Classics and the Western Canon discussion

Ok, here's the theme of this thread:

We've all been in the situation where we have a bunch of books on our to-read list and can't decide which to read next. In deciding between two books, sometimes it just takes a small nudge to pick one over the other. This thread is that "nudge". If you can't decide which book to start, post the options here and another person will jump in and give a reason why one should be started over another. Reasons and rationale for picks can be bizarre, facetious, or serious. This is more about providing that crucial nudge.

Three rules:
1. No arguments.
2. This is about which book to read NEXT, rather than which book to read PERIOD.
3. Keep in mind the general theme of the group: Classics and the Western Canon.

I'll start!

I can't decide whether to read Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, or Franz Kafka's The Castle next.

Sense and Sensibility. You'll never regret spending an evening with Jane.

Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility.

And then for fun follow up with "Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters" by Ben Winters. (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...).
He writes incredibly witty mash-ups (nothing like the poorly written zombie stuff by other writers). His writing actually gave me a great deal of incite into the Austen characters. His mash-up was so good that I tackled Anna Karenina just so I could read his Android Karenina mashup (which I never have because it sparked a love affair with Tolstoy).

With a view to considering this for a future "group read" among people who only read one classic per year... Which one should I read next?
Catch-22
The Iliad
Doctor Zhivago
Something by Dostoyevski
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

I've read all 3, and Sense and Sensibility gets my vote. But if you love all things Shakespeare, Twelfth Night would be a close second. I wouldn't put Kafka down as a fun read, period.

Cass, if it is a new group I'd go for Doctor Zhivago as a good story and easy to get into, or Catch-22 if the group leans toward modern fiction. If more sophisticated, they are ALL good choices. The Brothers K. is a good Dostoevsky choice.

Cass wrote: "With a view to considering this for a future "group read" ..."

Cass -- I'd assess the group first. I belong to a group that might be satisfied with perhaps one of those and only scoff at any of the others, yet each book you list could be a "right" choice for a particular group.

Cass wrote: "With a view to considering this for a future "group read" among people who only read one classic per year... Which one should I read next?

Go with the new translation of Doctor Zhivago. Although I like Moby Dick as well.

Cass wrote: "With a view to considering this for a future "group read" among people who only read one classic per year... Which one should I read next?
Catch-22
The Iliad
[book:Doctor ..."

If you haven't read it already, it has to be the Iliad. It is gloriously unsurpassable, and right at the beginning of our literary tradition. Any moderately competent math professor could write a calculus text much better than Newton's, let alone Aristotle's, but no writer in 2700 years has surpassed Homer. Few have equalled him.

Aristotle wrote a calculus text? I'd read that.

Roger wrote: "If you haven't read it already, it has to be the Iliad... no writer in 2700 years has surpassed Homer. Few have equaled him...."

Roger -- But if it was a group that didn't want to read about war, would you try to convince them to read it, and, if so, what would your line of reasoning be?

(Albeit I consider The Iliad worth reading just to remember the passage of Hector and his son before Hector goes off to battle. But doubt that would suffice for everyone.)

The Iliad is one of those rare books that serves as a single epic, a religious text, "historical" fiction, source material for over two millenia of drama and philosophy, and finally, the origin story of Greece, Rome, and Sparta.

It's a much slower read than even the length of the text suggests, but it's worth it. Some parts are even pretty cool to visualize, like the giant gods as spirits on the battlefield, playing the characters like pawns.

For the love of God, though, find a modern translation. As modern as possible.

Mike wrote: "For the love of God, though, find a modern translation. As modern as possible. "

I really liked this one. Iliad

Lily wrote: "Roger wrote: "If you haven't read it already, it has to be the Iliad... no writer in 2700 years has surpassed Homer. Few have equaled him...."

Roger -- But if it was a group that didn't want to re..."

I would not. War is a part of the human experience, it is part of what made us what we are and part of what we will become, it needs to be understood, but yet there is a time and a season for everything. If they just do not want to read about war right now I would say save it for later when they are ready. I am a retired Air Force officer, now a professor at West Point and consultant on conflict modeling, I have spent my entire career in national security, but still sometimes the pity and horror of war overwhelms me. I was asked to help with the Army's current campaign model for irregular warfare, so I started reading what I thought were the best books on the subject, and after a while I realized that the dreary work was just dragging me down. I turned to Pride and Prejudice instead, and I am much the better for it.

If you're thinking of reading The Iliad you might look at Christopher Logue's War Music: An Account of Books 1-4 and 16-19 of Homer's Iliad. I say no more, lest I spoil the shock.

More generally, I think what you read next has a lot to do with what you read last. If you read threads you'll want another of the same. Or if you do but you're tired of that thread you'll want something different. This is one reason I like to buy books I think I'll really read, so they can age on my shelf until the moment arises that there is no question: I want to read that book.

Another solution I often follow: If there are (say) three books I want to read next I simply don't choose. I read all of them at once. I've done this since childhood when I had to get my books from the library, and of course they all came due at once. Also, I was for a time a collection development librarian, and when the week's receipts were put up on the review shelves on Monday morning I would take down often more than 50 books, pile them on my desk, and spend the day reading.

Still a third idea: pick a really long book so that you don't have to confront the question again. I'd suggest Powell's Dance to the Music of Time. 12 volumes. There's also Proust. :-)

I do this also. I don't read short stories any more. I do all the work of meeting the characters and entering the world and poof! my investment evaporates.

Gibbon. Musil. All of Walt Kelly. The Tale of Genji.

@16Roger wrote: "...If they just do not want to read about war right now I would say save it for later when they are ready. I am..."

Roger -- thank you for your so very thoughtful response. And for your work.

Patrice wrote: "A daughter of a friend of mine went to West Point and had to read the Iliad...."

Patrice -- here's the story of an instructor who taught the Iliad at West Point: Soldier's Heart by Elizabeth Sammet. Not the most exciting piece of prose to be read, but still of interest, especially if fond of the Iliad and interested anecdotes about its use in US military training.

Here is another encomium to Homer's epic:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010...

Patrice wrote: "A daughter of a friend of mine went to West Point and had to read the Iliad...."

Patrice -- here's the story of an instructor who taught the Iliad at West Point: Soldier's Heart by Elizabeth Samet. Not the most exciting piece of prose to be read, but still of interest, especially if fond of the Iliad and interested in its use in US military academies.

Here is another encomium to Homer's epic:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010...

Patrice wrote: "A daughter of a friend of mine went to West Point and had to read the Iliad...."

Patrice -- here's the story of an instructor who taught the Iliad at West Point: Soldier's Heart by Elizabeth Samet. Not the most exciting piece of prose to be read, but still of interest, especially if fond of the Iliad and interested in its use in US military training.

Given its description here on Goodreads, I probably will at least take a look at her new book due for publication in November: No Man's Land.

Here is another encomium to Homer's epic:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010...

Who is next to ask the question?