Dear maverick: Please don't hate me, but I feel strongly that we will never settle on one list of ten books. And from the educational standpoint, a much more appropriate list might be selections from a hundred authors. I have a private joke about the Harvard seal: VE on one book,RI on a book beside it, and TAS on a book below, which to me suggests that the whole of truth can be contained in three books - an obvious fallacy.
For instance, nobody mentioned the Bible.But even those of other religions might profitably read the Ten Commandments and The Golden Rule. And anyone studying English ought at least read excerpts from Shakespeare, Goethe, Schiller, and many other important authors.