Pick up a Penguin (Help!)

[Ken]

My wife has devoured Penguins for years... the books that is. She enjoys good books & the classics whereas I'm more of a funny fantasy man myself.

Anyway, I love reading though so, a while back, I set myself the task of picking up a Penguin and reading it from start to finish (often the best way to read a book). I browsed the catalogue looking for something that took my fancy. Ahaaa (as Alan Partridge would say), here we go, The Witches of Eastwick, a proper classic.

Less than halfway through, I had to stop. My head was sore, I couldn't take the long paragraphs and heavy prose any more. Back to the catalogue.

Ahaaa, Men Behaving Badly, what could go wrong? Well, I'm afraid I failed again... I love the TV series, but this book was just not readable as far as I was concerned.

So, who can recommend a good Penguin classic for a near-Philistine? Be gentle with me... I need to complete this challenge.

[Jud]

My favourite is the owl who was afraid of the dark. But I don't think that is quite what you are looking for

[Kath]

Aren't there some John Le Carre books published by Penguin ? May be worth a punt!

[Jud]

Frankenstein is a penguin classic, that's good and it's also sort of fantasy (at a stretch)

[Jud]

Here's a list of them all http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_...

I enjoyed Count of Monte Cristo, Dracula, The picture of Dorian Gray although dorian gray doesn't seem to be listed there for some reason. The paperback I read was definitely a penguin one!

Edit: I found Dorian Gray, it is on there!

[Patti (baconater)]

This thread is making me want a chocolate biscuit.

*sigh*

[Jud]

I keep hearing

pah pah pah pah pick up a pah pah pah penguin

[Snoozie Suzie]

I just had a penguin and a cuppa. Yum. Sorry not the book.

[Patti (baconater)]

Wow. I've actually read a number of them!

Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn are really good...

[Jud]

I've read quite a few too.

Seeing lists of books like this makes me want to read them all though...

[Ken]

Thanks everyone. I've actually read Frankenstein, The Count of Monte Cristo, Dracula, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn... although I don't remember any of them being Penguins.

Maybe I should find a new challenge and move on!

[Tim]

If you just want a book with the Penguin logo, there are thousands that don't carry the "classic" stigma - just go to http://www.penguin.co.uk and pick something you like the look of... ;)

[Daniel]

I read A Christmas Carol for the first time over Christmas just gone and totally loved it. A story that I'm sure most us know so well, yet never having read it, well it exceeded my expectations.

I immediately put Michael Caine in the role of Scrooge though!

[Philip (sarah)]

How about One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest Ken? or The Hound of the Baskervilles!

[Ken]

Thanks again for the suggestions. I've read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest & The Hound of the Baskervilles... again, I'm not sure that I read Penguin versions.

I haven't read A Christmas Carol... I feel I've seen the movies/TV versions too many times to be able to tackle it now as a book.

[Daniel]

Ken wrote: "Thanks again for the suggestions. I've read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest & The Hound of the Baskervilles... again, I'm not sure that I read Penguin versions.

I haven't read A Christmas Carol......"

Well, that's what I thought about A Christmas Carol too, but (probably because it was the original) it really resonated with me.

It helped that I was reading it just before Christmas too!

[Ken]

Daniel, I think I'll mark it as a to-read with a reminder in early December.