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During the years in high school, english has been one of the hardest classes for me, especially since I'm not a native here in America. This is the reason why I gave up trying to get better at it and chose a path in the math/science field. However, I learned that I won't be able to dodge english any longer as I'm going to college this fall and am desperate to catch up with an understanding of this subject.
I do read occasionally, but those books are purely for entertainment, not for knowledge. Such books I've read are the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, some Stephen King's books, Harry Potter, etc. Probably the only literature book I've read is 1984, which I really enjoyed. It had a good, understandable plot unlike other literature books I came across, such as The Tale of Two Cities and Candide, two of which we went over in class recently. I have never touched books like Treasure Island, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, or any other books a middle school student should be familiar with. Unfortunately, I do not even know the plots of those books.
So if anyone could make a list of literature books in an order of increasing difficulty, starting with a fairly easy and interesting book like 1984, I would really appreciate it. Kind of like learning to 9pool before learning other complex builds as zerg.
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Well you have already named two great books there  If your looking for American Lit. in particular I'll just add To Kill a Mockingbird one of my favorites.
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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.
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Wow wow wow, he said
starting with a fairly easy and interesting book
Great books but I dont know about Vonnegut just yet...
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If you want a very good Shakespearean text, I'd recommend Othello. It's not particularly long which is a plus, and the themes within the text are also very relateable (jealousy, assumptions, racism). I'd say its roughly the same difficulty level as 1984
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Slaughterhouse-Five is fantastic. Treasure Island is fantastic. Lord of the Flies is FANTASTIC. I'm not sure which would be easiest, but all are quite good and enriching reads. Your desire to actually further your learning is quite remarkable - very refreshing to see. I hope you succeed - I'm sure you'll enjoy the proverbial journey.
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You should definitely check out The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien. You might also enjoy Michael Crichton, since you mentioned you've read some Stephen King.
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Clockwork Orange!
ACK! MY FREAKIN GLAZIES, SMECKED RIGHT OUT OF ME ODDY KNOCKY.
Wonderful tale.
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United States5162 Posts
Animal Farm is another good book written by Orwell that has extra meaning behind the text.
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On May 14 2010 10:03 ramen247 wrote:
The Great Gatsby,
Personally I found Great Gatsby to be amazingly dry and a tedious read.
I would recommend:
-->The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (Also wrote The Three Musketeers and The Man in the Iron Mask, which were both great books as well)--I recommend reading the abridged version, at least at first. The unabridged version can be a little daunting as well as complex.
-->Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
-->Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (An awesome book, must read)
-->The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy (More of a short story)
These 4 books are relatively easy and enjoyable reads, being well known pieces of literature yet entertaining at the same time.
If you would like to move to something slightly more complex:
-->Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Actually, almost all of Dostoyevsky's works are worth reading)
-->The Illiad and the Odyssey by Homer--You've probably been assigned to read this in middle/high school, but more than likely you read the abridged version. The unabridged version I believe is worth going back and rereading.
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.
-->The Metamorphoses by Ovid (Not to be confused with The Metamorphosis by Kafka)--A collection of myths in which people are transformed into something else. The entire thing is terribly disconnected and difficult to really care about what it's talking about cause it's just BS anyways.
-->Most of the Shakespearean works--Most of the world probably would disagree, but I find that Shakespeares plays are just that...plays. The man was a playwright, not an author. His plays may be good and all, but honestly it doesn't pass as literature. It's like saying Schindler's List is a literary work just cause it had a good story. No. It's a good movie, not a good piece of literature.
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Cant believe I forgot this, "A Song of Ice and Fire". Series of books by George R.R. Martin with a television series of the first book on the way. A seriously addictive series of books, to which many among this community would recommend.
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Just try your best and you will succeed! English is one of the easiest languages, considering you can spell out MOST words.
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The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
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There's too many to list...!
I would browse through best sellers and look at categories that I'm interested in.
Some of my favorite authors in no specific order would be:
Asimov, Clarke, Van Vogt, Ballard, Ludlum, Dumas, Aldiss, Tolkien, Crichton, Lovecraft
They are all pretty accessible to any kind of reader, altough I guess Ballard is hit or miss.
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I like 1984 and The Brave New World. You'll never see the world the same again.
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Ernest Hemmingway is famous for his direct, almost reporter like style. His books, particularly old man and the sea, are fairly easy to read while also being considered some of the classics of american literature. Generally, older works are considered more difficult, i.e. dickens, shakespear for the simple reason that they are written with less contemporary language usage.
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On May 14 2010 10:40 sgeng wrote:
-->Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (An awesome book, must read)
Find the short story; skip the novel.
1984 is a great novel; if you liked it, try Animal Farm (as Myles suggested), also by Orwell, dealing with the same subject in a different way. It's very easy to read (probably one of the easiest out there as far as classics go) but none the shallower for that.
On May 14 2010 10:57 TriniMasta[wD] wrote:
Just try your best and you will succeed! English is one of the easiest languages, considering you can spell out MOST words.
LOL? You're not seriously trying to call English one of the easiest languages on the basis of its spelling, right? You're joking.
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The unabridged version of the Count of Monte Cristo is the most rewarding read I have ever had. It's an amazing story and the compexity is easy to follow because all the side stories are so interesting.
If you feel like reading a 2700 page book then go for it.
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Ah, yes! I forgot Ernest Hemingway. He's an incredible writer, and is quite easy to understand and easy to read. You'll quite enjoy him - my favorite of his is For Whom the Bell Tolls.
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Lord of the flies is really good. Read it earlier in the year with my eight grade class. Right now we're reading To kill a mockingbird. I think it's overrated
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Depends what you like, i myself can't stand reading fiction unless it's a comic book. I only read books that tend to be learning, historical or persuasive.
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Lord of the Flies is the best novel I have ever read in high school.
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I dont know who told you you cant dodge this subject any longer.. If you are a math/science guy you can get through life communicating only via graphs and diagrams. If people actually try and talk to you (lol unlikely amirite?) just bust some alien sounding jargon that only people in your (very specific) field of study could ever decipher.
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My Favorites:
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Nothing But The Truth
Lyddie
The Giver
Number the Stars
these are great novels (not much of high school level probably 8th grade, but still good none the less)
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If you enjoyed 1984, you may also want to try Fahrenheit 451. It's a similar theme. It's one of my favorite books.
Some other books you may want to consider (sci-fi heavy):
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
Dune
Moby Dick (if you can make your way through it... I had trouble lol)
Tau Zero by Poul Anderson (hard to find... it's hard sci fi, but doesn't get caught up in the science)
Other books people have mentioned here are good too.
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Read Animal Farm. It's short and simple. Also, just because you're going into science and math doesn't mean you won't need to be good at English. You will need to be able to clearly articulate your reasoning with other people.
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On May 14 2010 11:24 HazMat wrote:
Lord of the flies is really good. Read it earlier in the year with my eight grade class. Right now we're reading To kill a mockingbird. I think it's overrated
Funny, I thought LotF was overrated and mockingbird was definitely one of my favorites of all time.
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Read scarlet letter, its awesome.... just kidding, that book is horrible
I recommend Huckleberry Finn or any Mark Twain books.
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something that i wouldnt consider good, quality, literature, but is a really fun read is Battle Royale (not the manga). a book i found really entertaining for its sarcasm, irony, and wit is Catch-22 (not the user hehe).
