Chaos Reading discussion

I've got a lot of classics on my TBR, but a lot of these have been recommended to me with the caveat, "It's a long hard slog to get through, but it's something you really should read once.

So which are the classics out there that are actually enjoyable, as well as "should-reads"?

[Obviously the term "classics" means different things to different people, but I take a very loose definition myself].

I have three on my high-priority reading list, but I'm not sure how much fun they'll be. At least they'll be short though!
Story of the Eye, Candide, The Metamorphosis

Oh for me it has got to be

Jane Eyre

Silas Marner

Precious Bane

Matthew wrote: "Anything by Wodehouse!
The Inimitable Jeeves, Carry On, Jeeves, Very Good, Jeeves!."

I saw the Wodehouse segment on Stephen Fry's show, Planet Word. But....I just....can't.....bring myself to go down that route! It all looks so.... innocuous!

Ruby wrote: "Matthew wrote: "Anything by Wodehouse!
The Inimitable Jeeves, Carry On, Jeeves, Very Good, Jeeves!."

I saw the Wodehouse segment on Stephen Fry's show, Planet Word. But....I just....can't.....brin..."

Wodehouse's world inevitably looks silly on screen, but you should not let that dissuade you. The language and very subtle satire doesn't come through. Evelyn Waugh wrote of Wodehouse: "He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own." It's not everyone's taste, but you shouldn't write it off without sampling it.

Actually, Stephen Fry raved about Wodehouse, and I could see what he was responding to....but...... I need more convincing. :)

Maybe. The fact that Stephen Fry also postulated in the show that Shakespeare and Wodehouse were the two greatest writers of the English language did have some impact. And I'm reading a cheesy steampunk ebook right now that might get me into the mood. Maybe ;)

Hehe. Did you see Planet Word? Fantastic series on language. There was an episode on swearing that was truly amazing. Here's an excerpt of the Brian Blessed epic swearing segment (possibly NSFW) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBhPDx...

Have to agree with the person who suggested Silas Marner - one of the best novels I ever read. But there are so many! A lot of classics really are. Some of faves are Bleak House, Père Goriot, The Picture of Dorian Gray and Billy Budd, Sailor.

I started my collection of classics by reading Heidi (by Johanna Spyri) when I was a child. It was written simply and was enjoyable throughout.

I am still to read a Wodehouse, though. I bought 3 of Jeeves and they are currently just sitting on my bookshelf.

Just gonna pop the links in..

Heidi
Moby-Dick
Gone With the Wind
David Copperfield
Alice in Wonderland Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There
North and South
Frankenstein
She

I'd recommend:

1984
Dracula
The War of the Worlds

And that raises another tricky categorisation point. Do we acre if a book is on more than one shelf? Lovecraft and Mieville will no doubt be on the "weird etc" shelf already. Personally, I think it's easier if we don't care.

...and this is why I hate trying to categorise books!

Rida wrote: "Oh God, don't get me started on my classics list. ^_^

I really need to read me some Wodehouse myself, I've heard he's supposed to be a god or something, and The Metamorphosis has been lying on my ..."

I agree, YOU MUST READ THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY! It is probably my favorite classic of all time.

I don't think there's anything wrong with having one book on multiple shelves. After all, most of my favorite books are genre-bending and would fit many places!

Awesome! I was REALLY hoping you guys would say that :)

Maybe we should base a shelf on this. Moving the thread.... *yoink!*

How could you forget to add wuthering heights to dis already awesome list?

Sanjeev wrote: "How could you forget to add wuthering heights to dis already awesome list?"

Well, it's not forgotten now that you've added it! :)
Wuthering Heights

Few of my favourites
Catch-22
Hedda Gabler
All Quiet on the Western Front
Oliver Twist

My choices are:

The Good Earth
Uncle Tom's Cabin
To Kill a Mockingbird
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Jane Eyre
The Grapes of Wrath
The Way of All Flesh
The Catcher in the Rye
A Separate Peace
The Jungle
Gone With the Wind

I've revised me top 5 list more times than I can count. In fact, I've made jokes about it like "That's about the 20th book to appear on my top 5 favorite novels." But for now, knowing I'm forgetting a bunch as I write, here's what comes to mind for my favorite "Classic" novels (Classic meaning,for me, before World War II):
The Great Gatsby
Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family
The Grapes of Wrath
Of Human Bondage
The Sound and the Fury

That'll do - for now.

