I want to read classic or important books

[PointOfTipping]

I would really like to start reading important books- not sure how much time I'm going to have to do it so think realistically I want to compile a list of 10 and aim to do them this year. I'd be happy to be honest if I manage at least five.

The only one I have on my list so far is War and Peace. I love literature yet feel like I don't know anything about significant books - would anyone like to nominate any titles?

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and @ImportantWater for that list. When I have some more time in the day tomorrow I'm going to compile a list and hopefully some of you will want to join in a bit of a read along, we can choose a book a month and update each other as we go along every so often with how we are getting on? Then a bit of a debrief at the end?

I've just popped to Waterstones and bought 1984- feeling excited. I need to get my head out of my phone and into something a bit more worthwhile!

Noo... War and Peace is farrr too long and boring to start off with!!

-For much more fun and shorter reads, I'd start with these four fun and varied books instead -

1984 (George Orwell)
Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck)
Jane Eyre (Bronte)
I Capture the Castle (Dodi Smith)

Woops - ignore the line through that sentence - I don't know how I did that!

Woo I've also just seen your update OP!

Let us know what you think! I LOVED it when I read it!

@ImportantWater that's an interesting list.

From it - the poetry of Philip Larkin is a good idea.
But I definitely do not recommend 'Villette' - I hated it! - I tried to read it after 'Jane Eyre' (which I loved) but I couldn't stand that one!

I have to agree - i didn't hate Villette but it is a tough/ boring read compared to Jane Eyre

1984 is a perfect example of a great book that isn't (in my opinion).

Absolutely amazing story - the depth, the breadth of imagination is beyond compare.

But I found it clunky and hard to read as language. (A little like The Aeneid or Odyssey in translation).

I find Tolkien the same (ducks).

Malory's "Morte D'Arthur" is a favourite. And since Steinbeck has been mentioned, I would rate his translation of said as his best work - sadly unfinished.

No one mentioned "Frankenstein" yet. Arguably the more talented of the Shellys.

Actually I would add Olive Kitteridge and/or Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout - my favourite reads of the last couple of years and classics in the making imo.

Also The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver and The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood.

I lost in a move a few years ago a book that was called something 'like how to be well read in a year'

LowerLoxley if you can remember what it's called, please let me know, I love books like that!

For a non-fiction slant (drama, poetry, essays and historical texts) have a look at Harvard Classics 365 on the kindle store. This is daily readings from the 51 Volume Harvard Classics series.

The Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction reading list could possibly be done in a year by a voracious reader though some of the titles are difficult to find in translation.

Personally, I liked Amazon's list of 100 books to read in a lifetime fora mix across all genres.

Don't start with War and Peace. Have you seen the size of it? Give yourself a fighting chance!

Grapes of Wrath
Catch 22
Brave New World
Lolita
The brothers Karamazov

Can I join please? Tried to join a RL book club and only made it to one meeting. 1984 good choice, hated of mice and men.
Classics are very popular at cinema right now: little women, Emma and David copperfield I think to get you in the mood!

The way we live now - Antony Trollope, so many parallels and characters you'll recognise!

Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Down and Out in Paris and London

If no one's already mentioned it, I Claudius is a fabulous book.

Modern classic in my opinion is Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin.
Jayne Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.
When the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou.
The Colour Purple by Alice Walker.
The Awakening by Kate Chopin.

Geisha by Arthur Golden. He makes words sound beautiful, like a painting.

The Year of Reading Dangerously, by Andy Miller.

I've been steadily working my way though his list, since I saw his book in the library, about 3 years ago!

If no one's already mentioned it, I Claudius is a fabulous book.

Kind of goes with Suetonius and Julius Caesar in translation.

Edgar Allan Poe ?
Ghost Stories of M.R. James ?

g.co/kgs/XXe81v

My menopausal brain needs working on. We are reading David Copperfield on another thread. But I'm up for another read-along as I'm slowly losing brain cells.

Raymond Carver
Albert Camus

And probably not as big in the literal sense but I’m working through Neville Shute’s books atm. The Trustee from the Toolroom was so profoundly satisfying and yet reduced (a bit like Carver, but gentle). I loved it.

Yes to many already mentioned so will add some that I have read that have stayed with me.
Beloved - Toni Morrison
Their Eyes Were watching God - Zora Neale Thurston
Terminal- Emile Zola
Ghosts - Henrik Ibsen
The Colour Purple - Alice Walker

Germinal sorry not terminale!

Pride & Prejudice (for the witty dialog)
The Handmaids Tale (for where we may be going)
North and South (to understand the industrial revolution)
1984 (for where we might be going Part 2)
No Name (best revenge story ever written and much better than The Woman in White)
The Left Hand of Darkness (Ursula K. Le Guin - for a better understanding of sex/gender)