I did my best during high school to avoid any reading that looked boring. I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy on my free time but avoided classes and assignments that required me to read "classic" literature and "modern classics." I've had this nagging feeling that I was somehow missing something so I ordered a bunch and have been reading them.

A Farewell to Arms by Earnest Hemingway SEVERE SPOILERS
It was the story of some american driving ambulances for the italian army during WW1. He fell in love with a nurse, got her pregnant, got sent back to the front lines, they lost some battles and were retreating, during the retreat the army was executing all officers (he was an officer) so he jumped into a river to escape, he made his way back to his lover, they took a boat out of the country, the child died during birth and the mother died shortly thereafter.

This one was boring. Really, really boring. I think the only scene that affected me at all was when they were executing the officers. I guess during the whole book I had the feeling something bad was going to happen. I was expecting him and his lover to get caught before they made it to the other country. The "tragedy" at the end was sad, yeah, but at the same time they did get away with it and were able to leave the war behind. Then she died of something completely unrelated. meh

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
This one was a good read but I didn't really like the ending. Probably because I didn't get it. I really felt throughout the book on the fence about the merits of this new society. On one hand, I'd never want to live like that. On the other, I wouldn't be able to blame people for wanting to live like that. I could relate to all the characters except John (Savage). I think he went completely insane at the end, but I didn't get why he just didn't go somewhere else. I also didn't get his rage against Lenina -- okay he considers her a slut, but damn, why keep trying to kill her? I wasn't sure at the end whether he was successful in killing her; it was clear he nixed himself though. I did enjoy the conversation between John & the Mond (Controller of Europe or something). I liked the way they dealt with malcontents. The "reservation" where they stuck the Indians was arguably better than how we've dealt with them.

I've just started The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I'll post again when I'm done with it.

So, what "classics" should I really, really not miss? What did you think of the books I mentioned above?

Also, if you're recommending a book, please put spoiler tags around stuff. I know this is ridiculous because these are almost a hundred years old, but please humor me

Les Miserables.

A Farewell to Arms is BORING. EXTREMELY BORING.

most stuff by Rudyard Kipling is pretty good. especially Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, its short but awesome.

Count of Monte Cristo

Crime and Punishment is pretty good. . . I hope you like pages and pages of minor characters bantering.

All Quiet on the Western Front

Great Expectations still remains one of my favorites.

I read Brave New World for a class in college. Pretty much the entire class + teacher had the same reaction. Awesome and then the end didn't really make any sense. I don't remember the rest of our analysis of it though.

Other classics: I really enjoyed (the english translation of) Candide. There's some good Shakespeare too (Romeo + Juliet, etc).

Gatsby is terrible.

Romeo&Juliet is not good Shakespeare. It's way at the bottom of the pile.

Night of the Living Dummy II tops everything posted in this thread.

Oh, and F Scott Fitzgerald.

Since purchasing my iPad I've been making my way through the selection of free classic novels (pretty much the same stuff that's available via Project Gutenberg). I would recommend the following books.

• Robinson Crusoe (this one can be a bit tedious but good overall)
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
• The Call of the Wild
• Treasure Island

I'm currently reading "Hitch-22" by Christopher Hitchens & it's quite good so far (although not a classic).

[LEFT]I recently read Treasure Island, The Three Muskateers, and some Sherlock Holmes book.
[/LEFT]

I read Brave New World in high school and I Hated that book. It had one or two ok parts, but overall I absolutely hated it.

Luckily in my hatred of it I don't remember most of it.

Drugs and sex? Mass control over everyone? That's about all I remember.

Fahrenheit 451 is a really really good book Brian.

seconded

And yet still isn't bad.

Heart of Darkness was one of those "high school" books that I actually enjoyed.

I read that one. I thought it was good but not really really good. Thanks though.

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea!! I LOVED this book. If I had the time I'd have finished it in one sitting.

I'm only on page 30 or so but so far it's a lot more interesting than A Farewell to Arms, and it's easier to read, too.

Hey, cool, I have his Letters to a Young Contrarian.



Nice. I only read Treasure Island once, but I read all of the Musketeers books at least 3 times. And all the Sherlock Holmes novels books, most of them twice. I've read them in a Russian translation, though, so I'm looking forward to getting to read them in the original language.

As for classics... I remember being very fond of Wilde's The Portrait of Dorian Gray (which is technically his only novel if I'm not mistaking) in High School.

For future reading, I plan on getting Harlan Ellison's Alone Against Tomorrow. It's a collection of short stories, though, and hardly anyone calls SF "classic" literature. Well, too bad for them, because they'll probably never read Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson) which is pretty much one of the most awesome books EVER.

