Books, Books, Books - Reading is FUNdamental
 

In an effort to get myself more organized with the lists of books that I should buy/read, because it is all about me*, I'm going ahead and starting a separate Books thread. Over the years I've learned about some great books from my fake internet friends and I think it would be helpful to have all our collective knowledge on the subject in one place, so that the advice doesn't go the way of old FB threads.

To get things started, I came across this (self-serviing) list of 60 great books from Penguin. Are there any on the list that people here think are must-reads or must-avoids? I admit that I'd rather read twenty long Hank posts than subject myself to a page from The Grapes of Wrath.

What books would make your Best Of list?





*(except when it is about b_n_b)

Books, Books, Books - Reading is FUNdamental
 

Books, Books, Books - Reading is FUNdamental
 

Here's another self-serving list as well as a rival list .

I've been working my way though the top books from the Radcliffe rival list. Alas progress is slower than I'd like due to all the popular fluff books I read.

Just finished "Night" by Elie Wiesel for book club tonight. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. He captures so much in such a little book.

Books, Books, Books - Reading is FUNdamental
 

I know you don't really like the sorts of books I like, but in case anyone else does:

• Wuthering Heights
  Middlemarch (!!!!)
  The Age of Innocence
  Turn of the Screw
  Emma
  Vile Bodies
  The Picture of Dorian Gray
  The Outsider
  In Cold Blood (so creepy)
  Animal Farm
  1984
  Scoop
  Madame Bovary
  A Study in Scarlet
  The Big Sleep
  1984

The thing is, for people who like this kind of thing, they've probably read these things many times, starting years ago.

But, who knows? Maybe Coltrane can dig it. He's a child, right?

Books, Books, Books - Reading is FUNdamental
 

did you get much out of 1984 the second time you read it?

if you like Orwell, read "Down and Out in Paris and London" wonderful book. "In Cold blood" is great, but if you like that find "Handcarved coffins." it is written as true crime, and I believe is in a collection of Capote's shorter work. Handcarve coffins is much creepier than ICB.

Books, Books, Books - Reading is FUNdamental
 

From the rival list, my faves are:

• Mrs. Dalloway
  Their Eyes Were Watching God (most excellent)
  Brideshead Revisited
  White Noise (lots of his books were on the "Top 25 Books of the 20th Century" that was published not too long ago in the NYT -- the top pick on that list, IIRC, was Beloved)

Books, Books, Books - Reading is FUNdamental
 

Must Reads
The Count of Monte Cristo
I, Claudius
Les Liasons Dangereuses
A Study in Scarlet
The Woman in White
The Moonstone
The Great Gatsby
Emma
Vanity Fair
The Turn of the Screw

Ones that I hated and couldn't get through
Heart of Darkness
Les Miserables
Grapes of Wrath
Lady Chaterly's Lover

Books, Books, Books - Reading is FUNdamental
 

I think I'm not smart enough for "Beloved" or else it requires two readings. I read it years ago and was completely confused most of the time. I had a hard time figuring out what was really going on in the book and what was going on in the mind of the mother.

Books, Books, Books - Reading is FUNdamental
 

Why would you think I don't like the books you like? Do I come off as uneducated or something? Is it the reality tv references? I haven't read any Austen since high school or college, but I really enjoyed Pride and Prejudice when I read it. And I loved Madame Bovary and Animal Farm/1984 back in high school. Big fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald too. I can't believe that dtb just called me dumb!

I am not particularly a rereader of books. Rarely have the desire or the time to do so, so books I read for classes way back in the plestocine era aren't things I discuss on the boards much. There are classics that I've been meaning to get around to though*, and I need a list to keep these things straight.


*Finally read Vonnegut for the first time last year, for example.

Books, Books, Books - Reading is FUNdamental
 

she wasn't saying you're dumb. her list was heavily "rich liberal socialism." she knows you have to work, so she figures you wouldn't like all that crap.

Classic=vonnegut? you're dumb.

Here are some of my favorites:

Katherine Anne Porter, Flowering Judas (stories)
Nathaniel West, Miss Lonleyhearts
Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood
Charles Lamb, Dissertation on Roast Pork
Henry Miller, Smile at the Foot of the Ladder
Thomas Mann, Transposed Heads; Faustus
Halldor Laxness, Under the Glacier
Willa Cather, My Mortal Enemy; Death Comes to the Archbishop
Heinrich Boll, Billards at Half Past Nine
James Agee, A Death in the Family
T.S. Eliot, Cocktail Party

That's setting aside the "big books" like Melville or Pynchon, and the old stuff (though Lamb is 19th century)

From your list, Gogol, Rhys, Bulgakov and Tennessee Williams catch my eye quickly. But there are a lot of good books on there.

Books, Books, Books - Reading is FUNdamental
 

I almost changed classic to reflect that I was talking about Vonnegut below, but I figured people here would get that "classic" was shorthand. Sorry you didn't.

Books, Books, Books - Reading is FUNdamental
 

you should have told people what you like initially. have you read all the Nancy Drew's? i think they keep making new ones.

Books, Books, Books - Reading is FUNdamental
 

I preferred The Bobbsey Twins. Nancy was an anoying prig.

Books, Books, Books - Reading is FUNdamental
 

Am I right that most of those books involve men with english accents who ride horses?

I believe this would be right up your alley.