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Literature Classics Everyone Should Read - Page 2  

post #21 of 40
6/2/08 at 11:51pm
I have a giant balzac ball in my house....that's how my brain works. I should be a malcovich movie, like inside my brain and how it works. No kiddin-I kid you not, the 3 yo turned 4 like 2 days ago and we have now have as a gift a big ball that you inflate w/balloons and it is called balzac. in big letters. I died w/the laughing over the pun. everyone else, not so much got it. I'm like a forever sophomore in high school. This has nothing to do w/books or your thread, but just how I think.
post #22 of 40
6/3/08 at 5:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arduinna View Post
Great lists!

I'm taking advantage of free books on feedbooks.com that work on my Kindle.
Can you elabourate on this? Is it like an ebook reader? How do you like it?

Quote:
Poe, my only real experience with Poe is dh reading the kids stories at DDs Halloween parties over the years. But I was always busy setting out the food or cleaning up to be able to listen. He intimidates me.
Try The Science Fiction of Edgar Allen Poe, especially if you like old sci fi. It's great.

Some on my list:

A Tale of Two Cities
The Chosen, by Chaim Potok
The Giver, by Lois Lowry
1984, Animal Farm (Orwell) and Brave New World (Huxley)
Gulliver's Travels
Great Expectations

Not really literature, but classic books -- The Great Books of the Western World series or the Harvard Classics Five Foot Shelf. You can find most of them free online.

http://books.mirror.org/gb.titles.html
http://www.bartleby.com/hc/
post #23 of 40
6/3/08 at 5:32pm
For Faulkner, start with As I Lay Dying. HILARIOUS.

Beyond that, the one book I think EVERYONE should read is Leslie Feinberg's Stone Butch Blues, followed closely by something by Louise Erdrich. Anything by her will do, really.
post #24 of 40
6/3/08 at 5:57pm
I think I'm going to re-read the Little House series. I haven't read them since I was about 10 and I suspect there's a whole layer of meaning I missed my first few dozen readings.
post #25 of 40
6/3/08 at 6:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by frog View Post
For Faulkner, start with As I Lay Dying. HILARIOUS.

Beyond that, the one book I think EVERYONE should read is Leslie Feinberg's Stone Butch Blues, followed closely by something by Louise Erdrich. Anything by her will do, really.
I listened to The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich, from Audible. It was very good and the narrator was excellent with all the different voices., although I am partial to Michael Dorris.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruthla View Post
I think I'm going to re-read the Little House series. I haven't read them since I was about 10 and I suspect there's a whole layer of meaning I missed my first few dozen readings.
A couple of winters ago when I decided to not turn the heat on so much I decided to read The Long Winter again to keep things in perspective.
post #26 of 40
6/4/08 at 1:31am
Thread Starter 
Brisen, yea the Kindle is Amazons e-reader that uses mobi files. You can read more about it here

Oh and here is the link to the thread I started where I reviewed my kindle http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=889108
post #27 of 40
6/4/08 at 9:01am
Thanks!
post #28 of 40
6/4/08 at 5:37pm
All good suggestions so far! I also recommend:
Gone with the Wind
Anna Karenina
post #29 of 40
6/4/08 at 6:16pm
Slaughterhouse Five
Catch-22
Fahrenheit 451
The Jungle
Sister Carrie
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
post #30 of 40
6/4/08 at 11:14pm
My local book club does a couple of classics a year. Frankenstein was loads of fun - and reading about Mary Shelley's life was quite the eye-opener. And there's a really cool online exhibit from the National Library of Medicine on it.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was wonderful - really made me wish I'd read it twenty years ago, in high school.

A few other favorites of mine that I don't think have been mentioned:

To Kill a Mockingbird

The Jungle

Spoon River Anthology

Watership Down (is this old enough yet to be considered classic?)
post #31 of 40
6/5/08 at 3:21am
I second the recommendation for Stone Butch Blues.

