Great Expectations

Richard Branson Founder/Virgin GroupToday is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. (Source)

Marvin Liao Partner/500 StartupsMy list would be (besides the ones I mentioned in answer to the previous question) both business & Fiction/Sci-Fi and ones I personally found helpful to myself. The business books explain just exactly how business, work & investing are in reality & how to think properly & differentiate yourself. On the non-business side, a mix of History & classic fiction to understand people, philosophy to make sense of life and Science fiction to picture what the future could be like (not always utopian). (Source)

Jenny Hartley It is one of the most perfect novels ever written.It’s got a wonderful plot. It’s about good and bad money, you don’t know who Pip’s benefactor is, you’re wrong-footed—as he is—all the time. It’s about terrible damage. It’s got this fantastic suspense about what happens to Magwitch. It’s sad, but also it’s got wonderful humour in it and wonderful characters. It’s got Wemmick, one of the first commuters. It’s just brilliant. (Source)

Matthew Taylor And lastly, I wanted to choose Dickens because every few years I read one and then I get completely into it and become so moved. It is hard work in a way because Dickens is so intricate, and there is nothing contemporary about his novels really. There are contemporary themes but you have to put yourself back in that world. (Source)

Audrey Russo So many novels; Lord of the Flies, Great Gatsby, Great Expectations; all the Nancy Drew books; Catcher in the Rye, Books written by Zora Neale Hurston; Pat Conroy – all because of the view about different people who endure despite adversity while kindling the hearts of the human spirit. (Source)

John Sutherland It is a novel not just about survival of the fittest. It is also a novel about the ways in which you make your way in the world, and how it is that you can reach a place in life which is different from where you started. (Source)

Salley Vickers It’s a prime example of a good analysis, because Pip comes to see where he has been blind, where his moral values have gone wonky (Source)

Robert Douglas-Fairhurst What the rest of Great Expectations shows is that having Christmas lasting all the way through your life might not be a good thing. Having a Santa Claus figure who keeps throwing gifts and money at you when they’re not necessarily wanted or deserved might be a handicap. (Source)