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Original poster

What are YOUR bookshelf must haves........? I need educating........................

110 replies

VeniVidiVickiQV · 31/01/2006 20:39

Exactly what it says in the title.....

Im not an ardent book reader, but want to start reading the 'classics'(and DD who will be 3 soon loves her books already).

I have read:
Alison in Wonderland,
Wuthering Heights,
The Hobbit,
Jane Eyre,
Of Mice and Men,
Romeo & Juliette,
A Midsummer Nights Dream

Most of these at school - read Midsummer Nights Dream in years 8, 9 and 10 at school - they didnt seem to think it mattered...

What do think i should add to my list? For adults and children.

OP posts:
Socci · 31/01/2006 21:04

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Original poster
VeniVidiVickiQV · 31/01/2006 21:04

lol!

OP posts:
lockets · 31/01/2006 21:04

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Socci · 31/01/2006 21:03

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morningpaper · 31/01/2006 21:02

Reading Thomas Hardy makes me want to take drugs

morningpaper · 31/01/2006 21:02

Shakespeare just DON'T bother with it

See a play if you must but reading it is TERRIBLE

anyone who says otherwise has rosy-tinted memories of their A-Levels

beansprout · 31/01/2006 21:02

Aw, MP, Jude is lovely, as is Tess

Original poster
VeniVidiVickiQV · 31/01/2006 21:02

off even....

OP posts:
Original poster
VeniVidiVickiQV · 31/01/2006 21:01

MP! Its kinda why im put of by Shakespeare......

OP posts:
spursmum · 31/01/2006 21:00

I loved What Katy Did- I read it so many times as a child.

morningpaper · 31/01/2006 20:59

People should definitely NOT recommend anything that they have only read because they were forced to at school

Thomas Hardy and his BORING 100000 pages on the Dorset Countryside is boring

beansprout · 31/01/2006 20:59

Remains of the Day
Birdsong
Madame Bovary
Anna Karenina

Original poster
VeniVidiVickiQV · 31/01/2006 20:59

Green Mile was good!

Have bought Little Women to read......

OP posts:
morningpaper · 31/01/2006 20:57

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
The Yellow Wallpaper - sorry brain mushed
Anything by David Lodge
Anything by Graham Greene
I know Why the caged bird sings - Maya Angelou
Lolita - Nabakov
The Great Gatsby - Scott Fitzgerald
Brave New World - Huxley

Dear me my brain is much I'm afraid, this is the best I can come up with

PeachyClair · 31/01/2006 20:56

WhatKaty Did crossed pot- thought i was the only one!

Have Ballet Shoes up there too, Jayne Eyre, Tess, Enid Blyton- all

DH's contribution is a book on HTML and some electrical regulations.

spursmum · 31/01/2006 20:56

Stephen King-Green mile( lot more missed from the film.)
David Pelzer- My Story
Lorenzo Carcaterra- Sleepers.
Some hard going books on my shelf.

FrannyandZooey · 31/01/2006 20:56

Oh and Candide is bloody funny and quite intellectual to have on your coffee table.

PeachyClair · 31/01/2006 20:55

1984, To Kill A Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men all feature on mine. My 'Uni' books live elsewhere (I have a very intelligent looking PC desk ), and my currents are scattered around: the shelves consist almost entirely of old favourites- What Katy Did, Little Women, Heidi, Lords Of The Rings, Around The World in Eighty Days....

And my very treasured copy of The Silmarillion, given by DH.

beasmum · 31/01/2006 20:55

I would recommend:

Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre (I know you've read it but read it again!!!!!!)
Great Expectations - charles dickens
A Room with a View - EM Forster
Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
1984 - George Orwell
Any of the Dorothy L Sayers 'Lord Peter Wimsey' books
The Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories - A Conan Doyle

For children (girls!) What Katy Did - susan coolidge
Ballet Shoes - Noel Streatfield
for an older girl - Friday's Child - Goergette Heyer (it's the perfect regency romance style esy to read novel but also well written and witty).
For older girls and boys, any of the PG Woodhouse books (Jeeves and Wooster off the telly!)
A bit of a motley collection but I found all these readable and interesting, and I go back to them.

FrannyandZooey · 31/01/2006 20:53

Great Expectations
Jude the Obscure
The Catcher in the Rye
Three Men in a Boat
Madame Bovary
Lolita
Room With a View
Perfume
Cold Comfort Farm
Brave New World

are some of my favourites

Original poster
VeniVidiVickiQV · 31/01/2006 20:51

Anyone read "A Moveable Feast"?

OP posts:
Turquoise · 31/01/2006 20:51

I would add:
To Kill a Mockingbird (completely forgotten the author, sorry)
Far from the Madding Crowd - Hardy
Streetcar named Desire - Tennessee Williams
Macbeth
The Wind in the Willows
Peter Pan
Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

lockets · 31/01/2006 20:50

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Posey · 31/01/2006 20:49

Personally never liked B Potter much but loved Enid Blyton, all through childhood. Dd does too.

Miaou · 31/01/2006 20:49

Black Beauty
Heidi
Little Women
What Katy Did

for children.

I wouldn't bother with the Railway Children - the writing is tortuous (tried reading it to the dds but we gave up!)

The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
Anna Karenina - Dostoevsky
(both good love stories)

Will think of more later

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