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My favorite books are the classics. I'm always searching for "new" classics to read, ones I've not heard of or have overlooked. Let me know which ones you love!
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101 |
The Canterbury Tales
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3.52 avg rating — 235,573 ratings
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102 |
The Call of the Wild, White Fang and Other Stories
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4.05 avg rating — 22,710 ratings
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103 |
Their Eyes Were Watching God
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3.99 avg rating — 380,296 ratings
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104 |
The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales
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4.17 avg rating — 74,688 ratings
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105 |
Bleak House
by
4.02 avg rating — 112,879 ratings
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106 |
The Awakening
by
3.69 avg rating — 223,941 ratings
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107 |
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Oz, #1)
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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 502,444 ratings
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108 |
Oliver Twist
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3.88 avg rating — 422,009 ratings
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109 |
American Psycho
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3.80 avg rating — 352,785 ratings
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110 |
Winnie-the-Pooh (Winnie-the-Pooh, #1)
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4.38 avg rating — 391,145 ratings
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111 |
David Copperfield
by
4.04 avg rating — 254,974 ratings
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112 |
Gulliver’s Travels
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3.59 avg rating — 295,441 ratings
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113 |
The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and Other Stories: The Great Short Works of Franz Kafka
by
4.09 avg rating — 20,694 ratings
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114 |
Alice in Wonderland
by
Jane Carruth (Adapted By)
4.03 avg rating — 396,145 ratings
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115 |
The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales
by
4.23 avg rating — 219,815 ratings
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116 |
The Call of the Wild
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3.91 avg rating — 464,305 ratings
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117 |
The Jungle Books
by
4.01 avg rating — 88,800 ratings
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118 |
North and South
by
4.15 avg rating — 180,742 ratings
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119 |
Trainspotting (Mark Renton, #2)
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4.11 avg rating — 175,908 ratings
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120 |
Candide
by
3.76 avg rating — 296,680 ratings
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121 |
Requiem for a Dream
by
4.11 avg rating — 63,522 ratings
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122 |
The Time Machine
by
3.89 avg rating — 556,426 ratings
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123 |
Fight Club
by
Chuck Palahniuk (Goodreads Author)
4.18 avg rating — 633,074 ratings
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124 |
Journey to the Center of the Earth
by
3.85 avg rating — 220,547 ratings
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125 |
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
by
3.83 avg rating — 647,834 ratings
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126 |
Green Eggs and Ham
by
4.31 avg rating — 835,098 ratings
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127 |
The Zombie Room
by
3.91 avg rating — 38,295 ratings
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128 |
The Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings, #3)
by
4.58 avg rating — 1,015,120 ratings
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128 |
Lunar Park
by
3.65 avg rating — 30,485 ratings
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130 |
Oedipus Rex (The Theban Plays, #1)
by
3.72 avg rating — 233,495 ratings
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131 |
The Wasp Factory
by
3.75 avg rating — 105,844 ratings
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132 |
Factotum
by
3.92 avg rating — 74,873 ratings
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133 |
Mrs. Dalloway
by
3.78 avg rating — 346,772 ratings
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134 |
A Wrinkle in Time (A Wrinkle in Time Quintet, #1)
by
3.97 avg rating — 1,268,525 ratings
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135 |
The Moonstone
by
3.91 avg rating — 97,787 ratings
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136 |
Invisible Monsters
by
Chuck Palahniuk (Goodreads Author)
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 150,052 ratings
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137 |
Things Fall Apart (The African Trilogy, #1)
by
3.74 avg rating — 405,821 ratings
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138 |
Skagboys (Mark Renton, #1)
by
4.06 avg rating — 17,581 ratings
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139 |
Black Beauty
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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 295,277 ratings
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140 |
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes, #3)
by
4.30 avg rating — 322,145 ratings
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141 |
Beowulf
by
3.50 avg rating — 340,406 ratings
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142 |
The Hound of the Baskervilles (Sherlock Holmes, #5)
by
4.14 avg rating — 379,729 ratings
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143 |
In Cold Blood
by
4.09 avg rating — 715,753 ratings
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144 |
The Alchemist
by
Paulo Coelho (Goodreads Author)
3.92 avg rating — 3,470,818 ratings
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145 |
The Jungle
by
3.78 avg rating — 153,031 ratings
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146 |
Antigone (The Theban Plays, #3)
by
3.68 avg rating — 172,019 ratings
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147 |
Vanity Fair
by
3.81 avg rating — 132,380 ratings
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148 |
A Little Princess
by
4.23 avg rating — 321,673 ratings
