What literature classics are a must read before you die?

Ren the devils trailboss

Ren the devils trailboss

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Feb 27, 2001
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My list in no particular order..

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Johnny got his Gun by Dalton Trumbo
When the Legends Die by Hal Borland
All Quiet on the western front by Erich Maria Remarque
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
Of mice and Men by John Steinbeck
To kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
 
Great List!

I would add:

Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Red badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
 
Of the few titles I've read on that list in high school, I was too young to appreciate them. Recently re read Catcher in the Rye, All Quiet on the Western Front and To Kill a Mockingbird, and was astounded at how good they were. Tried to read Last of the Mohicans after I saw the movie ten or so years ago, will try to read it again. Hope to add some novels to your list later tonight.
 
Everything that's already been listed and:

Babbit - Sinclair Lewis
The Old Man and the Sea - Hemingway
A Tale of Two Cities - Dickens
The Ballad of the White Horse - Chesterton
The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis


I'll add more when I think of them.
 
man, only 3 to go?

I would add the Great Gatsby, and probably a dozen others that I can't think of right now.
 
Frankenstein - Shelley (Probably one of my all-time favorites, the story is NOT what you think it will be.)
Dracula - Stoker
King Solomons Mine - Haggard
Gullivers Travels - Swift
Lord of the Rings Trilogy - Tolkein (I put these off because I thougth they were nerdy, what a mistake. Best books I've ever read.)
Treasure Island - Stevenson
Dr. Jeykl and Mr. Hyde - Stevenson
Huckleberry Finn - Twain


Those are some of my favorite classics, along with most of the ones already listed. They are all worth the time and effort to read.

Jared
 
The Bible - It is impossible to fully understand Western culture without at least a rudimentary knowledge of the Bible, not to mention many, many literary references from it in the other books mentioned. Example: "My name is Ishmael" cannot be fully appreciated in the context of
Moby Dick without knowing who Ishmael was. Or, "the Rachel, searching for her lost children." Only someone familiar with the Bible can appreciate the sense of total futility and hopelessness embodied in this phrase.
 
Tiewas said:
1984 george orwell
Click to expand...

Forgot that! Excellent! Don't forget Animal Farm either.

Yes! Found the list of really good books that I typed up a while ago. Here's part of it:

Twain, Mark; The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Crane, Stephen; The Red Badge of Courage
Shakespeare, William; The Merchant of Venice
Richter, Conrad; The Light in the Forest
Sabatini, Rafael; Captain Blood
Paton, Alan; Cry, The Beloved Country (Excellent! This really is an absolute must read)
Rostand, Edmond; Cyrano De Bergerac
Pyle, Ernie; Brave Men
Lindbergh, Charles; The Spirit of St. Louis
Herriot, James; All Creature Great and Small
Herriot, James; The Lord God Made Them All
Herriot, James; All Thins Bright and Beautiful
Herriot, James; All Things Wise and Wonderful





More to come when my memory starts working again...
 
Robert Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Land, and Starship Troopers.

Homer: Iliad, Odyssey. If you think you understood those, then read Robert Graves: The Greek Myths.

There is so much available online. I've come across two versions of 1984. searchable.

See Bartleby's at http://www.bartleby.com/ "Great Books Online".
 
What a great thead- and what great choices.

The Master and Margarita-- Mikhail Bulgakov
Don Quixote- Cervantes
The Tale of Genji- Lady Murasaki
The Book of the City of Ladies- Catherine de Pizan
Gargantua and Pantagruel -Rabelais
 
Not necessarily in order of importance:

1) The Man Who Was Thursday-Chesterton
2) Lord of the Rings-Tolkien
3) 1984-Orwell
4) Moby Dick-Melville
5) The Catcher in the Rye-Salinger
6) Ben Hur-Wallace
7) I Claudius-Graves
8) Heart of Darkness-Conrad
9) Everything she wrote-Jane Austen (It's wonderful stuff and on the favorites list of Wm. F. Buckley and Orrin Judd)
10) To Kill A Mockingbird-Lee

And three not really classics, but awesome reads anyway:
1) The Reckoning-James Byron Huggins
2) Gates of Fire-Steven Pressfield
3) Out of Africa-Dinesen (If you haven't read this one, the prose is beautifully descriptive)
 
cosine,
I haven't read 'The Light In The Forest' since I was a kid, but that was an awesome book. I'd forgotten all about it. Also, tell us why you liked 'Babbit.' I've been considering it on recommendation, but have yet to read it.
 
C. S. Lewis Mere Christianity, the problem of pain, the gret divorce, the four loves and almost anything he has written

J. R. R. Tolkien the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings

Roger Zelazney, everything I have found that he has written is good

Tad Williams again everything written

Llewellyn the druids, Fionn McCool etc.
 
The Hound of the Baskervilles - A. Conan Doyle
Murders in the Rue Morge - E. A. Poe
 
The Naked Lunch, and the Cities Of The Red Night trilogy by W. Burroughs.
The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin.
Ulysses by James Joyce.
Valis By Phillip K. Dick.
Storm Of Steel by Ernst Junger.
Moby Dick by Herman Melville.
The Magus by John Fowles.
Confessions Of A Mask by Yukio Mishima.
Crash and The Atrocity Exhibition by J.G Ballard.
Brennu Njals Saga.
The Volsungs Saga.
Neuromancer by William Gibson.
Stranger In A Strange Land by Robert Heinlein.
Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
From Hell by Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell.
 
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