Pigs Would Die
    by Robert Newton Peck

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  15. 24.
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    Age of Reason
    by Thomas Paine

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  16. 25.
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    A Death in the Family: A Novel
    by James Agee

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  17. 26.
    The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Puffin Classics)
    by Mark Twain

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  18. 28.
    The Awakening
    by Kate Chopin

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  19. 29.
    Anne of Green Gables (Signet Classic) Paperback
    by L.M. Montgomery

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  20. 31.
    Anne of Avonlea (Dover Juvenile Classics)
    by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

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  21. 32.
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    The Ambassadors (Oxford World's Classics)
    by Henry James

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  22. 34.
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    Arthur Mervyn
    by Charles Brockden Brown

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  23. 35.
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    All Quiet on the Western Front
    by Erich Maria Remarque

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  24. 36.
    The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Puffin Classics)
    by Mark Twain

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  25. 37.
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    As I Lay Dying
    by William Faulkner

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  26. 39.
    Absalom. Absalom! by William Faulkner
    by William Faulkner

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  27. 40.
    Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
    by Anne Frank

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  28. 41.
    An American Dream
    by Norman Mailer

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  29. 42.
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    AT SWIM-TWO-BIRDS.
    by Flann. O'Brien

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  30. 43.
    Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret
    by Judy Blume

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  31. 44.
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    The Assistant
    by Bernard Malamud

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  32. 45.
    All the President's Men
    by Bob Woodward

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  33. 46.
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    All the King's Men
    by Robert Penn Warren

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  34. 47.
    Animal Farm
    by George Orwell

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  35. 49.
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    Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee
    by Dee Brown

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  36. 50.
    Burr: A Novel
    by Gore Vidal

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  37. 51.
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  38. 52.
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  39. 53.
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    Barnaby Rudge

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  40. 54.
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    The Book of Songs
    by Heinrich Heine

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  41. 55.
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    The Blithedale Romance
    by Nathaniel Hawthorne

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  42. 56.
    The Birth Of Tragedy
    by Nietzsche

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  43. 58.
    Dickens, Charles-Bleak House

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  44. 60.
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    The Brothers Karamazov
    by Fyodor Dostoevsky

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  45. 61.
    Billy Budd, Sailor (Enriched Classics)
    by Herman Melville

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  46. 62.
    Babbitt
    by Sinclair Lewis

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  47. 63.
    The Bridge of San Luis Ray
    by Thornton Wilder

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  48. 65.
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    The Book of Disquiet
    by Fernando Pessoa

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  49. 66.
    Brideshead Revisited
    by Evelyn Waugh

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  50. 67.
    Brave New World
    by Aldous Huxley

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  51. 68.
    The Bluest Eye
    by Toni Morrison

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  52. 69.
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    The Book of Sand
    by Jorge Luis Borges

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  53. 70.
    Borges: Collected Fictions
    by Jorge Luis Borges

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  54. 71.
    The Big Sleep (Penguin Fiction)
    by Raymond Chandler

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  55. 73.
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    Clarissa
    by Samuel Richardson

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  56. 74.
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    The Canterbury Tales
    by Geoffrey Chaucer

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  57. 75.
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    Castle of Otranto
    by Horace Walpole

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  58. 76.
    Coming of Age in Mississippi
    by Anne Moody

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  59. 77.
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  60. 78.
    The Captain's Daughter (Hesperus Classics)
    by Alexander Pushkin

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  61. 79.
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    The Complete Illustrated Stories and Poems
    by Edgar Allan Poe

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  62. 80.
    The Confessions of Nat Turner
    by William Styron

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  63. 82.
    Candide
    by Voltaire

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  64. 83.
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    The City of Pleasure
    by Arnold Bennett

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  65. 84.
    common sense
    by Thomas Paine: Penguin Classics

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  66. 85.
    Critique of Pure Reason (Philosophical Classics)
    by Immanuel Kant

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  67. 86.
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    Cecilia
    by Fanny Burney

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  68. 87.
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    Camilla
    by Fanny Burney

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  69. 88.
    Confessions of Zeno
    by Italo Svevo

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  70. 89.
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  71. 90.
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    A Christmas Carol
    by Charles Dickens