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Just finished up my lit degree in school, I highly agree with a lot of the above ^^
Interesting, short, and classic:
Catcher in the Rye
Animal Farm
Huckleberry Finn
The Giver
The Lord of the Flies -- definitely recommend this one
Frankenstein
The Great Gatsby
Red Badge of Courage
A little harder (in terms of theme and reading difficulty):
Catch-22
The Three Musketeers
The Grapes of Wrath
The Lord of the Rings
Very difficult, but still great:
Heart of Darkness
Anything long and Russian
For sci-fi
Dune
2001: A Space Odyssey
Neuromancer
For Short Stories
(there's a million greats)
Raymond Carver, John Updike pretty easy to read.
Chekhov is classic
hope this helps ^^
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The Road, great book and an easy read.
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"Things Fall Apart" is pretty good and its consider to have literary merit, plus its a real easy read since the author's first language isn't English. Lord of the Flies is pretty good and simplistic also once you think you got the hang of it you can go on to Shakespeare just make sure to get a book with a lot of notes in it.
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United States4126 Posts
On May 14 2010 10:59 holy_war wrote:
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
+1 to this. Great book.
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The Fountainhead & Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand are two pretty great books in my opinion. They're bricks though, so unless you're an avid reader it'll take you a while to get through them. I read both of them in about ten days.
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twilight,
harry potter,
big bear's adventure,
the big bad wolf,
satanism for dummies,
Redwall,
tom clancey novels,
the dictionary,
romance novel
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If you are looking for ready-to-read literary titles that don't take a lot of background knowledge of a culture or society to understand, I would reinforce a few titles already mentioned in this thread:
Animal Farm, by George Orwell
The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
or The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas
And please, don't listen to anyone who tells who a classic isn't worth reading, or that it is "overrated." Every classic is worth reading. No classic is overrated. That's why they are classics. However, you just have to obey two simple rules when choosing a work from the classics for reading pleasure:
1) Is this book about concepts that I am interested in? This book deals with society, love, and the feminine individual. If I am interested in these concepts, then I should read this book.
2) Realize that to appreciate most classics, you need a heavy background knowledge in its historical, social, cultural, and anthropological context. The three I mentioned above are really accessible, however, and you should strive to find books that are open to you so that you don't have to do more research than reading. Reading something like the Iliad is a huge task. Greek works in general are going to be a huge problem without a lot of knowledge in the area. Likewise, reading Ovid's Metamorphoses will seem "boring" or like it is a "waste of time" unless you have a healthy education.
BONUS BOOK: I just read this tonight and I can't not mention it:
The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibrain
I don't think it is really what you are looking for in terms of narrative, but it is a tiny read.
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On May 14 2010 10:40 sgeng wrote:
-->The Illiad and the Odyssey by Homer--You've probably been assigned to read this in middle/high school, but more than likely you read the abridged version. The unabridged version I believe is worth going back and rereading.
I'm reading the Odyssey right now and its fucking crazy! its like a movie playing in the background with, fucking streaks of lightning tearing through the skies, accompanied by a symphony playing something like Carmina Burana
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Hemingway (Nick Adams stories, A Fairwell to Arms) and Twain (Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer) are two authors who have written a lot of easy to read and very engaging novels.
Some medium level authors would be jane austen (Pride and Prejudice, Emma) and Ian McEwan (Atonement, Saturday).
harder level authors would be faulkner (as i lay dying, sound and fury), Virginia Wolfe (Mrs. Dalloway), and Dostoyevsky (Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment)
bonus: Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier, The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje. Cold Mountain is easy-medium. the english patient is medium-hard. Both are very exciting reads. And if you want some old literature, The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer is really good.
EDIT: How can i forget? James Joyce! Dubliners is about medium. Ulysses is hard.
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I am a big William Gibson Fan. He is the cyberpunk father, any of his books are a good jump in!
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I personally liked "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" and "To Kill a Mockingbird". I also enjoyed many of the Shakespearean works. I suggest starting with Romeo and Juliet like most people (mainly because it keeps saying "I bite my thumb at you").
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On May 14 2010 12:42 Fyrix wrote:
Very difficult, but still great:
Heart of Darkness
Anything long and Russian
hope this helps ^^
Conrad isn't all that difficult, he just has a unique way of writing. If you do decide to read any Conrad, Lord Jim is my favorite. I also like anything narrated by Marleau because hes' so cynical and detached he gives the books a unique character.
I can't recommend James Clavell enough. He writes simply but has great characters and non-linear plot, and each book can be read stand-alone or as a series. From best to worst by him (that I've read):
1. Nobel House
2. Shogun
3. Taipan
4. King Rat
5. Gai Jin
6. Whirlwind
On May 14 2010 15:35 SolHeiM wrote:
The Fountainhead & Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand are two pretty great books in my opinion. They're bricks though, so unless you're an avid reader it'll take you a while to get through them. I read both of them in about ten days.
She has some interesting short stories. Anthem is extremely similar to 1984 and is worth the 40 minutes it takes to read.
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Chaim Potok 'the chosen' (coming-off-age novel about two boys in their respective hassidic and scholarly jewish milieus)
Chaim Potok 'my name is Asher Lev' (a painter's struggle with hassidism, art and religion, individualism and ethnicity)
Oscar Wilde 'the picture of Dorian Gray' (about what makes life worth living, set against the backgroud of homosexuality in victorian england)
Lewis Carroll 'Alice in wonderland', 'through the looking glass' (about math, you'll like this)
Remarque 'all quiet on the western front' (german warstory about WW I)
Robert Graves 'goodbye to all that' (a reckoning with WW II and british life as it was then)
Robert Graves 'I, Claudius' (historical fiction, much of which I've seen proven to be quite accurate, about the roman emperor Claudius)
Vladimir Nabokov 'Lolita' (an approach to humanity through one man's love for a girl)
Careful with the proposed teen-lit, as anything described as 'easy literature' may fool you badly, or not have anything to do with literature at all. Just read a lot and you'll be ok. And stay away from fantasy, detectives, or anything else things that come in series greater than 3.
PS: love these kind of threads, so good to see people wanting to abandon the ranks of the philistines. Also amusing to read what people got whacked over the head with at highschool.
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Catch-22
Also can recommend James Clavell. Working through all or even some of his books could take a while tho.
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If you are looking for easy but great books try the books of James Clavell.
I find them great reads every time and very easy to read and understand.
ps. DON'T start reading the Russian authors suggested here until you have a good comprehension of the English text. Although the stories are good the way they are written (both the structure of the sentences as the story itself) is hard to follow and enjoy if you don't have a very good understanding of the language.
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David Copperfield by Charles Dickens was a great read for me.
Personally, I learned how to read/write English well by reading Fantasy novels; up to grade 5, English was my worst/most hated subject. I started with Lord of the Rings then moved on to The Wheel of Time then on to classics like David Copperfield and by my grade 10 year English was far and away my strongest subject.
It was tough at the start and I had to look up a bunch of words in LOTR (keep in mind I was like...11 at the time) but it smoothed out as my vocabulary got better and better and I've never regretted picking up reading.
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If you find yourself in the mood for some Classics, two of those genre of books I enjoyed the most were:
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
Both were fairly boring at times, but overall were a great reading experience if you can get past the slow parts.
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This is a PM I wrote up for the OP, but I might as well post it on the forums:
Hi there,
it's nice to see that you want to get into literature.
I've majored in comparative literature, just saying this to back up what I'm about to say to you. I know it's an appeal to authority but if it makes you read the rest of this it did what it was supposed to do. you can figure out if what I say makes sense to you or not yourself.
You won't make any headway by just reading some famous books that random people recommend to you. Some people think that them skimming through thousands of pages written by authors that have some acclaim makes them literature experts or worse "connoisseurs". lol
I can get high on 20 bottles of expensive wine but that doesn't say anything about whether I know shit about wine does it?
