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OK - I want new things to read. Please can you list two books- one classic, one modern- you think everyone shoulf read.

(195 Posts)
seeker Wed 22-Oct-08 22:45:46

I'll start. Pride and Prejudice and The Kite Runner, by Khalid Hosseini.

liahgen Wed 22-Oct-08 22:46:35

the red tent, (does that count as classic? )

call the midwife

oooh hard.

I have lots of classics. erm
probably either "1984" or "if this is a man"

i don't read a huge amount of modern stuff but will have a think on it!

Salleroo Wed 22-Oct-08 22:49:34

Wilkie Collins 'The Woman in White'

The Time Travellers wife

beansmum Wed 22-Oct-08 22:50:35

Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson

American Pastoral - Philip Roth

SixSpotBonfire Wed 22-Oct-08 22:50:41

Jane Eyre

The Secret History

beansmum Wed 22-Oct-08 22:51:36

ooh and Papillon - Henri something

beansmum Wed 22-Oct-08 22:52:00

Charriere?

snice Wed 22-Oct-08 22:52:57

Anna Karenina
Birdsong

SixSpotBonfire Wed 22-Oct-08 22:54:08

DH's suggestions:

The Brothers Karamazov

Fever Pitch

The Catcher In The Rye
Rachel's Holiday

My fave classic and not so classic grin

latermater Wed 22-Oct-08 22:59:58

Middlemarch, and

Birds of America (short stories by Lorrie Moore). American Pastoral great too, but Lorrie Moore is way more entertaining and I feel redeemed by Sebastian Faulks recently including it in his "20 immortal books I own" or some such list...There is a collected short stories out too. I am going to start reading it again as soon as I've finished it - and I never do that.

KittyFloss Wed 22-Oct-08 23:03:15

1984 or catch22 (wasn't sure if that was a classic)

Good Omens, my favourite book ever ever, or The Handmaid's Tale.

I'm obviously not very good at the one thing lol.

nellynaemates Thu 23-Oct-08 11:40:29

Agree with 1984.

Was about to say Kurt Vonnegut "Slaughterhouse 5" but now thinking Margaret Atwood "Handmaid's Tale" after reading Kittyfloss's reply.

Undecided!!

RubyShivers Thu 23-Oct-08 11:43:36

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

The Republic of Love - Carol Shields

(or White Teeth - Zadie Smith <<dithers>>)

Rebecca
Time Travellers Wife

plantsitter Thu 23-Oct-08 11:45:19

Vanity Fair and The Crimson Petal and the White (am obsessed by this book)

jura Thu 23-Oct-08 11:45:59

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

The Eyre Affair/Lost in a Good Book/etc - Jasper Fforde

Eniddo Thu 23-Oct-08 11:46:50

Brideshead Revisited, evelyn waugh
The Wind Up Bird Chronicle, haruki marakumi

OrmIrian Thu 23-Oct-08 11:47:46

Bleak House
WOman on the edge of time - Marge Piercy

OrmIrian Thu 23-Oct-08 11:48:06

Madge, not Marge hmm

Bucharest Thu 23-Oct-08 11:49:55

Or Vida- Marge Piercy.

We Need to Talk About Kevin.

Hmmm. Classic? Lady Chatterley' Lover.

The Periodic Table/If This Is a Man - Primo Levi
The Corrections - Jonathan Frantzen

motherinferior Thu 23-Oct-08 11:51:23

The weather in the streets (Rosamund Lehman)
Wise Children (Angela Carter)

motherinferior Thu 23-Oct-08 11:52:30

Oh no, actually, I'd say my 'classic' should be Bram Stoker's Dracula.

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