Thinking of reading some old "classics"

[TheNinja]

I always hear about these books but have not read most of them. I like action/suspense books mostly but am open to pretty much anything.

1984
Animal Farm
Tale of Two Cities
Of Mice and Men
Les Miserables
Brave New World
Lord of the Flies

 

[KLin]

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

 

[pontifex]

1984 and lord of the flies are good. haven't read the others

 

[nakedfrog]

Slaughterhouse Five

 

[nater]

I'm reading Grapes of Wrath right now, and it's excellent so far.

edit:I would suggest it over the other titles in that list...I've read all but Les Miserables

 

[xanis]

All of the following are good:

- 1984
- A Clockwork Orange
- Slaughterhouse Five
- Catch-22
- The Time Machine

 

[TruePaige]

Originally posted by: TheNinja
I always hear about these books but have not read most of them. I like action/suspense books mostly but am open to pretty much anything.

1984
Animal Farm
Tale of Two Cities
Of Mice and Men
Les Miserables
Brave New World
Lord of the Flies

Love you're selection. I've read all of those except Les Miserables.

Read Anthem

It's real short, and a lot like brave new world but with a hopeful theme, and even more oppression.

 

[wheresmybacon]

The Fountainhead

 

[dennilfloss]

East Of Eden
Moby Dick
Tales Of Canterbury

 

[jagec]

Great Expectations!

Haha, just kidding, that book is APPALLINGLY slow to slug through. That's the problem with the serialized stuff of the time...

 

[IronWing]

Anything and everything ever written by Ernest Hemingway

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - Mark Twain
Forget the movie, the book is very different. Innocents Abroad is also good.

Siddhartha, Steppenwolf, and Magister Ludi - Hermann Hesse



Edit:

On your selection:
1984 - depressing
Animal Farm - depressing
Tale of Two Cities - I could never get into it and therefore never finished it.
Of Mice and Men - ditto
Les Miserables - Haven't read
Brave New World - Depressing but added all sorts of sayings to my repitoire. I'm so glad I'm an Alpha.
Lord of the Flies - depressing

All the depressing books one reads in HS makes you wonder, do English teachers want to smash all the joy in life?

 

[ChooChooChooseMe]

Native Son?

 

[cbuchach]

The Heart of Darkness by Conrad. One of my favorites.

 

[IAteYourMother]

Of Mice and Men is great.

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: KLin
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

The 1818 one, at that.

Byron's Don Juan

Candide, or Optimism

 

[Mo0o]

I'd read 1984, Animal Farm, and brave new world. All quick reads. Animal Farm was incredibly frustrating to read because of the blatant hypocrisy but the metaphors are amazingly written. 1984 I felt like was squandered potential. BNW provoked the most thought out of the 3.

I'm working on canterbury tales at the moment and its pretty fun read since they're all short stories, so you dont get bogged down w/ "middle of the book" syndrome.

I would personally stay away from Ayn Rand. Read Fountainhead, wasn't impressed and less impressed with her pseudophilosophy, political views

 

[pyonir]

Black Like Me
Invisible Man
Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man
The Dubliners
anything by Shakespeare

 

[YoungGun21]

1984 is the greatest book ever... Animal Farm was sort of dumb...

I know its not a classic but I'm reading Da Vinci Code right now and it is almost as thought provoking as 1984, its good

 

[RossGr]

I enjoyed Les Miserables it is a long read but I felt worth it. Give The 3 Musketeers a try, it is very entertaining.

If you want a challenging read, pick up Edward Gibbons Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire!

 

[FoBoT]

Treasure Island
History of the Buccaneers of America
Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates
A General History of the Pyrates
The Pirates - A Who's Who Giving Particulars of the Lives & Deaths of the Pirates & Buccaneers
Blackbeard the Pirate: A Reappraisal of His Life and Times

 

[jmcoreymv]

How bout The Odyssey ?

 

[Special K]

Crime and Punishment is good.

 

[TheVrolok]

Just start here. Penguin Classics. I've read just about all of them. If you're looking for "classics," they're on this list.

To give a quick few that I didn't notice on the above list I'll throw in:

Dante's Divine Comedies and La Vita Nuova

Herman Hesse's Steppenwolf, Narcissus and Goldman, and Siddhartha (especially the last)

Huxley's A Brave New World

Kafka's No Exit and other short stories (Metamorphosis, etc. etc.), also his The Trial

Camus' The Stranger

Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451

Beckett's Waiting for Godot

Bronte's Jane Eyre

Wilde's The Importance of Being Ernest

Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

... and I'm bored reading off my shelf. If you want more, let me know.

 

[QED]

My favorite classics would be:

"An Introduction to the Theory of Numbers" by G.H. Hardy
"Mathematical Foundations of Information Theory" by Silverman and Friedman
"Les objets fractals: forme, hasard et dimension" by Benoit Mandelbrot

I guess you could say I'm not much into fiction reading....

 

[chowderhead]

I just finished rereading Neuromancer. It's a great sci-fi classic.
You can read that or basically watch
spoiler


















Ghost in the Shell