The main difference between people who read for entertainment and people who read books to appreciate the art of writing is that the latter groups reads a lot more thoroughly and, thus, more slowly. My sister for example has rushed through hundreds of books without ever realizing what they were really about.
You have to realize that writing is an art. This means that you take everything, every little detail very seriously. You don't have to read Vonnegut, Joyce, Kafka or any other "name-authors" to do that. I teach English over hear in Germany and I've read Louis Sachar's Holes with a bunch of 16-17 year-olds. It's as fertile for interpretation and for learning how to properly read a book as any other decent book. This goes for King's or Rice's novels as well.
Details have meaning and if you don't see the meaning immediately think about them. Why did the author put this sentence in the book? What does it convey? This is something that takes effort and time. Read slowly. Read thoroughly. You'll discover a lot of things that will make you appreciate the book you're reading on a whole new level.
If you want to practice this you might want to start out with poems, since they're even more compressed than novels are, but easier to read through a couple of times so that you can see the whole thing. This is another thing: read books several times. Each times you'll discover new things and learn more about the book.
I'd suggest you get a good book that explains a couple of poems in detail, and I don't mean a bio of the author and the way people believe the poem came into existence. You need to analyse the imagery, the structure of the text. This is where is magic is. There are a couple of things that one has to take into consideration when dealing with a book, but that's mostly to do with the history of ideas and it's nothing you have to worry about if you don't want to study literature.
When you've understood what some imagery means and how you have to approach it and think about it I'd suggest you get a rather short novel next. Pick something accessible, for the love of god stay away from Joyce and the like. I'd recommend "The old man and the sea". It's plot is so simple that you'll be forced to think about the actual meaning of the book in order to not get bored.
Remember that understanding literature isn't about having read a lot of famous books, it's more like aquiring a set of tools that'll help you unlock each and every book. If you don't like "The old man and the sea" pick any other book.
JUST REMEMBER
TO READ SLOWLY
TO READ THOROUGHLY (TAKE EVERY DETAILS SERIOUSLY)
TO RE-READ BOOKS
THAT THE MAGIC ISN'T IN THE PLOT
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oh and reading through this thread I'd like to point out one thing:
There are no slow/boring parts really. If you think a passage in a book is boring it should give you an incentive to figure out why that part is necessary for the novel. this is where you'll make headway in understanding the book. that "boring" passage is there for a reason and if you can't find it it might not crash your reading experience altogether, but it's still your loss.
Reading, like most other things is not about liking or not liking, but about understanding. Any idiot can like or dislike anything. Few take their time to understand things. "Hey bra you like the theory of relativity? No dawg it's fucken boring."
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United States1440 Posts
lol holes... +1 for vonnegut
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HnR)hT
United States3468 Posts
If you want to feel good about yourself get a complete Shakespeare anthology and plow through the whole thing from beginning to end 
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I personally dislike the whole notion of evaluating everything thoroughly for the hidden meaning, subtext, individual word choice e.t.c. The emphasis on this type of analysis deadened a large ammount of english in school, particularly poetry and Shakespeare. Not to mention literature in general does not lend itself to careful analysis due to its subjectivity.
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Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, Michael Moorcock... Best style of fantasy writing, original stuff instead of the boring derivative crap most everyone started making after Tolkien got popular
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As far as sci fi goes anything by isaac asimov is obviously pure gold, would for sure also recommend anything by arthur c clarke
and since some people have mentioned him but havent name dropped his arguably best book, check out the brothers karamazov for the deepest book you'll ever read, that one might be a long term goal though
there are of course some more fun classic stories to read out there like Beowulf, sir Gawain and the green knight, the Canterbury tails etc
good list in this topic so far
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If you're looking to ease your way into good literature I've got the perfect book for you. About 2-3 years ago I was in a similar place, I had read what I was supposed to, but never enjoyed it. Then I started to read more and I stumbled on this book.
Tom Robbins - Jitterbug Perfume
It's good fiction both from an english professor sense as well as an enjoyment sense. Easy and quick read, has depth if you care to delve. I highly recommend you read this book before you read most others in this thread. The others in this thread are of course great but this is a good way to ease into things.
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On May 14 2010 10:40 sgeng wrote: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
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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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On May 14 2010 22:36 revy wrote:
If you're looking to ease your way into good literature I've got the perfect book for you. About 2-3 years ago I was in a similar place, I had read what I was supposed to, but never enjoyed it. Then I started to read more and I stumbled on this book.
Tom Robbins - Jitterbug Perfume
It's good fiction both from an english professor sense as well as an enjoyment sense. Easy and quick read, has depth if you care to delve. I highly recommend you read this book before you read most others in this thread. The others in this thread are of course great but this is a good way to ease into things.
This was such a weird book
interesting though.
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Great thread, I'm writing down a lot of books from this thread that I plan to read in the near future and also some that I have read and would like to read again.
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Wow, this is more than I could wish for. I just got me a copy of Cat's Cradle and am enjoying it a lot.
This might not apply to the Cat's Cradle as much, but how do you supplement your reading to get even more from it than just the story? Something like commentaries. Like is there a website you guys go to? All I know at the moment is sparknotes, which I highly believe it is underrated to gain some insights from. I'm not talking about the summaries but rather the analysis they have under them. But they're general insights, and I was hoping someone might know any other good sites to supplement their reading materials.
PS: Remember that I'm fairly new and uneducated to the literature world, so forgive me if I offended anyone by mentioning sparknotes.
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Read 90% of books mentioned in this thread so picking out some classic sci-fi not mentioned! I think they are easy reading especially Asimov.
Asimov, the grandmaster storyteller, all brilliant books in the Foundation series. I have never read a Asmimov novel I did not enjoy.
Foundation (1951)
Foundation and Empire (1952)
Second Foundation (1953)
Foundation's Edge (1982)
Foundation and Earth (1986)
Orson Scott Card - amazed he hasn't been mentioned yet in 5 pages, the following are the best 3 of Ender's Game series, all awesome, read them:-
Ender's Game
Speaker for the Dead
Xenocide
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I m so down, I see a lot of good book and no french author whatsoever. That's so sad, my culture is dead.
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On May 15 2010 06:09 kodancer wrote:
PS: Remember that I'm fairly new and uneducated to the literature world, so forgive me if I offended anyone by mentioning sparknotes.
I don't think anyone would insult you for using sources to try to better your understanding of a book. I think it's admirable that you're taking the time to read analysis on the books you read.
It's really important to sit and think about the books you are reading. Better yet, get someone else to read a particular book with you and have conversations about what you think they mean. The books you think about the most are the ones that are going to make the biggest impact on you, and be the most memorable.
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On May 15 2010 07:22 ArKaDo wrote:
I m so down, I see a lot of good book and no french author whatsoever. That's so sad, my culture is dead.
I would recommand him Proust, but I am not sure that's precisely what you want to start with if you get into litterature.
And French novels are so much better in French
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The Picture of Dorian Gray, my favourite book, and one that any person as vain as me should read.
DUNE by Frank Herbert
The entire works of George Orwell
The Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatory, Paradise) by Dante Aligheri
The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll aka Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
The Histories by Herodotus
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On May 15 2010 07:22 ArKaDo wrote:
I m so down, I see a lot of good book and no french author whatsoever. That's so sad, my culture is dead.
