Help me find things to read

[Bernadine]

I feel like I haven't read a lot of the classics. What books are on your "must read" lists?

[Deleted]

There are very few classics that I have read, and haven't read classics at all since HS. The only ones I have read were Animal Farm, The Great Gatsby, and Lord of the Flies. I didn't care for Animal Farm, but I was also 15 when I read it. The other two I really enjoyed.

[wrathofkuus]

The Hitchhikers' Guide series is a classic, and a damn funny one.

[broc]

It seems strange, but if you're looking for 'classics' I'd definitely suggest you take a look at imoan's gilmore girls books blog. No, really. All the ones I've noticed her read so far are very literature-minded, from Wharton to War & Peace.

If you have an e-reader I also suggest gutenberg.org . They have a whole lot of out of copyright classic books for free.

[Sloane]

Grapes of Wrath

[lightbulbsun]

Well I just reread Macbeth the other day because I felt like I was reading too many YA books.

Right now I have Pandemonium, Breakfast of Champions, The Girl who Played with Fire, and A Dance with Dragons out from the library. I have no idea how I'm going to read them all in the next 3 weeks (a bunch of my holds came in at the same time).

ETA: some of my favorite classics are 1984, The Great Gatsby, The Catcher in the Rye, Animal Farm, To Kill a Mockingbird, Pride and Prejudice, and Slaughterhouse 5

[rageragerage]

Lord of the Flies is a great place to start.

Catcher in the Rye

Wuthering Heights

Great Expectations

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Not a classic, but Pillars of the Earth is always on my must read list.

[njjeninky]

My favorite book of all time is All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren.

[Nicole]

War and Peace (it is sitting in my queue until I have the motivation)

Pride and Prejudice

Little Women

Where the Red Fern Grows (my favorite book of all time from 5th grade)

[nsl]

A lot of this depends on your definition of "classic," but these are some of my favorites: Jane Eyre, David Copperfield, Jude the Obscure, 1984, Great Expectations, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Catcher in the Rye, and The Moonstone.

[nahoku]

The Catcher in the Rye and Nine Stories by JD Salinger
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
The Outsiders by SE Hinton
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Stand by Stephen King
Harry Potter series
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Color Purple by Alice Walker

[mamasaurus]

I love Sarah Vowell, but those books are not classics (yet). The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay isn't yet either, but I love it, and also Joe Meno's The Great Perhaps. A lot of good books have already been mentioned. Here are a few that haven't:

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury is one I tend to go back to every couple of years.

Moby Dick is better than people think if you can handle all the maritime jargon.

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabakov is excellent, experimental fiction. If Lolita was too confusing for you toward the end, though, this might be too much. I had to read it twice to "get it."

There is a Gabriel Garcia-Marquez short story collection that is really superb. I can't remember who did the translation, but it's the one that contains the phrase "lousy with angels" in "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings."

[sonrisa]

What do you like?

[nahoku]

I wrote my senior paper on Pale Fire in college and I'm still not sure I "get it." lol

[mamasaurus]

Aug 8, 2012 11:08:11 GMT -5 nahoku said:

I wrote my senior paper on Pale Fire in college and I'm still not sure I "get it." lol

Well, maybe I should rephrase that. I "get" what the big question is and get that it's supposed to mess with your head. I think he leaves it intentionally unclear when it comes to "how much of this is real and how much of it is craziness." I think it's supposed to stick in your craw and puzzle you. I only got this on the second reading, though. The first time I was like, "Wait, what? No, that doesn't...huh?"

[Bernadine]

Aug 8, 2012 11:07:53 GMT -5 sonrisa said:

What do you like?

I'll really read anything but sci-fi.

[bex1973]

Ditto Grapes of Wrath and Little Women.

Also - I've been wanting to re-read the Little House series - not sure I'd call those classics though!

[Deleted]

Ooh yeah, Lolita. Forgot that one.

[eb777888]

The Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby and Lolita are some of my favorites. I just finished Age Of Innocence a few months ago and enjoyed it.

[underwaterrhymes]

Anne of Green Gables

[averyjessup]

Ditto Great Expectations and the Great Gatsby. 2 of my other faves are the Phanton Tollbooth (which is technically a childrens book but still awesome) and a short story by Kurt Vonnegut called Harrison Bergeron.