Hello

[lluvia]

Hello to all.

I am a new member of the forum.
I was going through the site and really found loads of good
books in this site.
I plan to start reading the books.
Can you all suggest with which book should I start.
I really want to read Crime and Punishment,but it is such a huge novel.
Do you think it is better to start with Charlotte Bronte.May be Jane Eyre.
Or will I take a chance and start with Crime and Punishment.
I am really a novice in novel reading.

Help me out.
Thanks.

[baddad]

You can't go wrong with Crime and Punishment. And the length of a novel is really irrelevant. Once one is absorbed into a tale it is often the case that the story ends much too soon......

So, read them all............and welcome to a great literature site. Try to ignore us crazy people......

[Koa]

Go with Crime and Punishment. It's so involving that you won't notice the length, I read it in 4 or 5 days cos I was so involved that I just couldn't stop. And often long books are better, you can enjoy them for longer!
And welcome!

[mono]

Along with Koa, I read Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment within a few days, as the story became so easily entrancing and intense. Amazing also how, despite its length, the story takes place within a matter of days, while it records nearly every thought, conversation, and dream with the characters.
Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre I also very much enjoyed, and it certainly seemed an easier read, compared to Dostoevsky, though they both originate from roughly the same era of literature (but far different countries and cultures). If I recommended any work by the Brontë sisters, I would go with Emily's Wuthering Heights.
Welcome to the forum. :)

[Scheherazade]

If you haven't done much novel reading before, go with Brontes... 'Jane Eyre', 'Pride and Prejudice', 'Emma', 'Wuthering Heights'... they are all good and *easy* to read...

And, welcome to the Forum... Let us know how you like the books you read :)

[Koa]

Jane Eyre[/I] I also very much enjoyed, and it certainly seemed an easier read, compared to Dostoevsky

I have never read Jane Eyre but I've always heard it described as quite heavy... well ok, not that Crime and Punishment has the fame of being 'easy'...

[mono]

I have never read Jane Eyre but I've always heard it described as quite heavy... well ok, not that Crime and Punishment has the fame of being 'easy'...
Both Jane Eyre and Crime and Punishment seemed, to me, relatively easy to read, as opposed to, for example, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, which I thought one of the most difficult books to read.
In retrospect, the only reason Charlotte Brontë read easier than Fyodor Dostoevsky seemed due to length; Jane Eyre, the book itself, had some thickness in pages, but nothing nearly comparing to Crime and Punishment. Otherwise, in comparison, Brontë had fewer characters, while Dostoevsky had a larger number, but not many, like in Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, for example.
Happy reading! :)

[byquist]

I usually agree with everyone, but if you are a "novice" as you say, C&P (which I've never read) is deep stuff. Why not read shorter books and, therefore, get a wider variety. Here's some suggestions:

If you want Dost., why not the shorter "Notes from the Underground"
Ethan Frome
The Pearl
Faulkner's The Bear
some Tolstoy and Chekhov short stories
Catcher in the Rye
some shorter Conrad
some shorter Melville
some Hemingway
a Chekhov play; Ibsen's "Lady from the Sea"

You may have read some of these already, so my intention is not to avoid depth and intensity. Just, C&P is fairly heavy stuff. It may hit you hard. Or, it may be a delight. Just a mild suggestion towards variety here.