Recommended books:
- TIME Magazine’s list of 100 Best Novels and 100 Best and Most Influential Nonfiction Books. Both lists are for books originally written in English and published after 1923. Any books written about on the blog from the lists are in the “TIME 100” category
- A list of novels and short story collections compiled by Brock Clarke, an author and one of my English professors at Bowdoin College. Download Brock’s List
- Random House’s list of Banned Books
- NPR’s list of 100 Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books and 10 Must-Read Fantasy Novels by Lev Grossman
- NPR’s special series You Must Read This showcases books that famous writers love to read and recommend
- Flavorwire’s 50 Excellent Fabulist Books Everyone Should Read
Recommended essays:
- If I Were a Banned Book by William Henderson
- Anthony Doerr’s essay On Books, Memory, and the Twelve Bright Stars Scratched Across Page 302, author and Bowdoin College Alum ’95.
“How are we supposed to measure the brief, warm, intensely complicated fingersnap of our lives against the absolutely incomprehensible vastness of the universe? How? We stare into the fire. We turn to friends, bartenders, lovers, priests, drug-dealers, painters. And we turn to books.
All around us right now, tucked into the valleys and along the coasts, bookshops glow in the winter light. Think of them like singular, magical, and multi-dimensional recipe boxes. They wait for us to pluck out a card, to stand over the stove, to start cooking. I, for one, am deeply grateful for their existence.” – Anthony Doerr
Sea of Shelves 
Just a suggestion, have you considered the “Best American Nonrequired Reading” initially edited by Dave Eggers? I have thoroughly enjoyed the annual publication and feel that more should be made aware of its quality and unique methods of the student’s choices for publication.