Top 100 Books to Read Before You Die – Books Featured in The Equalizer
Disclaimer: This website contains affiliate links and is a member of the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, which means I may receive a cute little commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read full disclosure for more information.
In The Equalizer (2014), Denzel Washington’s character, Robert McCall, is seen reading a variety of classic books, each symbolizing his journey and personal philosophy. While the movie doesn’t provide a full list of 100 books you should read in life, it does reference several notable works of literature.
Here’s a list of books inspired by The Equalizer, including those featured in the movie and other classic must-reads that align with its themes of justice, redemption, and self-improvement.
Books Featured in The Equalizer Movies
1. The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway (directly referenced in the movie; symbolizes resilience and struggle)
2. Don Quixote – Miguel de Cervantes (mentioned in The Equalizer 3; about an idealistic man fighting for justice, much like McCall)
3. Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison (themes of identity and social justice)
4. Between the World and Me – Ta-Nehisi Coates (a powerful reflection on race, identity, and personal struggle)
5. The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck (themes of resilience, justice, and survival in difficult times)
6. Moby-Dick – Herman Melville (a tale of obsession, revenge, and the pursuit of meaning, much like McCall’s own journey)
7. The Iliad – Homer (a story of war, heroism, and fate, which parallels McCall’s battle for justice)
8. The Odyssey – Homer (about a man’s long journey home, mirroring McCall’s search for purpose and redemption)
9. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens (a novel about personal growth and transformation, much like McCall’s mentorship in the movie)
10. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky (explores morality, guilt, and justice—key themes in McCall’s philosophy)
Top 100 Books to Read Before You Die (Inspired by The Equalizer)
Classic Literature & Philosophy
11. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
12. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
13. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë
14. 1984 – George Orwell
15. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
16. Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
17. The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
18. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
19. The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
20. Les Misérables – Victor Hugo
Books on Justice, Redemption & Morality
21. The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
22. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
23. The Trial – Franz Kafka
24. East of Eden – John Steinbeck
25. A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
26. Meditations – Marcus Aurelius
27. Man’s Search for Meaning – Viktor E. Frankl
28. The Art of War – Sun Tzu
29. The Prince – Niccolò Machiavelli
30. Thus Spoke Zarathustra – Friedrich Nietzsche
Modern Classics & Thought-Provoking Reads
31. Beloved – Toni Morrison
32. The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
33. Blood Meridian – Cormac McCarthy
34. No Country for Old Men – Cormac McCarthy
35. Siddhartha – Hermann Hesse
36. Slaughterhouse-Five – Kurt Vonnegut
37. The Road – Cormac McCarthy
38. Americanah – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
39. A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
40. The Underground Railroad – Colson Whitehead
Biographies & True Stories of Strength
41. Long Walk to Freedom – Nelson Mandela
42. Autobiography of Malcolm X – Malcolm X & Alex Haley
43. Born a Crime – Trevor Noah
44. Wild – Cheryl Strayed
45. I Am Malala – Malala Yousafzai
46. Unbroken – Laura Hillenbrand
47. The Wright Brothers – David McCullough
48. Steve Jobs – Walter Isaacson
49. Into the Wild – Jon Krakauer
50. Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell
Self-Improvement & Psychology
51. Atomic Habits – James Clear
52. The Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle
53. How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie
54. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen Covey
55. Can’t Hurt Me – David Goggins
56. Grit – Angela Duckworth
57. Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman
58. The Four Agreements – Don Miguel Ruiz
59. Make Your Bed – Admiral William H. McRaven
60. Daring Greatly – Brené Brown
Science Fiction & Fantasy with Deeper Meaning
61. Dune – Frank Herbert
62. The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien
63. The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
64. The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K. Le Guin
65. Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card
66. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
67. Good Omens – Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
68. Neuromancer – William Gibson
69. Hyperion – Dan Simmons
70. The Dispossessed – Ursula K. Le Guin
Books on Warfare, Strategy & Leadership
71. On War – Carl von Clausewitz
72. The 33 Strategies of War – Robert Greene
73. Extreme Ownership – Jocko Willink & Leif Babin
74. The Warrior Ethos – Steven Pressfield
75. Gates of Fire – Steven Pressfield
76. The Book of Five Rings – Miyamoto Musashi
77. Tribe – Sebastian Junger
78. Leadership in War – Andrew Roberts
79. The Tipping Point – Malcolm Gladwell
80. Start With Why – Simon Sinek
Poetry, Plays & Classic Essays
81. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
82. Leaves of Grass – Walt Whitman
83. The Waste Land and Other Poems – T.S. Eliot
84. A Room of One’s Own – Virginia Woolf
85. Self-Reliance & Other Essays – Ralph Waldo Emerson
86. Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke
87. Letters to a Young Poet – Rainer Maria Rilke
88. The Prophet – Kahlil Gibran
89. Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats
90. If— and Other Poems – Rudyard Kipling
Books on Society & The Human Condition
91. The Souls of Black Folk – W.E.B. Du Bois
92. A People’s History of the United States – Howard Zinn
93. The New Jim Crow – Michelle Alexander
94. Homo Deus – Yuval Noah Harari
95. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind – Yuval Noah Harari
96. The Communist Manifesto – Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels
97. The Wealth of Nations – Adam Smith
98. The Prince and the Pauper – Mark Twain
99. The Spirit of the Laws – Montesquieu
100. Meditations on First Philosophy – René Descartes
Final Thoughts
The Equalizer presents reading as a form of self-improvement, wisdom, and personal growth—values that align with Robert McCall’s sense of justice. While there isn’t an official list of 100 books from The Equalizer, these selections reflect the themes of resilience, morality, leadership, and personal transformation that McCall embodies.
If you’re looking to read books that challenge your thinking and enrich your understanding of the world, this list is a great place to start!
Katie
More Reading Lists
