Intereted to see someone listed Moby Dick - I've just read that. Had great moments, but is padded through most of the middle of the book with information about fish/whales/whaling which, though interesting, doesn't make for an exciting read. The language is also so far removed from modern day writing that I couldn't call it a favourite.
I'd list:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Lord Of the Flies
The Fight (Norman Mailer)
Long time since I read any Hemingway, so hard to pick a favourite.
Just thought of another couple -
Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad)
Brighton Rock
The Snail and the Whale.
Gold star:Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
And written in his third language, utterly extraordinary
As for Steinbeck it's very difficult to choose a favourite or a best, I thought I'd never read anything to match Grapes of Wrath but then I read East of Eden. The only conclusion I came to was that for me he's the best writer I have ever read.
Catch 22 by Heller
Everything else by him is dross though – that was clearly a fluke.
The Snail and the Whale
Pffft, not even the best book by that author.
Grapes of Wrath is a one time read, all be it a great one...it actually got to the point where I was dreading the next page.
Grapes of Wrath is a one time read, all be it a great one...it actually got to the point where I was dreading the next page.
But then, when you read the final page, the whole story becomes clear. It is a thing of beauty. So often when I read a book I get to the end thinking either:
1 – Thank god I have got through that, it was rubbish.
or
2 – Ohh please don't let this be the end, I want it to carry on forever.
But with Grapes of Wrath you know that the story has reached a perfect conclusion and there is nothing left to say.
The Hound of the Baskervilles
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Honourable mention:
Catch-22
Both "modern" classics, but important nonetheless.
Oh gawd, how could I have forgotten:
Wise Blood (Flannery O'Connor)
and The Harder They Fall (Budd Schulberg)
OP said pick 1 - so: Cuckoo's Nest. The rest very honourable mentions 🙂
Fwiw most of the 'classic' classics listed above I read decades ago. I feel no compunction to go back. But these I do:
Lucky Jim - Kingsley Amis. Probably gets it. Most reread book.
Earthly Powers - Anthony Burgess. Too prolific, needs reappraisal.
The Witsun Weddings - Philip Larkin. It's a book. Also a classic.
And I dunno
The High Window - Raymond Chandler, or
Bluebeard - Kurt Vonnegut or some
Mid-period Elmore Leonard
Hang on, late entry...
The Goldfinch - Donna Tart. Might actually displace Lucky Jim, disrupting the emergent middle-aged misanthrope white guy theme...
If This is a Man, Primo Levi
[i]Mid-period Elmore Leonard[/i]
Love him, but I don't think he's regarded as a classic writer, yet.
I thought we'd settled it that classic means classic?
The Snail and the WhalePffft, not even the best book by that author.
It so is. It's a perfect, beautiful, poetic nugget of loveliness.
You've been snared by the crass commercialism and populist thrills of the authors other works.
You've been snared by the crass commercialism and populist thrills of the authors other works.
Well I think we have most (if not all) of her works and I have to admit to having a very soft spot for the tale of the mouse in the big, dark wood but I am actually quite fond of the big bloke in the nice clothes.
I have a signed copy of Cave Baby. 🙂
pfftt, if we're talking of her works, then the clear winner is the one about the disparate group seeking accommodation on the main protagonist's perambulatory device, and how such a disparate group all contribute to the overall success and ultimately demise of the journey.
A Clockwork Orange in first.
August 1914 - Solzhenitsyn.
The Sun Also Rises - Hemingway.
Three Men In A Boat -JKJ.
Just read, for the first time, To Kill a Mocking Bird. Really enjoyed it, beautifully written.
Plus 1 for catch 22.
Just finished reading The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick, (of Bladerunner fame).
Very interesting read set post WW2 where Germany and Japan have won and split the US into three differently controlled zones.
Everything else by him is dross though – that was clearly a fluke.
Aye absolutely, Catch-22 is my favourite book ever though so he nailed that one in my eyes
To kill a mockingbird and M*A*S*H are my other two. All first read in my teens and are the only books I'll return to again and again to read
johnx2 - Member
Fwiw most of the 'classic' classics listed above I read decades ago. I feel no compunction to go back.
I've stuffed my Kindle with lots of the dirt cheap/free 'Complete Works'.
It's freed a lot of shelf space and I've reread much I've not read since a teenager.
Dickens I prefer as an adult, still can't stand Hardy and Chesterton, in hindsight, is a bit of a windbag.
Rereading and enjoying Margaret Atwood at the mo.
To Kill a Mockingbird
Catch 22
Lord of the Rings.
honourable mentions to most of Kafka's short stories, and a lot of Gunther Grass plays.
Moby Dick was entertaining enough, despite the padding. I tried some Solzhenizyn, but I think Cancer Ward was a bit too daunting for a 16 year old. Might try it again now I'm in a better position to understand it.
