-Asimov, Bradbury, and Wells are some of my favorite sci-fi authors. I would recommend Wells's The Island of Dr. Moreau, Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, and Asimov's I, Robot.
Other sci-fi authors on the list include Verne, and Huxley. Verne is known for stuff like Around the World in 80 Days and Huxley is known for Brave New World (though this is more of a religious commentary)
-Horror author on the list include Wilde,Shelley, and Stoker. Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray is one of my favorite horror books. Shelley's Frankenstein and Stoker's Dracula aren't so bad either. Kafka is probably the most twisted out of the group though with his work The Metamorphosis.
-Mary Stewart is one of the few fantasy writers on the list. She is known for her Merlin Trilogy which begins with the Crystal Cave. She is also known for suspence books such as The Ivy Tree.
-Vonnegut was known for his satire and dark humor. Among his works is Slaughterhouse-Five.
-If you can handle books with religious themes, Dante's Divine Comedy is a classic. However, the one that had me laughing would be Lewis's Screwtape Letters. It's an easy read that puts a whole new meaning to "bureaucracies are hell". Then you've got Tolkien; these books are good but not exactly an easy read. The poet Milton wrote Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. His works aren't so bad if you remember they were written in the 17th century.
-James Thurber was a humourist and a cartoonist. If you want something on the lighter side, he might be the way to go. He and EB White did a spoof called Is Sex Necessary? or, Why You Feel The Way You Do. You could also try reading the children's book The 13 Clocks.
-Jack London's Call of the Wild, Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea, and Wharton's Ethan Frome are short but bland. They all contain a lot of symbolism that make them easy to do projects on. The problem is staying up long enough to read them.
-Salinger's Catcher and the Rye is complely irrelvant but good. Golding wrote Lord of the Flies and Knowles wrote A Separate Peace. These three are considered essential boy's literature, whatever that means.
-Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter but me to sleep (literally), but it's great to analyse.
-Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm are both well written but depressing.
-Austen, the Brontes, and Cather are more known as romance writers meaning I stay as far away from them as I possibly can. I will admit that Emily's Wuthering Heights and Cather's My Antonia were at least was interesting, in a twisted sort of way.
-James is known for The Portrait of a Lady, but I've never read it so I can't tell you much. It's suppose to be about love and betrayal.
-Alcott is known for Little Women, Carroll is Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass,CS Lewis is better known for the Chronicles of Narnia, Stevenson for Treasure Island, Kipling for Jungle Book, and Swift is known for Gulliver's Travels .
-Hardy, Scott, and Poe were a poets.
-Henry, Irving, Capote, Welty, and Poe are known for their short stories. Henry wrote the Gift of the Magi, Irving for the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Capote for Breakfast at Tiffany's, Welty for Death of a Traveling Salesman, and Poe for Tell Tale Heart.
-Tolstoy was Russian and Hugo was French. Both are good but not easy reads. Tolstoy is known for War and Peace; Hugo is known for The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Les Misérables
-Homer is that old Greek guy who did the Odyssey
-Beck's books usually have an oriental theme; his book The Good Earth was an Operah book.
-Cooper was a "historical" writter but I use that term loosely because he takes a lot of fictional liberties. He wrote The Last of the Mohicans.
-Crane is known for the Red Badge of Courage. It is a little book that takes place during the Civil War. Erich Remarque's great work All Quiet on the Western Front takes place during WWI.
-Dickens and Twain need no explaination. Twain's Huckleberry Finn is well know both as a literary work and for it's contraversy. It can be hard to read because it uses dialect. Dicken's Tale of Two Cities nearly but me to sleep. It's well written but it's easy to miss stuff.
-Sinclair Lewis's Babbitt is a social commentary on middle class hypocrisy.
-Lee's famous work is To Kill a Mockingbird. Great symbolism and it didn't but me to sleep (a common theme with anything assigned to me in high school). Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin is a commentary on slavery.
-Melville's Moby Dick put me to sleep. However, if you can stay up through this long and tedious tale it's suppose to be good.
-Thoreau was nuts though in possibly a good way. He is known for the novel Walden and the essay Civil Disobedience.
-Chauncer and Shakespeare are what I nickname the "old farts". Both have pretty risque topics if you actually sit down and think about what they are saying. Chauncer is well known for the Canterbury Tales. My favorite of Shakespeare is Macbeth.