Man, that's actually a pretty nice list of Poe stories, albeit small.

I suggest a reading of The Cask, even if you have read it before.

And if this gets brought to the states, I will buy it. If it does not, I will import it.

I would also suggest Macbeth. (Now you have at least two votes for the same book.)

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.

Everything in the game comes from the public domain supposedly, so there are no licensing fees to use the books. Maybe that's why there are omissions.

Thanks for the suggestion though. When I want to pick up a Dickens book I'll go for David Copperfield first.

I think overall I'm going to start with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I ran through like thirty pages and it's really funny and good for some light reading. Thanks fksumot and Axumblade for the suggestion.

You guys can keep the thread up to recommend me more books or talk them up amongst yourselves, or even talk about the game or ask me questions about it. Please get this game though if you're interested in getting a good electronic book reader and are enticed by the list. Nintendo needs sales from these types of games so they'll make more of them. It's a UK exclusive right now, but absolutely import friendly for all of course.

I second "David Copperfield".

I suggested "Alice In Wonderland" first (and the sequel is even more awesome) because it's a quick read and is delightful. "David Copperfield" is superb Elizabethan drama but it's a much longer read. For Dickens I'd also recommend "A Tale of Two Cities". Everything on the cartridge is a classic so it's hard to go wrong. Basically you just have to find what you like.

For instance for me, I always found reading Shakespeare a little boring but I love to watch the plays. One of my favorites on the list is "The Water Babies", but that might be an acquired taste since my grandmother read it to me when I was a boy. Have fun reading!

Holy hell why have I not seen this, it would be a perfect gift for my friend, she's a big writer.

OT: I've read a good portion of those through my years in school and some because I enjoy southern and revolutionary American writing (I guess that would be how you should put it)

Do Read:
Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Treasure Island
(all of Charles Dickens)
Importance of being Ernest
Gulliver's Travels

And I would skip:
Romeo and Juliet (kinda boring)
The Scarlet Letter (will make you cringe with how long he takes to describe a single damn object)
The Call of the Wild (It's not bad but for me I just don't like the idea of a story all from a dogs perspective)

Romeo and Juliet all the way!!!

WHERES LORD OF THE RINGS :( awww man, that will keep you reading for years to come! longest game ever! lol

Nice list but missing some of my favourite classic authors.

I would recommend The Picture of Dorian Gray as a good read, it's short & spicey and highly enjoyable (if a bit morbid). For cheery fairytale, try the two books by Frances Hodgson Burnett, sadly, they do not have 'A Little Princess' which i thought was the best of her children books.

If you're really into classic books though, why not try getting them from the source at  Project Gutenberg.

It is the largest online repository of public domain classic books, I highly recommend 'The Count of Monte Cristo' by Alexander Dumas, which is my favourite book of all time.

Well those books can't go on my DS, so that's a problem right there. There's no way I'm going to read a novel on my computer.

I've barely read anything there, so all I can recommend is Hamlet, Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer, The Merchant of Venice, or the Edgar Allen Poe.

And if reading on a monitor doesn't bother you, The Metamorphosis by Kafka is really short and always a jolly good time. http://www.online-literature.com/franz-kafka/metamorphosis/1/

EDIT: Nevermind.  It's really short though.