1. Which classic novel did you MOST enjoy reading?
2. Which classic novel did you LEAST enjoy reading?
3. Which classic novel made you THINK the most?
Mine:
1. Catch 22
2. Mayor of Casterbridge
3. American Tragedy and Slaughterhouse Five
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#3 Atlas Shrugged
That would be #1 & 3 for me.
Wonder what Ayn Rand would have thought about “vibrant diversity”?
The old man and the sea.
Read that in 4th grade and it prepared me for life.
So you’re a fisherman? LOL
Hemingway’s stuff that DOESN’T involve war, is among his best. I quite enjoyed The Old Man and the Sea, and it got me to read many of his other books. The Snows of Kilimanjaro and The Sun Also Rises were both outstanding.
1. The Godfather
2. To Kill a Mockingbird
3. Atlas Shrugged
Yes, I cannot forget The Godfather, it is a true masterpiece (like the movie, in a different way).
Where else are you going to read about a girl who is so insecure about her hoo-hah she goes to a gynecologist, who explains the whole procedure he wishes to do, in graphic detail, then does said procedure successfully — and then they get married?
I submit to you that is not a usual story line one may find in most mainstream literature. But it is the reward you get from actually reading a book and not just watching the movie (as good as it is) : there are things in books which cannot be put into a rated movie, and most of it is unforgettable.
I couldn’t agree more. Lucy Mancini’s cavernous snatch was a bothersome diversion to the main story. Coppola felt the same way. I also completely agree that the book was 10 times better than the movie and I loved the movie. But having read the book long before seeing the movie I was lukewarm on the casting. Brando was not my choice for the lead role. I’d have had an Earnest Borgnine/Aldo Ray type. Caan as Sonny was passable but Hackman had a more explosive character that would have fit better. Gianni Russo as Carlo Rizzi was a dud (Coppola had a great pick for Carlo but was denied and made to choose Russo-who sucked) Pacino and Cazale was perfection.
1. Huckleberry Finn, followed by A Tale of Two Cities
2. Anything by Shakespeare
3. 1984 I did not know at the time that it was the instruction manual for the 21st century.
Right there with ya TN P!
1. Anthem, although more a novella/ novelette by Ayn Rand
2. Spangle by Garry Jennings. Great epic tale of the twenty years after the civil war.
3. Perfect Souls, soon to be released fictional novel about fulfillment of biblical prophecy and reincarnation by Russ White
I’ll check out Spangle, thanks..
The House at Pooh Corner
A. A. Milne wrote one of the saddest chapters in English literature about growing up. When Christopher Robin was saying goodbye to Pooh. Tearjerker.
Enjoyed–Desolation Island
To the Lighthouse
Absalom, Absalom…
Burr
Disliked–Emma
Learned the most from–DosPassos “USA” trilogy
The classic novels I enjoy the most, and which I also think about, are all novels written by Lucy Maud Montgomery, Jack London, C.S. Lewis and Tolkien. Additionally, The Count of Monte Cristo and Frankenstein.
You’re my kinda girl.
1. On The Road- Jack Kerouac
2. Of Mice and Men- John Steinbeck
3. The Catcher in the Rye- J.D. Salinger
Awe, cmon George!
The Catcher in the Rye. I call it. I want to be a faggot handbook.
Once time I finished reading Of Mice and Men and immediately restarted it – as soon as I could see clearly again.
1. Three way tie:
The Boat that Wouldn’t Float – Farley Mowat
Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass – Lewis Carrol
The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Graham
2. After 2 college semesters as an English major, I pretty much hated all literature and changed my major.
3. Brave New World?
2. Lol
The best way to ruin nearly anything is to turn it into a college course or even worse….a college major.
“3. Brave New World?”
True story — I’m in my early 50s and had yet to read that book. Finally got around to reading it the week before the world went full retard — March of 2020.
That still blows my mind.
Yes, Yes and Yes! 🙂
Gulag Archipelago, best read.
Great Expectations, least liked.
Slaughterhouse Five, made me think too.
