Today's prompt for Top 10 Tuesday at The Broke and the Bookish deals with classic books -- you favorites, ones on your TBR list, etc. I decided to make my list:
The Top 10+ Classics I Want To Read
The Top 10+ Classics I Want To Read
Creating this list was ridiculously easy because I have hardly read any classics at all that weren't required reading in high school and college. I've always felt this weird barrier between me and classics -- like they're going to be dry or boring or have an antiquated and stiff writing style or not hold up to the movie versions I've come to love. Every year I resolve to read at least one classic novel -- and I never do! Maybe I can change that this year. What books on my list have you read? Which was your favorite?
1. Anything by Jane Austen
I've read and enjoyed all the movies based on her Regency-era romances, as well as spin-off novels like "Death Comes to Pemberley." And yet I've never actually read any Austen. That needs to be rectified.
2. Anything by Charles Dickens
"Great Expectations," "A Tale of Two Cities," "Oliver Twist." All I know of any of these is the line, "Please, sir, may I have some more?"
3. "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
I'd like to finally learn where the phrase "catch-22" came from!
I'd like to finally learn where the phrase "catch-22" came from!
4. "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway
I've wanted to read this book ever since I read "The Paris Wife," a novel about Hemingway and his first wife Hadley and their time in Paris. My only experience with Hemingway was "The Old Man and the Sea" --- zzzzzzz, oh, excuse me, I fell asleep for a second -- and I hope "The Sun Also Rises" is more interesting, or that I'll appreciate Hemingway's writing more as an adult than a high schooler.
5. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
All I know about Plath is that she battled depression and killed herself by sticking her head in the oven and sucking in carbon monoxide. But a friend of mine loves this book and I'd like to give it a try. I've been warned that it's not exactly happy reading.
6. "Rebecca" by Daphne duMaurier
I've heard great things about this gothic novel!
I've heard great things about this gothic novel!
7. "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov
8. "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury
9. "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde
10. "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
Adore the movie, time to read the book. (Love this cover!)
11. "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger
I need to know who Holden Caulfield is!
12. "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck
This is a great list. I would start with Little Women....or The Bell Jar...or Catch-22. Never mind, start with whichever book you want! :)
ReplyDeleteI have read everything on your list except The Bell Jar. I'm not a Hemingway fan, but I love Austen and those mannerly novels. Heller is hysterical! I read The Pickwick Papers this year, and enjoy Dickens. You will find that these old books are classics because they are still readable and have pertinent human issues, even now. Good luck. (Alcott is too, too sweet for me as an adult, sorry.)
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