8legged

Open Culture’s list of free audio books and ebooks.

• Books to rebuild civilization: Lists by Brian Eno, Stewart Brand, Kevin Kelly & Others
• The 10 Greatest Books Ever, According to 125 Top Authors

Neil deGrasse Tyson recommends:

• The Bible
  • “to learn that it’s easier to be told by others what to think and believe than it is to think for yourself.”
  • eBook
• The System of the World by Isaac Newton
  • “to learn that the universe is a knowable place.”
  • eBook
• On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
  • “to learn of our kinship with all other life on Earth.”
  • eBook / Audio book
• Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
  • “to learn, among other satirical lessons, that most of the time humans are Yahoos.”
  • eBook / Audio book
• The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine
  • “to learn how the power of rational thought is the primary source of freedom in the world.”
  • eBook / Audio book
• The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
  • “to learn that capitalism is an economy of greed, a force of nature unto itself.”
  • eBook / Audio book
• The Art of War by Sun Tsu
  • “to learn that the act of killing fellow humans can be raised to an art.”
  • eBook / Audio book
• The Prince by Machiavelli
  • “to learn that people not in power will do all they can to acquire it, and people in power will do all they can to keep it.”
  • eBook / Audio book

Source: 8 (Free) Books Every Intelligent Person Should Read

The Harvard Classics

The Harvard Classics, originally known as Dr. Eliot’s Five Foot Shelf is a 51 volume series that you can download for free by going to these Project Gutenberg or Internet Archive pages.

Open Culture says:

“Charles W. Eliot made a frequent assertion: If you were to spend just 15 minutes a day reading the right books, a quantity that could fit on a five foot shelf, you could give yourself a proper liberal education. The publisher P. F. Collier and Son loved the idea and asked Eliot to assemble the right collection of works. The result wasa 51-volume series published in 1909 called Dr. Eliot’s Five Foot Shelf. Later it would simply be called The Harvard Classics.”