• Welcome to BookAndReader!

    We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!

    Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.

Must Read Books

nomadic myth

nomadic myth

New Member
What books are a must read for someone interested in literature?

I know this is a difficult question, because the easy answer would be to consult your handy guide to the literary canon, but what gets in the canon, eh?

I wouldn't be too surprised if someone hadn't read a particular Shakespeare play or Paradise Lost. I would be forgiving if they didn't read War and Peace or Don Quixote, yet.... However, it would surprise me if they hadn't read Heart of Darkness, or On the Road, or 1984.

I think The Old Man and the Sea is a must read.
 
nomadic myth said:
What books are a must read for someone interested in literature?

I know this is a difficult question, because the easy answer would be to consult your handy guide to the literary canon, but what gets in the canon, eh?

I wouldn't be too surprised if someone hadn't read a particular Shakespeare play or Paradise Lost. I would be forgiving if they didn't read War and Peace or Don Quixote, yet.... However, it would surprise me if they hadn't read Heart of Darkness, or On the Road, or 1984.

I think The Old Man and the Sea is a must read.
Click to expand...
myth,
Sorry to surprise.
No War and Peace, no Heart of Darkness, no On the Road, no Old Man and the Sea.
Worse yet, no intentions.
My own 'must' list is reasonably complete as it stands. All three or four. :eek:
Peder
 
nomadic myth said:
I wouldn't be too surprised if someone hadn't read a particular Shakespeare play or Paradise Lost. I would be forgiving if they didn't read War and Peace or Don Quixote, yet.... However, it would surprise me if they hadn't read Heart of Darkness, or On the Road, or 1984.

I think The Old Man and the Sea is a must read.
Click to expand...

From what Nabokov said about Don Quixote I wouldn't go near it with a barge pole, anyway I've tried to start it twice, and didn't read more than a few pages. As far as War and Peace, the best I can say is that it is in one of the stacks at the bottom. 1984 I read when I was an impressionable youngster.

So in the end, I have to say that there are not really too many books I would call "Must Reads". "Must" smacks of totalitarianism.

Oh, and I am curious, why would The Old Man and the Sea be a must read?
 
"Must read" is a flexible term. It depends what interests you. For instance, one of my interests is classic British novels. So I would say a must read is Pride and Prejudice. (Although it has been getting a lot of hype lately because of the movie, but I think this is a good thing). If we are speaking generally, I think there are too many "must reads" to put on the list. We would never be able to read them all. Which is sad to me, but all good things must come to an end.
 
I would say that where one put the cutoff point would depend a lot on whether one wanted a list as long as possible, or as short as possible. I would divide it three ways: must read, want to read, no interest in reading.
Peder
 
pontalba said:
Oh, and I am curious, why would The Old Man and the Sea be a must read?
Click to expand...


No particular reason. It's just that I would be surprised to be talking to a literate person and hear them say they have never read this book because they have been too busy reading James Clavell or Stephen King (no particular disrespect meant to these authors).
 
pontalba said:
From what Nabokov said about Don Quixote I wouldn't go near it with a barge pole,
Click to expand...

Thats no reason not to read a novel, you seem a impressionable adult as well:D

The book is well written, and logical in its witty conclusions, try and give it another chance:p
 
A question like this makes me think of Wayne Gretzky. Many Hockey fans consider Wayne to be the greatest Hockey player there has ever been. Many do not. Ask Mario Lemieux, Bobby Orr, or any of the other greats to have played Hockey and they'll tell you Wayne is The Great One. I think great novelists are a better guage of the must reads. Nabokov acknowledged Tolstoy as being "the master". "There remains the greatest of all novelists-for what else can we call the author of War and Peace?" according to Virginia Woolf. The novels that have influenced great writers and thinkers in their work are must reads. It wouldn't be hard for me to continue in this way quoting brilliant people giving accolades to the likes of Dickens, Dostoevsky and Steinbeck.

Regardless I do have my own opinion, although it is largely influenced by the opinions of the greats. A universal must read has to be timeless. A must read is a work of lierature in which the spirit of man is eternally confirmed in all its complexity. That last line I have ripped off from an introduction written by Craig Raine to Ulysses but it relates my sentiments perfectly.

What I feel are must reads:

War and Peace
Anna Karenina*
Ulysses
Crime and Punishment*
Great Expectations*
Tale of Two Cities
Of Mice and Men*

Those that are asterisked are ones I have read. I've enjoyed them greatly and look forward to continuing my list of must reads. The list of books specific to me that are "must read" is much longer.
 
I was an English major in undergrad, and in my experience Wuthering Heights, The Scarlet Letter, and Great Expectations I'd put on the must-read list for literature-minded folk. From high school: Of Mice and Men, Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice I'd also add. I came across Heart of Darkness several times in my school years, and disliked it every time.

I was in English Honors and A.P. English Lit in High School, and majored in English in college, and I was never assigned to read The Old Man and the Sea or War and Peace.

D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top