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149 |
Little House in the Big Woods (Little House, #1)
by
4.21 avg rating — 283,051 ratings
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150 |
The Trial
by
3.94 avg rating — 381,748 ratings
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151 |
Othello
by
3.89 avg rating — 430,437 ratings
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152 |
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
by
4.02 avg rating — 214,890 ratings
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153 |
Robinson Crusoe
by
3.68 avg rating — 327,053 ratings
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154 |
Murder on the Orient Express (Hercule Poirot, #10)
by
4.20 avg rating — 710,950 ratings
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155 |
Jude the Obscure
by
3.83 avg rating — 75,184 ratings
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156 |
Around the World in Eighty Days
by
3.95 avg rating — 277,376 ratings
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157 |
The Handmaid's Tale
by
Margaret Atwood (Goodreads Author)
4.15 avg rating — 2,352,797 ratings
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158 |
The Phantom of the Opera
by
3.96 avg rating — 270,040 ratings
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159 |
Leaves of Grass
by
4.11 avg rating — 115,268 ratings
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160 |
The Age of Innocence
by
3.97 avg rating — 191,807 ratings
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161 |
The Chosen (Reuven Malther, #1)
by
4.07 avg rating — 96,585 ratings
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162 |
Middlemarch
by
4.03 avg rating — 176,334 ratings
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162 |
The Color Purple
by
4.28 avg rating — 741,915 ratings
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164 |
Walden & Civil Disobedience
by
3.94 avg rating — 38,747 ratings
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165 |
Ulysses
by
3.77 avg rating — 139,156 ratings
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166 |
Middlemarch/Silas Marner/Amos Barton
by
3.98 avg rating — 800 ratings
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167 |
The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, #2)
by
4.50 avg rating — 1,096,189 ratings
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168 |
A Room with a View
by
3.89 avg rating — 198,979 ratings
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169 |
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
by
3.98 avg rating — 123,182 ratings
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170 |
Julius Caesar
by
3.71 avg rating — 216,426 ratings
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171 |
Where the Wild Things Are
by
4.25 avg rating — 1,047,599 ratings
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172 |
Paradise Lost
by
3.85 avg rating — 179,141 ratings
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173 |
The Idiot
by
4.21 avg rating — 210,669 ratings
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174 |
Man's Search for Meaning
by
4.37 avg rating — 844,971 ratings
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175 |
And Then There Were None
by
4.28 avg rating — 1,564,215 ratings
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176 |
The Martian Chronicles
by
4.16 avg rating — 281,528 ratings
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177 |
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
by
4.13 avg rating — 132,752 ratings
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178 |
The Aeneid
by
3.87 avg rating — 140,901 ratings
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179 |
The Once and Future King (The Once and Future King, #1-5)
by
4.07 avg rating — 116,882 ratings
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180 |
Invisible Man
by
3.92 avg rating — 199,718 ratings
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181 |
The Plague
by
4.02 avg rating — 304,608 ratings
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182 |
The Arabian Nights
by
4.03 avg rating — 80,668 ratings
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183 |
My Ántonia
by
3.84 avg rating — 145,700 ratings
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184 |
A Separate Peace
by
3.60 avg rating — 230,299 ratings
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185 |
The Fountainhead
by
3.89 avg rating — 334,990 ratings
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186 |
The Art of War
by
3.95 avg rating — 556,668 ratings
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187 |
Inferno
by
4.03 avg rating — 202,197 ratings
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188 |
The Giving Tree
by
4.38 avg rating — 1,217,250 ratings
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189 |
A Study in Scarlet (Sherlock Holmes, #1)
by
4.13 avg rating — 485,940 ratings
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190 |
King Lear
by
3.91 avg rating — 234,018 ratings
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191 |
A Streetcar Named Desire
by
3.98 avg rating — 330,589 ratings
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192 |
Far From the Madding Crowd
by
3.97 avg rating — 163,956 ratings
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193 |
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
by
4.04 avg rating — 536,860 ratings
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194 |
The Taming of the Shrew
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3.74 avg rating — 179,038 ratings
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195 |
The Master and Margarita
by
4.28 avg rating — 407,068 ratings
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196 |
Steppenwolf
by
4.13 avg rating — 209,356 ratings
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197 |
The Poisonwood Bible
by
4.11 avg rating — 784,347 ratings
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198 |
Ivanhoe
by
3.76 avg rating — 98,316 ratings
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199 |
The Book Thief
by
Markus Zusak (Goodreads Author)
4.39 avg rating — 2,823,627 ratings
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200 |
Cry, the Beloved Country
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3.93 avg rating — 78,875 ratings
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Tags:
classic, literary-fiction
1730 likes · Like
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Jenny
1699 books
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575 books
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128 books
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Antoine
949 books
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563 books
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Comments Showing 1-50 of 73 (73 new)
message 1:
by
Silvana
(new)
Sep 04, 2008 07:03PM

