Randomly going on a huge reading spurt. Need some more material.
The reading spurt started with several non-fiction books about Greek mythology. Then I found a few on Norse mythology. This lead to me checking the Odyssey out from the library. Then I randomly descided to read a majority of those books labeled "the classics". So I read Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, & Catcher in the Rye. I currently have Animal Farm&1984 to work on, and have plans to try out other classics such as The 3 Musketeers , Frankenstein , Lord of the Flies , etc.
But i don't know where to go from there.
So propose I three questions:
What makes a book one of the "classics to be read"
What books would you place on such a list? And if you could, why?
What other books, classic or not, would you recommend me reading.
Recommendations need not fit any particular genre, though I do strongly favor some fantasy and scifi. Looking for stuff to do, books to read, and ways to at times either make my brain work or escape from my brain working too much elsewhere. Crazy as always, Psychotriad
[ October 14, 2004, 02:23 PM: Message edited by: Psycho Triad ]
Posted by UofUlawguy (Member # 5492) on :
One way to respond would be to list books from the classes in my English major which I actually enjoyed and would read again on my own. There are surprisingly few. Here are some of them:
Tom Jones Vanity Fair The House of Mirth Big Rock Candy Mountain (or anything else by Wallace Stegner) Call It Sleep Middlemarch Paradise Lost As I Lay Dying
That's a start.
[ October 14, 2004, 02:18 PM: Message edited by: UofUlawguy ]
Posted by Psycho Triad (Member # 3331) on :
Oh forgot to say.
Other books already recommended: Jurrasic Park Relic (anyone heard of?) Dracula War&Peace (slightly daunted by its reputation) Beowulf
Posted by UofUlawguy (Member # 5492) on :
As for "what makes a classic?", I don't mean to imply that a book is a classic just because it is taught by English professors.
"Classic" implies, at the least, that a book has stood the test of time. That is, whether or not it was well-received when it was written, a "classic" is widely read and enjoyed long after its initial publication, and even after the author's death. A side effect of this is that modern writers often look to "classics" for guidance on how to write their own works, because they obviously have some kind of universal, timeless appeal. Thus, a familiarity with the "classics" can often make your reading of modern literature a much richer experience.
Posted by UofUlawguy (Member # 5492) on :
War and Peace was the first "classic" I read on my own, without being assigned to read it for a class. It took me a year to finish, because I got sidetracked a couple of times, but it was worth it.
Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
If you didn't already see it you might want to take a look at the Library thread.
Posted by Corwin (Member # 5705) on :
Psycho Triad: Funny that you should mention War & Peace, that's what I'm reading right now. I read it once quite a long time ago when I exhausted all the SF books I brought with me at my grandparents, and I was bored to death, mostly due to my youth I think. Now I find it much more interesting, with paragraphs that really give me something to think about... I think that even if I finish it in the two weeks period given by the library, I'll renew it for another two weeks and take write down the parts that I find really interesting!
About other suggestions: I've been told that Anna Karenina is even better than War & Peace, so you might want to try that out too. And if you want to continue with Russians, try Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment and The Idiot. They're on my list too.
Why read the classics? Because many people have read them not only a couple of years after the books were written, but many, many years afterwards, which *proves* they possess something that hasn't altered with time. I'm actually only starting to read *classics*, I was way too much into SF to even notice them until now! Posted by Carrie (Member # 394) on :
I read Anna Karenina, fell in love with it, then attempted War and Peace. I got about 100 pages in and decided I had better things to do with my time. I'm beginning to think I should pick it up again.
Moral of the anecdote: Anna Karenina is awesome. Read it.
Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
quote:I've been told that Anna Karenina is even better than War & Peace, so you might want to try that out too.
That settles it. I will never read War and Peace.
Posted by blacwolve (Member # 2972) on :
quote: I've been told that Anna Karenina is even better than War & Peace, so you might want to try that out too.
That settles it. I will never read War and Peace.
Exactly what I thought.
Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :
I tried to read Pride and Prejudice a while ago and I just couldn't get into it. It felt so pointless. Just a bunch of people playing at society and politics.
Then I picked up Dostoevsky's The Possessed. Same thing.
So I'm back to sci-fi. I am picking through Dan Simmons' Ilium in the spare free moments that I have to read for pleasure. Very good so far.
Posted by Fyfe (Member # 937) on :
Not a classic, but very interesting anyway.
And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic, by Randy Shilts.
I'm reading it right now and it is engrossing. Very, very good book.
Jen
Posted by Goody Scrivener (Member # 6742) on :
quote:And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic, by Randy Shilts.
omigawd this was the book that was the seed of my senior high school thesis paper............ AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Posted by Xaposert (Member # 1612) on :
Books to make your brain work eh? Well, there's a near infinite number of fiction choices to recommend.... how about non-fiction?
well, let's see... Jihad vs. McWorld - a very appropriate political book after 9/11 On Liberty, by John Stuart Mill - A philosophical classic... one of the few that is both readable and still applicable to everyday modern issues The Structure of Scientific Revolutions - one of my personal favorites, it made "paradigm" a mainstream concept A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking explains it all, and you can actually understand it!
