What are some classic books that you think everyone should read? (Well, to be perfectly honest, I just want some ideas for myself). They don't have to be really old ones like "Wuthering Heights" or "Dracula". They can be newer ones as well. What ones did you particularly enjoy?

Holes by Louis Sachar. That book was absolutely amazing.

Also Night by Elie Wiesel, but it's such a horrific tear-jerker I would steer clear of it until you're past puberty. It's the kind of book that haunts you so terribly you never have to read it again. (It concerns the Holocaust.)

Oh, and also The Giver by Lois Lowry. Those three are the most life-altering novels I can think of at the moment...they'll certainly be considered classics in the near future.

There's just so many... has anyone read the 'Immortals' series by Tamora Pierce? They're definitely not well known, but worth reading anyway. Jane Eyre everybody in the world, universe and everywhere else should read! It's an amazing book, something happens on every page.

Katy

If you're into horror movies and literature you should read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. It's one of the original horror novels and it actually did scare me
I also enjoyed The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. But many people think it's really boring, because there is not much outward action, but you rather get the main character's thoughts.

How about Eugene Zamyatin's "We", the very first of the 20th Century "dystopias"; Orwell and Huxley were in his debt. Horace McCoy's "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" is a classic of the hard-boiled genre. And try Richard Hughes' "A High Wind In Jamaica" and "In Hazard".

tjoeb};>

I think everyone should read The Awakening by Kate Chopin. Generally, a person either loves or hates the book, but it makes you think about the themes and the role of women at the time. It is a great book for sparking debate, both externally and internally.

For pure entertainment, I would suggest everyone read The Silver Chalice by Thomas B. Costain. It is set in Jerusalem/Rome during Nero's reign, and follows the plight of a silver-smith working on the cup of Christ. It't not actually factual, but I love it for the characters.

I absolutely love "Jane Eyre" and always recommend it. It takes you through every emotion - you feel the rage against Jane's aunt. You feel the love Jane has for Edward. You feel the pain at finding out about Bertha. A definite "must" for everyone, I think.

The Bronte sisters were both wonderful. But here's a short list of additional novels I think everyone should read... (Short?)

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
1984 by George Orwell
The Chronicles of Narnia (ALL 7, not just The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe!!) by CS Lewis
The Chronicles of Prydain (ALL 5, not just The Black Cauldron!!) by Lloyd Alexander
Little Women (Even the men should read this one!) by Louisa May Alcott
Sphere by Michael Crichton, but don't base your opinion on the movie with Samuel L Jackson.
I do love Tolkein, but he isn't for everyone, though it is hard for me not to throw The Hobbit into the mix.
I feel the same way about Ursula LeGuin's The Left Hand of Darkness, which can be somewhat ponderous at times, but is over all really an excellent read.
And we haven't even talked about plays. I love reading plays just as though they were novels. Shakespeare's plays can be read thus, and are really enjoyable.

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The Chronicles of Prydain (ALL 5, not just The Black Cauldron!!) by Lloyd Alexander

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I'll second that. All these C.S. Lewis and Harry Potter fans don't know what they're missing.

I agree, snm. I first read of Taran when I was 8 or 9. A few years before the movie, The Black Cauldron, was released by Disney. (I actually remember being upset that the movie was based on the second book...) A wonderful set of books!

I had at that time already read the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy once by myself, but of course, those books can be somewhat over the head of a child as young as I was. I had read the Chronicles of Narnia, but being raised agnostic, by that age I found the obvious Christian flavor a little tiring, though I still love the books for their imagination and they are really nice for younger children. But the Chronicles of Prydain were better suited for my level and my opinions, and really opened up a whole genre to me.

Another eye-opening set of books for me was "The Dark is Rising" series, by Susan Cooper. What a rich world that is. And a wonderful way for modern children to learn some of the myths and legends of the British Isles.

I'd also like to officially recommend Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. I read this book in 7th grade, after falling in love with the movie. I have to tell you, if you like the movie, you really ought to read the book. Scarlett in the movie is not the woman she is in the book. Not quite, anyway.

Ooh, oh.. and here's more:

The Time Quartet and frankly, anything else by Madeleine L'Engle, especially Arm of the Starfish and Dragons in the Waters.
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
And anything by Roald Dahl, too.

Good grief, you'd think I didn't do anything but read...

I'd recommend reading "Dracula" by Bram Stoker and "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte.

I was around 12 when I read "Dracula" and it scared the hell out of me, and in spite of this (or precisely because of this) I loved the book immensely. The story is really good and witty and the style in which it is written is very original and simply awesome.

"Jane Eyre" is also a very good novel and much more than a love story. Charlotte Bronte was well ahead of her time, and in fact one of the first feminists in literature.

I also recommend "Crime and Punishment" by Fedor Dostoievsky. A very good psychological and powerful novel.

