A list of books...

[Chava]

Hello,
I've speadily read through my bookshelves, and I was trying to compose a list of classics for myself to read. Apx. 10 books. So far;
Dante - The inferno
Jane Austen - Pride and prejudice, and Sense and sensibility.
Charles dickens - Great expectations
Fitzgerald - great Gatsby,

and numerous others, but I would like to see which books you would consider indispensable. Which books are really crucial reads?
So, any suggestions?

[Scheherazade]

You might find this thread (http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2996&page=1&pp=15) helpful. :)

[Virgil]

Hello,
I've speadily read through my bookshelves, and I was trying to compose a list of classics for myself to read. Apx. 10 books. So far;
Dante - The inferno
Jane Austen - Pride and prejudice, and Sense and sensibility.
Charles dickens - Great expectations
Fitzgerald - great Gatsby,

and numerous others, but I would like to see which books you would consider indispensable. Which books are really crucial reads?
So, any suggestions?


Those books are all great. Others I might recommend considering your age:
Hamlet, Twelfth Night, MacBeth, Wuthering Heights, Scarlet Letter, Huck Finn, Sons and Lovers, A Passage to India, Gullivers Travels, and many others.

[Pensive]

Wuthering Heights, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Heidi.

You might like these novels.

Edit: You might also like Siddharta and Lord Of The Flies.

[EAP]

No book is indispensible but 'Lord of the Rings' comes closest to claiming that title.

[starrwriter]

No book is indispensible but 'Lord of the Rings' comes closest to claiming that title.
I wouldn't read "Lord of the Things" if someone pointed a gun at my head. It's kiddy litter (children's literature). When I grew up, I put childish things behind me.

[Taliesin]

Have you read it, starrwriter?

[starrwriter]

Have you read it, starrwriter?
At my age I don't wish to read juvenile literature. There are too many good adult books to read.

[Chava]

I hate to be insolent, but I've already read most of what you sugest. Huck Finn, Hamlet, Macbeth, wuthering heights, Lord of the rings and so forth... Gulliver's travels is a good idea though, i've only read the abreviations... Hmm.. Interesting. But really, don't take my age into consideration, i was reading The Illiad at 10, and so forth. :) I really love books and I'm always reading about 4 at a time.. hectic, currently Sense and sensibility by Jane Austen + Handmaid's tails by Margaret Atwood, just finished Chronicles of a death foretold, and two other Danish authors, and... (my god) an indonesian author. wow. no wonder i'm stressed.
Anyway, i want to go back to the classics, so still if suggestions, please add. Thanks for the link Scher.

[Virgil]

OK. Great. Here's some more of my favorites:

Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Hemmingway, A Farewell to Arms
Faulkner, Light In August (this is a tough one)
Woolf, To The Lighthouse
Kipling, Kim
Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Lawrence, The Rainbow
James, Beast in the Jungle
Fielding, Tom Jones
Hardy, Tess of the Durbervilles
Waugh, Brideshead Revisited
Greene, Brighton Rock
Burgess, A Clockwork Orange
Orwell, 1984
Amis, Lucky Jim
Golding, Lord of the Flies


Is that enough for now. Let me know what you think of those you read.

[Pensive]

At my age I don't wish to read juvenile literature. There are too many good adult books to read.


I think that I will never understand that why people give their opinion very decidedly about the book without reading it. :confused:

Starrwriter, if you are not interested in suck types of books, it does not mean that they are litter and even you have not read a single page of it.

[RobinHood3000]

It is beyond me how starrwriter can reasonably consider the Lord of the Rings to be "juvenile literature."

[Chava]

yuhoo, thank you Virgil! I will immediatly harrass the public libraries!

[A Hard Rain]

the canon of classic literature is always changing.

Some classic american lit. not listed:

Franklin's Autobiography-- The First U.S. Story.
the single most accomplished man in U.S. History. Think-- Self-made man.

Irving:
rip van winkle
legend of sleepy hollow
(a lot of symbolism)

Emerson
and
Thoreou.
--Sometimes dry, but these two are fundamental in their values and particularly in their influence.

Poe--
Imp of the Perverse concepts, and lower animalistic subconcious desires facing off with higher concious.
I mean, he's Poe.

Hawthorne:
his short stories are wonderful.
and the scarlet letter was the first wholy american and truly great novel.

After you finish these you can go with Moby Dick and Benito Cereno by Melville.

After which, Walt Whitman; the american bard appears.

Alotta this **** is tough, and it helps to have some opinions and criticism on the materials. I had a hard time finding symbolism in works, although with criticism it has of course become easier with my eye to look for it more keenly. But before its pointed out, it maybe scanned over as just a beautiful passage.

[Chava]

You know, when you mention the changing of the culture canon, it reminded me that the danish government has established a Reading canon. They've chosen some authors and they have now been announced the "Essential" class list, and they will become obligatory.
I think it's ridiculous....

[A Hard Rain]

even the idea of a canonized list should be known to be just an idea. The danish government, i suppose, can have their list. As i'll have mine and you yours. i would be upset, however, if i was a teacher there, and was not allowed to teach what i wished.

[Virgil]

You know, when you mention the changing of the culture canon, it reminded me that the danish government has established a Reading canon. They've chosen some authors and they have now been announced the "Essential" class list, and they will become obligatory.
I think it's ridiculous....

I agree and disagree. I agree it's rediculous for any government to establish a reading list or cannon. It does sound like what European governments would do. This is not what governments should be doing. I disagree in that a cannon should not be formed. Colleges should get together and formulate a cannon. That's not to say it's fixed for ever and ever. It should be re-evaluated every so often and updated, but it should exist.

[RobinHood3000]

A potato cannon or a chicken cannon?

[Virgil]

LOL......How about just a midget.

[TigerTiger]

I would add James Jones' "From Here To Eternity" to any list of great books.
Also try Knut Hamsun's "Hunger" if you haven't already.