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  72. 91.
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    Captain Fracassa
    by Theophile Gautier

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  73. 92.
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    Carmen
    by Prosper Mérimée

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  74. 93.
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    The Complete Sherlock Holmes
    by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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  75. 94.
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  76. 95.
    Crime and Punishment
    by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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  77. 97.
    Corinne, or Italy (Oxford World's Classics)
    by Madame de Stael

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  78. 98.
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    Children of the Ghetto
    by Israel Zangwill

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  79. 99.
    The Counterfeiters (Twentieth Century Classics)
    by Andre Gide

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  80. 100.
    The Count of Monte Cristo
    by Alexandre Dumas

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  81. 101.
    The Castle
    by Franz Kafka

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  82. 102.
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    Children of Gebelawi (African writers series)
    by Najib Mahfuz

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  83. 103.
    The Catcher in the Rye
    by J.D. Salinger

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  84. 104.
    Catch-22
    by Joseph Heller

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  85. 105.
    The Call of the Wild
    by Jack London

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  86. 106.
    Cat's Cradle
    by Kurt Vonnegut

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  87. 107.
    Call It Sleep: A Novel
    by Henry Roth

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  88. 108.
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    The Color Purple
    by Alice Walker

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  89. 109.
    The Crying of Lot 49
    by Thomas Pynchon

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  90. 110.
    A Death in the Family
    by James Agee

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  91. 112.
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    Decameron
    by Giovanni Boccaccio

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  92. 113.
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    The Death of Artemio Cruz
    by Carlos Fuentes

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  93. 114.
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    The Dunciad
    by Alexander Pope

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  94. 115.
    The Death of the Heart
    by Elizabeth Bowen

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  95. 116.
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  96. 117.
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    Dr. Zhivago
    by Boris Pasternak

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  97. 118.
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    The Day of the Locust
    by Nathanael West

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  98. 119.
    Dog Soldiers
    by Robert Stone

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  99. 120.
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    Diary of a Madman and Other Stories
    by Nikolai Gogol

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  100. 122.
    Death of Virgil
    by Hermann Broch

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  101. 123.
    Desperate Remedies (Oxford World's Classics)
    by Thomas Hardy

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  102. 124.
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    Death Comes for the Archbishop
    by Willa Cather

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  103. 125.
    A Doll's House
    by Henrik, Ibsen

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  104. 126.
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    Dead Souls
    by Nikolai Vasilivich Gogol

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  105. 128.
    Don Quixote
    by Miguel de Cervantes

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  106. 129.
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    Dracula: The Definitive Edition (Barnes & Noble Books)
    by Bram Stoker

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  107. 130.
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  108. 131.
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    Dream of the Red Chamber
    by Cao Xuegin

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  109. 132.
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    The Daisy Chain
    by Charlotte Mary Yonge

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  110. 133.
    Death of a Salesman
    by Arthur Miller

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  111. 134.
    ?
    The Death of Ivan Illych
    by Leo Tolstoy

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  112. 136.
    ?
    The Devil to Pay in the Backlands
    by Joao Guimaraes Rosa

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  113. 137.
    The End Of Summer
    by Rosamunde Pilcher

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  114. 138.
    East Of Eden
    by John Steinbeck

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  115. 139.
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    Essays
    by Michel de Montaigne

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  116. 140.
    ?
    Evelina
    by Fanny Burney

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  117. 142.
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    Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon
    by Jules Verne

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  118. 143.
    ?
    Edwardina
    by Catherine Harris

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  119. 144.
    Emma (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (B&N Classics)
    by Jane Austen

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  120. 145.
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    Unknown-The Epic Of Gilgamesh

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  121. 146.
    Faust
    by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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  122. 147.
    ?
    The Forest of Montalbano
    by Catherine Cuthbertson

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  123. 148.
    ?
    Far From The Madding Crowd
    by Thomas Hardy

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  124. 150.
    Finnegans Wake
    by James Joyce

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  125. 151.
    Four Quartets
    by T. S. Eliot

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  126. 152.
    The Fall of the House of Usher
    by Edgar Allan Poe

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  127. 153.
    Fathers and Sons (Oxford World's Classics)
    by Ivan Turgenev

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  128. 154.
    The Feminine Mystique
    by Betty Friedan

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  129. 155.
    The French Lieutenant's Woman
    by John Fowles

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  130. 156.
    ?
    Falconer - John Cheever

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  131. 157.
    Fahrenheit 451: A Novel
    by Ray Bradbury

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  132. 158.
    A FAREWELL TO ARMS
    by Ernest Hemingway

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  133. 159.
    ?