To my point below. I read the Gulag when I was in my teens but certainly never appreciated its implications until I truly began understanding the evils of government and the political process. Now his quotes from the book stand as stark reminders of what governments are capable of.
Hesse’s Narcissus & Goldmund
Right? What a great story that was.
All of Hesse- Siddartha, Beneath the Wheel, Klingsore’s Last Summer- were worth the time.
All of Hesse’s stuff is good.
And “Demian”.
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/5334697-demian-die-geschichte-einer-jugend
1. Closing Time
2. The Piano (stupid ass Jane Austin college indoctrination assignment)
3. No Country For Old Men and Dune.
The Piano…Jane Austin? Might want to double check that.
I’ve read the entire Dune saga. The scope of Herbert’s vision is almost too much to absorb. My favorite is Children of Dune. Good luck finding that in Half Price Books.
OTOH, I’ve also read every word written by Hunter S. Thompson, so the balance of the Universe remains intact.
I’m not sure that most people appreciate the broader implications of the classics when they first read them as likely they are too young or they are being “forced” to read the book for class, etc.. I know that most of my reading of the classics was between the ages of 10 and 18. I have gone back and re-read stuff like Brave New World and 1984 just to see how much is now going on around me, but most of the classics I am not sure I would want to sit down and re-read….even though I would probably get a lot more out of them now.
That being said,
1. Moby Dick, Atlas Shrugged, 1984
2. Anything by Shakespeare – just couldn’t get past the Old English verse to be able to follow along well enough (also read while quite young)
3. The Most Dangerous Superstition by Larkin Rose (not a classic yet but should be), Brave New World and 1984.
Technically not a novel but I also loved the book. My eyes were open before I read it but it was a slam-dunk reaffirmation that government is evil.
Of Mice and Men. (Raisin’ rabbits and livin’ offa the fat of the land)
Shakespeare is good story hard to read. King Lear in particular.
Homer’s Odyssey
Read the Iliad by Homer in Latin. What a way to ruin a book, but that was Latin class that year.
We read the Aeneid and Commentarii de Belli Gallicum in Latin with a nun as instructor. She was an amazing woman. The scene in Life of Brian where the Roman Centurion is coaching Brian on declensions holding a Gladius to his ear while he tries to correct his anti-Roman Latin graffito was dead on.
Actually, my Latin teacher walked through that scene in class as well. He actually began class by first acknowledging that the Catholic church had banned watching the movie so obviously everyone in our Catholic school class had watched it. He was right, everyone had. Still my favorite scene in the film just because of the latin.
1. Of Human Bondage – Somerset Maugham, The growth of the soil – Knut Hamsun, A confederacy of Dunces-Funniest – John K Toole, Kim-Kipling, With Fire and Sword – Sienkewicz
2. A catcher in the Rye. Worst ever by far, and movie and movie about movie also sucked.
3. See 1 is why they are the best.
I could also list dozens of other great books as I have read a lot of classics.
The Razor’s Edge by Maugham is also a great read.
Yes. All of Maugham’s s work is great, and I have reread some several times like the razors edge.
Forgot to mention Hanta Yo by Ruth Hill. The story of a Dakota Sioux spiritual warrior. It’s like historical fiction from the Indian point of view. When he charges into battle screaming
Hanta Yo in a wonderful way I come. It touches ones Soul to the core. If not, you are Soulless.
1. Which classic novel did you MOST enjoy reading? Mad magazine
2. Which classic novel did you LEAST enjoy reading? Woody Woodpecker Lost in the Forest
3. Which classic novel made you THINK the most?
Spent three days in jail on account of this…
What? Me worry? 🙂
Why does Alfred E. Neuman say what me worry?
It was in the dentistry advertisements that we first learned of Alfred’s motto, “What? Me worry?” A Mad cartoonist named Harvey Kurtzman spotted the ad and pitched using it as the magazine’s mascot, saying that “it was a face that didn’t have a care in the world.”28 Dec 2020
Waaaattt??? with a face and teeth to die for why would a dentistry use Alfred for advertisements???