I really, really need to read The Great Gatsby. I've had a copy sitting in a stack on my bedside table for about 2 years now. I don't know how I never read it in school, pretty much everyone else I know did.

This is going to be a fantastic bookshelf when we're done. I think this might be one of the first ones to go up, since we're getting so many great suggestions, and it doesn't look like we need any polls to settle any debates!

What I'm thinking of is giving people another week to get their suggestions in. At that point, I'll put the shelf up. We can still keep the thread going, and add/remove any people suggest. Sound okay?

Peter wrote: "I've revised me top 5 list more times than I can count. In fact, I've made jokes about it like "That's about the 20th book to appear on my top 5 favorite novels." But for now, knowing I'm forgettin..."

I hated Gatsby in High School. I teach High School now, and I appreciate the struggle my students have with it; the vocabulary alone is very sophisticated in places. I fell in love with it while I was getting my masters degree. In addition to being stylitically fascinating, it is the best window into the roaring twenties that American literature offers. Enjoy!

Your school reading experience can really make or break your enjoyment of a book. I can't stand Shakespeare (with the odd exception) because it was so awful being forced to read The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet and Macbeth multiple times in high school by terrible teachers.

But I love The Grapes of Wrath, because I read it in school, with a good teacher and was forced to look for the subtext and metaphor in it. I wouldn't have picked a lot of that up at the time otherwise, and would probably have hated it had I read it on my own.

So many good books listed!
I'd like to add:
The Moonstone
The Woman in White
The Scarlet Letter
Nicholas Nickleby
The Monk (this one is so fun to read)
Doctor Zhivago

I should probably nominate the one Shakespearean play I do like here: King Lear. I didn't read it in school.

Ruby wrote: "I should probably nominate the one Shakespearean play I do like here: King Lear. I didn't read it in school."

Peter wrote: "Ruby wrote: "I should probably nominate the one Shakespearean play I do like here: King Lear. I didn't read it in school.""

I relate to hating Shakespeare due to bad teachers. Ironically, one of my most favorite teachers was the one who ruined Shakespeare for me for many years. She played a record of MACBETH while we read along. That was 30 years ago. All I remember of the play is the jarring screech of the phonograph needle scratching the record. Needless to say, I don't teach Shakespeare that way. I let the ham in my students come out and we read assigned parts and discuss the play scene by scene. Incidentally, I agree with the vote for King Lear as the best of Shakespeare's plays.

Jj wrote: "Thomas Hardy is perhaps my favorite novelist of all time; each one of his novels is a delight to read, and I've read them all numerous times. My favorite, the one I come back to more than the other..."

My favorite Hardy novel is
The Mayor of Casterbridgethough I agree Tess of the D'Urbervilles is great.

I like Sartre as well. I especially liked his Road to Freedom trilogy.

For years, I used to say Albert Camus's The Plague was my all-time favorite novel. I still rank it very highly, though with each passing year that I teach The StrangerI appreciate the genius behind that novel more and more.

I went through a phase of devouring French novels: Sartre, Camus, Gide, Martin du Gard, and a few others. That was probably 20 years ago.

Finally, The nobel prize for literature is a great guide for eclectic and well-crafted literature. Many of my favorite reads came to me from this list.

I just reviewed a novel I really enjoyed, written @1880 or so by an author I'd never heard of. It's The Mynns' Mystery, by George Manville Fenn (FREE on Kindle).

Watership Down
(Is it considered as a classic?)

Maybe
Anne of Green Gables, The Hobbit, Twelfth Night, Winnie-the-Pooh, Peter Pan, oh, and I've been wanting to read Frankenstein for so long!

Also, The Giver

Stella wrote: "Watership Down
(Is it considered as a classic?)