That's because all you frogs do about it is whine ^^
For starters:
Camus: 'l' étranger' (the stranger). Also Caligula. Perhaps 'la peste' (the plague)
Charrière: Papillon
Sartre: huis clos (no exit)
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Austin10831 Posts
On May 15 2010 18:01 Biff The Understudy wrote:Show nested quote +On May 15 2010 07:22 ArKaDo wrote:
I m so down, I see a lot of good book and no french author whatsoever. That's so sad, my culture is dead. I would recommand him Proust, but I am not sure that's precisely what you want to start with if you get into litterature. And French novels are so much better in French
So Dumas is what, Spanish now?
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It really depends on what genre you want to read. I am a bit of a sucker for fantasy and sci fi books and I really appreciate books with artistic descriptions, attention to details, grand plots mixed in with some good action of course. Anyway you can only ever know if a book is good after you read it, right? Here are a few recommendations:
The Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan (Brandon Sanderson). This series is long (actually still ongoing) and truly epic, it is dark fantasy, very well written with multiple in depth characters.
Riftwar Saga - Raymond E. Feist. Fantasy with many themes, definetly a good read.
The Night's Dawn Trilogy - Peter F. Hamilton. Science fiction on the grand scale when it is best.
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On May 14 2010 11:24 HazMat wrote:
Lord of the flies is really good. Read it earlier in the year with my eight grade class. Right now we're reading To kill a mockingbird. I think it's overrated
Agreed, I really liked LotF. Didn't really have that same connection with to kill a mockingbird, not that its bad writing or anything, just not my kind of book i guess.
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On May 15 2010 00:05 Bright] wrote:
If any one hasn't recommended J.R.R. Tolkien yet I would highly recommend The Hobbit
Note: This thread rules
The Silmarillion is also a great book by JRR Tolkien if you're looking for a challenge...
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On May 15 2010 18:09 BroOd wrote:Show nested quote +On May 15 2010 18:01 Biff The Understudy wrote:On May 15 2010 07:22 ArKaDo wrote:
I m so down, I see a lot of good book and no french author whatsoever. That's so sad, my culture is dead. I would recommand him Proust, but I am not sure that's precisely what you want to start with if you get into litterature. And French novels are so much better in French So Dumas is what, Spanish now?
Oh yeah, Dumas is so entertaining...
But I don't understand, I never even implied that there is not good and accessible French litterature. I talked about Proust because he is my favourite.
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On May 15 2010 19:59 Biff The Understudy wrote:Show nested quote +On May 15 2010 18:09 BroOd wrote:On May 15 2010 18:01 Biff The Understudy wrote:On May 15 2010 07:22 ArKaDo wrote:
I m so down, I see a lot of good book and no french author whatsoever. That's so sad, my culture is dead. I would recommand him Proust, but I am not sure that's precisely what you want to start with if you get into litterature. And French novels are so much better in French So Dumas is what, Spanish now? Oh yeah, Dumas is so entertaining... But I don't understand, I never even implied that there is not good and accessible French litterature. I talked about Proust because he is my favourite.
Looks like you did misunderstand BroOd's intent. He's simply pointing out that Dumas has been mentioned in this thread, first page at that, when ArKaDo became sad assuming that no French authors have been mentioned.
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On May 15 2010 23:13 Sulli wrote:Show nested quote +On May 15 2010 19:59 Biff The Understudy wrote:On May 15 2010 18:09 BroOd wrote:On May 15 2010 18:01 Biff The Understudy wrote:On May 15 2010 07:22 ArKaDo wrote:
I m so down, I see a lot of good book and no french author whatsoever. That's so sad, my culture is dead. I would recommand him Proust, but I am not sure that's precisely what you want to start with if you get into litterature. And French novels are so much better in French So Dumas is what, Spanish now? Oh yeah, Dumas is so entertaining... But I don't understand, I never even implied that there is not good and accessible French litterature. I talked about Proust because he is my favourite. Looks like you did misunderstand BroOd's intent. He's simply pointing out that Dumas has been mentioned in this thread, first page at that, when ArKaDo became sad assuming that no French authors have been mentioned.
Oh, yes, I had completely missed that.
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On May 15 2010 19:03 Saturnize wrote:Show nested quote +On May 15 2010 00:05 Bright] wrote:
If any one hasn't recommended J.R.R. Tolkien yet I would highly recommend The Hobbit
Note: This thread rules The Silmarillion is also a great book by JRR Tolkien if you're looking for a challenge...
Silmarillion was total garbage, unless you're a die hard Tolkien fan who absolutly MUST read all of his work, I would stay away from it.
You can usually tell when a story is good from reading the first 5-10pages. If you dont get sucked into the story by then its most likely best to just put it away. Those first pages are usually for the setting, and a good setting usually means a good story.
All the D&D related stuff (especially the Drizzt Do'Urden saga), David/Leigh Eddings epic tales are also pretty good if you're in that kind of writing (dragons, swords slashing and all). Edding's style is a bit simple but the character development is pretty massive (5 books Belgariad/5 books sequel) so you get somewhat attached to them.
Adding 2 books from Émile Zola from my best of list,
Germinal
L'assommoir
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great gatsby, pride and prejudice, cat in the hat, and 1984
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On May 16 2010 02:55 Rkie wrote:
great gatsby, pride and prejudice, cat in the hat, and 1984
Nooooo! Jane Austen next to Fitzgerald, that's wrong.
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I really liked Cyrano de Bergerac (sp) its a play but reading it is pretty easy. Also, I just recently finished A Tale of Two Cities and it was very good. Much better than that POS Great Expectations (GOD I FUCKING HATE PIP)
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Anything by Brandon Sanderson, Scott Lynch, Steven Erickson, Anne McCaffrey, Robert Jordan, or David and Leigh Eddings. Oh and Patrick Rothfuss.
That is of course if your interested in fantasy/fiction.
Brandon Sanderson:
Warbreaker, Mistborn Trilogy
Scott Lynch:
The Lies of Locke Lamora
Steven Erickson:
The Malazan Books of the Fallen
Anne McCaffery:
Pegasus in Space
Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson:
The Wheel of Time
David and Leigh Eddings:
Belgariad/Malloreon
Patrick Rothfuss:
The Name of the Wind
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The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison is a great book and a fairly difficult read.
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On May 14 2010 10:54 Eishi_Ki wrote:
Cant believe I forgot this, "A Song of Ice and Fire". Series of books by George R.R. Martin with a television series of the first book on the way. A seriously addictive series of books, to which many among this community would recommend.
I would not. I'm on volume #2 of the Storm of Swords now and I must say it's getting progressively worse.
Pros:
+ the whole idea of the fight for the throne and how it goes back and forth is great
Cons:
- the style of the book resembles that of a Brazillian soap opera, drags for eternity and you wish you didn't see/read half of it
- all is made in POV style with various characters acting as a main one, this wouldn't be bad except for the fact that all the characters you're really interested in are not included here and only the most boring/emo/uninteresting character's views are presented
- many 'technical' mistakes (from sailor's perspective, considering yard and boom as the same thing is a travesty, the same goes for some weapon, combat, siege machine and definitely wolf behavior references)
All in all, I rate it as mediocre at best.
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Lol to ppl who said Clockwork Orange. That book is hard! 2001: A space odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke . The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. 2 books that changed my life and are great to read.
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If you really really want to challenge yourself....The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
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If you don't know your tastes I would recommend against taking other people's blind advice on what's "interesting," "good," etc. Just go to B&N read some chapters of books that look interesting and see what you like. Once your tastes have developed come back here/ your IRL friends and they can recommend something more suited to you. Ignore all of this if you simply want to be worldly/learned and go read Dostoevsky, Kafka, Hemingway, Maupassant, etc.