BUT, brian – note the frontal gap! Perhaps dentistry would actually come to the rescue?
wut gap!?!? me thinks you may have been into the nitrous…
midline diastema ,that is.
before and after
Great Gatsby, hands down.
Growth of the Soil by Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun is a classic that everybody who loves farming should read. If you just like farming, after you read this book you will love it.
he had kids with a harelip and I just sort of stopped there
1. The Call of the Wild. 2. Treasure Island, Swiss Family Robinson. 3. Animal Farm, 1984, Brave New World
1. Faulkner’s Snopes Trilogy – how can you not like the name “Montgomery Ward Snopes”
2. Dreiser’s “An American Tragedy”. Too long and depressing.
3. “Babbitt”
Babbitt is a fantastic novel! If you enjoyed that you should also check out Elmer Gantry.
Seen the movie, which was great. Am sure the novel is better, as is usually the case.
To me, Babbitt was the first great Americn novel about the phoniness and sleaziness of the aspiring upper middle class. Had to read Veblen’s “Theory of the Leisure Class” for an MBA Econ History class. I’m no lefty but it got me thinking.
I still think Madame Bovary is a masterpiece of efficient writing but I only read it twice for different schools. The Odyssey and the Iliad were my favorites as a kid. I have a library with many that I should revisit.
I couldn’t enjoy Atlas Shrugged, because there is no God in her Judaic worldview.
I am actually reading Conan Doyle right now, and I wouldn’t call them “classics”, but it is my first time and they are entertaining dime stores.
Shakespeare really was a master. I was able to slip into the lingo even as a kid and enjoy the masterful banter and storytelling.
1. A Confederacy of Dunces
2. War and Peace (1,855 pages – 5 generations of families to keep up with – incestuous love – read it just to say I did)
3. Machiavelli’s The Prince
Every few years when I need a good laugh, I reread A confederacy of Dunces.
What a shame he one-a-cided. Had he not made a carbon copy that fould its way to Walker Percy (his fellow NOLA resident), it never would have seen the light of day.
Percy’s “The Moviegoer” is fab as well, won The National Book Award.
Bonus Question, no cheating: What famous historical writer was his best childhood friend? Hint – Walker got hin into Chapel Hill by begging the Chancellor. The Percys were “the Kennedys”of Mississippi politics and big $$$.
Without cheating, does it have anything to do with cloacas?
Or pyloric valves?
I liked all the old stuff like Les Miserables, Tale of Two Cities, Caesar’s Commentaries, Count of Monte Cristo, The Leatherstocking Tales, Ivanhoe, so forth. Also Joseph Andrews, Tom Jones.
Nice. And, you’re the first one to mention Les Mis.
The best books I’ve read (I would never call them classics but I enjoyed the hell out of them repeatedly) are:
Lucifer’s Hammer, written by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (I’ll never not have a 4WD vehicle after reading this one several times)
Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Series (read the entire series a couple times)
W.E.B. Griffin’s The Corps Series (same – several times)
Heinlein’s Time Enough For Love (Lazurus Long was a hero! – read it several times)
The Gor Series, written by philosophy professor John Lange, writing as John Norman (I think I read all of them once)
An Irish Country Doctor Series, written by Patrick Taylor (ongoing)
And of course:
The Destroyer Series, written by Warren Murphy and William Sapir (I probably burned out ~book 125)
The cool thing about deploying multiple times was I could take a couple of the book series (or find them in-country) and reread them like they were new. Quite comforting.
I would love for someone to rewrite Atlas Shrugged in active verse. The book is awesome, but Rand never said anything in a paragraph that she couldn’t say in two pages. This book, rewritten in more active verse, would blow the doors off the literary world.
Read Lucifers Hammer 3 times.
Totally agree with you on Atlas. I thought most of the soliloquies could have been boiled down to a sentence, two at most.
It’s an omelette, not scrambled eggs.
Lucifer’s Hammer and Time Enough for Love. I read those about once a year. Most ‘literature’ is pretentious crap.
Thumbs up on WEB Griffin, but my fave was The Brotherhood of War series. Did not read The Corps.