Posted by littlemissattitude (Member # 4514) on :
I'd certainly second the recommendation of "And the Band Played On". And I'd also recommend Shilts' other book, "Conduct Unbecoming", about gays in the military.
Posted by Eaquae Legit (Member # 3063) on :
I greatly enjoyed both "First Person Plural" and "Right-Brained Children in a Left-Brained World." I'd suggest borrowing RBC, though, unless you find you really enjoy it.
FPP is written by a psychologist (PhD) who has multiple personalities. It's the story of his discovery of those personalities.
RBC is a book about children with ADD. It's more for parents and educators, though. It's an interesting book that looks that the thought processes of such non-linear and spatial thinkers (as the author characterizes them) and how to adjust the material so that it can be learned, using the child's strengths. I'm not a parent or a teacher, nor do I have ADD, but I found it facinating.
Posted by Miro (Member # 1178) on :
War and Peace actually isn't that bad. You just have to get past the first few hundred pages.
Another interesting long book by a Russian is Atlas Shrugged. Really long, but actually a fairly easy read.
I actually read both of these this summer, and it's funny how the philosophies espoused by them are polar opposites, but the styles are very similar.
edited to add: Atlas Shrugged is by Ayn Rand
[ October 15, 2004, 12:13 AM: Message edited by: Miro ]
Posted by ae (Member # 3291) on :
I'd wouldn't wish Atlas Shrugged on my worst enemy. The style is similar to War & Peace except for the bit where Atlas Shrugged totally sucks.
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A book I would recommend that is I suppose a MODERN CLASSIC!!! is Nabokov's Lolita. Pale Fire is very good too, and very funny.
Posted by Audeo (Member # 5130) on :
A couple I don't see mentioned above are Dickens, particularly I enjoyed Great Expectations and Oliver Twist , but I've heard a lot of people say that they really prefer A Tale of Two Cities .
Thomas Harding can be interesting, Far from the Madding Crowd is his more popular work.
Victor Hugo would go more along the classic horror/sci-fi trend, especially The Hunchback of Notre Dame , so long as you don't expect anything resembling the Disney movie.
Ambrose Bierce has some good short stories, as does Nathieniel Hawthorne (Rappacini's Daughter to name one), and of course the classic sci-fi author Jules Verne.
Posted by Corwin (Member # 5705) on :
About War and Peace: yeah, the first part can make you lose faith... The problem is that since it's such a big novel Tolstoi thinks he has all the time to introduce the characters and it's quite boring to read about all those society balls and gatherings and whatnot. But afterwards it starts to be really interesting. His view of the Napoleon wars is quite anti-heroic: soldiers fight not because of and according to orders, but led by instincts, generals have no idea what's happening in the battlefield... In other words, history as we read it in history books is not at all real! That really makes me want to learn the TRUE history of Romania, as in our history books we're portrayed as such a courrageous people that it sometimes makes me want to puke... I really wonder sometimes how we are viewed from a Hungarian, Turkish or Russian point of view, what do their history books teach about us...
Besides the war, Tolstoi also has good character developpement. He shows how people are changed by love, war, religion, just plain growing up, etc. with quite a skill. And there are always those paragraphs or even entire chapters in which he writes from his point of view, as a narator, and gives his perspectives on different issues. I found that some of his perspectives are very *modern* and it's strange to think that what we see as current ideology existed even some 150 years ago in the minds of visionaries like him... It has just taken some time to be put in practice... That's probably what people 100 years from now will say about homosexuality, abortion, etc.: "Look, this guy had the right ideas, but nobody listened to him...".
Hmmm... If 5 years ago someone would have told me I'd say all those good things about War and Peace I think I would have had a good laugh... Posted by Fyfe (Member # 937) on :
Les Miserables, on the other hand, restores my faith in humanity every time I read it.
Jen
Posted by dh (Member # 6929) on :
I just bought Ben-Hur. Can't tell you if it's good, because I haven't read it yet.
Posted by UofUlawguy (Member # 5492) on :
Sherlock Holmes! I forgot, read all the Sherlock Holmes you can get your hands on. Well, don't read Study in Scarlet, but The Sign of Four and The Hound of the Baskervilles are both really good, and most of the zillion short stories are, too.
Posted by dh (Member # 6929) on :
I read those! There are four novels and fifty-four short stories. All quite excellent (actually, Study in Scarlet was one of my favourites; how come you don't like it?). I have to second that recommendation whole-heartedly.
[ October 15, 2004, 07:21 PM: Message edited by: dh ]
Posted by babager (Member # 6700) on :
Though not a classic, The Clan of the Cave Bear is an excellent read. Anyone that likes Ender's Game or Seventh Son because they have fallen in love with Ender and ALvin will LOVE Clan of the Cave Bear . The main character, Ayla, is such a strong character. She comes alive for me everytime I read the book. I can not recommend this book enough.
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