jpmtozer Posted January 22, 2013 Share Posted January 22, 2013 Hey everyone, just a quick background, I have a really bad attention span growing which in the past has made it difficult for me to just sit down and read a book with no distractions, and at 24 now, there's really a lot of great books out there I feel I should have read but haven't so I've decided to properly knuckle down and just read as many books as I can really, so I'm just looking for a reading list that other fellow readers and users on the forums can suggest. I'm pretty open to all kinds of books, at the moment i'm trying to cover some of the more obvious classics that I feel I either should have read as a child or just should have read in general. The most recent of which I have read have been George Orwell's Animal Farm (although it may be a cliche, 1984 is my favourite book I've read) Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days, Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5 and Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. I'm currently reading through Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and then i'm hoping to get back to a few Jules Verne/Robert Louis Stevenson/George Orwell/Kurt Vonnegut books before moving on to new authors and books all together. So if there are any classics you think I might like from what I have listed, or just a classic in general you think everyone should read, please let me know and I'll look forward to reading it. Cheers everyone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kylie Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 Hello and welcome to the forum. You've read some great books there. You remind me a bit of myself, actually. In my early 20s, I also started reading a whole lot of classics that I felt I should read. So here are some others (classics, and more recent 'must reads') that I read and enjoyed (in alphabetical order): Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice (or any of her books; they're very smart and funny reads - not chick litty) Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights Mikhail Bulgakov: The Master and Margarita Anthony Burgess: A Clockwork Orange Truman Capote: In Cold Blood Raymond Chandler: The Big Sleep Charles Dickens: Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities Fyodor Dostoevsky: Crime and Punishment (gruelling but very rewarding read) Arthur Conan Doyle The Hound of the Baskervilles (or pretty much anything he wrote) Alexandre Dumas: The Count of Monte Cristo (a massive book, but it reads easily and is a rollicking good read) F Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby Anne Frank: The Diary of Anne Frank Joseph Heller: Catch-22 Patricia Highsmith: The Talented Mr Ripley Aldous Huxley: Brave New World Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita Chuck Palahniuk: Fight Club Erich Maria Remarque: All Quiet on the Western Front Mary Shelley: Frankenstein John Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath Bram Stoker: Dracula Hunter S Thompson: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas John Kennedy Toole: A Confederacy of Dunces Mark Twain: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn HG Wells: The War of the Worlds Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray John Wyndham: The Day of the Triffids Here are a couple of books that tend to divide readers into love/hate camps. They both appear to be enjoyed by younger people who are closer in age to the main protagonists. I loved them both and am scared to re-read them when I get older in case my opinion changes! JD Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye Jack Kerouac: On the Road I hope you'll stick around on the forum and share your thoughts on the books you've been reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpmtozer Posted January 23, 2013 Author Share Posted January 23, 2013 Hi Kylie, thanks for getting back to me, I own a few of the books you listed already and am looking forward to getting stuck into them soon, the ones I own are: Anthony Burgess: A Clockwork Orange Joseph Heller: Catch-22 Chuck Palahniuk: Fight Club Bram Stoker: Dracula Hunter S Thompson: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas JD Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye But I will definitely be checking out the books you recommended, thanks for the help, there are so many books out there I find it overwhelming with where to begin and what to read next so that list has helped a lot. Have you read Don Quixote? Every now and again I fetch up a top 100 books of all time or some similar survey just to see if there are any other titles I have missed or not even heard of, and according to the world library, Don Quixote has repeatedly been considered and voted as the greatest piece of literature ever written, so my hope is to some day move on to that, I was just wondering if I could get an actual readers view on it. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kylie Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 I haven't read it myself but I very nearly added it to the list as one you might like to read because it is indeed considered a great novel. I think it's supposed to be pretty funny and readable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 I haven't read many classics yet myself other than for school (and they were mostly Dutch) so I can't really recommend you a lot. However, I do own most of those on Kylie's list and bought them because I'd heard a lot of good things about them. So I can't tell you much myself but I've heard good things about Kylie's suggestions. I also own some more classics but again I haven't read them so I couldn't tell you if they're good or not XD. This year I'm going to try to read more classic books. I hope maybe some other people have some recommendations for you (otherwise browsing some older topics might be an idea, I haven't tried that much yet myself but I plan to someday). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willoyd Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 (edited) Have you read Don Quixote? Every now and again I fetch up a top 100 books of all time or some similar survey just to see if there are any other titles I have missed or not even heard of, and according to the world library, Don Quixote has repeatedly been considered and voted as the greatest piece of literature ever written, so my hope is to some day move on to that, I was just wondering if I could get an actual readers view on it. I am currently in the midst of it, having read about 40%. In some ways I can see why it's regarded as a great book, but it's rather long winded in places. The story of Don Quixote himself is filled out extensively with stories being told by characters (usually about what happened to them in the past), which makes this more like a series of tales told a la Decameron or Canterbury Tales (of which I've read the latter, and much prefer it to DQ). I'm not sure how I'm going to rate it at the end, but this 40% has taken me six months on and off, which is a massively long time for me to take, but I'm not enjoying it enough to read it to the exclusion of other books. Interesting challenge a book list: I'll have a think about some classics to suggest. I can't disagree with any of those on Kylies list: even those I've not rated particularly highly were worthwhile reading, not least to make up my own mind. My only caveat is that of the Charles Dickens I've read, I rate Bleak House more highly than either of those Kylie lists, and it is often regarded as his greatest. But then one could probably list any of half a dozen or more of his as 'essentials'. Best is to try one or two, and if he grabs you (as he has me) to go for the rest! A small correction: Emily Bronte wrote Wuthering Heights, not Charlotte. Edited January 23, 2013 by willoyd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willoyd Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 (edited) A few suggestions of classics (i.e. pre-WW2) to add to Kylie's list. These are all books I've read and think are "essential classics", even if one doesn't enjoy them (I did!), either being a generally acclaimed major classic, or being an outstanding example of its type. I've also added half a dozen modern books that to my mind should be regarded as classics. