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On May 14 2010 10:21 Rakanishu2 wrote:
Clockwork Orange!
ACK! MY FREAKIN GLAZIES, SMECKED RIGHT OUT OF ME ODDY KNOCKY.
Wonderful tale.
Clockwork is a great book. I absolutely loved it. The fake language he makes up is a tad bit difficult to get used to at first.
I'm still a bit confused, what's your goal here?? To just read a lot of the famous books of yesteryear?? To get a better understanding of English?? Explore underlying themes and stuff?
And for the love of god, don't read anything by Jane Austin unless your idea of 'challenging literature' is boring yourself to death. Almost every fucking book by her is the same shitty recycled basic plot (some rich woman tries to woo some English man, eplores challenges of marriage and class). It's not like her stories or writing style was particularly great for the time period. She just happened to be a woman and every goddamn feminist lit professor thinks she's the greatest thing because of that.
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On May 14 2010 23:15 Crissaegrim wrote:Show nested quote +On May 14 2010 10:40 sgeng wrote:On May 14 2010 10:03 ramen247 wrote:
The Great Gatsby, What I would NOT recommend:--> Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes--This book is a bore. There is no plot, just a series of events of a madman. Hold on right there! Don Quixote a bore?! Seriously it's an amazing adventure seen through the eyes of a man clinging on to the wonders and charm of the past. It was written as a parody of course but the story of an elderly man still fighting for love with what little strength he has does give it a nice romantic hue. This book may be many things but a bore it is certainly not. It's really funny as well with many pearls of wisdom strewn in. Recommended. As for recommendations, if you count fantasy as literature then I suggest the original dragonlance saga: starting with dragons of autumn twilight. It's the main reason I started reading actually.=P
Perhaps you are right. I certainly was entertained by Don Quixote for the most part. Perhaps calling it a bore was the wrong word. I simply feel that the book does not really suck you in to its world because the adventures of the old dude are so haphazard and random that the book simply doesn't feel like it's progressing anywhere.
I completely agree with the Dragonlance recommendation. I dunno if I would consider it literature but it certainly is a very good read.
twilight,
harry potter,
big bear's adventure,
the big bad wolf,
satanism for dummies,
Redwall,
tom clancey novels,
the dictionary,
romance novel
It is my sincerest hope that you are indeed trolling
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What's your major going to be? Many majors at most schools should really only include 1-2 literature courses max. If that's the case, then you shouldn't feel too pressured.
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I have to do Evegenii Zamyatin justice - his novel We was written in the early 1920s, before 1984 and The Brave New World. Both of those novels are modeled after We and yet it never gets mentioned. Read We - the translation by Mirra Ginsburg is pretty good.
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+1 to distant_voice. I came in here to say something similar. A more helpful question woulda been somethin like "yo what is ur thought process when trying to get meaning out of literature?"
But im so stoked jitterbug perfume got plugged in here. that book opened up a lot of doors in my mind.
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On May 14 2010 10:00 Ideas wrote:
Kurt Vonnegut is an incredible author who writes really funny/intriguing novels in very simple writing. Reading his novels are just a breeze. His 2 most acclaimed/best books are Cat's Cradle and Slaughter-House Five.
this. go now. read.
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If any one hasn't recommended J.R.R. Tolkien yet I would highly recommend The Hobbit
Note: This thread rules
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I would strongly recommend Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. It was one of the few books that literally got me to laugh out loud while reading it. Not only was it an easy read, but the mixture of almost slapstick and dark humor is very engaging. Definitely a classic.
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The Hobbit was written on a much lower reading level than his others. While a good story, it's probably not going to enhance your reading ability very much. If you're going to read Tolkien, just dive into The Lord of the Rings.
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what the hell, why would waste time reading some goddamned books , I mean unless you really, really enjoy it .... its not like reading some goddamn books is the best way to enhance your intelligence and there are many better ways to do that ... for example read some books about iq or psychology instead of goddamn ones.
what the hell man .... these are hours of your free time .... are you absolutely sure that its completely necessary for your college requirements ; O ?
you can read many books and remain relatively bad at it and you can grasp the essence behind it and be great without reading all those books
PS. I say it because I just don`t understand reading goddamned books that you wouldn`t enjoy...why would you accept doing it to yourself ^ ^
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Kyrgyz Republic1462 Posts
On May 15 2010 00:22 UFO wrote:
what the hell, why would waste time reading some goddamned books , I mean unless you really, really enjoy it .... its not like reading some goddamn books is the best way to enhance your intelligence and there are many better ways to do that ... for example read some books about iq or psychology instead of goddamn ones.
