What are the best classics that you have read, not read, love/hate, and or not read but seen an adaptation?
I've seen definitions of "the classics" defined to be pre-1960. But The Graduate was 1963 and The Godfather was 1969 and I consider those classics too.
Personally I go with pre 1974 for whatever reason, probably because thats right before Stephen King began publishing and he is the modern horror master and probably best known American author (at least now). I grew up reading his books. So they are very much in my lifetime.
But use whatever criteria I guess that you want.
For me these are my top 10 classic books:
****DON'T LIKE****
The Great Gatsby - it's ok but not relatable
Catcher in the Rye - I actually despise this book
The Last of the Mohicans - great movie, book is dry
Jane Eyre - could not get through it
****JUST OK****
Little Women - i get it, but I can't relate I guess
The Old Man and The Sea
****GOOD BUT DATED****
Gulliver's Travels
The Time Machine
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Have not read - what am I really missing out on here?
I've seen definitions of "the classics" defined to be pre-1960. But The Graduate was 1963 and The Godfather was 1969 and I consider those classics too.
Personally I go with pre 1974 for whatever reason, probably because thats right before Stephen King began publishing and he is the modern horror master and probably best known American author (at least now). I grew up reading his books. So they are very much in my lifetime.
But use whatever criteria I guess that you want.
For me these are my top 10 classic books:
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- Grapes of Wrath
- Of Mice and Men
- The Call of the Wild
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- The Count of Monte Cristo
- Moby Dick
- Frankenstein
- Dracula
- The Red Badge of Courage
- Animal Farm
- Nineteen Eighty Four
- Lord of the Flies
- various Sherlock Holmes (at least The Hound of the Baskervilles, and the first collection of short stories)
- The Jungle
- The Scarlet Letter
- Uncle Toms Cabin
- Old Yeller
- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
****DON'T LIKE****
The Great Gatsby - it's ok but not relatable
Catcher in the Rye - I actually despise this book
The Last of the Mohicans - great movie, book is dry
Jane Eyre - could not get through it
****JUST OK****
Little Women - i get it, but I can't relate I guess
The Old Man and The Sea
****GOOD BUT DATED****
Gulliver's Travels
The Time Machine
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Have not read - what am I really missing out on here?
- Anna Karenina
- Crime and Punishment
- War and Peace
- Don Quixote
- For Whom the Bell Tolls
- Fahrenheit 451
- Wuthering Heights
- Slaughterhouse Five
- Great Expectations
- A Tale of Two Cities
- A Farewell to Arms
- The Fountainhead
- The Crucible
- Brave New World
- East of Eden
- One Flew Over the ****oo's Nest
- Les Miserables - seen on Broadway and movie
- Pride and Prejudice
- The Godfather I and II (from the original book)
- Lord of the Rings - I've read probably half of this but never finished it
- Gone With the Wind
- Catch-22
- Dune - tried to read it
- The Iliad & The Odyssey - read parts of it I believe in HS, I've seen some films on parts of it
- Lolita
- A Streetcar Named Desire
- In Cold Blood - sort of, saw the Capote movie
- A Christmas Carol
- The Graduate
- Three Musketeers - not sure I ever read this