  134. 160.
    Frankenstein (Signet Classics (Paperback))
    by Mary Shelley

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  135. 161.
    ?

  136. 162.
    Germinal
    by Emile Zola

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  137. 163.
    ?
    Georges
    by Alexandre Dumas

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  138. 164.
    ?
    The Good Soldier
    by Ford Madox Ford

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  139. 165.
    ?
    The Golden Notebook
    by Doris Lessing

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  140. 166.

  141. 167.
    Great Expectations (Barnes & Noble Classics)
    by Charles Dickens

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  142. 169.
    Gulliver's Travels
    by Jonathan Swift

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  143. 170.
    The Great Gatsby
    by F. Scott Fitzgerald

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  144. 171.
    The Gypsy Ballads of Garcia Lorca
    by Garcia Lorca

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  145. 172.
    ?

  146. 173.
    ?
    The Gulag Archipelago, 3 Volumes ( 3 Volume set), Complete
    by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

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  147. 174.
    Go Tell It On The Mountain
    by James Baldwin

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  148. 175.
    The Good Earth
    by Pearl S. Buck

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  149. 176.
    Gone With the Wind
    by Margaret Mitchell

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  150. 177.
    The Grapes of Wrath (Centennial Edition)
    by John Steinbeck

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  151. 178.
    ?

  152. 179.
    The Hand of Ethelberta
    by Thomas Hardy

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  153. 180.
    ?
    Housekeeping
    by Marilynne Robinson

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  154. 181.
    ?
    A House for Mister Biswas
    by V.S. Naipaul

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  155. 182.
    ?
    A Handful Of Dust
    by Evelyn Waugh

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  156. 183.
    ?
    Hunger
    by Knut Hamsun

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  157. 184.
    The Heart of the Matter
    by Graham Greene

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  158. 185.

  159. 186.
    ?
    Elsa Morante - History

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  160. 188.
    ?
    His Family - The First Pulitzer Prize Winning Novel
    by Ernest Poole

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  161. 189.
    The House of Souls
    by Arthur Machen

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  162. 191.
    ?

  163. 194.
    Hard Times (Signet Classics)
    by Charles Dickens

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  164. 195.
    Hamlet
    by William Shakespeare

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  165. 196.
    ?
    How Green was my Valley
    by Richard Llwellyn

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  166. 197.
    ?
    A House of Gentlefolk
    by Ivan Turgenev

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  167. 198.
    The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (Oprah's Book Club)
    by Carson McCullers

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  168. 199.
    ?
    The heart of the hills, by John Fox, Jr; illustrated by F. C. Yohn
    by John (1863-1919) Fox

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  169. 200.
    ?
    Bellow, Saul-Herzog

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  170. 201.
    The Histories
    by Herodotus

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  171. 202.
    His Family
    by Ernest Poole

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  172. 203.
    ?
    Homer-The Iliad

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  173. 205.
    I, Claudius
    by Robert Graves

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  174. 206.
    Independent People
    by Halldor Laxness

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  175. 207.
    The Idiot
    by Fyodor Dostoevsky

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  176. 208.
    ?
    O'Neill, Eugene-The Iceman Cometh

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  177. 210.
    Invisible Man
    by Ralph Ellison

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  178. 212.
    ?
    I Canti (Complete Poems)
    by Giacomo Leopardi

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  179. 213.
    The Jungle Books (Oxford World's Classics)
    by Rudyard Kipling

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  180. 214.
    Jude the Obscure
    by Thomas Hardy

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  181. 215.
    ?

  182. 216.
    The Jewish State
    by Theodor Herzl

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  183. 218.
    ?
    Julie
    by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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  184. 219.
    Jonathan Livingston Seagull
    by Richard Bach

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  185. 220.
    The Jungle (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (B&N Classics)
    by Upton Sinclair

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  186. 221.
    Journey to the End of the Night (New Directions Paperbook)
    by Louis-Ferdinand Celine

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  187. 222.
    Jacques the Fatalist and His Master (Penguin Classics)
    by Denis Diderot

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  188. 224.
    ?
    Temple Shakespeare - King Lear

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  189. 225.
    ?