Let's see... literature classics...

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn
A Clockwork Orange
The Wizard of Oz
A Christmas Carol
Death of a Salesman (it's a play, but I think it still counts)
The Importance of Being Earnest
The Swiss Family Robinson
The Hobbit
Siddhartha
Flowers for Algernon
Little Men
The Little Prince
The Odyssey

I tried not to make any duplicates of what others have mentioned. How'd I do?
post #32 of 40
6/5/08 at 3:40am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruthla View Post
I think I'm going to re-read the Little House series. I haven't read them since I was about 10 and I suspect there's a whole layer of meaning I missed my first few dozen readings.
I did that about 2 years ago. Quite an experience! DP teased me constantly while I was reading them. He said I managed to move to the prairie while I stayed right there in my regular old reading chair!

As to what to read, you want some Willa Cather in there. I like O! Pioneers and The Professor's House best. When I get a bug to read some classics, I always try to balance male/female authors.
post #33 of 40
6/7/08 at 9:19am
I've been trying to read some of the classics that I never read (or was required to read) when I was younger. I haven't tackled anything that has a reputation for being difficult to read, but I really should. In the last couple of years, I've read:

1984,
Emma,
Little Women, and
Howard's End.

I loved Howard's End, and definitely will read more Forster. Jane Austen, eh, not so much. (My MIL adores Jane Austen and can't understand why I don't.)

I'm thinking I might read A Tale of Two Cities next.

sojourn, I'd love to be in a book club with you!

This is a great thread.
post #34 of 40
6/8/08 at 10:22am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Amaranth View Post
Spoon River Anthology
Why do I know Spoon River Anthology? Thank you for bringing that up! I know I read this, and I think I really liked it, but it's been years. I'm off to Google it now.

Was it a set of short stories?
post #35 of 40
6/8/08 at 8:47pm
Kurt Vonnegut...pretty much everything he ever wrote is worth reading IMO.
post #36 of 40
6/9/08 at 2:18am
1984
Flowers for Algernon
Animal Farm
The Scarlet Letter
The Little Prince
post #37 of 40
6/9/08 at 4:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by spiderdust View Post

A Clockwork Orange
The Wizard of Oz
A Christmas Carol


The Swiss Family Robinson
The Hobbit

The Little Prince
The Odyssey

I tried not to make any duplicates of what others have mentioned. How'd I do?
You stole mine! I love Charles Dickens! And I love any Anthony Burgess.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Verity View Post


I'm thinking I might read A Tale of Two Cities next.
It's one of my favorites!

I know someone mentioned it already, but Peter Pan is so wonderful. If you haven't read it as an adult, please go back and do so...not while pregnant, though, or you'll definitely cry your eyes out through the last chapter about mothers!
post #38 of 40
6/9/08 at 4:55pm
Heidi
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
The Three Musketeers
Where the Red Fern Grows -really sad
Atlas Shrugged -LONG but good book
Anything by John Irving-Not exactly classics, but A Prayer for Owen Meany is good

I hated Wuthering Heights. I was so excited to read it, too.
post #39 of 40
6/9/08 at 11:30pm
Well I loved Wuthering Heights but I read it as a teenager so maybe that says something.
My fave Jane Austin is Pride and Prejudice, so good!
I recently read Charles' Dickens "Bleak House" and it is wonderful! It was 800 pages and I was still sad it ended. There is a great mini series of it too.
Also not yet mentioned:
All Quiet on the Western Front
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (sometimes drags but great book)

Some from Africa:
the Dark Child
Things Fall Apart

One of My faves The Quiet American by Graham Greene. It is so currently relavent and a great story.
I can't think of any others right now.
I've tried to read Balzac in French and it was too hard.
I whole heartedly second Jane Eyre and Louise Erdrich's stuff (though I wouldn't call her classic literature).
happy reading!
post #40 of 40
6/9/08 at 11:42pm
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