Ninja Edit: If you're reading translations, do your research about the translators and read the footnotes. A lot of stuff whizzes by you if you don't read the editors/translators' notes. I recently read Snow by Pamuk and I don't speak Turkish, never lived there, but translators' notes/wikipedia helped a lot with the historical context and the general underlying tones on which the book is founded.
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Step 1: Go to your local library or bookstore
Step 2: Wander around, looking at books until something in you says "This shit looks interesting. Lemme read a few pages."
Step 3: After finding a book that YOU find interesting and have finished it, expand your horizons using that book as a starting point. Maybe books by the same author, books in the same genre, books by other writers that the author gives praise to; or you can always go back to step 1.
Don't be put off if whatever you're interested in isn't "hardcore lit". Go for fantasy or sci fi if that's your cup of tea, or crime or whatever. I'm just starting to get into the Brontes and Tolstoys and, while I'm enjoying them now, I know there's no way I would love reading as much as I currently do if I limited myself to those at the start. They require a lot more patience than a good action-packed sci fi or crime novel.
Nowadays I always have a huge ass list of books I want to finish reading and they're piling up more quickly than I can read through them. Still I like to go to step 1 every once in a while, it's nice to go around fishing for a great book that you didn't know about before you stepped foot into the library.
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east of eden by steinback <---my favorite book
watership down by richard adams
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Hemingway. My all-time favorite author, and the language is very easy to follow for a foreigner.
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I just started reading James Joyce's Ulysses and its super good and pretty damn hard.
I wouldn't recommend starting off with hardcore literature, read some light, quick, and entertaining stuff first.
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Read "The Heart of Darkness" by conrad. If you understand the book alright you'll be just fine in American Lit. If that story gets to boring you could try out A time to Kill, To kill a Mockingbird, Or if you liked 1984 I'd go for A Brave New World by Audious huxley.
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On May 14 2010 10:40 sgeng wrote:Personally I found Great Gatsby to be amazingly dry and a tedious read. I would recommend:--> The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (Also wrote The Three Musketeers and The Man in the Iron Mask, which were both great books as well)--I recommend reading the abridged version, at least at first. The unabridged version can be a little daunting as well as complex. --> Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen --> Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (An awesome book, must read) --> The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy (More of a short story) These 4 books are relatively easy and enjoyable reads, being well known pieces of literature yet entertaining at the same time. If you would like to move to something slightly more complex:--> Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Actually, almost all of Dostoyevsky's works are worth reading) --> The Illiad and the Odyssey by Homer--You've probably been assigned to read this in middle/high school, but more than likely you read the abridged version. The unabridged version I believe is worth going back and rereading. 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. --> The Metamorphoses by Ovid (Not to be confused with The Metamorphosis by Kafka)--A collection of myths in which people are transformed into something else. The entire thing is terribly disconnected and difficult to really care about what it's talking about cause it's just BS anyways. --> Most of the Shakespearean works--Most of the world probably would disagree, but I find that Shakespeares plays are just that...plays. The man was a playwright, not an author. His plays may be good and all, but honestly it doesn't pass as literature. It's like saying Schindler's List is a literary work just cause it had a good story. No. It's a good movie, not a good piece of literature.
^Good advice. The Great Gatsby was boring as hell and the symbolism was really hard to figure out. The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my favorite books; I definitely recommend that one.
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The Heart of Darkness is an interesting read, but I don't think I'd ever recommend it to someone who is reading for enjoyment.
On May 16 2010 16:07 Ruehl wrote:
east of eden by steinback <---my favorite book
watership down by richard adams
Ah I'm glad to hear someone else really liked East of Eden. Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men are great too (well some people though Grapes was long/boring, I didn't though) but they seem to overshadow East of Eden despite it being just as good a novel imo.
This thread makes me want to start reading again. Being out of high school and in college as an engineering major is not conducive to reading good books.
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Also, imo The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was boring and not enjoyable, and I didn't get past the first few pages of Catch-22 though people talk so highly of it I may try it again this summer. Oh and while The Great Gatsby is good literature I didn't think it was such a fun read. I should read it again though because I don't remember it that well (but I never will...)
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As someone had mentioned before, Of Mice and Men is always a great read.
Steinbeck is probably my favorite author: he's easy to read (even at a fairly low level of reading) while being very interesting; and as you get more proficient at the language, it becomes much easier to see the ironies and lingual play that he often uses to captivate his readers.
Steinbeck is doubly interesting for the people who are interested in the time periods that he wrote in / about (WWII America, post WWI veterans or politics, etc. etc.). It is also easier to get all of the references he makes if you have some knowledge of these time periods. But even if you don't, it's still totally worth reading his stuff.
The order I would read them in:
Of Mice and Men (10/10: really accessible, short, and yet very moving and has well developed characters)
Cannery Row & Tortilla Flat (8.5/10: good reads).
In dubious battle (8/10: will require more historical and social knowledge of anti-communist tendencies to get all the references; but is a great novel nonetheless)
East of Eden (10/10: a great read)
Grapes of Wrath (9.5~/10: this book might need a little bit of reading experience to get all of the dark humor)
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On May 14 2010 20:30 distant_voice wrote:
This is a PM I wrote up for the OP, but I might as well post it on the forums:
Hi there,
it's nice to see that you want to get into literature.
I've majored in comparative literature, just saying this to back up what I'm about to say to you. I know it's an appeal to authority but if it makes you read the rest of this it did what it was supposed to do. you can figure out if what I say makes sense to you or not yourself.
You won't make any headway by just reading some famous books that random people recommend to you. Some people think that them skimming through thousands of pages written by authors that have some acclaim makes them literature experts or worse "connoisseurs". lol
I can get high on 20 bottles of expensive wine but that doesn't say anything about whether I know shit about wine does it?
The main difference between people who read for entertainment and people who read books to appreciate the art of writing is that the latter groups reads a lot more thoroughly and, thus, more slowly. My sister for example has rushed through hundreds of books without ever realizing what they were really about.
You have to realize that writing is an art. This means that you take everything, every little detail very seriously. You don't have to read Vonnegut, Joyce, Kafka or any other "name-authors" to do that. I teach English over hear in Germany and I've read Louis Sachar's Holes with a bunch of 16-17 year-olds. It's as fertile for interpretation and for learning how to properly read a book as any other decent book. This goes for King's or Rice's novels as well.
Details have meaning and if you don't see the meaning immediately think about them. Why did the author put this sentence in the book? What does it convey? This is something that takes effort and time. Read slowly. Read thoroughly. You'll discover a lot of things that will make you appreciate the book you're reading on a whole new level.
If you want to practice this you might want to start out with poems, since they're even more compressed than novels are, but easier to read through a couple of times so that you can see the whole thing. This is another thing: read books several times. Each times you'll discover new things and learn more about the book.
I'd suggest you get a good book that explains a couple of poems in detail, and I don't mean a bio of the author and the way people believe the poem came into existence. You need to analyse the imagery, the structure of the text. This is where is magic is. There are a couple of things that one has to take into consideration when dealing with a book, but that's mostly to do with the history of ideas and it's nothing you have to worry about if you don't want to study literature.
When you've understood what some imagery means and how you have to approach it and think about it I'd suggest you get a rather short novel next. Pick something accessible, for the love of god stay away from Joyce and the like. I'd recommend "The old man and the sea". It's plot is so simple that you'll be forced to think about the actual meaning of the book in order to not get bored.
