Favorite Literature

[gooddeath]

I am looking for something new to read, and I am curious as to what each of you would consider to be your favorite piece of literature. My personal favorite writer is Dostoevsky, although it really depends on what I am in the mood to read.

[cyborg]

We get some of these in high school English, others in college literature classes. Those who enjoy devoting personal time to reading may have discovered the remainder. Private colleges or universities tend to stick with the Classics. Public colleges replace the classics with 20th Century minority or liberal authors. Folks at the corrupt.org board have compiled this Required Reading list.

1. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. Growth of the Soil, Knut Hamsun
3. Naked Lunch, W.S. Burroughs
4. The Sun Also Rises, E. Hemingway
5. Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
6. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
7. Elementary Particles, Michel Houllebecq
8. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
9. The Quiet American, Graham Greene
10. Sanctuary, William Faulkner
11. The Crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon
12. The Right Stuff, Tom Wolfe
13. The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler
14. Neuromancer, William Gibson
15. Look Homeward, Angel, Thomas Wolfe
16. Moby-Dick, Herman Melville
17. Beowulf, author unknown
18. A Sentimental Journey, Laurence Sterne
19. Journey to the end of the Night, Ferdinand Celinne
20. Dracula, Bram Stoker

[Roland]

If you enjoy Dostoevsky, then perhaps you will like other Russian literature.

I suggest Dostoevsky's contemporary, Tolstoy. Tolstoy is the superior writer, while Dostoevsky is far and away the superior psychologist, philosopher, and theologian.

Try some of Tolstoy's short fiction, such as the Sevastopol series.

My other personal favorites (aside from the Dostoevsky and Tolstoy) are James Joyce and Joseph Conrad. Joyce's The Portrait is wonderful; I also recommend Conrad's Nostromo and Heart of Darkness.

[Geist]

In Country by Bobbie Ann Mason or Dead Babies by Martin Amis. We all know about classical literature and what's good so hopefully they are some out of the blue recommendations.

[gooddeath]

16. Moby-Dick, Herman Melville


I actually didn't like Moby Dick too well. It seemed more like a tutorial on whaling, and I honestly just couldn't stay interested enough to keep reading.

[Ahmadinebobina]

You will fall in love with any the following:

Tropic of Cancer - Henry Miller
Moloch... - Henry Miller
Kangaroo or The Rainbow- DH Lawrence
House of Incest - Anais Nin (so strange, so lovely)
Knulp - Hermann Hesse
The Redneck Manifesto - Jim Goad. Anything by Goad is entertaining really.
Journey to the End of the Night - Celine
After Julius - Elizabeth Jane Howard
The Moon and Sixpence - Somerset Maugham

[Ahmadinebobina]

2. Growth of the Soil, Knut Hamsun
4. The Sun Also Rises, E. Hemingway
9. The Quiet American, Graham Greene
19. Journey to the end of the Night, Ferdinand Celinne


Ah, I just read this now. They agree with me on Celine and I agree with them on the other three. :)

[ironweed]

I actually didn't like Moby Dick too well. It seemed more like a tutorial on whaling, and I honestly just couldn't stay interested enough to keep reading.

I felt the same way trying to read the thing. But for some strange reason it worked quite well as an audiobook. Granted it was something like 39 cassettes (this goes back a bit) but I happened to be training for a marathon at the time, so time to listen was something I had.

I especially remember being wowed by the minister's sermon on Jonah and the whale. Worked very well being spoken.

[Ahmadinebobina]

Also:

The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck. It's a classic that truly and actually is a classic. Beautiful book.
The poster above reminds me that Evelyn Waugh wrote some great books too, Vile Bodies and Scoop were fun :D
Jack Kerouac - The Subterraneans, On the Road and The Dharmabums.
Any of P.G Wodehouse's 'Jeeves' books are PERFECTION.

[Eisenhans]

If you have the taste for medieval German poetry, then you should read das Nibelungenlied (unknown author).
Les Miserarbles by Victor Hugo is also worth reading, if you haven't already.

[Ravenheart]

Iliad - Homer
War and Peace - Tolstoy
Faust - Goethe
Growth of the Soil - Hamsun

[gooddeath]

Iliad - Homer
War and Peace - Tolstoy
Faust - Goethe
Growth of the Soil - Hamsun

The Iliad is great. It should be required reading for students. I'm actually reading Faust right now for the first time.