Can’t say it’s a classic, but my all time favorite novel is Wyvern by A A Attanasio.
Fantastic read, I still reread it from time to time. Cannot believe it hasn’t been made to the big screen as a trilogy, but then again all modern film is crap.
Also read all the Travis McGee novels in order during Covid. Nothing life changing, but I enjoyed the subtexts on life in America 60s-70s.
I was going to say i haven’t read any Classics, but i have read a few of these.
1) A Tale of Two Cities, without question. But also loved The Great Gatsby, LOTR, catch 22, the old man and the sea, catcher in the rye, and literally everything vonnegut.
2) not sure if it’s a classic, exactly, but Beloved.
3) Deadeye Dick.
I have a lot of favorites, but Les Miserable is at the top of the list…for personal reasons, and is near & dear to my heart. Every element of the human condition is present in this masterpiece. Hugo knocked it out of the park.
They all make me think.
Of Human Bondage is the same, and just beautiful writing.
I haven’t read it. I will.
Of Human Bondage made my list too. I never felt more Human, or less isolated, than when I finished that book.
It’s one of those novels that touches the Soul.
I’m impressed at anyone who has read Les Mis. Started it again a couple months ago after seeing the film version of the musical, previous time was after seeing the Liam Neeson non musical.
First time was a library book, and it had to go back long before I could finish. This time it’s on the internet, but it’s hard to find where I left off (online not a download).
Still learning about M. The bishop.
This version is the best translation, IMO. It took me awhile to get through it. Jean Valjean reminds me of my dad (eerily close in character) so it was easy for me to power through. And, the Bishop…what a soul!
I have never seen the live play.
1. Alas, Babylon – also can go in #3 (I figure if I had to read it for school, it’s a classic)
2. The Scarlet Letter (does it count if you hated it so much you never actually finished?)
3. 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, Lord of the Flies (hard to pick a single one for this question)
Maybe for #2 I should have put the repair manual for every car I’ve owned. I like working on cars, but for pleasure, not because some widget decided to give up the ghost at a most inopportune moment.
Alas, Babylon gave me a new appreciation for salt.
and water.
Middlemarch…George Elliot
Gullivers Travels….J. Swift
1. “The Call of the Wild” by Jack London
2. “Steppenwolf” by Hermann Hesse – but if that’s not considered a classic by some, then… “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac
3. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey
Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales & anything Faulkner (though admittedly both are great; just find them hard to enjoy)
Hesse’s Siddhartha
Siddhartha is a gem for anyone on the path to truth.
Back in the early 70s the Lampoon did a satire named “Sid Arthur”.
Crime and Punishment
Not sure it is a classic but I loved reading Shane as a kid… I read it for school or maybe my Mom bought it for me, in grade five or six I think. Saw the movie sometime later. Not sure when. The plot had all the elements needed, at least for me, in being a classic.
I wondered if someone would mention Shane. Best western Classic.
Everything by Charles Dickens. Never could anyone paint a word canvas so vivid and real.
Recently…Rings of Saturn
W. G. Sebald
Others have listed many that would be candidates on any list I would make, and I’ve read so much over the years that I’m bound to forget some greats. And it’s really hard to single out anything as #1. That being said, here are a couple of unusual choices at or near the top of my list that no one else has mentioned:
Most enjoyed reading: “Dead Souls” by Nikolai Gogol, or “A House for Mr. Biswas” by VS Naipaul
Least enjoyed reading: “The Aeneid” by Virgil. I really liked “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey”, but I struggled with “The Aeneid.”
Made me think: “Lord of the Rings” Trilogy by JRR Tolkien, which I read twice. The first time I read it as a teen, it was for the adventure and fantasy only, but decades later when I read it again, I started recognizing the meaning of the story. Another nominee in this category is “Once An Eagle” by Anton Myrer. Either of these choices would also qualify as “most enjoyed.”
NO CONTEST:
Dickens – all volumes but especially.
