Your "Must-Read Classics" List

[Pedro Cerrano]

So I want to get back into reading as a recreation. Gimmie a list of 5-10 classic novels that you consider "must read" (I've probably read some of them).

Thanks.

[BaltimoreTerp]

I'll start with The Killer Angels (http://www.amazon.com/Killer-Angels-Michael-Shaara/dp/034540727X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255718573&sr=8-1) by Michael Shaara, and add from there.

Best book I've ever read (and re-read, and re-re-read...)

[Icterus galbula]

For Whom the Bell Tolls

[Flip217]

In no particular order...

1. The Great Gatsby
2. Lolita
3. Cannery Row
4. The Moon and Sixpence
5. The Catcher in the Rye
6. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
7. A Confederacy of Dunces
8. The Lord of the Rings
9. The Old Man and The Sea
10. Swann's Way

[bobmc]

I'll start with The Killer Angels (http://www.amazon.com/Killer-Angels-Michael-Shaara/dp/034540727X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255718573&sr=8-1) by Michael Shaara, and add from there.

Best book I've ever read (and re-read, and re-re-read...)

What he said and..

Black Elk Speaks

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Elk-Speaks-Being-Oglala/dp/0803283598

[NewMarketSean]

The Road, Catcher in the Rye, Dracula...

[Scrat1]

I really dug Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev.

[TGO]

I will third Killer Angels. Phenomenal.

Invisible Man (Ellison)
A Farewell to Arms
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
To Kill A Mockingbird (has any lawyer not read this? ;))
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

[Nigel Tufnel]

Slaughterhouse-Five

[Lucky Jim]

I think favorite novels are an idiosyncratic, subjective thing. I wouldn't argue that my favorite/most important novels are the greatest of all time, but these are the ones I love in no particular order of favorites, but numerically, just to confuse you all:

1. Lucky Jim, Kingsley Amis (of course).
2. Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov (and standing in for Lolita and Ada, or Ardor).
3. The Sportswriter, Richard Ford.
4. London Fields, Martin Amis.
5. Jesus' Son, Denis Johnson. (Short stories).
6. The Girl w/ Curious Hair, David Foster Wallace (which isn't as good as the 1/3 of Infinite Jest that I love, but better top-to-bottom).
7. The Great Gatsby, FSF.
8. The Fall, Albert Camus. (Standing in for Myth of Sisyphus, which isn't fiction, but is probably the central book in my intellectual education.)
9. The Sun Also Rises, E. Hemingway (read this the summer before 9th grade and my imitation of EH's staccato sentences almost made me fail the state writing test).
10. The Moviegoer, Walker Percy.

These are the books I feel lucky to have read. True classics, I read because I need to, in order to understand the world I live in (in part because they achieved classic status, and thus reflect the culture that turned them into monuments). These offered something more personal.

[Lucky Jim]

I will third Killer Angels. Phenomenal.

Invisible Man (Ellison)
A Farewell to Arms
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
To Kill A Mockingbird (has any lawyer not read this? ;))
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Hah. I did a book report on that when I was in 7th Grade. I was pestering my dad about it, looking for a book, and as a joke he pulled it off his shelf and gave it to me. My teacher just stared at me blankly as I presented my report to the class.

I clearly introduced the concept of a gulag to Elkton Middle School's seventh grade.*


*I think I probably understood about one in ever three words. I can't say that the report was very good.

[TGO]

I think favorite novels are an idiosyncratic, subjective thing. I wouldn't argue that my favorite/most important novels are the greatest of all time, but these are the ones I love in no particular order of favorites, but numerically, just to confuse you all:

1. Lucky Jim, Kingsley Amis (of course).
2. Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov (and standing in for Lolita and Ada, or Ardor).
3. The Sportswriter, Richard Ford.
4. London Fields, Martin Amis.
5. Jesus' Son, Denis Johnson. (Short stories).
6. The Girl w/ Curious Hair, David Foster Wallace (which isn't as good as the 1/3 of Infinite Jest that I love, but better top-to-bottom).
7. The Great Gatsby, FSF.
8. The Fall, Albert Camus. (Standing in for Myth of Sisyphus, which isn't fiction, but is probably the central book in my intellectual education.)
9. The Sun Also Rises, E. Hemingway (read this the summer before 9th grade and my imitation of EH's staccato sentences almost made me fail the state writing test).
10. The Moviegoer, Walker Percy.

These are the books I feel lucky to have read. True classics, I read because I need to, in order to understand the world I live in (in part because they achieved classic status, and thus reflect the culture that turned them into monuments). These offered something more personal.

