The books are taken from various western-canon lists available online and include seminal works in philosophy, literature, political, science, psychology, classics, history, religion, economics, math, chemistry, physics, biology, astronomy, music, language, and more. While it is impossible for such a list to be exhaustive, the one presented here is aimed at covering a sizeable fraction of the shared intellectual heritage of the western world.
This also means that some vast categories of books are missing. Notably, the list has a strong western bent. It also entirely avoids books from the 20th century.
In our defence, this list is not in any way meant to be an exhaustive list. Rather, it is simply a starting point for your journey into reading great books. It is intended to lay a solid foundation on which a lifetime of reading can be built, regardless of what you decide to read beyond it. In fact, you are encouraged to continue your regular reading habits and only dedicate a fixed time slot daily for reading the books on this list.