The Pickwick Papers (1837)
Oliver Twist (1839)
Nicholas Nickleby (1839)
The Old Curiosity Shop (1841)
Barnaby Rudge (1841)
A Christmas Carol (1843) (the classic)
Martin Chuzzlewit (1841)
AND all nine volumes (plus the 10th Compendium) of Pepys as he works to root out corruption in the navy, commits some of his own corruption, and is an eyewitness to major historical events of the time. These include the Great Plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of London in 1666, two events where he helps keep order.
Then of course I can’t miss out my recent favourite:
And the 536 AD catastrophic and world-changing event:
And mark my words – something like this could well happen again soon if the madmen at the helm of humanity go global with a nuclear WW3 – a No-Fly-Zone will be enough. 10 years of a nuclear winter are survivable for a great many of those remaining of the 7.8 billion people today, who will be left to repopulate the remains of the earth. Which is why I sub-title my Substack – Protect & Survive:
https://austrianpeter.substack.com/p/ukraine-its-all-the-news-now-but?utm_source=email&s=w
BUT these are not exactly novels – because I don’t read those fiction things – although I do enjoy the fantasy – there is little enough time for the real thing!
No Somerset. Why? From an era of great writers. He is at the top of my list.
You have many other gems on your list. So, all is forgiven.
Ah, music to my ears AKJ – forgiveness is the greatest of attributes. “The basis for forgiveness is his love and mercy expressed in the human sacrifice of his Son Jesus Christ which completely met all the demands of justice in our behalf.”
But I did miss Somerset, I do admit, wherein lie many excellent writers – of this I am guilty! :-). However I do believe that time is short although we know not the day or hour:
“The Scriptures show further that this first responsibility would not be with the nations but rather with the “house of God.” (1 Pet. 4:17; Mal. 3:1-5) … Then, Jesus pointed out, a full and complete warning would be given in all the inhabited earth.”
Are we heeding the warning?
Most are not. But a few are. The question is, are enough listening?
I hope so, but I have no way of knowing what is enough. I can only go forth with faith and courage believing that good will prevail in the end.
Somerset? Sounds like a Buick.
Homers Illiad and Odyssey.
Outsiders
I was 12 when I read this book and this master weaver of the short story with the ironic, sardonic, flip surprise endings captured me.
I wrote a business gumshoe continuing serial for an industry magazine for seven years framed by his influence, but based on real investigations. It made my independent career earning me a steady stream of clients who wanted to hire the hero of the serial, and I will be forever grateful to O. Henry.
2. Which classic novel did you LEAST enjoy reading?
There were too many to list…I tried to give myself an informal education in the Classics in my 20’s as I was a voracious reader, and even joined a ‘Classics’ book club getting a free shipment…then one month…many didn’t take…but at the top of the list was MOBY DICK…however I loved Gregory Peck in the movie!
3. Which classic novel made you THINK the most?
Having survived it I found this novel impossible to put down and have read it twice.
One review:
In Matterhorn, Karl Marlantes, a Vietnam combat Veteran and Rhodes Scholar, has created what may be the finest novel yet written on the Vietnam War. Marlantes presents the conflict and its effect on the psyche by reaching deep into the subjective thoughts and experiences of his characters. Consequently, the novel is less about the history of the war than the veterans who fought it.
1. Nicholas Nickleby
2. Anna Karenina
3. Of Human Bondage
Since I have never heard of let alone read some of your picks, I got one that you have never heard of or read:
Effi Briest
War and Peace, The Trial, The Trial. Kafka is a huge pain in the posterior, but nowhere near as bad as Marx. The Russians are particularly good at their best and not Germanic bad but still very bad at their worst.
I don’t read novels at all. My reading is for information that I need to make decisions and to teach others. I grew up with no phone or television until I married. The phone because my job required it for standby and the television because at that stage of my life I wasn’t smart enough to know I was better off without it. Television has been gone for about 16 years. I don’t need the perversions of the world infecting my mind. Regular television has been reduced to pushing the Devil’s agenda to mankind.
Balbi…reading classics is about participating in The Great Conversation…to help us sort out how to live and how to die. It helps you achieve what you said you read for…making decisions and teaching others.