Read War and Peace. Absolutely awesome all the way through. (Except don't bother with the epilogues if you don't want to; they're crap). It's got family, love, duty, death, life, religion, mysticism, war, politics, everything in one book.

If the length is off-putting, it's split into 365 short (3-5 page) chapters which would make it a cinch to read it as a side-project over the course of a year.

"God Is Not Great" is also quite good if you haven't read it. I've been planning to read "The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice" as well.

Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, Count of Monte Cristo, Fahrenheit 451, The Man Who Was Thursday, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Iliad/Odyssey, Anthem, Ender's Game

All books my high school made me read, and all books I'm glad my high school made me read. All of those I thought were fantastic novels, especially Brothers K and Man Who Was Thursday. I remember pushing Ender's Game off to the very night before the test, and then when I picked it up and finished it faster than any book I've probably read.

If I had to recommend one, it'd be Brothers Karamazov. I usually don't take stock into what a lot of professors and teachers say about what they think the best book is, but almost 95% of my professors throughout multiple disciplines (over 20-25 by now) could agree on one thing. They all list Brothers K as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, novel of all time. It is a dense read though, that's for sure. Some people generally don't like Dostoevsky or that kind of literature though, but such is life. They're missing out!

QFBTWIWGTS

My high school blows when it comes to literature. The only real literature class I got was Sophomore year, and I read 2 of my favorite books in that class: Frankenstein and 1984.

Another favorite I just read this year was Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. Unfortunately, I didn't have the same reaction to Slaughterhouse Five as I did Cat's Cradle.

I highly recommend all of the books I just mentioned.

In high school, we basically only read one good piece of literature every year: R&J as freshmen, Macbeth as sophomores, and Pride & Prejudice as juniors. Then in my last year I hit the jackpot: Othello, Hamlet, Invisible Man, Heart of Darkness, Waiting for Godot, As I Lay Dying, Crime & Punishment, probably lots of other good things too.

As I Lay Dying is a terrific artistic achievement--almost certainly Faulkner's best work. It's got all of the experimental elements that make The Sound & the Fury great, but deployed in a way that's both more accessible and more artistically meaningful. It's probably not a book that'd be to everyone's taste, but it's definitely worth checking out.

Pride & Prejudice is also a really lovely, finely-crafted, and enjoyable work. Jane Austen attracts a lot of ridicule from certain demographics, but she's one of my favorite authors. (If Pokemon is too sissy for Brian, though, I suppose I have no hope of getting a fair hearing for P&P.)

Towers of Midnight

Does Pride and Prejudice and Zombies count?

http://www.amazon.com/Pride-Prejudice-Zombies-Classic-Ultraviolent/dp/1594743347

you have little or no taste if you think II was better than III, go home.

I was wondering, WAIT, how the hell is Tam with Perrin if he's with Rand? And then I get to the part where Tam leaves Perrin and I realize that ALL THAT PERRIN STUFF HAPPENED BEFORE THE CLIMAX OF THE GATHERING STORM. Also, Sanderston is not nearly as good a writer as Jordan. I guess Jordan's wife had to get someone capable, but not to great, who she could still control.

Yes. And it's great

http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=259

I thought P&P and Zombies was a huge letdown. Awesome idea, terrible execution.

I'm almost done with The Great Gatsby and nothing has really happened yet. Interesting read so far but not much going on.

Gatsby is all about symbolism.
Money and America.
Greed. And alot of other crap that I didn't care about.
That whole "nothing is really happening" thing is basically the whole book.

Someone Mentioned Ender's Game. I only recently discovered this book and I loved it. Read it in a few days off and on but it was really really good.

I liked Gatsby. I also liked The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.

My wife liked Ender's Game. I haven't read it.

I kinda liked the Great Gatsby, but I saw it more as a dark comedy than an actual straight drama.

Ender's Game... great book, both as a sci-fi narrative and as a glimpse into the mind of a self loathing homophobe.

I would suggest Catch 22 and Cat's Cradle, if you've not read them, both hilarious.

What else... what else... oh, Bram Stoker's Dracula is not just a pretty spooky story, it's also got a unique format and is written in such approachable prose, I love it to bits.

And, at the risk of having my man cards taken away, I do have a soft spot for the Scarlet Letter, again because of the approachability. You can read it and it's just as reasonable and relatable as it was when it was written. Well, except for that sneaky reference to A Pilgrim's Progress, which I've been planning to read since sophmore year of high school...

-... 7 years ago.

The original Frankenstein was awesome.