Collections
Thematic groupings across the canon. Browse by what interests you.
Under 200 Pages
Proof that brevity and greatness are not opposites. Every one of these can be read in a day or two, and several will stay with you for decades.
Nobel Prize Winners
The Swedish Academy got it right more often than people think. These are the Nobel laureates whose work appears in the canon.
Written in Prison or Exile
Some of the greatest literature was written in captivity, exile, or under political oppression so severe it amounted to the same thing.
Debut Novels
First novels that announced their authors to the world. Some arrived quietly and grew. Others detonated on contact.
Final Works
The last works these authors completed, or the ones published after their deaths. There is often something different about a writer's final word.
Love Stories
Not all of these end well. In fact, most of them don't. But every one of them understands what it feels like to be consumed by another person.
Books That Were Banned
Governments, churches, and school boards have tried to suppress every one of these. They all failed.
Philosophy for Beginners
You don't need a degree to start. These are the philosophical works in the canon that reward a first-time reader most generously.
One Sitting
Works you can start and finish in a single session. Most under an hour. All of them hit harder than books ten times their length.
The Ancients
Everything written before 500 AD. The foundations of Western and Eastern literature, philosophy, and drama. Three thousand years and still no one has improved on most of it.
Monsters and Madmen
Literature's most disturbing characters, its deepest descents into obsession, and the stories that make you check the lock on the door.
Women Writers
Every work in the canon written by a woman. Still not enough of them, but every one essential.
Door-Stoppers
The big ones. Each of these is a serious commitment, and each is worth every page. Clear your schedule.
Poetry Essentials
Every poem and poetry collection in the canon. From Sappho to Seamus Heaney, the art form that says most in least.
Plays
Every play in the canon. From the Theatre of Dionysus to the Theatre of the Absurd.
Essays and Non-Fiction
Arguments, confessions, investigations, and one very modest proposal. The art of thinking on paper.
Gothic and Horror
For when the nights draw in and you want to feel slightly afraid of a book.