K, need your suggestions CG'ers

[DrumNFeather]

How about Paradise Lost?

I haven't read it, but it is on my list of reads once grad school is over.

[Hsaru]

The readers list on that randomhouse page has some really good choices, a lot of critic's lists for both books and film suffer from a bad case of fogeyism and/or snobbery.

[il Padrino Ute]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

Rocky, I guarantee you will like "The Spy who came in from the Cold" by John LeCarre. It's on the Time top 100 list, and it is, like the title suggests, a spy novel.

It's a good way to be thorougly entertained in a low-brow fashion, but reading a high-brow book. The author actually worked for British intelligence service before he wrote the book.

It's also a terrific movie.

I agree with you about Joyce and Portrait of the Artist. I couldn't even get far enough into it to find out what happened to the moo cow.

And Rocky, do yourself a favor and read Twain's Tom Sawyer. If you've read it before, read it again. That would be my suggestion.

[Flystripper]

Originally Posted by landpoke

Wait...Atlas Shrugged?

I know I'll be mocked for my lowbrow tastes and lack of Utah education, but I'd suggest Lonesome Dove.

I liked Lonesome Dove. My wife always gives me a strange look when I beg fer a poke. Gus and Call are great characters.

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlib...estnovels.html

I've not read the vast majority of the supposed 100 best novels recommended by Modern Library.

I think it is unconscionable that Twain is not on that list.

I started reading Portrait of a Young Artist by Joyce. I really, really tried to like it. But finally I gave in to the overwhelming impression that it was pretentious bullshit.

Moron, it's a 20th Century list. No Am. Lit. list would omit Twain from the top 3 if he were eligible.

[SoCalCoug]

Count me as another vote for Huckleberry Finn. Especially if you haven't read it before.

[ERCougar]

Originally Posted by Archaea

Why do people like Joyce?

I have not finished a single work authored by him. It must be my low brow sense of art as his style grates on me.

I've read more of the Readers' Choices than the Board's Choices.

I read Portrait of The Artist as A Young Man in a literature class in high school. I can appreciate that others consider it "great"--the book is complicated, interesting on many levels, and certainly an impressive accomplishment on Joyce's part. For someone who has devoted his/her life to literature, it probably is a little like the scriptures--new things to glean every reading over many readings. I don't think I would call it "pretentious", unless you mean by that, intentionally overcomplicated--but I think that's just Joyce's style. I tried starting Ulysses but gave up pretty quickly. Dubliners is interesting, more accessible than Portrait or Ulysses, and a good way to see if Joyce is really your thing, as you can stop after the first short story. I'm not sure I would try Portrait or Ulysses unless there were some Joyce expert guiding discussions through it (is in a literature class..). I definitely wouldn't read either as a summer project.

I would say my two favorite authors are Steinbeck and Hemingway. Hemingway is the only author that manages to make reading a classic feel manly. I liked The Sun Also Rises, really liked Old Man and the Sea, but Hemingway shines in his short stories, IMO. The Grapes of Wrath is my all-time favorite book. I also have always really liked The Great Gatsby, and am kind of pleasantly surprised it's so high on the list. Makes me feel kinda smart and stuff...

[8ballrollin]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlib...estnovels.html

I've not read the vast majority of the supposed 100 best novels recommended by Modern Library.

I think it is unconscionable that Twain is not on that list.

I started reading Portrait of a Young Artist by Joyce. I really, really tried to like it. But finally I gave in to the overwhelming impression that it was pretentious bullshit.

Naipaul's "A Bend in the River" made that list. I finished reading it about a month back. I'll post a review when I have a moment.

It's good; a little bit of a slog in the middle, but his command of language is unparalleled. I can't believe he won a Nobile Prize; not because of his quality, but because of content - his view of post-colonial Africa is very unromantic. He reads like Conrad – not very PC about native Africans.

"The world is what it is, men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it."

[Surfah]

Originally Posted by Clark Addison

My top 3 suggestions that I can think of right now:

I will third Huck Finn. Great book. Easy to read, fast moving, funny, and, in its way, one of the most powerful books written.

Catch-22: one of the funniest books I've ever read. I often laughed out loud, which I almost never do while reading. Full of great, quirky characters. A little didactic with the anti-war message, but when I first read it, I was far from anti-war, and it didn't bug me.

My Antonia: I drove across I-80 dozens of time in my life and always hated Nebraska. Willa Cather can make it seem like the most magical place on earth. She could write a book where nothing at all happens, and it would still be interesting. My Antonia is a beautiful story, beautifully told.


Honorable Mention:

Anna Kerenina: Bogs down a bit at times, but a great look at family, lust, and integrity.

Invisible Man: Ralph Ellison version, not the one with the guy who wraps bandages around his face. A story of a black man finding his way through, and out of, society in mid-20th century America. Not sensationalistic or preachy, but very powerful.

Awesome list. I love Cather.

I read To Kill a Mockingbird every summer.

Try the short stories of Flannery O'Connor and her novel Wise Blood.