This brings up a question for me - why did I really love A Farewell to Arms and hate The Sun Also Rises? I almost didn't read the former because I disliked the latter so much. Of course, I read Sun as required reading in school and read Farewell much later on my own, which could be the only reason. But are there any significant differences in style? Maybe I'll give Sun another shot one of these days.

[Lucky Jim]

This brings up a question for me - why did I really love A Farewell to Arms and hate The Sun Also Rises? I almost didn't read the former because I disliked the latter so much. Of course, I read Sun as required reading in school and read Farewell much later on my own, which could be the only reason. But are there any significant differences in style? Maybe I'll give Sun another shot one of these days.

For me, Sun was really my introduction to "great literature": exotic settings, wounded protagonist, hot women with androgynous names. Etc. My love for it wasn't very critical.

[Mashed Potatoes]

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.

[orangedive]

6. The Girl w/ Curious Hair, David Foster Wallace (which isn't as good as the 1/3 of Infinite Jest that I love, but better top-to-bottom).


What is the 1/3 of IJ that you love, or the 2/3 that you don't? There were parts of IJ that I thought were a little over-the-top (<--this is totally the wrong word), but I loved most of it.

[orangedive]

1984 - George Orwell
Huck Finn - Mark Twain
Oblivion (Short Stories) - DFW
Portrait of an Invisible Man - Paul Auster
JR - Gaddis
Agape Agape - Gaddis
Your Blues Ain't Like Mine - Bebe Moore Campbell
Time's Arrow - Martin Amis
On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan


That's all I can think of right now...

[Lucky Jim]

What is the 1/3 of IJ that you love, or the 2/3 that you don't? There were parts of IJ that I thought were a little over-the-top (<--this is totally the wrong word), but I loved most of it.


I was exaggerating. I haven't read it in over a decade (summer 1999); I liked the twelve-step stuff, I loved the tennis academy stuff (esp. Eschaton); there were aspects of the conspiratorial plotlines that I just zoned out on. I really should've flipped the ratio. Probably loved 2/3 of it and glossed over 1/3 of it.

[square634]

Haven't read the thread, but off the top of my head:

1) Catch-22
2) Slaughterhouse-Five
3) The Stranger
4) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

[TakebackOPACY]

I agree with the consistent mention that your "must read classics" must include some Hemingway. I had a recent conversation in which several friends argued A Moveable Feast might be Hemingway's best. I haven't read it. I loved both The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms, and I actually put down For Whom the Bell Tolls but that wasn't the book's fault. :( If I had to pick my favorite of the two, I'd recommend The Sun Also Rises. But if I had to make the safer recommendation to someone else, I'd recommend A Farewell to Arms.

If you're just getting back into reading, though, I strongly recommend that you go ahead and read The Old Man and the Sea as your first new Hemingway experience. Just don't expect anything remotely the same when you pick up one of the novels. What makes the novels so special, especially in the case of The Sun Also Rises are the things that he doesn't say, the things that he lets you figure out for yourself between the lines.

My must reads for someone who hasn't been reading and wants to get back into it:
The Old Man and the Sea Siddhartha The Tao of Pooh (no, I'm not kidding) The Dharma BumsI realize my list gives a little insight into the writer of my list.

You could also have a little fun with some Vonnegut and some Hunter S. Thompson. But if I had to make a short list of must reads, I don't know if they'd make it... I agree with other posters that Slaughterhouse Five would be the closest. And it would be on my Top 10 favorites of all-time. But I read it after my brother sent me a multi-page letter after touring Dresden, so it's hard to self-judge how much that impacts the personal meaning of the book. I have since had the opportunity to go to Dresden myself.

Must reads after that: The Sun Also Rises A Farewell to Arms The Grapes of Wrath
Somehow I got through Cannery Row and Of Mice and Men (either of which could easily be on the first list) without really understanding how angry a man Steinbeck was. The Grapes of Wrath is a must read for so many reasons. I'm actually pretty stunned it wasn't previously mentioned.

[Flip217]

I finished A Moveable Feast a few weeks ago, and while I thought it was very good, I'd never consider it his best. It's a wonderful collection of sketches of an amazingly interesting time and place, but I don't think it can stand up to his other works, especially not The Sun Also Rises or The Old Man and The Sea.

How about Edgar Allan Poe since we're a few days from Halloween? I love re-reading poems like The Raven, Annabell Lee and The Bells, and of course stories like The Fall of the House of Usher and The Cask of Amontillado.

[Lucky Jim]

I finished A Moveable Feast a few weeks ago, and while I thought it was very good, I'd never consider it his best. It's a wonderful collection of sketches of an amazingly interesting time and place, but I don't think it can stand up to his other works, especially not The Sun Also Rises or The Old Man and The Sea.