what the hell man .... these are hours of your free time .... are you absolutely sure that its completely necessary for your college requirements ; O ?
you can read many books and remain relatively bad at it and you can grasp the essence behind it and be great without reading all those books
PS. I say it because I just don`t understand reading goddamned books that you wouldn`t enjoy...why would you accept doing it to yourself ^ ^
+ Show Spoiler +
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If you enjoyed 1984 you will probably like
- Fahrenheit 451
- Brave new world
In my opinion Brave new world is more interesting, but that is just a personal preference.
As suggested numerous times Animal Farm from Orwell is also pretty good while short.
My personal favorite book is Catch-22. It is incredibly funny while conveying a serious message. It makes you think about stuff 
There are many good/great books suggested in this thread, but there are a few which I would discourage you to read yet (or ever):
- Joyce is really hard and complex.
- Hemmingway is generally perceived as crudely boring. Any literaly merrit aside, "the old man and the sea" is a book where nothing happens. I remember when in my AP English class a class mate presented a paper on this book and finished with something like: "This book was so boring. It was hard keeping myself awake while reading it." The teacher's repsonse was: "Yeah, I never understood why anybody would ever read Hemmingway voluntarily. He is just plain boring..."
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I'm very surprised to see not one, but two recs for Pride and Prejudice. It's not a bad book, but, seriously?
Catcher in the Rye was great when I read it in high school, but now that I've grown past adolescence it can be a painful read.
I don't read much, so I can't rec anything with any sort of authority.
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Ignore the opinions of those who cannot appreciate Shakespeare, for theirs are misguided and lacking in enlightenment. When one learns to appreciate Shakespeare, a literary "sense" is developed in the brain that allows distinguishing between worthy works and other tales.
Okay, enough with the formal bs... I was just trying to make a point. I used to hate Shakespeare, but now that I understand more about English literature, I really like to read him. Here's some of my favorite works.
[Short and quick to read]
Tim O'Brien - The Things They Carried
This is a fictional semi-autobiography about American soldiers in the Vietnam War.
Isaac Asimov - The Gods Themselves
Science fiction about aliens in a parallel universe interacting with our own universe.
[Longer, with (slightly) more "literary relevance"]
Richard Wright - Native Son
Fictional story about a black man who accidentally murders the white woman he works for. Helped with racial discussion in the mid 20th century.
Ralph Ellison - Invisible Man
Fictional autobiography of an African-American who considers himself socially invisible. Might actually be a semi-autobiography of Ralph Ellison himself.
Joseph Heller - Catch-22
Story about the "no-win" scenarios this particular bureaucracy creates that caused any similar situation in real life to be called a "catch-22."
Shakespeare - Hamlet
Just read it.
Shakespeare - Julius Caesar
Just read it.
Also, I'm tired of explaining books. They're all good, pick a couple.
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Here are my three favorites:
Dune, by Frank Herbert
Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad
Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
Each of these has a great story and is truly fascinating for one reason or another.
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Well, since I'm a French proud of my culture (yeaha!) i suggest you to read A trip to the end of the night (Voyage au bout de la nuit in french) from Céline. Just incredible.
In french it's pretty easy to read, don't know in english. (pretty big 500-600 pages)
Ho and read The stranger (other name The Outsider in english, in french it's just L'Etranger) from Albert Camus, really nice small book.
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On May 15 2010 00:57 xDaunt wrote:
Dune, by Frank Herbert
.
Dune always manages to creep in late in the discussion. It is an amazing series. If you want to read just for the sake of good literature, try Pynchon. The Crying of Lot 47 is a short, good read.
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Moby Dick. I'm just kidding, although it is a great book, but extremely long and sometimes tedious. Just read what you like. Classics aren't necessarily for everyone, and although some people might like a book doesn't mean you would. Also, I prefer short books that get to the point rather than long ones, therefore I like Catcher in the Rye a lot better than books like Don Quixote.
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scrotie mcbooger balls by Stank Yelcartman is an excellent read.
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Why not a bit of Kafka? The Trial is really not very hard to read and that's just amaaaaaazing.
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EPT
