Zero to Well-Read

17 Books to Better Understand America, with Sharon McMahon

Ask Us Anything: Anniversary Mailbag Edition

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen, with Rob Harvilla

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

Curating the Canon, with Gilbert Cruz

The Sci-Fi Novel That Predicted 2026

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Book vs. Movie: The Odyssey

How to Get More Out of Your Reading, and More From the Mailbag

The Odyssey of Homer

The United States Constitution, with Amanda Nelson

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

How to Tackle Intimidating Books, with Emily Wilson

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

How to Read Toni Morrison and Where to Start, with Namwali Serpell

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

A Classic Summer Read

Start Here: Welcome to Zero to Well-Read!

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

James by Percival Everett

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare

How to Hone Your Reading Skills, What Makes a Good Reading Goal, and More from the Mailbag

Forever... by Judy Blume

The Book ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER is Based On

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

1984 by George Orwell

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin

"Bartleby, the Scrivener" by Herman Melville

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

How to Read More (and Better) in 2026

What We've Learned Returning to the Great Books

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

2025 Canon Contenders

Introducing Origin Stories

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

The Secret History by Donna Tartt