Maybe
Anne of Green Gables, The Hobbit, Twelfth Night, Winnie-the-Pooh, Peter Pan, oh, and I've been wanting to read Frankenstein for so long!"

It depends on what you mean by classic. It is a great book.

Any and all Sherlock Holmes stories. Love Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (spelling?)

Peter wrote: "For years, I used to say Albert Camus's The Plague was my all-time favorite novel. I still rank it very highly, though with each passing year that I teach The Stranger I appreciate the genius behind that novel more and more."

I read The Stranger in school and liked it, but probably would have loved it had my English teacher not been appalling that year. We had a very heated argument about apostrophes (which I won, BTW). I have The Plague on my bookshelf, but haven't gotten to it yet. I think Camus is someone I'll enjoy as an adult.

This is a really fantastic thread, everyone. Expect to see the bookshelf materialise any day now, but I'll still keep the thread open for new suggestions.

Peter wrote: "Jj wrote: "Thomas Hardy is perhaps my favorite novelist of all time; ... Finally, The nobel prize for literature is a great guide for eclectic and well-crafted literature. Many of my favorite reads came to me from this list. "

Which all goes back to my theory that children should not be required to read classics, even less classics by Nobel laureates. I hated Hardy (two novels required in high school), but was surprised to see when the Nobel Literature prize was announced a few weeks back and I checked out their website, to see how many Nobel laureates I've read - and loved - as an adult. Without checking out the list again, Naguib Mahfouz, Samuel Beckett, Albert Camus, Pablo Neruda, José Saramago and half of the authors they list as "English language" come to mind (surprisingly, to me at least, Beckett is not an English language author).

Better still, children should be required not to read classics: no better way to get kids to read something than to ban it!

I still think Moby Dick was all wet.

I doubt Watership Down is a classic ... yet. I refuse to accept that any book that I read as a new release in a first edition has had time to become a classic :-)

Peter - I've moved your post about future classics to a new thread. I think it might get a few bites on its own :)

When I put together miy list of "Contemporary Classics," I neglected to mention The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. Great novel. One of the best I've ever read.

Peter wrote: "When I put together miy list of "Contemporary Classics," I neglected to mention The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. Great novel. One of the best I've ever read."

I think that can just be considered a "Classic" for our purposes, Peter.

Also, in looking through your other suggestions, i think they all seem to fit here. Here they are again. See the other thread for the discussion on "Classic" vs "Contemporary".

The Catcher in the Rye
Beloved
Invisible Man
Last Orders
The French Lieutenant's Woman
Palace Walk
Herzog
The Stranger

many i would have named are already listed here, but the inclusion of Grapes of Wrath puts me in mind of

Of Mice and Men

and

Cannery Row

Almost picked up a copy of Bleak House today (suggested by Tom above). I'd like to say it was because of the recommendation..... but it was actually the gorgeous cover! Fabric hardcover in maroon with pink antique birdcages. I would read a laundry list if it came with that cover.

Jj wrote: "Thomas Hardy is perhaps my favorite novelist of all time; each one of his novels is a delight to read, and I've read them all numerous times. My favorite, the one I come back to more than the other..."

I only just got around to reading that full post. That was a really lovely way of explaining your picks - thanks for that :)

Here are mine.
Of Mice and Men
To Kill a Mockingbird
Lord of the Flies
Animal Farm
1984
Brave New World
A Clockwork Orange
Wuthering Heights

Derek wrote: "when the Nobel Literature prize was announced a few weeks back and I checked out their website, to see how many Nobel laureates I've read - and loved - as an adult. Without checking out the list again, Naguib Mahfouz, Samuel Beckett, Albert Camus, Pablo Neruda, José Saramago and half of the authors they list as "English language" come to mind"

Derek - Are there specific books for those authors you'd want on the group shelf?

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Okay all - The Classics shelf is now up, with 91 books on it!
You can find it here: http://www.goodreads.com/group/booksh...

Don't be surprised if the book count next to the shelf reads (0) - It's a known GR bug. The books are actually there though.

I'm going to close this thread down, and start a new one for the next wave of edits to the shelf. Well done - it's a great selection!