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Original poster

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

194 replies

seeker · 22/10/2008 22:45

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

OP posts:
nuttymum303 · 23/10/2008 17:22

The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway (classic)

Beautiful Lies - Lisa Unger (I am obsessed with this book at the moment)

CandleQueen · 23/10/2008 17:25

I Capture The Castle by Dodi Smith (well, it's a classic for me!)
Labyrinth by Kate Mosse

janeite · 23/10/2008 18:27

Seeker - I agree entirely with your choices in the OP.

Can I also add a non-fction? "Paula" by Isobel Allende.

MrsTweedy · 23/10/2008 18:37

Pah, was going to say Woman in White & Case Histories but ahundredtimes beat me to it.

So it's:
Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

Behind the Scenes at the Museum - Kate Atkinson

Only theme is they both made me cry

Wheelybug · 23/10/2008 18:41

three men in a boat
birdsong

FattipuffsandThinnifers · 23/10/2008 18:42

Portrait of a Lady (Henry James) or Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)

One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

Wheelybug · 23/10/2008 18:44

or Cider House Rules...

beforesunrise · 23/10/2008 18:45

Staying On by Paul Scott

Notes from an Exhibition

frisbyrat · 23/10/2008 21:13

The Aeneid.
Vurt by Jeff Noon

Dottoressa · 23/10/2008 21:17

Classic: Return of the Native
Modern: The Line of Beauty (or Birdsong. Both are magnificent).

georgimama · 23/10/2008 21:18

What's wrong with Brideshead Revisited?

Classic - Middlemarch. It's just so, so... someone help me describe Middlemarch. I love it.

Modern, my modern probably is a classic, Brideshead Revisited or The Great Gatsby.

Really modern, no one's read it, Lorelli's Secret. I lent it to someone and never got it back. Need to get another copy. Brilliant book.

Notes on a Scandal? Similar to Middlemarch in a funny way.

SancerreHead · 23/10/2008 21:21

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - M Pirsig (I think thats his name) - Classic.

Modern - you probably have them all listed already

SancerreHead · 23/10/2008 21:22

OK, that woud probably be, by everyone elses definition 'modern' not 'classic'

HollyGoHeavily · 23/10/2008 21:26

The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton

Behind the scenes at the museum - Kate Atkinson

ThursdayNext · 23/10/2008 21:29

Hmm, today I think I'll choose:

The Fountain Overflows trilogy by Rebecca West

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

latermater · 23/10/2008 22:13

Glad others rate Middlemarch - not sure what adjective is georgimama - delectable, maybe? A treat. A box of chocolates without the calories or orange cremes. One of those books you don't want to end, despite its impressive length.

Have to add a sneaky extra vote for Decline and Fall while I'm at it.

So what are you reading first seeker?

Ellbell · 23/10/2008 22:20

Well, others have put Primo Levi under 'classic', but I'm going for

Classic: Dante's Inferno (yeah, yeah, I know I'm sooooooo predictable )

and

Modern: Primo Levi's If This is a Man (which references Dante directly in the 'canto of Ulysses' chapter)

pollywobbledoodle · 23/10/2008 22:30

modern: book thief/birdsong
classic: the magus

mumof2222222222222222boys · 23/10/2008 22:34

There are a lot of contenders for my modern one already mentioned, so I'll go for The Corrections by J Franzen which I read recently. It is about a hideously disfunctional family and is a love or hate it book. It certainly kept me going!

Classic...more difficult. Just bought The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge which I read as a child and loved. Will I still love it? We'll see! I really enjoyed a lot of French stuff (dates from my A level) Dangerous Liaisons - Choderlos de Laclos. Where do you stop??

cyteen · 23/10/2008 22:38

Gah mumofmanyboys you just pipped my classic suggestion - I was popping on here being all smug, thinking 'no one will have suggested Les Liaisons Dangereuse yet'. Absolutely brilliant book, repays a second and third reading too.

Modern: The White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty. It falls apart a bit towards the end but is a fantastically sustained black comedy up until then. His second novel, Tuff, is also excellent in a completely different way - dreamy and sad and , well, tough.

BTW I love The Little White Horse too.

LackaDAISYcal · 23/10/2008 22:43

The Magus by John Fowles
or
To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee

Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

What constitutes a classic? ie is anything pre 1900 classic and everything else modern?

what about modern classics?

and thinking about it, there are dozens more I could list

SixSpotBonfire · 23/10/2008 22:53

Hangover Square

The Grass Arena

MadBadandWieldingAnAxe · 23/10/2008 23:00

Madame Bovary

The Great Gatsby (but, if that's too classic to be modern, then Oryx and Crake)

PrincessButtercup · 23/10/2008 23:02

The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

snarky · 23/10/2008 23:03

The Glass Bead Game - Hermann Hesse

Religion and the Decline of Magic - Keith Thomas

and The Water Babies - Charles Kingsley

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