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You guys should read stuff by Sir Walter Scott and Conrad...................give you a baseline to work from :D
For Thomas Hardy, try "Catcher in the rye"..............then you will find Tess quite acceptable.
Anyways, you are not supposed to enjoy it...........you are supposed to study it, "warts and all" (Oliver Cromwell)
Yes I have read both books :cool:
I read Great Expectations in school this year, and frankly, I didn't find it to be that great. Story and plot were great, but I did not like the presentation. It was very easy to tell it was released in magazines, and the 2nd ending that was in the book I had didn't follow the plot at all. The best "classic" I have read is Animal Farm, if you consider that a classic. Grapes of Wrath is also good. THE best book I have EVER read is LotR. I was so addicted to that... I read The Hobbit through RotK 5 times in 3 years... This was all BEFORE the movie came out and people became interested.
TheGrunt,
Yes, "Great Expectations" is a tad tedious................I had to read it for English Lit. at one stage. For Charles Dickens might I suggest "A Tale of Two Cities"
George Orwell............yes, if you liked "Animal Farm" then "1984" is a must for you ;)
After that (1984), please read Ray Bradbury's "Farenheit 451" and make a critical comparison.
"Grapes of Wrath" huh?...........a short story by Steinbeck is "The Pearl"...........makes you think and won't take long to read (Tortilla Flats is worth a look as well). Then read Earnest Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea"...........whilst we are on Hemingway........."For Whom the Bell Tolls"..................
It is heavy going with the old fashioned English, but you might like to try Sir Walter Scott's "Ivanhoe" and "The Talisman".
On a lighter note I would suggest Rafael Sabatini: "Scaramouche"
Another American immigrant: R.M. Ballantyne, "The Dog Crusoe and his Master"..........I actually have a first edition of that.......1873, the year the Winchester '73 came out :D
Happy reading
I have been meaning to get ahold of a copy of 1984, and I have heard lots of good things about it, but I haven't had a chance to hit the library and I don't know anyone who has a copy... I loved A Tale of Two Cities and A Christmas Carol, and that is why I was so disapointed with Great Expectations. I have been meaning to read Tortilla Flats for a while as well... Sounds to be a very good book... We read Of Mice and Men in English this year... I loved that book. That is what got me to read Grapes of Wrath. Both books are very sad...
Those who liked 1984 should read Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World." Also, "In Dubious Battle" is another good Steinbeck novel.
Farenheit 451 would make a good remake from the classic movie. Interesting enough Nihil, that book IMHO will more closely resemble society as it digresses than 1984 or Animal Farm.. At least to the extent of a size of a population and it's effects on society and control mechanisms. For instance, the masses were controlled via a media outlet and its extreme bias toward the state, in fact it was television. The people became more and more reliant on their daily dose of "reality".
They were free in an extent that the state didn't have two way communication devices implanted in the homes of 1984 London. Then what got me as a child was the ability of citizens to feel the need to "rat" out their brothers and take ALL matters to the state, or in our own society a court of law over every little issue. In fact one may think items like alerting systems where all citizens are notified of a crime like our "Amber Alert" are a precursor? An accuser in the hands of the state can now even be sheltered as an accuser/ victim, when the constitution states we as citizens have the right to “know” and CHALLENGE an accuser.
I can see the good but I also see future generation turning to their TVs seeing an enemy alert of the state being announced then going on their lawns hoping to find them thus marking their own status within a socialist controlled society with little room for advancement. In this case someone elevated and reward by the puppet masters who remains elusive, except through an electron tube shining brightly in our lives.
While you check it out Grunt, memorize every word of the book. Just in case :)
If you start to read Ray Bradbury, just read ALL books. Its amazing. Its a collection of "human" stories encapsulated on a "sci-fi" shell. If you really pay attention on stories, you will see that has nothing with sci-fi (besides i like sci-fi)Quote:
After that (1984), please read Ray Bradbury's "Farenheit 451" and make a critical comparison.
Very good reading.
Try Lord of the Flies if you want unadulterated crap..... Everything else becomes readable.... ;)
I actually enjoyed Lord of the Flies a lot... *shrug*
I also love The Three Musketeers by Dumas, Kafka's Der Process,... there's just too much to read :)
I liked moby dick. As has been said above books become classics not only based on how the lanuage is used but also on how it deals with the human condition. Another important point is a book is written for the public at the time of going to print and as such as lanuage evolves it may lose its impact.
If you want to talk about hard books to read try James Joyce but start with "a portrait of an artist" rather than Ulysses. When we were children some of the first books we read were moby dick, Ivanhoe, 20000 leauges under the sea, Around the world in 80 days, The lord of the rings etc mainly because as road closed said they were, as classics, the cheapest books to buy.
I havent read ray bradburys Farenheit 451 yet as I had a deal with my girlfriend that I would buy her 1984 and she would buy it for me. My favorite author at the moment would have to be Ian M banks.