Remember that understanding literature isn't about having read a lot of famous books, it's more like aquiring a set of tools that'll help you unlock each and every book. If you don't like "The old man and the sea" pick any other book.
JUST REMEMBER
TO READ SLOWLY
TO READ THOROUGHLY (TAKE EVERY DETAILS SERIOUSLY)
TO RE-READ BOOKS
THAT THE MAGIC ISN'T IN THE PLOT
I agree and disagree. As an individual you shouldn't read books because you're supposed to or because they're well known or difficult. You should definitely read something accessible, or in my words, something which you'll appreciate. If you don't enjoy it, there's no point. My parents told me to read literature growing up, just because "you're supposed to read literature", and that turned me off for years. It took a very good English teacher to make it enjoyable for me to appreciate it properly again.
I think you get more out of books if you read them slowly and look through the details, and if you just spend a lot of time thinking about it. If you can understand a book in a way, that you can currently or in the future relate an experience to it, you'll understand why it's worthwhile.
However, if you're not interested in appreciating the writing style or imagery, it's not worth forcing it. You'll probably need a background before you can start appreciating the differences. Like you have to learn forge expand before you learn the difference between an early +1 weapons or greedier variants.
Just going through a list of books is a shotgun approach that you don't need if you're not in a curriculum. Find out what you like first. When you read a story or watch a movie, what sort of inner or interpersonal conflicts do you find compelling? Do you find yourself drawn more to exotic places, or maybe the grim streets of England during the Industrialization, or the hidden secrets of everyday life?
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On May 16 2010 16:38 PhoenixM1 wrote:Show nested quote +On May 14 2010 10:40 sgeng wrote:On May 14 2010 10:03 ramen247 wrote:
The Great Gatsby, Personally I found Great Gatsby to be amazingly dry and a tedious read. I would recommend:--> The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (Also wrote The Three Musketeers and The Man in the Iron Mask, which were both great books as well)--I recommend reading the abridged version, at least at first. The unabridged version can be a little daunting as well as complex. --> Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen --> Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (An awesome book, must read) --> The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy (More of a short story) These 4 books are relatively easy and enjoyable reads, being well known pieces of literature yet entertaining at the same time. If you would like to move to something slightly more complex:--> Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Actually, almost all of Dostoyevsky's works are worth reading) --> The Illiad and the Odyssey by Homer--You've probably been assigned to read this in middle/high school, but more than likely you read the abridged version. The unabridged version I believe is worth going back and rereading. 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. --> The Metamorphoses by Ovid (Not to be confused with The Metamorphosis by Kafka)--A collection of myths in which people are transformed into something else. The entire thing is terribly disconnected and difficult to really care about what it's talking about cause it's just BS anyways. --> Most of the Shakespearean works--Most of the world probably would disagree, but I find that Shakespeares plays are just that...plays. The man was a playwright, not an author. His plays may be good and all, but honestly it doesn't pass as literature. It's like saying Schindler's List is a literary work just cause it had a good story. No. It's a good movie, not a good piece of literature. ^Good advice. The Great Gatsby was boring as hell and the symbolism was really hard to figure out. The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my favorite books; I definitely recommend that one.
I would have said exactly the opposite lol: Shakespeare, Cervantes and Ovid >>>>>> Jane Austen and Tolstoy.
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I agree in principle that you shouldn't read well-known authors just for the names. On the other hand, I gotta admit I started reading "well-known" authors just because it made me feel uber smart, and eventually I really started to enjoy good literature that way. Anyways, here is my list.
In order of increasing difficulty (imo), and all fairly good reads:
- Animal Farm (Orwell)
- The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
- Brave New World (Huxley)
- Catch-22 (Heller)
- Moby Dick (Melville)
- The Count of Monte Cristo (Dumas)
- The Third Man (Greene)
- Lord of the Flies (Golding)
- Catcher in the Rye (Salinger)
- The Prince (Machiavelli) [Not a novel, strictly speaking, but it reads almost like one]
- All Quiet on the Western Front (Remarque)
- The Trial (Kafka)
- Nathan The Wise (Lessing)
- Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky)
- War and Peace (Tolstoy)
...and of course, if you're looking for the ultimate literary boner:
- The Illiad (Homer)
- Paradise Lost (Milton)
- Ulysses (Joyce)
- The Divine Comedy (Dante)
- Hamlet (Shakespeare)
although I didn't really enjoy The Illiad and I quite frankly didn't understand Ulysses  Everyone says they're epically good however, so I'll put them in here for completeness sake
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If you're a science fiction fan you HAVE to read "Ender's Game", or "Dune". Both of those awesome.
There's tons of good books out there, however Catcher in the Rye is not one of those good books. I've never been more frustrated in my life reading that piece of garbage.
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I liked:
Dune
Animal Farm (really really recommend this one. short, easy to read and ownage)
Hamlet
Julius Caesar
The Things They Carried
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robert jordan : The Wheel of Time
r.r martin : a song of ice and fire ( not sure of the english title )
robin hoob : royal assasin , the 2 other serie are realy good too
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On May 16 2010 19:56 Biff The Understudy wrote:Show nested quote +On May 16 2010 16:38 PhoenixM1 wrote:On May 14 2010 10:40 sgeng wrote:On May 14 2010 10:03 ramen247 wrote:
The Great Gatsby, Personally I found Great Gatsby to be amazingly dry and a tedious read. I would recommend:--> The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (Also wrote The Three Musketeers and The Man in the Iron Mask, which were both great books as well)--I recommend reading the abridged version, at least at first. The unabridged version can be a little daunting as well as complex. --> Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen --> Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (An awesome book, must read) --> The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy (More of a short story) These 4 books are relatively easy and enjoyable reads, being well known pieces of literature yet entertaining at the same time. If you would like to move to something slightly more complex:--> Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Actually, almost all of Dostoyevsky's works are worth reading) --> The Illiad and the Odyssey by Homer--You've probably been assigned to read this in middle/high school, but more than likely you read the abridged version. The unabridged version I believe is worth going back and rereading. 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. --> The Metamorphoses by Ovid (Not to be confused with The Metamorphosis by Kafka)--A collection of myths in which people are transformed into something else. The entire thing is terribly disconnected and difficult to really care about what it's talking about cause it's just BS anyways. --> Most of the Shakespearean works--Most of the world probably would disagree, but I find that Shakespeares plays are just that...plays. The man was a playwright, not an author. His plays may be good and all, but honestly it doesn't pass as literature. It's like saying Schindler's List is a literary work just cause it had a good story. No. It's a good movie, not a good piece of literature. ^Good advice. The Great Gatsby was boring as hell and the symbolism was really hard to figure out. The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my favorite books; I definitely recommend that one. I would have said exactly the opposite lol: Shakespeare, Cervantes and Ovid >>>>>> Jane Austen and Tolstoy.
Well note that I never actually said anything about the authors themselves. It was just in the case of those specific books I found one to be better than the other. Pride and Prejudice, for example, is really the only book that I really enjoyed from Austen (admittedly I have not read all of her works).
I would sincerely disagree with the Tolstoy being so much lesser than the Shakespeare Cervantes and Ovid though. Out of those four Tolstoy produced works that were much deeper in thought than the others (except perhaps Ovid). As I said earlier, Shakespeare can be very enjoyable (I personally liked Othello, Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsummer Might's Dream the best), however, I just think that plays shouldn't be thrown into the same realm as books.