How about Edgar Allan Poe since we're a few days from Halloween? I love re-reading poems like The Raven, Annabell Lee and The Bells, and of course stories like The Fall of the House of Usher and The Cask of Amontillado.

I'm a big fan of the Ezra Pound anecdotes in AMF.

[crawdad]

Ten of 'em?

Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison
Woman in the Dunes - Kobo Abe
Wise Blood - Flannery O'Connor
Crime and Punihsment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
A Rumor of War - Phiip Caputo
The Naked Ape - Desmond Morris (although it is filled with errors)
Chesapeake - James Michener
The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner

[Scrat1]

I had a recent conversation in which several friends argued A Moveable Feast might be Hemingway's best. I haven't read it.

The Grapes of Wrath is a must read for so many reasons. I'm actually pretty stunned it wasn't previously mentioned.

I love A Moveable Feast. That and especially In Our Time are my favorites from Hemingway. I'm not too big on his novels, although I did like The Sun Also Rises.

I can't stand the Grapes of Wrath, but I think I'm in the minority on this one. In fact, I don't like much Steinbeck at all, except his short story The Murder, which I love.

[DuffMan]

I can't stand the Grapes of Wrath, but I think I'm in the minority on this one. In fact, I don't much like Steinbeck at all, except his short story The Murder, which I love.

You're not alone on that one. Had to read Grapes of Wrath in highschool and hated it. Now that I'm 27 maybe my opinion would change if I had to read it again, but I'm not sure if I'm up for that.

[Os_Watcher]

The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

[scOtt]

I don't check in here much...

Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.

[scOtt]

And Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas.

Historical piece.
Period piece.
Rebellious piece.
Crazy piece you can't believe.

[Capn Vivi]

Has anyone said Dubliners or Heart of Darkness, yet?

I'd say they qualify.

[DurbBird]

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
East of Eden, John Steinbeck
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
Moby-Dick, Herman Melville
Suttree, Cormac McCarthy
Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy
Andersonville, MacKinlay Kantor
And Even Now, Max Beerbohm
Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons

BTW, I bid on Cormac McCarthy's typewriter on Friday. Needless to say, with a hammer price of $254,500, I didn't win.

[sakata_catching]

Moby-Dick — Herman Melville
Dead Souls — Nikolai Gogol
Nostromo — Joseph Conrad
Journey to the End of the Night — Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Absalom, Absalom! — William Faulkner
Under the Volcano — Malcolm Lowry
The Sheltering Sky — Paul Bowles
The Tin Drum — Günter Grass
October Light — John Gardner
The Obscene Bird of Night — José Donoso

[SurhoffRules]

In no particular order:

Harold and the Purple Crayon - Crockett Johnson
Love You Forever - Robert Munsch
Blueberries For Sal - Robert McCloskey
Goodnight Moon - Margaret Wise Brown

In all seriousness, children's books are underrated by adults. You don't have to stop loving them because you're all grown up.

[OrangeJerseys]

No particular order:
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel GarcÃ*a Márquez
The Gunslinger - Stephen King (and the rest of the Dark Tower Series. 7 books total.)
Blindness - Jose Saramago
The Fortress of Solitude - Jonathan Lethem
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (and the rest of the Hitchhiker's series.)
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Mya Angelou
Geek Love - Katherine Dunn
The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
The Border Trilogy - Cormac McCarthy (All The Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities of the Plain)

[TyCobb]

The Stranger, Camus - My favorite book
Slauterhouse-Five, Vonnegut
The Captain's Daughter, Pushkin
The Brother Karamazov, Dostoevksy
The Death of Ivan Ilych, Tolstoy
A Hero of Our Time, Lermontov - Almost forgot to list it.

I got love Chekhov stories, but I don't think they would be consider "classics"

[Lucky Jim]

The Stranger, Camus - My favorite book
Slauterhouse-Five, Vonnegut
The Captain's Daughter, Pushkin
The Brother Karamazov, Dostoevksy
The Death of Ivan Ilych, Tolstoy
A Hero of Our Time, Lermontov - Almost forgot to list it.

I got love Chekhov stories, but I don't think they would be consider "classics"

If Chekhov's stories aren't classics, than we're pretty much writing off all short stories, because they're about as good as they get.

[TyCobb]

If Chekhov's stories aren't classics, than we're pretty much writing off all short stories, because they're about as good as they get.

That was a terrible mistake by me. I meant to say that short-stories generally aren't consider "classics". Chekhov's writing is genius to me.

