This is my most successful thread ever on BS. Since I'm here, I'll let everyone know that I could've done without The Great Gatsby. It was more painful than reading The Prince.
The first essays in the Prince are incredibly dry, but once you get past that, his philosophies get pretty interesting, so I partially enjoyed it. Just read 1984. No book, for me, has had a more profound effect on how I view the world.
It's interesting to see that 1984 still has an effect on people in this day and age. In 1942 is was science fiction. When I read it in the 60's we'd have discussions on what will 1984 really be like. In 1984 I'd stopped caring! Now it's a good book to look back on and enjoy and reflect of how it's been looked at through the decades. http://users.otenet.gr/~tzelepisk/yc/go.htm Now it feels to me that we're closer to the big brother time than ever before. I don't feel we're 'that' far from chip implants, or barcodes tattooed on our forheads. Remember I said this after GWB refuses to stand down after the next election and the military backs him. It's for your own good and the good of the country!
That's scary. I've had the same nightmare though. We've been reading T.S. Eliot's "Wasteland" in my comp lit class. Talk about hard to read. I'm listening to The DaVinci Code in my car. I read it last summer. Great book. I love audio books.
Congratulations...!!! I know what you mean about Gatsby for a while in the 70's it was 'the' book to read, so I read it. The only reason why I finished it after the first half was because I'd invested so much time in it I had to finish. Nicely written but who really cared..? Never saw the movie because of that.
No doubt the man is a genuis, but it is hard to read, especially if one does not know all the allusions, imagery and symbolism. It is a disparate set of ideas that really needs clarification. I felt pretty numb, and rather stupid after reading it the first two times. The grad students in the class were as lost as I was. I felt better when my professor said--"These are extremely difficult poems." My edition now has notes scribbled all over it.
Correct. Incorrect. Read both. I'll take your word for it--I've always meant to get around to Steinbeck. Haven't yet. I think this is a little over the top, but it deserves to be remembered.
Winesburg, Ohio--Sherwood Anderson. The New Mexico Trilogy--John Nichols The Albany Trilogy--William Kennedy The Friends of Eddie Coyne--George V. Higgins.
Great thread. As far as some of the "not obvious" books, I'd highly recommend Catch-22 by Heller, which remains and will always be a timeless classic. Speaking of Russians, Recently read "Omon Ra" - a novel by one of the modern Russian writers, Victor Pelevin. Dedicated to all the Russian cosmonauts from 60s and 70s. A satirical tale of delusion - great read. As far as others - I didn't particularly enjoy Tolstoy or Turgenev (Fathers and Sons), and to me Gogol ("the inspector" and "dead souls") is a better read and I enjoyed it more that both T guys. Chekhov's short stories are great, and I must admit I'm not very familiar with Lermontov, as the only poem of his that I read was "Borodino". Pushkin without any doubt was the greatest Russian poet of all times, but his prose (paricularly, "Dubrovskiy") is also very good. And his fairy tales are dam good too. But my favorite Russian author is Bulgakov. Too bad it was almost impossible to get any of his books in Soviet Union and he was banned, otherwise I think Master and Margarita would've been another "must-read" Russian novel. "Dog's heart" is also an exceptional book of his, btw and I would recommend it to everyone who enjoyed Master and Margarita.
I've read The Prince about 5 times now. It's painful to read it when you're 15, school starts in a week, and you just got back from a week on the beach (the sunburn and the lethargy had set in). I hated that book. I think I was 15 when I read that one too so I might give it a second chance but I doubt it. I just remember being disappointed in it b/c it wasn't up to my expectations. Gatsby was a very quick read. I read it in three days (that's quick when it's something you want nothing to do with). There was a book we read in either Nov or Feb in my history class about the Mexican revolution. It was fiction but outlined the events really well. I read it in a day. It was miserable.
I'm a noob here, so sorry if I'm mistaken, but I don't see much love for Latin American authors around here. I think many would find Borges, Neruda or Garcia Marquez among their top reads. Would you consider these or any other latin american authors among your books necessary to read? Anyway if you have any interest in latin american lit. I'd also recommend Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo, Historias de Cronopios y Famas by Cortazar, and La Region Mas Transparente by Carlos Fuentes. By the way, even though I'm new here, I've checked this forum every now and then. Thanks to you I've read Vonnegut and Murakami
Borges is fantastic, but I have not had much luck trying to get others to like him. People need to get stumble onto him. 100 Years of Solitude may be my favorite read ever. I read it senior year of high school, and am almost frightened to pick it up again in case I don't like it as much. I didn't really like any of the books he wrote after that.
I always thought the intro to Steinbeck should be Cannery Row and then its follow up, the name I forget. Nobody has mentioned Bukowski. But when you think of bukowski, you don't tell someone to read any particular book. You sort of say, go over to the bar over there and listen to that grizzled guy talk. Don't say anything, just listen. His novel about working in the post office was really fun. Lolita gets missed by lots of people. Fantastic. Never knew it was a novel about America until I read it. My favorite short story writer, maybe ever, is Alice Munro. You should get one of her collections at the library and check it out. She does these stories that occur in the present and then flashback to the same location in the past (Canadian west) and they are just outstanding. Paul Bowles short fiction about north africa is pretty necessary as well. Many guys blow off reading Plath's the Bell Jar. I thought it was really good. For a semi-classic read, John Hershey's A Bell for Adano was really enjoyable. A High Wind in Jamaica is another simple novel that is very good -- an easy summer read and a classic. Kerouac's On the Road is fun. I would argue that the graphic novels Maus I and II are great classics of American literature. ********, I should quit wasting time here and start reading....
Poetry necessary to read: Neruda's Canto General Whitman's Leaves of Grass Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams Collected Poems of ee cummings Other Poets to Know Gerard Manley Hopkins, Vallejo, Garcia Lorca, Phillip Levine And everybody else if you had time and really liked poetry.
I was just going to throw Cormac in the mix, but the horsey trilogy fell apart for me and I am still a bit upset with him. I need to reread blood meridian and get back into the spirit. I've now decided that either Jim Jarmusch or Tarrantino should direct Blood Meridian. Either them or some chinese "Hero" kind of director.
Hard to get? No self respecting member of the Russian intelligensia didn't have a copy of Master & Margarita, samizdat or not. As for Lermontov - read "A Hero of our times". Absolutely brilliant. Demon is also great - and inspired Vrubel's, ah, eccentric paintings, which I love.
When the critics say "she is our Checkov," for once they're not exaggerating. Anyone reading this thread should do themselves a favor and check out one of her collections. "The Beggar Maid" and "The Progress of Love" are particularly good. I can't think of too many writers as subtle and emotionally complex as she is.