Although set in New Orleans in the 1960s, this satire on society is timeless. Published posthumously (John Kennedy Toole committed suicide and his mother discovered his manuscript), its protagonist, Ignatius J. Reilly is a fat, college-educated thirty-year-old who lives alone with his mother and has a fussy “valve.” As he ventures into a world in dire need of “taste and decency,” he stumbles into many “mongoloids” and “degenerates.” I found myself laughing out loud, which I rarely do when reading a novel. Each chapter has an interesting twist with the final pages unveiling Toole's genius as a storyteller. In many ways this book compares to The Catcher In the Rye, only this book is better.

If there was one story I wished I had written or one book I'd bring to a deserted island, this is it. The funny thing is if I gave you a synopsis of it, you might not be that interested. However, Maugham makes this great story a masterpiece. The protagonist, Larry, is in search of himself, leaving luxury and social norms for a life of study and understanding. Through his time as a soldier and voracious reader and vagabond he learns the path to salvation is like a “razor's edge,” a narrow road to cross. If you're not married or don't have children, read this classic now; it'll give you a better perspective of your own life.

“The true profession of man is to find his way to himself,” writes Hesse . As a writer and introspective person, I seem to find something new in this short novel every time I read it. It reminds me of The Alchemist, but on a more cerebral and philosophical level. This book is especially poignant when the reader is feeling unhappy or confused about something in his or her life.

Hemingway's depiction of Santiago, an old Cuban fisherman, is perhaps the greatest by an American writer. This novella captures a single bout between man and fish with the type of observations and descriptions that made Hemingway a brilliant writer.

I admit it. This is the first book of “literature” that I enjoyed. And I only picked it up in the first place because it was on a summer reading list for my high school English class. Since the story is told by Holden Caulfield, a sixteen-year-old, who is expelled from prep school and shares his universal male adolescent views with the reader, it's no surprise why I first liked this novel. It still is a classic about a young man coming of age, but also can be appreciated on an intellectual level. Yet, if you're not an avid reader, you may like this book, especially if you're a young man.

This is the last on my list, but it may very well be the best. His terse, laconic prose makes each of these forty-nine short stories easy to read. Yet Hemingway is a master of leaving plenty out, making the reader ponder each story long after he or she closes the book. Some of the subjects include war, family relations, sex, death and courage. “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” is one of the best short stories I've ever read. There are plenty of others that will leave the reader feeling fulfilled like having just eaten a good homemade dinner, and may take a while to digest.

Timing is everything, as they say. I read this book as a sophomore in high school and couldn't put it down, carrying with me on a trip to Egypt with my mom. Frey chronicles the lives of the star basketball players at Abraham Lincoln High School in Coney Island, a notorious area for pick-up games and housing projects.
The most compelling character, even more than Stephon Marbury, is a determined and eccentric Russell Thomas, who so desperately wants to leave his Brooklyn ghetto, and views basketball as his only means to go to college; his last shot for a better life.

You don't have to like sports to enjoy these Sports Illustrated stories by senior writer Gary Smith, who simply is a great writer. He studies his subjects the way Ted Williams studied hitting. It is a collection of both celebrities and unknown personalities, but as fellow SI writer Rick Reilly says, “Picking your favorite Gary Smith story is like choosing your favorite child. His writing is so wonderful they should back the fences up for him.”

WAITING FOR SNOW IN HAVANA by Carlos Eire

This memoir of a Cuban Boy is a must on any bookshelf. Eire amazed me with his creative, clever and humorous prose, such as his comparison of his parents to King Louis XVI of France and Marie Antoinette. I also was impressed at how much he remembered from his childhood, from blowing up lizards with firecrackers to watching his father drive through crashing ocean waves. He writes candidly and lyrically about his fond childhood that dramatically changed when Fidel Castro gained power and he left soon after for the Unites States.

INTO THE WILD by Jon Krakauer