Don't know what to read? Reading lists tend to annoy me, because there already seems to be too many books on my shelves that are waiting to be read. In that sense, I agree with Janet Potter's remark that they are great "if you've just arrived from Mars and have no knowledge of Earth Books." Her own reading list of "28 Books You Should Read if You Want To" is a bit closer to the way most of us function, I think (Janet Potter, February 18, 2014).
Nonetheless, this reading list from the Guardian of 1000 titles has the advantage of being broken down into categories like comedy, crime, love, state of the nation, and includes foreign language books ("1000 novels everyone must read" Guardian, January 23, 2009).
Another way to approach the question is to look at lists of books that have won prizes, such as the Pulitzer (www.pulitzer.org), the Booker (http://www.themanbookerprize.com/timeline), or the Goncourt (http://www.academie-goncourt.fr/?article=1229180726).