Book freaks discussion
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Classics that you need to read before you die
Wow! That sounds like an amazing deal!I feel like if you're not well read you're always very confused when it comes time to participate in a discussion with other intelligent people. It's not particularly good feeling and I try to avoid it as much as possible. If someone's having a debate about Austen vs. Bronte I want to be able to jump in! If there's a debate on Vampires vs. Werewolves I'll be there opposing both sides! If someones talking about Apartheid vs. Slavery I'll be able to pitch in. Books are small windows into ever corner of the world. There is literally a book for everything! You hardly need to travel if you read!
And here ends my rant!
I tell all classes I sub for that there are 3 main sources to all allusions in the literature of the Western world: Greek Mythology (I like Edith Hamilton's best for readability), the Christian Bible (which should be taught in literature class), and Shakespeare. Without those 3 you can't even enjoy the Simpsons, except for laughing at the antics of the funny yellow people. With that back ground, you will laugh uproariously at all of the allusions. Matt Groenig is quite the intellectual...must be an English major! ;-D
Haha! I must say I've made my way through the greater part of the bible, all of greek mythology, and I'm working on Shakespeare. The last thing I read was Othello which was so amazing that it blew my mind right out the window and I haven't managed to pick up my copy of the Complete Works of Shakespeare again because I figure NOTHING can be better than Othello!Of course I am making assumptions and something will be better...maybe I should try King Lear or The Merchant of Venice next
Suggestions?
King Lear is wonderful, as is Hamlet...but I really prefer the comedies myself; Midsummer Night's Dream is my favorite, along with Much Ado About Nothing. I love Romeo and Juliet despite having had to teach it to bored freshmen for years. Every time the nurse opens her mouth, it's to utter more dirty jokes and sexual references. Once I explain that to the students, all of a sudden they are huge Shakespeare fans! But then I've gotten queried by the admins as to why I'm telling dirty jokes to students. I tell them THEY are the ones who told me to teach it! I'm just trying to make it interesting!
Good for you! I think my old english teacher tried and succeeded with that tactic too. Gorfo, I'm with you. Though I've only read A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and The Tempest, I think Othello toally blew my mind the most. The characters were so interesting, and though it was sort of creepy at times, the plotline was really compelling. I've heard good things about King Lear, so I would go with that. Especially because I fear that The Merchant of Venice, if only for the setting may leave you comparing it to Othello, and though I've seen it done and its a good play, nothing should be up against Othello.
@Fiona- A midsummer Night's dream is definitely high up on my list! I love the tragedies and comedies equally but I've never even tried to read one of the histories!Ya I remember reading Romeo and Juliet in 7th grade. We were mostly just stunned that we'd been required to read something so full of sexual innuendos!
Just recently re-rd Hamlet! So wonderful!
@Caitlin- Ok then! I'll dive into King Lear the next time I'm feeling especially Shakespearean!
I had to take a class on olde English writers...it was either Shakespeare or "everyone else"...I chose old Will. So I had to read many of the history plays...God, it was agonizing! And I've loved Will's words since I was about 10 and picked up the huge volume in my parents' living room and discovered there were "dirty" phrases in there! But the history plays were designed to teach the "great unwashed" their own history, mostly of the Plantagenet royal family. As a "colonist" from across the pond (me faither was from Glesgah), I thought they were mostly crashingly dull! No romance, very little humor, and lots of battles over the crown.
But the fight for the throne is often hysterical if you look at it the right way! Sure the characters aren't as witty or shrewd, but the boundaries people are willing to push for power can be fascinating! Though I get what your saying, his comedies are great, I wouldn't argue that his historical stuff isn't.
Oh I love that this incites such debate! But today was the last Wuthering Heights class and there's actually a theory (albeit a bizarre one) that Heathcliff is a woman!
There's also an entire branch of research purporting to "prove" that Will did NOT write his plays...they were written by a nobleman, not a common actor. And professors really get their knickers in a twist over stuff like that! Sheesh! For the record, I still think Old Will wrote them, but really, does it matter? Much Ado About Nothing, if you ask me! (wink)AS for Heathcliff being a woman, poppycock! What, are we now seeing "the love that cannot be named" there? I think some researchers get REALLY bored trying to think of something new to say about older pieces of literature, so they pull theories out of the air! Welcome to the exciting world of English majoring!
That's exactly what my English teacher said about the theory! I do enjoy making up weird theories though. It's good for the world that I really don't have that much free time! I've heard that William Shakespeare theory! I don't really care who they're written by! They're genius and secondly I believe that Shakespeare wrote them. The themes throughout most of them are the same and why would a nobleman ever let somebody take credit for his work? Noblemen just didn't do that sort of thing....EVER. It'd be more likely that a nobleman woulk take credit for something he HADn't done if you ask me
Sorry if I haven't read the previous posts but no time with work and studying other language, but I'd like to say that it's great if you read "Crime and punishment", "The count of Monte Cristo", "War and peace", "1984", "100 years of solitude", etc. Great books, great stories and excellent writing style.