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hmm best start with short stories, to find out which authors you like
i like Mann, Lovecraft (but only read him if you are dark-minded),
Count of Monte Cristo unabridged is kinda hard to read, I have given up at about the half (but back then I was about 14^^)
read english shortstories, like Muriel Spark or Edg. A. Poe
best shortstory: monkey paw
Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks is great
and then Faust of Goethe ( but I think you will understand this one only if you have discussed it in school or if you do literary studies)
but best start with something that doesnt corrupt your mind (like Lovecraft does, but he is still a great writer)
(kind confusing post with no real order^^)
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On May 16 2010 20:24 r4ptur3 wrote:I agree in principle that you shouldn't read well-known authors just for the names. On the other hand, I gotta admit I started reading "well-known" authors just because it made me feel uber smart, and eventually I really started to enjoy good literature that way. Anyways, here is my list. In order of increasing difficulty (imo), and all fairly good reads: - Animal Farm (Orwell) - The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) - Brave New World (Huxley) - Catch-22 (Heller) - Moby Dick (Melville) - The Count of Monte Cristo (Dumas) - The Third Man (Greene) - Lord of the Flies (Golding) - Catcher in the Rye (Salinger) - The Prince (Machiavelli) [Not a novel, strictly speaking, but it reads almost like one] - All Quiet on the Western Front (Remarque) - The Trial (Kafka) - Nathan The Wise (Lessing) - Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky) - War and Peace (Tolstoy) ...and of course, if you're looking for the ultimate literary boner: - The Illiad (Homer) - Paradise Lost (Milton) - Ulysses (Joyce) - The Divine Comedy (Dante) - Hamlet (Shakespeare) although I didn't really enjoy The Illiad and I quite frankly didn't understand Ulysses Everyone says they're epically good however, so I'll put them in here for completeness sake
Moby Dick needs to be bumped up in difficulty, as does the Count of Monte Cristo. Catcher in the Rye bumped down 2x. Rest seems pretty solid to me (haven't read the Illiad, Nathan the Wise, or Brave New World). Also the Prince should be removed from this list because it isn't supposed to be read like a piece of fiction; it's essentially a how-to manual with sprinkles of history and political theory. Clearly not in the same class as "literature."
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![[image loading]](http://grissanti.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/green-eggs-and-ham.jpg)
really though,
I think you should read some Hermann Hesse:
Narcissus and Goldmund
Siddhartha
Demian
Easily three of my favorite books.
Not sure if they would be considered very difficult, but they take a bit of thought.
Example quotations that aptly demonstrate Hesse's themes and style:
"Slower, he walked along in his thoughts and asked himself: “But what is this, what you have sought to learn from teachings and from teachers, and what they, who have taught you much, were still unable to teach you?” And he found: “It was the self, the purpose and essence of which I sought to learn. It was the self, I wanted to free myself from, which I sought to overcome. But I was not able to overcome it, could only deceive it, could only flee from it, only hide from it. Truly, no thing in this world has kept my thoughts thus busy, as this my very own self, this mystery of me being alive, of me being one and being separated and isolated from all others, of me being Siddhartha! And there is no thing in this world I know less about than about me, about Siddhartha!”"
""I have no objection to worshiping this God Jehovah, far from it. But I mean we ought to consider everything sacred, the entire world, not merely the artificially separated half! Thus alongside the divine service we should also have a service for the devil.""
"The bird struggles out of the egg. The egg is the world. Whoever wants to be born, must destroy a world. The bird flies to God. That God's name is Abraxas."
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Pretty interesting thread.
Do not read the Illiad.
The Illiad is a very important book in the canon of Western literature, but it isn't necessary to read a few hundred pages of people's nipples being pierced to appreciate the important plot points (bits about ancient greek culture aside). The only reason to read it is to appreciate how epic Hector is. The Oddessy is probably a better use of your time.
Lord of the Flies is excellent. Animal farm is a good read. Dune is enjoyable and epic.
Ovid is... Ovid is amazing. Actually, Herodotus would be a fun read as well, though The Peloponnessian wars (Thucydides) is probably a more important work.
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i dont think I mentioned it before, but hemmingway is awesome and not particularly hard to read
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I basically came to this thread for the same reason as OP. Could you guys please put what the book is about when you recommend a less known book? Just a sentence or two describing the book would be extremely helpful, thanks in advance!
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Dune is such a fantastic book because every person reads into it differently.. For instance, physics or math majors usually believe that space travel and the emperor are the guiding power of the novel, while business or economics majors think that the money derived from the spice guides it. Different perspectives leads to different interpretation of characters and events, and completely different outlooks.
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Ulysses, by James Joyce.
If you had to have one book - that is the one to have. Seriously. But if you go to the store or library and open it up, even the first page, I think you will find it it too difficult. So just stick to the other recommendations and then maybe later, come back to James Joyce's works. They are the current height of the English language and English literature.
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The only book I'd recommend is The Great Gatsby. Imo not only is it the best book ever written by the most economical author ever, it is extremely short and easy to read. It's like a university essay as well- every single word is desperately deliberated upon, there's not an ounce of fat in the entire book. An engrossing and exquisitely written work.
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I would recommend reading anything by James Joyce.
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The only books I enjoy reading is written by J.R.R Tolkien. He's the author of the trilogy of lord of the rings. I would rate the books fairly advanced. My tip is as follows, if you enjoy a movie, you'd probably enjoy the book, assuming there is one.
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I've already said my piece about how one should search for books that appeal to them, so here are some of my recommendations. I'll stick with Sci Fi in this first post.
Sci Fi:
![[image loading]](http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1232/972774228_055d704b11.jpg?v=0)
This is what got me into sci fi. Heinlein was one of the pioneers of the genre, and his amazing writing ability shone through in this book and convinced me that sci fi was worth taking a look into. The book is about the oldest human in existence, Lazarus Long, at a time where planets have been colonized and the rich can rejuvenate their DNA via machinery. Lazarus's memory stretches back to World War 1. As the book begins, he wants to commit suicide, reasoning that he has seen and done it all. However, certain people think he's too valuable to let die. So he makes a deal with them - he will tell them stories, episodes of his life, and as long as he is entertaining someone he will promise to stay alive (reverse Scheherazade type deal). The book goes into three short stories of his life as well as what happens in the "present".
The stories are all touching on a human level, and one especially, "The Tale of the Adopted Daughter", just speaks directly to the soul. I would find myself thinking about it for days after reading it. As I was reading this particular short story it became clear to me that Heinlein had a deep understanding of human nature that most authors do not.
Unfortunately the book kind of jumps the shark at the very end, as really weird shit happens. (Heinlein believes all incest is wincest.) However, this weird stuff happens in what is really the epilogue and can be dismissed. Oh Heinlein, you crazy guy, you.
![[image loading]](http://blog.taivo.net/public/BookPics/cover_PandorasStar.jpg)
Hamilton's Pandora's Star is just a very epic and well written space opera. Shit happens on a truly massive scale, multiple storylines interweave and intersect, and a cast of unique, interesting characters makes this book just great entertainment. There is way too much to explain so I'll just settle with "this book rocks." Its sequel (which is good, but not as good) is Judas Unchained, which wraps the story up.
![[image loading]](http://kirrus.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/300px-altered_carbon_cover_1_amazon.jpg)
Hard-boiled detective fiction meets cyberpunk sci fi. Very intriguing sci-fi ideas, along with being extremely well written and chock full of manliness. Truly a pleasure to read.
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the magicians - lev grossman
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Two recommendations:
Charles Bukowski - Ham On Rye
John Fante - Ask the Dust
Both authors write semi-autobiographical stories that are very easy to get through. Bukowski is mostly about drunken debauchery, where Fante's tone is somewhat lighter. Both are fantastic reads.
