Whoa, along comes this thread and all of the sudden I feel like a fanboy!
I apologize in advance.
That list is good, though they seem to have gone for collecting a bunch of stuff by a few authors, rather than just getting the greatest three or four books by the prolific authors (an interesting choice, and not necessarily a bad one). Also strange that all of the writers are English or American. Where's my War and Peace?
Short answer: David Copperfield, I choose youuu!
Long Answer:
For a first novel from that list I would suggest David Copperfield, which someone else already suggested. It's a coming of age story about a boy with a screwed up childhood fighting his way into adulthood, and some seriously crazy stuff happens in it! There's dark and haunting tragedy, and there are some hilarious characters.
It's considered one of Dickens' best novels, and it's one of the easiest to read as well. It gives you a solid idea of how great Dickens can be, and what his books feel like.
Great Expectations is another great Dickens novel, as the name suggests -- but it won't really give you a sense for Dickens as an author. It's much shorter than his other books, and it's more narrow in focus. Same deal with Tale of Two Cities -- it's great, but I've talked to many people who couldn't get into it because of the serious tone. It's more condensed and less crazy, sprawling, circus-like. . .
Other Dickens books that are more standard Dickens, like David Copperfield (though I really do think that's the best place to start):
Little Dorritt
Our Mutual Friend
Dombey and Son
Bleak House -- actually, Bleak House depresses a lot of people, and the writing is a little more crazy and dense than most Dickens, but it's definitely a great book. It almost feels like dystopian science fiction in parts. And it has spontaneous combustion! And Dickens makes an argument for why spontaneous combustion is a proven phenomenon in the intro!
Other notes:
Remember that with Senior Shakespeare, nothing in there will take more than a few hours to read, because they're all plays. You might want to start with a comedy, like Twelfth Night. If you haven't read/ seen much Shakespeare, the stories might be hard to get into. There are some good Shakespeare movies to get you started -- sometimes watching a play and then reading it, or vice versa, is much more enjoyable than trying to imagine the whole thing in your head from scratch. There's enough in there that you'll always notice a world of things you missed the last time you read or watched it, so don't worry about spoiling it by seeing the movie first.
(Movie links available upon request.)
Also, Huck Finn is an amazing book. I never realized how great a writer Mark Twain was until I reread this recently.
Jane Austen is a great writer, possibly THE great writer, and very easy to get into, but most of my friends who are gamers don't like her, so she comes in at the end, honorable-mention-style. Good way to turn on 99% of girls who like books: Tell them how much you like Pride and Prejudice.
