What authors and books do I need to read to consider myself literate in western civilization?

This answer is my opinion. The best author to read in order to start becoming literate in western civilization is William Shakespeare. There are some good web sites that offer wonderful information on how to translate his Early Modern English terms.

One reason why I would read William Shakespeare is that most of the themes in his plays are universal to western civilization. Even if you don’t fully understand the language, you should still be able to pick up the plots and themes fairly easily. The other reason why I am recommending William Shakespeare as a good starting point for you is that many other later western civilization authors used quotes, themes and plots from his plays and poems in the context of or as the basis for their own written works.

The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner is an excellent example (“sound and fury� Is from a quote from Shakespeare’s play Macbeth). Happy Reading!

From wikipedia.Org -quote The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry".6 In the 20th century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. -endquote.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.