Also, if you want more complex stuff, try starting out with shorter works. Some of my favourites are Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. They're both very rich and layered stories, but don't take a lot of time to read.
Finally, I really want to recommend Robert Harrison's Podcast called Entitled Opinions (About Life and Literature). He's a professor of French and Italian Literature at Stanford, who has guests in the studio, and talks about literature, philosophy art and life in general. It's very academic and intellectual, but Harrison (like many of his guests) is very engaging to listen to, so for instance his episode on Heart of Darkness might help you understand the novella better. Another good podcast is Melvyn Bragg's In Our Time.
Also, you might try to listen to musicians with literary flair like Dylan, Cohen, Waits etc., who all deserve a good deal of credit for my appreciation for literature.
Also, don't attempt to read works like The Odyssey, Ulysses, plays of Shakespeare etc. While they're undoubtedly great works of literature, they're difficult to approach (either because they were written for a different time and a different culture, or because, in the case of Ulysses, they want to be difficult to approach). Hope that helps.
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Othello and the karate kid are my two favorite pieces of literature.
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Just gonna drop in to recommend:
Anthem
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On May 14 2010 09:55 kodancer wrote:
During the years in high school, english has been one of the hardest classes for me, especially since I'm not a native here in America. This is the reason why I gave up trying to get better at it and chose a path in the math/science field. However, I learned that I won't be able to dodge english any longer as I'm going to college this fall and am desperate to catch up with an understanding of this subject.
I do read occasionally, but those books are purely for entertainment, not for knowledge. Such books I've read are the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, some Stephen King's books, Harry Potter, etc. Probably the only literature book I've read is 1984, which I really enjoyed. It had a good, understandable plot unlike other literature books I came across, such as The Tale of Two Cities and Candide, two of which we went over in class recently. I have never touched books like Treasure Island, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, or any other books a middle school student should be familiar with. Unfortunately, I do not even know the plots of those books.
So if anyone could make a list of literature books in an order of increasing difficulty, starting with a fairly easy and interesting book like 1984, I would really appreciate it. Kind of like learning to 9pool before learning other complex builds as zerg.
Read quote books. "The Wicked Wit of Winston Churchill" is a great start.
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On May 14 2010 10:40 sgeng wrote:
-->Most of the Shakespearean works--Most of the world probably would disagree, but I find that Shakespeares plays are just that...plays. The man was a playwright, not an author. His plays may be good and all, but honestly it doesn't pass as literature. It's like saying Schindler's List is a literary work just cause it had a good story. No. It's a good movie, not a good piece of literature.
I fail to see your point: if you don't like him, fine, but I fail to see how saying "he's a playwright/poet" determines his authorship in any way. He's one of the most studied and famous writers in the history of literature, so it really doesn't matter at all how you classify him.
Anyways, some recommendations (very roughly ordered from easiest to hardest):
Lord of the Flies, Golding
Animal Farm, Orwell
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde
Oedipus Tyrannus, Sophocles
Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky
The Metamorphosis, Kafka
The Odyssey, Homer
Hamlet, Shakespeare
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On May 14 2010 11:21 qrs wrote:Show nested quote +On May 14 2010 10:40 sgeng wrote:
-->Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (An awesome book, must read)
Find the short story; skip the novel. 1984 is a great novel; if you liked it, try Animal Farm (as Myles suggested), also by Orwell, dealing with the same subject in a different way. It's very easy to read (probably one of the easiest out there as far as classics go) but none the shallower for that. Show nested quote +On May 14 2010 10:57 TriniMasta[wD] wrote:
Just try your best and you will succeed! English is one of the easiest languages, considering you can spell out MOST words. LOL? You're not seriously trying to call English one of the easiest languages on the basis of its spelling, right? You're joking.
English is one of the easiest languages to be literate in.
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On May 20 2010 08:47 synapse wrote:Show nested quote +On May 14 2010 11:21 qrs wrote:On May 14 2010 10:40 sgeng wrote:
-->Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (An awesome book, must read)
Find the short story; skip the novel. 1984 is a great novel; if you liked it, try Animal Farm (as Myles suggested), also by Orwell, dealing with the same subject in a different way. It's very easy to read (probably one of the easiest out there as far as classics go) but none the shallower for that. On May 14 2010 10:57 TriniMasta[wD] wrote:
Just try your best and you will succeed! English is one of the easiest languages, considering you can spell out MOST words. LOL? You're not seriously trying to call English one of the easiest languages on the basis of its spelling, right? You're joking. English is one of the easiest languages to be literate in.
Besides Spanish or like Russian or any language with regular spelling patterns. You can learn to be literate in spanish in like 3 or 4 hours.
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On May 17 2010 06:23 love1another wrote:
I would recommend reading anything by James Joyce.
yeah finnegans wake seems like a great way to build confidence and interest for a struggling english student...lolol
not to say that this thread shouldn't continue, but OP is reading cats cradle y'all...
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Charles Dickens is a pretty easy read with interesting characters and plot lines. F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway are also pretty good choices too to start up.
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On May 14 2010 10:03 ramen247 wrote:
The Great Gatsby,
This man speaks the truth. However I also think "Of Mice and Men" is good, short and well written.
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Read the Fagles translation of the Iliad. Easy and fun to read and its a fundamental part of the canon.
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Soooo much stuff for me to read in here :D:D
Starting with James Joyce going into Dostoevsky and into Tolstoy :D Then Hermann Hesse!
No job + new town (no friends yet) + no school = TIIIIMMMEE
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One Flew over the Cuckoo's nest.
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On May 14 2010 16:31 caelym wrote:
Hemingway (Nick Adams stories, A Fairwell to Arms) and Twain (Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer) are two authors who have written a lot of easy to read and very engaging novels.
Some medium level authors would be jane austen (Pride and Prejudice, Emma) and Ian McEwan (Atonement, Saturday).
harder level authors would be faulkner (as i lay dying, sound and fury), Virginia Wolfe (Mrs. Dalloway), and Dostoyevsky (Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment)
bonus: Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier, The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje. Cold Mountain is easy-medium. the english patient is medium-hard. Both are very exciting reads. And if you want some old literature, The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer is really good.
EDIT: How can i forget? James Joyce! Dubliners is about medium. Ulysses is hard.
You are telling a not native speaker of English to read Faulkner. You have never really read Faulkner have you?
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Everything there is to know about life can be found in The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoyevsky)
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any survey class you take is going to have some scramble of books anyway and the chances of you being familiar with a specific one without a very, very intensive reading regimen are negligible.
grab some books that pique your interest off this list if you're looking for "literature"...i could narrow it down more but it's mostly personal preference. you'll like some and you'll dislike others
http://www.phschool.com/curriculum_support/reading_list/high_school.html
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I have to say I absolutely hated The Great Gatsby. The story itself is very monotonous and rather uninteresting.
To Kill a Mocking Bird is brilliant a work of art that depicts the era perfectly and is beautifully written.
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer, starts off a little complicated and slow but all in all a great book.
and Spicy Crab hit the nail on the head with my favorite piece of literature "The Count of Monte Cristo." astonishingly well written and relatively easy to understand.
qrs I also think he is just referring to how English is a very phonetic language so with understanding of the alphabet you can generally read and write relatively easily but the beauty comes with understanding.
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I remember playing a lot of Baldur's Gate 2 when I was learning English, but I think any game with a lot of dialogue will help. It really improved my grammar skills. My sentences at that time made more sense than those of most other students at the same level.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a59/distant_voice/200px-Fingers_and_thumb_in_circle_d.jpg)
