Hello all. I'm considering using a $50 gift certificate I was given that can be redeemed at a local book store on classic books that I'll take with my on my summer Gov. Scholar thing. Any suggestions? I'm already heavily considering Brave New World, but any more ideas from you all would be a great help. :) Just remember when giving ideas, our book store is semi crap.
Huck Finn - the greatest American novel
Anything by Thomas Hardy, though I'd recommend Jude the Obscure
and though I'm ashamed to admit it, I loved Jane Eyre when I read it years ago
I tried reading Return Of The Natives by Thomas Hardy - sent me to Snoresville, Arizona. Mind you, I only got it because the family had the same unusual surname as me, not the best reason to buy a book.
I would recommend a book that Zeni told me about - The Lance & The Sheild (the story of Sitting Bull) - fantastic.
"Brave New World's alright, 1984 is better."
I didn't like "Brave New World" that much either, maybe because they forced me to read it :(
But if I had a 50$ gift certificate to buy books from, it would surely be the "The Lord Of The Rings" Trilogy.
I am unsure what "classic" means, Savannah. If you want a "must read" 20th century American novel, I recommend To Whom The Bell Tolls by Hemingway or Grapes Of Wrath by Steinbeck - both easy to read and very compelling.
If it's about "just for fun" reading, I recommend John Irving, anything after Setting Free The Bears (beware!), for me he is the most entertaining quality novelist of our time.
You understood what "classic" means perfectly well Barb. :) I'm interested in Hemingway actually already, so you reccommending him is good. :)
Thank you all for your thoughts.
Silas Marner - George Eliot
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Anthem - Ayn Rand (I don't like her other books, but this one's really good)
Anything by Reginald Rose
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Anyone notice that most of the time when you've been forced to read something at school you end up hating it whereas most things you really like are ones you've picked yourself?
My only exceptions to that are Sylvia Plath and Margaret Atwood's excellent The Handmaid's Tale. (I highly recommend this.) Both of which, oddly, came from the same teacher.
You could try some of these, although they might not be available in a "classics" bookstore (whatever that is):
"Reservation Blues" by Sherman Alexie
"Moon Palace" by Paul Auster
"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" by Hunter Thompson
"The Stranger" by Albert Camus
"On the Road" by Jack Kerouac
"Travels With Charley" by John Steinbeck
"Slaughterhouse Five" by Kurt Vonnegut
"The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test" by Tom Wolfe
Frankenstein - Mary Shelly...a fantastic book the only book (along with 'To Kill a Mockingbird') that I ever actually enjoyed reading at school, they therefore must be good...was FORCED to read 'em and they were still fantastic!
I think For Whom The Bell Tolls was absolutely awesome, moving, fascinating, entertainig, poetic and still in simple English... and I agree that Brave New World is rather boring, but have to admit that I didn't finish it for that reason.
Update:
I used the $50 today. I bought Brave New World, Anthem by Ayn Rand, and A Farewell to Arms for myself. Since they didn't have much of a selection (and I couldn't risk asking them to order A Clockwork Orange for me because my mom went went with me and she wants me to stay away from that "cult book" :S) I also bought a friend a Dream Dictionary that she wanted and let mom get a magazine.
:) Looking forward to the readings I'm gonna do this summer.
Everyones said really good stuff...esp. gatsby (which I knew you read already.. heh) and the Bell jar...
sadly as I am wee bit late I see youve bought books already...
I would have suggested either of the two novels by Flannery O'Connor or Dhalgren (if you like scifi XD) by Samuel r. Delaney.. hehehe.
Enjoy Brave New World... had to read that for entrancew into my new school argh.
But if you do get around to it DO read some Flannery O'Connor, I'm absolutely in love with her Southern Gothic style...and her general focus on the decay of the south and the "Damned people that live ther" as one critic put it. Her use of religion is superb and...oh crapim rambling XD