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?

We are reading David Copperfield on another thread.

There's also David Coperfield by Edmund Wells ....

Chekov The Seagull
Confederacy of Dunces

I have tried time and again to read some "classics" and just cannot get through them so I listen to them in Audio instead. Does anyone have any thoughts on that? I sometimes feel like it is cheating!

I just mentioned the two above as had not seen them on the list. I read The Silence of the Girls recently and it seemed like a massive and important work to me.

Lots mentioned already so I'll add:

A Clockwork Orange
Dracula
The Picture of Dorian Grey
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and others by Arthur Conan Doyle

I'm just over half way with War and Peace which I started when the adaptation was on the BBC but stopped as soon as it finished!

The Drowned and The Saved ? Do collections count ?

I'd second Don Quixote and Things Fall Apart.

Would also suggest some Goethe (maybe Sorrows of Young Werther?) and maybe Candide.

Also worth looking at Murakami.

Just good to break out of the Anglo American centricity.

Maybe start with 'If this is a man'? I found it easier to read (or at least more of a story, it's not even slightly easy to read).

Oh and sorry if this has been said but definitely add some Kafka. The Trial being the obvious if we're sticking to recognised 'important books' 😀

Marsha. Have you tried Neville Shute’s Whatever happened to the Corbets? Written in the 30’s and set at the beginning of a war with Germany, about a middle class family’s experience, and how official coped with the uncertainty.
Also - A town like Alice.

I've been reading through some of the Virago Modern Classics (over 700 on list). All female authors and I've read some gems.

A few random ones I'd add that I don't think have been mentioned:
A Tale of Two Cities
The Siege of Krishnapur
The Go Between
A Suitable Boy
Love in the Time of Cholera
All Quiet on the Western Front
La Peste (short!)
Blindness
The Iliad (personally I would put this first on this or any list of things to read)

BlueJay I’m reading Round the Bend, having just finished On the Beach and have A Town Called Alice lined up next. Will add those too.

On the Beach blew me away, so quiet but the ending so bleak. Love his writing it’s been a while since I’ve found someone who writes like that.

Also phone autocorrected his name, on a thread like this - apologies Nevil

Tess of the Durbevilles.
Woman on The Edge of Time.
The Handmaid’s Tale.
Dance,Dance,Dance.
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
Vanity Fair.

I wouldn’t say the curious incident is a classic and it’s importance is surely only in demonstrating how very wrong people can be about Autism, how badly one can write about it and how boring the unreliable narrator trope can be.

Even with classics I think it's a matter of personal taste or it just becomes a slog.

I've tried and failed with Middlemarch and anything by F Scott Fitzgerald or Trollope.

I've recently read and enjoyed North and South and Vilette. Now I'm reading Shirley.

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

Not quite the worst book every written. But you can see why it was "Charlotte, Emily and ... whassername"

Gilead, I would say for a better understanding of autism you should read The Speed of Dark by Elizebeth Moon. It's one of my favourite books!

There are so many "classics" to recommend. My top tip would be to mix it up a bit, different lengths, genres, women writers mixed with men, modern/older stuff, stuff in (good) translation etc. etc. ...

Someone recommended The Seagull upthread- I'd definitely include plays as well, and poetry.

And no audible isn't cheating imo; but I understand how you can feel like that!

I found Animal farm, brave new world, Jane Eyre and the color purple easy books to read, so would put them high on the list.

Hector Hugh Munro-penname Saki, might be worth ago, mainly collections of short stories but his humour is wicked and satirical- The story of Tobermory the cat that had been taught to talk was one of my favourites

Place marking for future references.

I have tried time and again to read some "classics" and just cannot get through them so I listen to them in Audio instead. Does anyone have any thoughts on that? I sometimes feel like it is cheating!

I have found with advancing age I can only have one book on the go at at time so I find it really helpful to have it available in different formats. I really enjoyed Middlemarch (once I got into it) partly because I was reading it in bed at night and then listening to it on my commute in the morning.

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins is generally thought to be the first detective novel. It has several different narratives - some of it is fantastic.

I did manage to read War and Peace, it was very hard work and not worth the effort. Anna Karena was a shorter, better read

Can I add A thousand splendid suns by Khalid Hoesseini? It's not old (2007) but it made a big impression on me.

Also, I read Louis Fishers unabridged biography of Mahatma Ghandi and if you can get past all the long indian names without mixing them up in your head it is a very interesting read