Nicolas! No problem! I love Crime and Punishment! I really didn't like it when I was reading it! But once I'd finished I kept thinking about it and realized that I really enjoyed it!The Count of Monte Cristo was my first classic and one of my favorite books of all time, classics or otherwise
I'll probably never get to War and Peace/ One Hundred Years of SolitudeI've heard bad things about it? What'd you like about it?
1984 is sitting on my shelf untouched
Gorfo wrote: "Nicolas! No problem! I love Crime and Punishment! I really didn't like it when I was reading it! But once I'd finished I kept thinking about it and realized that I really enjoyed it
I would add:Tale of Two Cities
Anna Karenina
I loved Anna Karenina! But you have to keep a bookmark in the page that lists all of the nicknames for each character, depending on who is talking to them! It was confusing at first. The plays of George Bernard Shaw...Jean Paul Sartre and his existential ideas...Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller's plays...I wish I had another whole lifetime to spend reading good books!
a tale of two citiesthe count of monte cristo
pride & prejudice
I love the count of monte cristo!! Have you read anything else by Dumas?
Caitlin wrote: "I love the count of monte cristo!! Have you read anything else by Dumas?"i only read the three musketeers for him so far but im planning on reading more of his work
Any Jane Austen but I especially love Emma
One of the books i enjoyed reading in my literature class was "The Catcher in the Rye" ....it was a bit depressing but overall i thought it was a good book.
nada wrote: "Caitlin wrote: "I love the count of monte cristo!! Have you read anything else by Dumas?"i only read the three musketeers for him so far but im planning on reading more of his work"
The Three Musketeers was awesome! The sequels were just as good as the first one, so you should read that too
Caitlin wrote: "nada wrote: "Caitlin wrote: "I love the count of monte cristo!! Have you read anything else by Dumas?"i only read the three musketeers for him so far but im planning on reading more of his work"
..."
they r on my to-read list already :)
Caitlin wrote: "I love the count of monte cristo!! Have you read anything else by Dumas?"one of my favorites since elementary school was the black tulip.... but I think you will also enjoy La Reine Margot and La Dame de Monsoreau...they are very- very good....
I guess one of my lists of what I think the best classics are: De L'Amour by Stendhal, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte,The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde,Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Dracula by Bram Stoker, Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden,The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco,The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and last but not least,Ένα παιδί μετράει τ' άστρα (a child is counting the stars)by Menelaos Lountemis :-)
.....and I have to add that W.Shakespear in my point of view is a category on his own....I love his works whether it is comedy, tragedy or sonets....
i just read The Phantom of the Opera.at first it was boring but then it got really cool i recommend you rread it.
Gorfo wrote: "Haha! I must say I've made my way through the greater part of the bible, all of greek mythology, and I'm working on Shakespeare. The last thing I read was Othello which was so amazing ..."Taming of the Shrew is poignant and a crack up simultaneously...lots of memorable quotes will show up as you read.
Merchant of Venice is a kind of a comedic criminal drama...it will grab your interest!
Macbeth will give you a bit of a historical bent, but laces the tale with dark spirituality...witches...cauldrons... This is the source of “Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble”
The works of Shakespeare can be difficult to read if attempted in poetic style, however, if read as prose, it reads somewhat easier. I've taken 2 different classes and thoroughly enjoyed them both.
Check out Beowolf on the Beach, which is listed on my book shelf...I forget the author's name, but it is a book written by a professor of English, and he details his opinion of the top 50 books which everyone should read. Many that are mentioned here are in his book...he says what is good about them, bad about them, any "naughty bits", etc. An entertaining book that can give you new ideas on what to read next.
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (I've actually started to read it, but I keep putting it off)Christmas Carol - Charles Dickins
Go Ask Alice
The Giver
I love Mockingbird! I've taught it many times, and each time I reread it I fall in love with it all over again. On the surface it seems to be such a simple story...but it's so well told! Harper Lee became a recluse and never wrote another thing.
