h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thomas Paine - Common Sense

Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) - Everyone knows Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer are easy reads. He's written better stuff, though. I highly recommend A Conneticutt Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Roughing It, and The Gilded Age (from whence I get my name). They're wonderful reads and excellent commentaries on his time simultaneously.

George Orwell - Someone already mentioned 1984. Don't forget Animal Farm.

Steinbeck - Of Mice and Men. I still repeat the famous line... used it just a couple of days ago, in fact. "The best laid plans of mice and men are oft to go awry."

I have to agree about Monte Cristo... wasn't half bad. But I have to disagree about the Lord of the Flies. I was assigned this book in my English class in my final year of high school. It's a rather thin book, but I failed to complete the first third of it.

Don't forget Steinbeck's "Cannery Row"--a wonderful look at America at the tail end of the Depression.

I highly recommend any of Dashiell Hammett's (in fact I wrote a guide entry on him) work--especially "The Maltese Falcon". It's the detective genre at it's grittiest and finest. The earliest detective novel, Wilkie Collins' "The Moonstone", is a pretty good yarn as well.

Despite Hollywood's embrace I still love all of Jane Austen's work, especially "Northanger Abbey".

And I would just like to add that I don't understand the appeal of Henry James. He has the most prose for the least amount of plot. A true headache inducer.

Haven't read the 'heavy' Steinbeck, but loved 'Cannery Row' and 'Tortilla Flat', gentle, kind, and funny stories

Also loved 'Roughing It' (Mark Twain). It isnt about either of these things, but the things it IS about explained America's political system and gun laws to me.

Thanks Colonel. I had forgotten them.

a Brit called Ben

I, too, love Jane Austen...Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, P & P, S & S...Yeah, those are good. I also like Emily Bronte, but Charlotte has to go.
Books I have not yet seen: the novels of Tom Robbins, although I don't know that they are classic so much as fringe!
Virginia Woolf's Orlando and A Room of One's Own. Dumas' Man in the Iron Mask was a fine read. And for sheer ego, Benvenuto Cellini's Autobiography is one of the funniest, most megalomaniac books I have ever read...ever few pages, he duels someone, or single-handedly saves Rome, or kills a slew of bandits...quite entertaining.
Also, just for sheer talent, Shakespeare's King Lear. A mightily intense play about madness and all that. loved it.
And, finally, Augustine's monumental City of God. The whole of civilization with a little twist. A bit theosophical, but on the whole, a good read.

And might I add that if I never read James Joyce's Ulysses again, it will be too soon. UGH!

I was intending to bring Ulysses with me to Japan - was thinking that big difficult confusing book would be a good idea so that I don't fly through it in two days and then have nothing left to read. But if it's that bad ....

-- violagirl

Have you read A Suitable Boy? Just as big and MUCH easier!

agcB

I have been wanting to read A Suitable Boy for some time. Based on everybody's comments in this forum, I'll definitely pick it up.

Other good classics: Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, a look at life among Chinese peasants; the humor of P.G. Wodehouse (especially the Jeeves and Wooster series) and Saki (H.H. Munro)--these were written 80 years ago, but are just as funny today. I can't help but think of Monty Python's "Upper Class Twit of the Year" sketch whenever I read them.

Have always loved Saki - the king of the practical joke, the outragous wind-up and the cutting one liner.

agcB

Brave New World-- read it in exactly 24 hours during last summer's vacation. Incredible book-- just enough description that I didn't feel jipped, but kept moving and it was rather interesting. I have a feeling I liked it mainly because *I* chose to read it, rather than being assigned it in and English class.

The Canterbury Tales-- Once I actually started paying attention to what was going on, the parts of this I've read are quite remarkable (though I haven't been able to get through much in Middle English). I mean, Chaucer (or the translator, anyway) makes a rhyme with "a**e"... how cool is that?!

Oedipus Rex/Antigone-- I had to read these for my Humanities class this year and found them absolutely wonderful. I like them almost as much as Shakespeare... Sophocles is amazing, and reminds me of the Bard without the Elizabethan to occasionally get in the way.

Any of CS Lewis's non-fiction books (Miracles, The Four Loves, etc)-- All I can say is I absolutely adore this man's work. Somehow, essay work always seemed boring before I read Lewis...

Lately, I have found myself coming back to Tolkien's Ring cycle. I never really liked them before, but lately, I have been really into them.
C.S. Lewis' fiction, too, makes me happy.
And for a really good time, go to a used bookstore, and find an *old* copy of any classic etiquette book. Unintentionally hilarious, and a passage a day can make your life feel so much easier!

The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham. It's based on the life of Paul Gauguin. Found it hard to get into, but I'm really glad I persevered.

i agree with minerva on wuthering heights i'm afraid - the first time i started it i didn't finish it and the second time i was unimpressed even though i did slog it right through

same with kerouac's on the road, except that i haven't managed to finish that

mind you there were a fair few i didn't finish the first time around (mainly because they are so depressing!) but found fantastic the next time:
Catch 22
1984
come to mind

Animal Farm is also excellent - Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) - Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit (of course) (an essential reread with the film coming up, i'm really keen to see how they managed to find a sizeable part for Liv Tyler)

span

Last time I read Lord of the Rings I found it depressingly sexist.

Sexist but brill anyway.

Oliver Twist. I suffered it at school, but re-read it recently. It is great, full of wit etc etc. Dickens generally isn't as hard as it looks.

Ivanhoe - a stonking good read. My favourite book ever.

Fathers & Sons, Turgenev - again, suffered it at school but on re-reading it grips early on and whooshes the reader along. That's a technical term btw!

Brave new world wasw pretty good, as was Steinbeck - Of Mice and Men, so I agree with those two I noticed up younder.
I liked An inspector calls, though, I can't currently remember the author.
The midwitch cucoos (excuese speling), by john, (erm), was it Wyndom? (speling agean)
In the last week I've read the entire Hitchhikers series again, for obvious reasons, now theres a set of books I have read a thousand times if its a dozen, never fails to get me laughing.
I quite liked King Lear, the second time round, I.E. the first time was at school, so I had to hate it.
Well theres a few, Oh, I agree with lord of teh rings as well, though I haven't read that for years,

A book that came to mind is "The Great Gatsby"
I always found the book really readable and an all around great book as well.

That is one of they books I've always promised myself I would read, but haven't got round to yet. I once heard part of a radio drama based on the book, I can't say how accurate it was as I haven't read the book yet, but it made me interested enough to add it to the list of books I WILL READ, when I get time. At the moment its mainly textbooks and journal articles, which is prettyh boaring.

Its a good book to read. Once you start it its really easy to whiz through it without much trouble.

I started reading classic books when we had to read them in school. I found Shakespeare to be much better than I thought. I could easily understand the language and I really liked his sense of humor!

I never got most of the humour, but I did like King lear, Macbeth and those sort of ones.