[hoosiers]

Agree with the Hemingway books - Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Really enjoyed Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury.
Two of my favorites not mentoned above are Trinity and Mila 18 both by Leon Uris.
Watership Down by Richard Adams.

[BaltBird 24]

There's really only one 'must-read classic' that should be on EVERY list....

I hope they serve beer in Hell, Tucker Max

[Lucky Jim]

That was a terrible mistake by me. I meant to say that short-stories generally aren't consider "classics". Chekhov's writing is genius to me.

I would say there are a few short story writers who fit the bill:

Cheever.
Chekhov.
Carver.
Flannery O'Connor.
Alice Munro.

Calvino?
Others?

[TyCobb]

I would say there are a few short story writers who fit the bill:

Cheever.
Chekhov.
Carver.
Flannery O'Connor.
Alice Munro.

Calvino?
Others?

I think Poe and Gogol are on that list.

Probably my favorite short is Gogol's "Ivan Fyodorovich Sponka and His Aunt". Gogol got some other great ones.

O'Connor "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" was a great short.

[Lucky Jim]

I think Poe and Gogol are on that list.

Probably my favorite short is Gogol's "Ivan Fyodorovich Sponka and His Aunt". Gogol got some other great ones.

O'Connor "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" was a great short.

Probably include a lot of others, thinking back.

I was initially trying to think of writers who mastered the short story form above all others - not simply great writers who happened to drop a few great stories as part of their creative overflow (see Joyce, Hemingway, etc.)

[TGO]

I would say there are a few short story writers who fit the bill:

Cheever.
Chekhov.
Carver.
Flannery O'Connor.
Alice Munro.

Calvino?
Others?

I think Fitzgerald has to be on that list.

[Lucky Jim]

I think Fitzgerald has to be on that list.

Hmmm. The best of Fitzgerald is pretty damn good. But it's a checkered lot. He qualifies as one of those "great writers who happened to write some great stories" guys - perhaps because so much of what he did was hurried out for a paycheck?

What stories did you have in mind?

[TGO]

Hmmm. The best of Fitzgerald is pretty damn good. But it's a checkered lot. He qualifies as one of those "great writers who happened to write some great stories" guys - perhaps because so much of what he did was hurried out for a paycheck?

What stories did you have in mind?

I was thinking more generally. I read a slew of them in high school. Some of his stuff is a little repetitive, but I thought there were some gems. Off the top of my head, Winter Dreams and The Diamond as Big as the Ritz.

Truthfully it's not a medium I typically read (I even skip the fiction entry in the New Yorker) so maybe I just don't know enough to judge. ;) I guess my initial reaction was that Fitzgerald belonged on a higher level than Joyce (he wrote what, a dozen-ish stories?) in this category, but then again I guess I would put Hemingway a level above as well.

Mostly I'm just avoiding doing other work here.

[Lucky Jim]

I was thinking more generally. I read a slew of them in high school. Some of his stuff is a little repetitive, but I thought there were some gems. Off the top of my head, Winter Dreams and The Diamond as Big as the Ritz.

Truthfully it's not a medium I typically read (I even skip the fiction entry in the New Yorker) so maybe I just don't know enough to judge. ;) I guess my initial reaction was that Fitzgerald belonged on a higher level than Joyce (he wrote what, a dozen-ish stories?) in this category, but then again I guess I would put Hemingway a level above as well.

Mostly I'm just avoiding doing other work here.

No excuses!

[Miller192]

If any of you guys are business owners or entrepreneurs, pickup The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur. It's short but it's a great read and I feel it will really help some folks.

[sakata_catching]

I would say there are a few short story writers who fit the bill:

Cheever.
Chekhov.
Carver.
Flannery O'Connor.
Alice Munro.

Calvino?
Others?
I'd add Babel, Borges and Malamud to the short list.


Hmmm. The best of Fitzgerald is pretty damn good. But it's a checkered lot. He qualifies as one of those "great writers who happened to write some great stories" guys - perhaps because so much of what he did was hurried out for a paycheck?
Faulkner fits in this category as a short story writer as well. "Barn Burning" and "The Bear" are two of the great short stories in the English language, and he has a handful of others nearly as good, but the form in general didn't allow him to stretch out as his novels did (for good or ill).

[Lucky Jim]

I'd add Babel, Borges and Malamud to the short list.


Faulkner fits in this category as a short story writer as well. "Barn Burning" and "The Bear" are two of the great short stories in the English language, and he has a handful of others nearly as good, but the form in general didn't allow him to stretch out as his novels did (for good or ill).

Borges and Babel were on a list of others I didn't post. Agree completely, though I haven't read much Babel. Or much Malamud.

Agree re: Faulkner.