hello.im not sure how this website works but i have been trying desperately to find a book.im looking for a book i read in elementary school.it was a book involving a child terrorist.the main character is a boy, he and his friend discover that a girl in their school, posing as a duchess from another country,is part of a terrorist group.they are all young.i don't remember much from the book except for three things.in the begining, one of the main characters school mates is poisoned, when she adds salt to her soup during lunch.the "salt" was like some sort of tester to see how the poison worked, the "duchess" put it there. she only was knocked out, she didnt die. after that the book says the terrorist was being driven home by her like driver, she has the salt shaker.then in the end, the boy and the girl have become friends, hes helping her like escape her family cause i guess she doesnt want to be a terrorist anymore.she tells him a story about how she was trained in the desert.her friend died during their training, and she had to leave her there to die or she would die too.then somewhere in the middle, the boy finds a doll and notes that it resembles the girl.(the focus of the book is his finding this place where the doll ended up being.some kind of underground secret thing, he and his friend find,then he discovers about the girl,etc.)oh and also at one point there is a bombing.but not a big one.i dont think anyone was hurt.thats all i remember.it was an incredible story.like seriously insanely good for a book in a n elementary school library.it one that one award where there's a big gold circle thing on the book.
I think the gold circle is the Newberry awards...maybe google the awards and post the question there?
well i love charles dickens novels.so i recommend:1 oliver twist
2 much ado about nothing by shakespeare
3 romeo and juliet
4 macbeth
5 great expectations by chales dickens
6 pride and prejudice
7 dr jekkyl and mr hyde
I loves Emma by Jane Austen! I read Wuthering Heights and I wasn't a huge fan of it, but it may just be that I am too young to fully comprehend it but I'm not sure
Toni wrote: "The Count of Monte Cristo is one that I do feel strongly for. It was very fast moving, and very intellectually stimulating. I also enjoyed To Kill a Mocking Bird, and I hope that everyone has r..."
Yes Loved the Count of Monte Cristo and I am working on the Sherlock Holmes books! I LOVE them!!! I wasn't sure if I would but I am totally into them now.
Sarah wrote: "I loves Emma by Jane Austen! I read Wuthering Heights and I wasn't a huge fan of it, but it may just be that I am too young to fully comprehend it but I'm not sure"I had to read Wuthering Heights twice before I liked it. I still don't think I loved it but I'm very glad I read it
Aekta wrote: "One of the books i enjoyed reading in my literature class was "The Catcher in the Rye" ....it was a bit depressing but overall i thought it was a good book."I absolutly loved the book! I wasn't sure if I was going to but when I started reading it I couldn't put it down. Holden (the kid in the book) just really cracked me up!
IT was really ground-breaking in its time, because back then adults liked to think that teenagers didn't even know, let alone USE words like that! And the sense of discontentment and disconnection that Holden feels wasn't recognized yet as an almost universal feeling for those who are not still kids, but not yet adults. It's a really great read.
If you want something hearty try Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser. It will definitely give you compassion for the impoverished when you hear poor Hurstwood's fall from grace.
Mila wrote: "A Jane Austen novel, specifically Pride and Prejudice. Yup I'm one of the few that hasn't read her novels, so so so ashamed."At least you aren't alone! It's been more than a couple weeks since I took any Lit. classes...Great Gatsby and Hamlet were in there, as was Taming of the Shrew...and Murder in the Cathedral. When I think of classics, I think of Little Women...Gone with the Wind...Brave New World...Fahrenheit 451...Grimm's Fairy Tales - their actual version, not an adaptation! It depends whether you're classifying the genre or the author. I'm an old Stephen King fan...fan of his older writings, that is. Some of his horror is classic. The Shining will live on forever...but Cujo was almost as intense. It depends what "gets" you with him. Steinbeck is another author that just about any title could be called a classic...and the same for Hemingway. Hmmm...about half of these books are in my home library...what about the rest??
For me the books I need to read are the novels of the Victorian age. Most of those writers were very prolific so that's basically a lifetime worth of reading, and I've started way too late ;-)
I don't know if any of you has read this but i think Julius Caesar by Shakespeare is fantastic!!You should just read Mark Antony's speech and the effect it has on the Roman mob. One moment they are definitely on Brutus' side and right after Antony's speech, they are ready to burn down Brutus' and Cassius' houses! Well, i guess the mob being fickle -minded has something to do with that but still- Antony's speech is very remarkable!
Well, apart from that, i have read The Christmas Carol (dont know if thats a classic). I liked that too.
Violet wrote: "I don't know if any of you has read this but i think Julius Caesar by Shakespeare is fantastic!!You should just read Mark Antony's speech and the effect it has on the Roman mob. One moment they ar..."
I just read Julius Caesar yesterday! It was fantastic! Marc Anthony, Brutus and Cassius are all intense well crafted characters! Cassius was my favorite!
Book freaks
Books mentioned in this topic
Around the World in Eighty Days (other topics)A Separate Peace (other topics)
The Canterville Ghost (other topics)
The Lorax (other topics)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
William Shakespeare (other topics)Jane Austen (other topics)
Alexandra Ripley (other topics)
And no matter what degree you choose to pursue, being well-read and erudite is a sign of education and intelligence.