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flag

there are three wuthering heights - i voted for 'em all

Mikhail Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita"
Nikolai Gogol's "Dead Souls"
The team of Pevear and Volokhonsky is my current favorite for Russian to English translation whenever I can find them. They do very well capturing the "flavor" and sensibilities of the original Russian.

Emily, I love these books. Some strange ones slipped in this list but I really like them on the whole.
Some of these are not classics yet.

Anne wrote: "Great list! I'm a lover of classics myself, and if you haven't read them already, I highly recommend "La dame aux camelias" by Alexandre Dumas fils and "Manon Lescaut" by L'Abbe Prevost. They are ..."
Anne, I just downloaded Manon Lescaut from Project Gutenberg. I could not find Dumas' La Dame aux Camelias. Thank you for the suggestions. I will find it somewhere else.
Anne, I just downloaded Manon Lescaut from Project Gutenberg. I could not find Dumas' La Dame aux Camelias. Thank you for the suggestions. I will find it somewhere else.

They are the different formats of the same book on here twice.... Can it be fixed?



I know that it has been a while but I agree with your decision to keep Harry Potter. It may not be a classic now, exactly, but I believe that one day it will be.

Classics are just phenomenal! They are basis of books today and a reason why I keep reading!

It is impossible I have finally got somenone who loves La dame aux camelias, this story is one of the best love stories EVER>

How does #181 Isn't It Pretty To Think So? qualify for this list?


Isn't It Pretty To Think So?

Great idea - building a library to pass on to future generations. Thanks for the idea!
The Godfather is a classic? I liked it but a classic?
I read the book and the part about the horse was much too graphic. I would not call it a classic yet but I am not sure how that is determined.
Is there a list for classic movies? (will search)
thanks
Is there a list for classic movies? (will search)
thanks


The Fault In Our Stars
The Book Thief
The Five People You Meet In Heaven
Dear John
Sense & Sensibility by Joanna Trollope (this is a YA modernization of the classic Austen novel)
Code Name Verity
Don't Sweat the Small Stuff... And It's All Small Stuff
Looking For Alaska
I Know This Much Is True
Angela's Ashes
Many of these books are good, but it's too soon to say whether they'll become classics for future readers.

Archy and Mehitabel by Don Marquis is a great cycle of poetry.
The Illustrated Man by the late Ray Bradbury is excellent as are ANY OF HIS WRITINGS!
Other good reads:
The Devil's Storybook by Natalie Babbitt
Hawaii by James Mitchener
Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned by John A. Farrell
A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul


Although Baroness Orczy should be credited for creating the disguised-hero-alter-ego oeuvre, I don't think that she had any talent!


Hi Bruce, I retired from "corporate America" recently but am doing lots of different things now. I too am catching up on my reading. I think this list is a pretty good place to start. I've read seven of the top ten and Jane Eyre is next!


Bruce, I read Jane Eyre. Worst book I've ever read. IF you dare read it, don't say I didn't warn you.

The Harry Potter series is in there at least three times, still.
From the 1046 I have 956 non-duplicated books.
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