501 Must-Read Books
A group devoted to the work edited by Emma Beare and cited here: http://www.librarything.com/work/1888246
Here is a link to the list of 501 must-read books.
This volume is categorized into sections labelled: Children's Fiction, Classic Fiction, History, Memoirs, Modern Fiction, Science Fiction, Thrillers and Travel Writing. Within each section there's a wide range of publication dates (though Classic Fiction is of course generally older), and authors are featured from all over the globe. Any selection of 501 "must-read" books is of course never going to be definitive, but a clear effort was made to have the selections be varied. It seems there was a self-imposed rule not to select two works by the same author for the same section. This counteracts favouritism and contributes to representativeness across a wide range of noteworthy authors.
Members of this group are interested in pursuing their own select readings from the list and sharing their discoveries. Join the discussion or better yet, join the group!