These books can be, for some of them, referred to as ‘coffee table books’. The ones that you place out when you have guests coming over so that they can think that you’ve got a nice well-rounded collection of literature. These books are mostly separated according to if they’re classic or modern, full of photography or just text. There’s something for everyone. Under each category, they are listed in alphabetical order according to book title. (Please don’t ask me how many of these books I own, I can tell you that I have read all of them though.)

Classic Novels in English

• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
• The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
• Dracula by Bram Stoker
• Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinback
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• Lady Chatterly’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
• Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
• Lord of the Files by William Golding
• 1984 by George Orwell
• The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthrone
• A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Classic Novels Translated to English

• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (Russian)
• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (French)
• Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevksy (Russian)
• The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by Vicente Blasco Ibanez (Spanish)
  
• Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol (Russian)
• Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (French)
• The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry (French)
• Notre Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) by Victor Hugo (French)
• The Plague by Albert Camus (French)
• The Stranger by Albert Camus (French)
• The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass (German)
• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (Russian)

True Coffee Table Books

• Any astronomy book (hardcover, obviously illustrated) that still lists Pluto as a planet
• Any hardcover book that showcases artwork by Picasso, Monet or van Gogh (although, to be perfectly honest, any book that showcases artwork by a deceased artist and is considered talented would be acceptable)
• Any hardcover book that showcases photography of flora or fauna is also acceptable (bonus points if you have books on local and foreign plants)
• I Am America (And So Can You) by Stephen Colbert
• The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (hardcover, illustrated edition)
• Leonardo’s Notebooks by Leonardo da Vinci (sometimes titled as ‘The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci)