In this day and age, it’s hard to believe that books and plays used to be the only game in town. With the amount of digital distractions today, an unfortunate number of people turn on an electronic device to entertain them rather than open a book. But classic literature made such a mark on modern society because of its ability to transport people’s minds when, over the past centuries, physical transportation methods were much more arduous. For this reason, stories that would become classics captivated the collective consciousness of the literate.

This short list of some of the best of classic literature is missing a few heavy-hitters, of course. Crime and Punishment and Heart of Darkness already were featured on our Best Books list. Moby Dick and The Great Gatsby showed up on our Best Novels list. And dramatic classics from the likes of Shakespeare deserve their own category altogether. So without further ado, our choices for five of the best undisputed classics.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813)

Despite being penned in the early 1800s and being primary concerned with early-19th century British society, Jane Austen’s classic Pride and Prejudice routinely tops most-loved books lists. As protagonist Elizabeth weathers the rigors of manners, marriage and morality of England’s sophisticated and wealthy, the reader is privy to the intimate details of the lifestyle of the elite. Like much of Austen’s work, Pride and Prejudice focuses on how environment and upbringing influence an individual’s overall sense of morality.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (1844)

Along with The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo is a true adventure classic by Alexandre Dumas. The Count has captured imaginations over much of the past two centuries through its tale of justice, vengeance and mercy. The hope-filled journey of a wrongfully convicted man who escapes from prison is soon transformed into a story of retribution as he acquires a fortune, but as he seeks revenge on his enemies the story becomes one of how such acts often harm the innocent as well as the guilty.

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (1859)

This list would not be complete without Dickens. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” remains one of the more notable and recognizable literary references to this day. The two cities in question are Paris and London, as the French peasants feel squeezed under the grip of the pre-revolution aristocracy while parallels are made to life in London. One of only two historical novels the prolific and iconic Dickens wrote, it’s also one of his very best.

Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897)

Vampires haven’t always been heartthrobs. In the 19th century, the were actually mysterious and vicious creatures of the night. Bram Stoker’s classic Dracula is the greatest vampire story ever told, and he managed to do it through an epistolary storytelling method (mostly letters and journal entries from various people who’d come in contact with the infamous Count or his aftermath). Though horror classics may not be everyone’s cup of tea, it’s difficult to imagine a world in which Bram Stoker’s Dracula didn’t give new meaning to garlic, coffins, bats, and wooden stakes.

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (1937)

Steinbeck could have as easily made this list for The Grapes of Wrath, but none of his other books tug at the heartstrings quite like Of Mice and Men. As George and  Lenny (two migrant workers who share a dream of working their way up to one day owning their own land) butt heads with other workers at a ranch that briefly employs them, it quickly becomes apparent that Lenny’s limited mental abilities and large size are going to get him and George into trouble. The ending of this relatively short book is a truly heartbreaking scene of mercy and friendship.

Humans have pondered the nature of our perceived reality for millennia. While scientific innovation over the past couple of centuries has allowed for much deeper insight the workings of the mind and the nature of time and space, the great thinkers throughout history are still heavily influential on the world today. The Greek philosophers may have lived in such an ancient epoch that Aristotle laughably suggested that the brain’s function was to cool the blood, but his mentor, Plato, has been described as so instrumental to the eventual European philosophical tradition that it can be generalized as “a series of footnotes” referencing him.

So while any Best Philosophy Books list would be remiss to completely leave out Plato’s Republic, Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, Aristotle’s Metaphysics, or Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, we’re keeping our list more contemporary and focusing on the descendant philosophical traditions these works eventually encouraged through either agreement or rebuttal. We’re also not looking into political philosophy, so you won’t find the likes of Voltaire, Machiavelli, John Locke or Karl Marx. What you will find are five of the more influential philosophical works on the nature of existence from the past 250 years.

Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant (1781)

Kant is one of the more challenging modern philosophers due to the precision of his focus. His philosophy espoused in Critique of Pure Reason is derived from Aristotle and primarily asserts that the nature of reality is unknowable to the human mind. He posits that everything in the universe is a thing “in-itself,” meaning a true essence that humans cannot hope to directly experience because of the limitations of our sensory perceptions. By passing through a filter, the true nature of objects in the world is changed and therefore reality itself is obscured.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Frederich Nietzsche (1883)

Nietzche’s seminal nihilist novel put forth his philosophical positions on eternal recurrence (his position that time is cyclical and everything that physically happens will continue to happen over and over), the death of God (and his critique on religion and politics as being based on hatred of the body and the physical world), and his Übermensch (higher form of life to which humans can aspire to achieve by improving ourselves and the world from generation to generation). He remains hugely influential and controversial to this day.

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse (1922)

Novelist, poet, and painter Herman Hesse expressed his philosophy through his creative output. In Siddhartha, he tells the tale of a man who went on a similar quest of self-discovery as that of the Buddha. The main theme of the book is that enlightenment and understanding is achieved not through events inside the mind (through study or meditation) or, conversely, from carnal pleasures in the physical world but rather comes about through the whole of experience. Therefore, even experiences that are painful or seemingly detrimental are not negative because they are one part of the completeness of one’s experience that ultimately leads to greater understanding.

Being and Time by Martin Heidegger (1927)

Heidegger was a crucial contributor to existentialism, positing in his most notable work, Being and Time, that despite the millennia of thought on the subject it’s still unclear exactly what “being” means. He was critical of philosophers in the past for so easily dismissing the question of what it means “to be.” There are separate beings, or entities that are in the physical world and interact with it, but the nature of Being is deeper and more mysterious. Authentic people appreciate this mystery and embrace it and go about their lives pondering the mystery but engaging the physical world.

The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir (1949)

As one of the more influential French philosophers of the 20th century, Simone de Beauvoir excelled in a field nearly exclusively dominated by white men. One of her most notable books The Second Sex contributed to the rise of second-wave feminism as it confronts human history from the feminist perspective. Her assertion that men have, throughout history, oppressed women by designating them as the “Other” is now essentially canon among contemporary thought. In addition to her work with lifelong partner Jean-Paul Sartre on the nature of being-in-itself, de Beauvoir blazed trails not only for her gender, but for the way we understand what it means to be human.

One could make the argument that recording historical events, capturing the fleeting nature of time in a more durable medium, was one of the primary reasons people started writing. While ancient times saw the mixture of history and folklore, of science and superstition, even the oldest, most esoteric writings provide invaluable insight into what it meant to be human in very different eras.

Reading about history is one of the best ways to ground oneself in a firm understanding of where we’ve been as people, as well as to help understand the mistakes and triumphs of those who have come before. Simply put, learning from the past helps inform our present. Below you will find some of the best history books from recent decades, with a focus on the history of broad events and trends rather than specific biographies. These are our picks for the best books for understanding the history of the human condition.

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (1953)

Anne Frank, the adolescent girl whose family hid from the Nazis in the attic of their Amsterdam home before their eventual capture and imprisonment within a concentration camp, could never have known just how many hearts her poignant diary (kept during her ordeal) would eventually touch. Possessing a mind beyond her years, she recounts both a first-hand account of the looming nightmare of the Third Reich, and also chronicles the various thoughts and musings of an adolescent who, despite the horrors around her, is still a precocious young girl. Despite the fact that she died in an concentration camp, Anne Frank’s spirit lives on in every page.

A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present
by Howard Zinn (1980)

History is most often told through from the perspective of those in power, whether politically or economically. To help buck that trend, historian and political scientist Howard Zinn wrote his compendium of U.S. history from the view of the common person, focusing on those historical figures who fought injustice and advanced the United States as a civilization. As an example of his approach he’s said that his American hero isn’t someone like Teddy Roosevelt, who glamorized war, but Mark Twain who satirized imperialism and denounced violence.

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
by Jared Diamond (1997)

This Pulitzer Prize-winning book delves into the subject of why Eurasian civilizations were the ones to conquer other societies from around the world and colonize those regions instead of vice versa. Diamond offers evidence that the geographic locations of the conquering civilizations had much to do with this, allowing them to produce guns and steel and develop resistances to deadly germs. Diamond’s book helps to further dress down any latent notions that genetics or inherent intellect played a role in world conquest.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (2003)

Popular scientist Bill Bryson starts from the very beginning and breaks down the history of life and its formation on Earth as he discusses the history of geology and biology in lay terms, while also simply explaining complex themes such as subatomic particles. Focusing largely on the development of Homo sapien life, Bryson also delves into the historical accounts of global catastrophic events, including earthquakes, massive storms, and volcanic activity, while speculating on how life would react to another global event like a meteor strike.

The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome by Susan Wise Bauer

When we study history, oftentimes the focus is on one specific culture or event at a time. Susan Wise Bauer’s stellar book on the ancient world seeks to change that by tying together the stories of all the worlds’ people from ancient times, explaining the connections between Europe, the Middle East and China. The book also draws its narrative style from literature, traditions and even letters from the era that unlock a vibrant view into the world of both those in power and those they ruled. The individual cultures are made even more vivid when their connections to others are shown.

Since the mind first gained the ability to conceive of its own capacity, humans have searched for ways to turn the light of consciousness upon itself. Before modern science, learning more about what makes us tick was left to philosophers and religion, to speculative theories and storytelling. While Hippocrates first conjectured that mental disorders were physical rather than supernatural in nature as early as the 4th century BCE, psychology didn’t see its first advancements into the laboratory setting until the late 19th century. Since then, humanity has achieved an unprecedented level of enlightenment about our own cognitive processes.

We’ve compiled a list of some of the best modern psychological books. While classics like William James’ The Varieties of Religious Experience, Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams, and Jung’s The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious obviously deserve mention on a list like this for laying the groundwork that subsequent psychology was built upon, we’re narrowing our focus here to more recent books that have greatly impacted the layperson’s understanding of the way the human mind works.

Games People Play by Eric Berne (1964)

Though we like to think of social interactions as ways in which we make connections with other people, much of the social behavior of humans is driven by mind games we’re not even aware of. In his landmark book on the subject, Eric Berne details the games we play in our various relationships, whether the games be for power and control in our work relationships, competitive games for status with our peers, or sexual games in our romantic relationships. With his focus on the procedures and rituals we follow in the various mind games we create, Berne’s book changed the way many people view the dynamic of human relationships.

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1991)

In his book Flow, personal development guru and esteemed psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi provides enthralling analysis of the euphoric state of nearly uninterrupted concentration that many people experience. The state of “flow” occurs when our focus is honed so sharply that we are completely involved in the task at hand and essentially lose our self-consciousness. Best of all, Csikszentmihalyi details methods anyone can use to achieve this level of concentration and awareness almost at will.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (2003)

Mark Haddon’s spellbinding book is such an insightful glimpse into the perceptions of people on the autism spectrum that it’s the only work of fiction to make this list. The first person narrator, a teenager with an autistic disorder, tries to solve the neighborhood mystery of who killed a neighbor’s poodle with a garden tool. Through his years of experience working with people on the autism spectrum, Haddon effectively sheds light on their sensory perceptions and cognitive processes while telling a compelling story.

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell (2005)

We’re often led to believe that snap judgments are always a bad thing, but Malcolm Gladwell challenges that notion in Blink. In this accessible read, Gladwell details behavioral economics theory and the processes of the “adaptive unconscious,” which is capable of making rapid decisions and judgments about given scenarios with a high degree of effectiveness. While making a strong case about how our brain is capable of thinking without our active conscious involvement, he also points out the drawbacks to this, such as humanity’s tendency to stereotype.

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (2011)

Nobel Memorial Prize winner Daniel Kahneman’s recent compendium on years of his behavioral research is a fascinating read. He goes in depth about cognitive bias (whereby we create our own social realities), prospect theory (where we make choices based on perceived losses or gains rather than final outcomes), and his general research on the nature of happiness. The scope of this book is as impressive as its author’s long history of research, and Kahneman will certainly make you stop and think.