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte The Canterbury Tales- Geoffrey Chaucer The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins The Pickwick Papers- Charles Dickens Bleak House - Charles Dickens Middlemarch - George Eliot Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert Mary Barton - Elizabeth Gaskell Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K Jerome Moby Dick - Herman Melville Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson Vanity Fair - William Thackeray The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy: Barchester Towers - Anthony Trollope: Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf Germinal - Emile Zola And the modern half dozen: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams A Month in the Country - JL Carr The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth A Thousand Acres - Jane Smiley Of what I haven't yet read, earlier this year I put together a list of classics that I'm aiming to read over the next couple of years. These aren't necessarily the best, although some obviously are, just the next book of each author I intend to read, some of whom I have may have read other books, some none at all. Find this at http://www.bookclubf...13/#entry322703 Edited January 23, 2013 by willoyd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpmtozer Posted January 24, 2013 Author Share Posted January 24, 2013 Wow thanks for the additions to my list! Once i've put it all together I will post it up here to see what you all think, I'll be adding a lot (if not all) from both of your lists, you've all been a great help and I will have a browse through some other reading lists and old forum posts to check other peoples suggestions too. I think my reading list is a good 100 or so books strong now! That should keep me busy for the rest of 2013. So far i'm really enjoying some of the old classics like Jules Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson, recently finished Treasure Island and Kidnapped I see is on your list is the book I will be reading after One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, and Around the World in 80 Days I found to be hugely enjoyable and looking to read a few more Jules Verne. Once I've written all the books down and the order I'll probably read them, I shall post it up here and look forward to seeing what you think. Cheers for all the help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kylie Posted January 24, 2013 Share Posted January 24, 2013 Thanks Willoyd. I have corrected my earlier post. I've heard that Bleak House is one of his finest, but as I haven't read it yet, I only felt justified in adding those I have read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
risingdawn Posted January 24, 2013 Share Posted January 24, 2013 I'd definitely recommend Jane Eyre, I absolutely loved it. I didn't really like Wuthering Heights, but a my literature teacher said, it's like marmite you either love it or hate it. Not read many other classics. Dracula is an okay one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpmtozer Posted January 28, 2013 Author Share Posted January 28, 2013 Jane Eyre is on my list to check out, and I already own Dracula but haven't got around to reading it just yet, but i'm looking forward to it! So far since the start of 2013 I have read: Kurt Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse 5 Kurt Vonnegut: Breakfast of Champions George Orwell: 1984 George Orwell: Animal Farm Robert Louis Stevenson: Treasure Island Ken Kesey: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Jules Verne: Around the World in 80 Days I've really enjoyed all of these books so far so before I move on to more authors I'm going to try and read most if not all of these authors books! I'm currently reading Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea which so far i'm really enjoying, I've also got a copy of Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson to read next which Willoyd recommended! Then i'll slowly begin working my way through the classics list Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
risingdawn Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 Dracula is an okay read but you may find yourself re-reading over sentences as Stoker's sentence structure isn't very good. It's a bit clumpy and doesn't always sound right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artemis Posted May 13, 2013 Share Posted May 13, 2013 Hey everyone, just a quick background, I have a really bad attention span growing which in the past has made it difficult for me to just sit down and read a book with no distractions, and at 24 now, there's really a lot of great books out there I feel I should have read but haven't so I've decided to properly knuckle down and just read as many books as I can really, so I'm just looking for a reading list that other fellow readers and users on the forums can suggest. I'm pretty open to all kinds of books, at the moment i'm trying to cover some of the more obvious classics that I feel I either should have read as a child or just should have read in general. The most recent of which I have read have been George Orwell's Animal Farm (although it may be a cliche, 1984 is my favourite book I've read) Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days, Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5 and Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. I'm currently reading through Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and then i'm hoping to get back to a few Jules Verne/Robert Louis Stevenson/George Orwell/Kurt Vonnegut books before moving on to new authors and books all together. So if there are any classics you think I might like from what I have listed, or just a classic in general you think everyone should read, please let me know and I'll look forward to reading it. Cheers everyone! Hello, have you tried something from Adhaf Soueif? An Egyptian writer who's books I like to read over again. One in particular is the Map of Love, but for yourself, might I suggest In the Eye of the Sun. Other titles you might like: Julian Barnes - Flaubert's Parrot Vladimir Nabokov - Lotita Vikram Seth - From Heaven Lake Mohsin Hamid -The Reluctant Fundamentalist (short listed Man Booker prize 2007) Jim Grace - Quarantine (Whitbread book of the year 1997) Mourid Barghouti - I saw Ramallah, translated by Adhaf Soueif and finally, if you fancy a laugh you could try Julian Clary's Brief Encounters Happy reading Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steviejoh Posted May 20, 2013 Share Posted May 20, 2013 A Great Question, but the wonderful answes will help me add to my own reading list - Thanks everyone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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