  190. 226.
    ?
    The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickelby
    by Charles Dickens

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  191. 228.
    ?
    The Life and Adventures of John Nicol, Mariner
    by John Nicol

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  192. 229.
    The Last of the Mohicans (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)
    by James Fenimore Cooper

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  193. 230.
    ?
    LIGHT IN AUGUST
    by William Faulkner

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  194. 231.
    ?
    Live and Let Live
    by Catharine Maria Sedgwick

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  195. 232.
    ?
    Loving
    by Henry Green

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  196. 234.
    The Leopard (Paperback)
    by Giuseppe di Lampedusa

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  197. 235.
    Lyrical Ballads (1798)
    by Willam Wordsworth & Samuel Coleridge

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  198. 236.
    The Lord of the Rings
    by J.R.R. Tolkien

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  199. 237.
    Little Big Man
    by Thomas Berger

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  200. 238.
    Lord of the Flies
    by William Golding

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  201. 239.
    ?
    Leaves of Grass
    by Walt Whitman

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  202. 240.
    Lucky Jim (Penguin Classics)
    by Kingsley Amis

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  203. 241.
    ?
    The Ladies Defiance
    by Lady Mary Chudleigh

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  204. 242.
    A Laodicean (Penguin Classics)
    by Thomas Hardy

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  205. 243.
    Lolita
    by Vladimir Nabokov

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  206. 244.
    Looking Backwards
    by Edward Bellamy

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  207. 245.
    ?
    Les Miserables
    by Victor Hugo

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  208. 246.
    The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices
    by Wilkie Collins

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  209. 247.
    ?
    The Last Chronicle of Barset
    by Anthony Trollope

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  210. 248.

  211. 249.
    ?
    Meditations Poetiques
    by Lamartine

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  212. 250.
    ?
    Memoirs of a Cavalier
    by Daniel Defoe

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  213. 251.
    Medea
    by Euripides

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  214. 252.
    ?
    Moll Flanders
    by Daniel Defoe

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  215. 253.
    Mahabharata
    by William Buck

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  216. 254.
    ?
    Memoirs
    by Saint-Simon

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  217. 255.
    ?
    The Milesian Chief: A Romance
    by Charles Robert Maturin

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  218. 256.
    ?
    The Metamorphoses
    by Ovid

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  219. 258.
    ?
    The Mother and Daughter
    by Mary Julia Young

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  220. 259.
    The Mistress of Husaby: Kristin Lavransdatter, Vol. 2
    by Sigrid Undset

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  221. 260.
    The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Penguin Classics)
    by Charles Dickens

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  222. 261.
    The Magic Mountain
    by Thomas Mann

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  223. 262.
    ?
    The Misforturnes of Elphin
    by Thomas Love Peacock

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  224. 263.
    Mrs. Dalloway
    by Virginia Woolf

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  225. 264.
    ?
    Middlemarch (Penguin Classics)
    by George Eliot

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  226. 265.
    Mein Kampf
    by Adolf Hitler

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  227. 266.
    Moby-Dick: or, The Whale (Penguin Classics)
    by Herman Melville

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  228. 267.
    ?
    THE MALTESE FALCON
    by Dashiell Hammett

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  229. 268.
    The Mayor of Casterbridge (Thrift Edition)
    by Thomas Hardy

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  230. 269.
    ?
    Man Without Qualities 3 Volumes
    by Robert Musil

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  231. 270.
    ?
    The Moviegoer
    by Walker Percy

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  232. 271.
    Midnight's Children: A Novel
    by Salman Rushdie

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  233. 274.
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    Man's Fate
    by Andre Malraux

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  234. 275.
    Madame Bovary
    by Gustave Flaubert

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  235. 276.
    The Man Who Loved Children: A Novel
    by Christina Stead

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  236. 278.
    ?
    Memoirs of Hadrian
    by Marguerite Yourcenar

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  237. 279.
    Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable (Everyman's Library)
    by Samuel Beckett

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