books in English that MUST be read

[Jaad]

In fact, to improve your english culture, you must read some books of these classicals author :

- Agatha Christie
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Raymond Chandler
- Arthur Conan Doyle

They aren't wellknown for nothing, they did excelents books and that why they are always known.

 

[Stewart]

Must they all be detective fiction, though?

 

[abecedarian]

The readers list had a lot of wierd choices. The Ayn Rand fans have been good at voting.

I notice Charles deLint fans made it to the polls that day too! I was going to suggest him myself, but somebody went a bit overboard
I view lists like these as nice places to start, but certainly not set in stone.

 

[StillILearn]

To Kill a Mockingbird. Yes!

 

[HermioneWeasley]

wow, this is hard. if you haven't read harry potter, try it. also, agatha christie novels are very good. the lord of the rings...the hobbit..

 

[DiscoDan]

I wouldn't recommend reading Dickens or some of the older classics just because they're very hard to understand for most people, especially me, and I've never known another language.

To Kill A Mockingbird is very good though, you should definately read that one.

Some modern authors I personally like:

Stephen King
J. K. Rowling
Michael Crichton

 

[clueless]

I wouldn't recommend reading Dickens or some of the older classics just because they're very hard to understand for most people, especially me, and I've never known another language.

But it is the opposite for someone whose first language is not easier. Classics are easier to understand for foreigners because when we learn English we start with formal speech, so what we would have trouble with is slang, dialectal speech, modern idioms, etc., which you don't find in older books. On top of that, for speakers of Romance languages long words that come from Latin are easy, as they are the same with a different ending, while short Saxon words are more of a problem.
We had to read David Copperfield at 14 for our English (as a foreign language class) and it wasn't too much of a problem. Reading some modern short stories two years later was more of a struggle.

 

[Idril Silmaure]

D.M.= Dan Brown

Wouldn't it be D.B.??



I would recommend reading Margaret Atwood, she is a master of the language, IMO, and try Ian McEwan perhaps? If you're looking for modern writers. If you're interested in classic literature I'd recommend the Brontes, (Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights) or perhaps William Thackery.

 

[nkit]

well, again all I can say is

THANK YOU

I also want to apologise for not having answered for quite a long time, but this days are really busy for me (in fact I hardly can spare any time to read at all )

From this thread I get a long long list of things to read, and I'm looking forward to it.

Another important restriction comes from the fact that in my country (Spain, as someone guessed before) English books are a little difficult to find, so this limits my choices quite a lot.

Taken all this into account, I have decided to start my new "English literary culture" reading Dickens's "Great Expectations" (Recomended author, well-known book and downloadable via project guttenberg).

Thanks again everyone, when I get a little more time I will tell you about my feelings about the book and answer some of the your posts, now its time to start the book...

 

[abecedarian]

well, again all I can say is

THANK YOU

I also want to apologise for not having answered for quite a long time, but this days are really busy for me (in fact I hardly can spare any time to read at all )

From this thread I get a long long list of things to read, and I'm looking forward to it.

Another important restriction comes from the fact that in my country (Spain, as someone guessed before) English books are a little difficult to find, so this limits my choices quite a lot.

Taken all this into account, I have decided to start my new "English literary culture" reading Dickens's "Great Expectations" (Recomended author, well-known book and downloadable via project guttenberg).

Thanks again everyone, when I get a little more time I will tell you about my feelings about the book and answer some of the your posts, now its time to start the book...

While you are on the Gutenberg site, you might look up Andrew Lang and download his fairytale books... just in case you don't have anything else to read

 

[NotTheDoctor]

Another important restriction comes from the fact that in my country (Spain, as someone guessed before) English books are a little difficult to find, so this limits my choices quite a lot.

And from what I've heard, they are very expensive, too. According to a friend, when the new HP came out, the Fnac in Spain was the only major bookstore selling it full price so she ended up getting it from amazon uk. Much cheaper, even with s&h.
Anyway, have fun reading GE and Feliz Navidad!