And last, but not least, another must-read is all Poe. His horror tales are simply terrific, as well as his detective stories. His detective stories are very interesting because he was the first one to use the figure of the witty, megalomaniac and egocentric detective always accompanied by a sidekick, not so smart but friendly. (I think this will ring some bells to all of you )

I believe everyone should read at least one book by:

Jane Austen
George Eliot
George Orwell
Leo Tolstoy
E.M. Forster
Edith Wharton
Elizabeth Enright (children's writer)
Anne Tyler (contemporary writer)

Here are the titles I'd choose, if I had to pick one each:

Pride and Prejudice by JA
Middlemarch by GE
Burmese Days by GO
Anna Karenina by LT
Howard's End by EMF
The House of Mirth by EW
The Four-Story Mistake by EE
Saint Maybe by AT

I'd also add Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis.

I guarantee that none of these books will disappoint you!

Cheers,
Robyn

I forgot Thomas Hardy--The Mayor of Casterbridge is a good one of his. The only one I didn't like was Jude the Obscure (it's too obscure).

Cheers,
Robyn

Well, I'm in the middle of my third read of Lord of the Rings. I never get tired of it, but the first read is by far the hardest.

A few of my favourites though:
A Song of Ice and Fire (series, currently 3 books, but book 3 is broken up) - George R.R. Martin - Fantastic series of books. Can't get enough! But I will warn you, he finishes on cliffhangers and book 4 isn't finished yet

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson - Great book, great film.

The Riftwar series - Raymond E. Feist - If you like fantasy, you can't go wrong with these. The first book is Magician, but you can't leave it there

Up until about a year ago, I read mostly contemporary novels. A lot of Stephen King, Tolkien (whenever I don't have another book going), Robert Jordan, Hunter Thompson, etc...

But then I happened to pick up "The Last of the Mohicans" by James Fenimore Cooper. What a great action novel! It really inspired me to catch up on all those novels I didn't get assigned to read in high school. Since finishing that one I've also read Moby Dick and Dracula.

The Illiad, Great Expectations and War and Peace are on my shelf waiting at the moment. Any suggestions as to which to attack first?

Well for something that is a must for me in SF I'd recommend Foundation books by Asimov and all of them if you can get your hands on the whole series, even the ones less read - a must for me.

My only problem with Asimov is that he is SUCH a legend that people think he is the end all and be all of Sci-Fi, the yardstick against which all others are measured, and I just can't agree with that. If I had to choose a king, it'd be Clarke. For myself, instead of Foundation, it'd be Clarke's Rendevous with Rama or Childhood's End. And also over Asimov, I'd recommend Pohl, who was a contemporary and friend of Asimov's. A less prolific author but responsible for what I think is one of the great Sci-Fi series yet made. (The Heechee Saga.)

'Tomorrow and Tomorrow' by Charles Sheffield is one of the greatest science fiction novels I have ever read. Definitely a classic to me.

Has anyone else read it?

I was lucky enough to have received a good education in the classics during English Literature at high school. Now my daughter is in high school but the books she is reading for English are books you've never heard of and which I seriously doubt will ever become classics. Luckily she is showing some interest in reading them for herself.

Many of my favourite books date back to high school English Lit: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Grapes of Wrath, Jane Eyre, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Silas Marner, A Tale of Two Cities, 1984, to name but a few. And because I read those books, I went on to read other books by the same authors, particularly Steinbeck and Hardy.

Of course, Shakespeare was mandatory. We had to do a Shakespeare play every year so we did Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet. I'm not a huge fan but I am glad I did them at school. I loved drama and also enjoyed doing "Pygmalion" (George Bernard Shaw) and a lot of Oscar Wilde.

The only part of the English curriculum I really hated was poetry. Nothing ruins poetry for kids more than having to dissect a poem line by line. I really hated it when teachers insisted on reading meanings into poems that I wasn't convinced were there. I still don't enjoy poetry much, which goes down well at home since my husband, mother and mother-in-law are all well established as published poets! (LOL) My husband has even written a poem about how high school ruined poetry for me and my friend Tess.

But I digress, back to the novels. Some other classics everyone should read, as well as those I mentioned above, include "The Firebrand" (Marion Zimmer Bradley - a wonderful interpretation of the fall of Troy seen through the eyes of Kassandra), "The Robe" (Lloyd C Douglas), "I, Claudius" (Robert Graves),
"The Citadel" (A J Cronin), Anne Frank's Diary.

I am sure there are heaps of others, but that'll do for now!

In terms of stuff read in school:

I was lucky in 8th grade to have a teacher introduce me to "Watership Down" which I just finished rereading yesterday to my great enjoyment.

"Dubliners" by James Joyce, and particularly "The Dead" (the last story in the collection). Orders of magnitude more readable than anything he wrote later, and quite beautiful.

I read "The Great Gatsby" in High School, and hated it due to the teacher who I had at the time. I enjoyed reading it afterwards a good deal.

Ditto on the Edith Wharton mentioned earlier: I had a (much better) instructor when I read "The Age of Innocence" in college, and it also seems to be standing up well to repeated reading.

Isobelle Carmody's Obernewtyn series is certainly worth reading and I also suggest Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian.