If you want a list of fiction books/plays I think everyone should read:

1984
It's about the attempt of political forces to dominate consciousness via threat and torture, and that very, very few will try to fight back against those attempts; in fact, most of the population will happily obey.

Heart of Darkness
A tale about the dark side of reason/Enlightenment (I am very pro-Enlightenment, btw); it's Plato's cave in reverse. The primitive African tribes worship Kurtz as a god, but so do the "sophisticated" Europeans. And no one writes like Conrad.

Dante's Inferno
The journey of Dante into hell; understanding the variety and hierarchy of sin can help you calibrate your reactions to evil in our world—for example, betrayal or fraud being the gravest sin and something you should never excuse.

Macbeth
The danger of being power-hungry, of marrying the wrong person, and the psychological damage of some sins. It also reveals how political intrigue is very similar to what we think of as black magic.

Blood Meridian
One of the few, if not the only, truly great books written since at least the 1980s. It investigates the real nature of evil in the form of the character called The Judge. Also, Cormac, in this book, is the only writer who might be on par with Conrad as far as prose goes.

Dr. Faustus (Marlowe)
Reveals the dangers of flirting with hell out of curiosity and selling your soul for power and knowledge. It also shows where men turn when they feel like they know all things or are bored with the world—they turn to the "dark arts." The advent of AGI may make a lot of Dr. Faustus types.

Don Quixote (Part I)
The condition of human beings is to seek a heroic life. There are healthy and unhealthy ways to do this. A healthy way is to join the military, start a business, lead a good life, play a sport.... An unhealthy way is to get involved in politics and hallucinate threats. Don Quixote sadly reveals the path many affluent Westerners have taken. It's a humorous book, but it also suggests there is a danger lurking in the hearts of bored, rich people.

Medea
Medea is a lot like the Joker—who kills because he's mocked (see the most recent film). Medea is embarrassed by Jason, who leaves her for another woman. Medea teaches us not to mock the devil (I have a slight disagreement with C.S. Lewis on this), for you never know how the devil will retaliate to hurt you. Medea kills her own children to spite her husband. (A great one to pair with the most recent Joker movie.)

Master and Margarita
You'll notice that a lot of these books have to do with the devil and evil. Wisdom, in large part, comes from knowing how evil functions. This book is another in which Woland, the Devil, comes to Russia and causes mayhem. It reveals the evils of the Soviet Union and also the power of love.

Antigone
If you want the greatest work on the debate between the laws of man and the laws of God—this is it. Antigone wants to bury her brother, but Creon will not allow it. Antigone buries him anyway, citing that God's law transcends man's law.

Invisible Man (Ellison)
If you want to know how racism—real racism—works, this is the book. One character in particular reveals a certain political type's nature: a rich (sick) white benefactor gets off (almost literally) on black people not succeeding, so he can swoop in and help.

I could add a few more texts, of course, but wanted to keep it around 10 for now.