Got put off Dickens by a dull English teacher who managed to make Bleak House a chore. Might give him another go.
Oh, and I need to read some Steinbeck.
Aye absolutely, Catch-22 is my favourite book ever though so he nailed that one in my eyes
Best book ever written, by a country mile IMHO. We were chatting about our favourite books the other night, and I was only thinking how I've not read it for a few years, so its due for its periodic re-reading 🙂
Are we classing JG Ballard as 'classic'? Anything he's ever written is worth a read, and will definitely stand the test of time, I would think
Agreed.But with Grapes of Wrath you know that the story has reached a perfect conclusion and there is nothing left to say.
If we're talking childrens books, my favourite is 'some dogs do', it's ace.perchypanther - MemberThe Snail and the Whale
Pffft, not even the best book by that author.
It so is. It's a perfect, beautiful, poetic nugget of loveliness.
If we're talking childrens books, my favourite is 'some dogs do'.
Agreed.,, It's a belter.....His dad turned out be a bit of a dark horse, didn't he?
#plottwist
There are so many fantastic children's books. Unfortunately my two are having Emily Feather read to them as their bedtime book right now – bloody awful, barely readable.
Puckoon - Spike Milligan
I've never read Under Milk Wood but listened to it countless times, it's superb.
Enjoy
The House of the Spirits - Isabel Allende
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
The Color Purple - Alice Walker
I have read all of these over and over again ! I like epistolary novels, it seems.
I've always liked:
3 Men in a Boat - Jerome K Jarome
Vile Bodies - Evelyn Waugh
Coming Up for Air - George Orwell
For sheer pride in having completed it,
Ulysses - James JoyceNo you didn't. It is a well known fact that no one has ever finished Ulysses.
"You cannot learn too early in life that most classical literature is both dull and unimportant." Kyril Bonfiglioli.
Homer finished Ulysses. Whereas Nobody has heard of Bonfiglioli, which is obviously a made-up name.
So, "To the lighthouse". I'm not afraid of her.
"You cannot learn too early in life that most classical literature is both dull and unimportant." Kyril Bonfiglioli.
Kindles have opened up classics a lot I think, because they're so often cheap or free. So I thought fine, I'll broaden my reading a bit but frankly most are disappointing. A mix of age and expectations I suppose. Tale of Two Cities was the low point, it's just nonsense. Manette's letter's possibly the most unintentionally hilarious thing in the history of literature... "I write this unbelievably florid and overly-wordy endless letter full of repetition and deviation with an iron spike on my own blood, using a convenient 500-sheet pack of A4 paper that someone left in my cell..."
It's got about 2 good pages, one right at the start and one right at the end. Cheers for that Dickens.
Jock of the bushveld - Percy FitzPatrick
A South African classic that I have reread a number of times since I was young.
Just finished reading The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick, (of Bladerunner fame).
Serialised on Amazon Prime and well worth a watch
Favourite classic for me is War of the Worlds
Catch 22 by Heller
It's a good book but a share that Heller dropped the pages and couldn't quite get the chapters back into the correct order.
Nothing more than good though. Very over-rated.
(Lazy pics)
[IMG] 
[/IMG]
[IMG] 
[/IMG]
'Noggin and the Dragon' is a masterpiece.
[IMG] 
[/IMG]
And (thanks to this thread reminding me of Titus) found this stack of wood for just 50p whilst at the vets yesterday 🙂 Only ever read half of 'Gormenghast' and nothing else by Peake. That was decades ago so really quite looking fwd to it.
[IMG] 
[/IMG]
Fond memories of The Sydney Lending Library there.
Malvern rider, please turn your books the right way up or flip your photos.
Or type the titles. We will believe you own them.
(I see Lolita in there - great book)
RLS - Treasure Island.
Perhaps not the 'best' book but a great read.
My dad read it to me a load as a kid (massively fond memories of him doing so), so I read the kids version to my son a few years ago and he's now read it himself. Then I picked it up on holiday a couple of years ago and read it straight off...what a fantastic adventure story. Loved it, and the sort of book you could read time and time again.
Kids books - The Gruffalo in Scots...is off the scale good 😀
As a kid, I enjoyed animal stories - White Fang, Call Of The Wild, Watership Down.
Became a bit obsessed with Orwell in my teens and devoured everything he wrote, with my favourite being Keep The Aspidistra Flying.
Did a degree in English and was force-fed classics for several years, which pretty much put me off reading them subsequently.
I enjoyed the Scottish Literature component of my course more than the rest of it. I remember being particularly taken with George Douglas Brown's The House With The Green Shutters and the Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg.
Northwood's Kyril Bonfiglioli quote definitely struck a chord.