Shared experiences.
Cultural Shibboleths.
Something Fleabagger wouldn’t understand
Unintended Consequences and the Bracken Enemies trilogy a few years back. I read Atlas Shrugged. It was decent but god what a slog. I don’t think they are considered classics though.
I recommend that great classic,” Whitey on the Moon”.
1. The Count of Monte Cristo…ultimate story of revenge. Here’s hoping we get to see something like that for our “leaders”
2. A Separate Piece…i hated that book
3. Animal Farm…
Reminds me of when I worked at the bookstore and helped students choose books on their reading lists.
Count of Monte Cristo
Rebecca
Too many: 1984, Animal Farm, Brave New World, Lord of the Flies, All Quiet on the Western Front and many more.
I would say that half to 2/3 of what people have said I vehemently disagree with. But there are some great recommendations as well. Not classics, but I’ve been reading Gene Wolfe lately and I’m thinking there is a place for him somewhere.
Even some authors like Heinlein I grew up with and enjoyed, I now find unbearably liberal. He had a (or at least one) tranny novel, for fucks sake. And that’s not counting all the Salingers and Rands, etc.
I’m not following the format here, but it’s a big topic I haven’t thought about in a long time. Plus, as a longtime fan of Tolkien and the like, I’m woefully short of punctuation and obscure verbiage. The man threw norse(old english, germanic, whatever) -style poetry into his novels; perhaps I can throw caution to the Winds.
Lord of the Rings or To Kill a Mockingbird most/ Ulysees (James Joyce) least/Mere Christianity think most. Having said that, it is almost impossible to pick one above the rest – but it does get the conversation doing!
1. Tough choice. I’ll go along with Lord of the Flies.
2. Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West
Cormack McCarthy (also wrote No Country for Old Men)
This is a disturbing novel.
Makes you wish you hadn’t read it, but kinda glad you did.
McCarthy’s imagery is outstanding.
3. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
(Robert Pirsig)
I try to re-read it every decade or so.
For me personally, this is the most impactful novel I’ve encountered.
Probably not considered a classic, but Larry Niven’s Ringworld is near the top of my list, along with Footfall. And Summer of ’42 fell into my hands at exactly the right age.
This may interest you:
I forgot about “Blood Meridian” when composing my list, but for me, it was actually one of my favorites. I enjoyed Cormac McCarthy in general. I’d have to add “Lonesome Dove” by Larry McMurtry, another of my favorite authors. I wasn’t sure that either of these were old enough to be considered “classics” however.
“Zen” also made me think, and I have read it more than once.
I’ll revise my comment.
Blood Meridian wasn’t the “worst”, just the most emotionally exhausting. Haunting may be the word to use. The Eraserhead of novels, perhaps?
The scene where it takes them three days and nights to cross the salt flats, and the horses’ shoes are polished to a mirror finish and reflecting the moonlight: that’s some damn fine writin’ right there.
But I think anyone who was forced to read this dreck in high school will agree:
The worst novel of all time, and for eternity, is Jonathan Livingston Fucking Seagull.
So many mentions of TLOTR, but no one mentions The Hobbit. At the time I read it, about 8-9, it was the longest Book I had read, unless you count the encyclopedia in my house. Completely fascinated me.
Worst book I read was assigned in college. Class was titled “Gothic, Romantic, and weird”. We read Jane Eyre, Dracula, The castle of Otranto, but there was one novel so terrible that even the instructor gave up.
I don’t recall the title, but there were so many wordy paragraphs to describe the “verdant farms nestled among the hillsides as the carriage wended it’s way upon the undulating track”. Turned out the authoress lived on a small island like Skye or somewhere, had never been anywhere and decided to torture us with a combination of her imagination and bad repetitive writing.
Couldn’t rest until I recalled the title and author: The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe. I was wrong about her origins though, seems she lived in London. Don’t know where I came up with my recollection. “It’s not a lie if you believe it “ – G. Costanza
And I learned something- the overly done writing is called “purple prose”
Agree with you about The Hobbit. Every child (and adult) should read it.