STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

manhattanmonkey · Kenneth Cole

Must read books

cc · Marc Jacobs

Oh Lord, I've got soo many left to read. My high school lit classes mainly focused on books by women and I didn't take anything other than Russian lit in college so I've been slowly trying to read a lot of classics on my own.

Here is what Columbia assigns in the required freshman year lit class:

ILIAD
*ODYSSEY
Virgil, AENEID
Augustine, CONFESSIONS
*Dante, INFERNO
Boccaccio, DECAMERON
Montaigne, ESSAYS
*Shakespeare, KING LEAR
Cervantes, DON QUIXOTE
*Austen, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
*Dostoevsky, CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
*Woolf, TO THE LIGHTHOUSE

I put an asterisk next to the ones that I would consider "must read" books. I know I read Montaigne in high school but I don't really remember it at all so clearly it didn't have a profound impact on me. I feel like instead of King Lear, Hamlet and Macbeth would be good Shakespeare choices and probably any Jane Austen would suffice.

Hmmmm what other books. Here is a list of other books that I think are important to read because they come up in conversation often, or they are referred to often in criticism (e.g. art books, historical treatises, etc.) or just provide good insight into an era, region, event, whatever.

Great Gatsby
1984
Huck Finn
To Kill A Mockingbird
Moby Dick
Jane Eyre and/or Wuthering Heights
Poe's short stories
A Streetcar Named Desire
Anna Karenina
Unbearable Lightness of Being
My Antonia
The Executioner's Song
something by Faulkner, Dickens (probably Great Expectations), Hemingway, Henry James or Edith Wharton, Toni Morrison, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Steinbeck, Joyce

I know I'm forgetting a bunch, this is just off the top of my head. Also there are some monsters like Ulysses and Proust's Remembrance of Things Past/In Search of Lost Time that take a big committment to tackle so you might want to wait until you have a good chunk of time.

Modern Library's List of the 100 best English language novels of the 20th century
http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html

UK Observer's list of 100 best novels of all time (includes non-English books)
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,6903,1061037,00.html

blubirde · Chanel

I'll take a stab here. But my list of "must read" books is a list of the most influencial books I've ever read, not necessarily my favorites. (I mean Harry Potter certainly isn't on it!)

1. Crime and Punishment - Dostoevsky - you'll never think of the mind and its acts in the same way again.

2. Pride and Prejudice - Austen - Ever wanted to step into early 19th century English country gentry? Ever wanted to do it with a cheekful of wit? This was my personal introduction into what a person can do with language.

3. The Handmaid's Tale - Atwood - Just read this and seriously, could not put it down. I was horrified and angry and generally bothered by everything in it. If you value women at all, read this book.

4. The Death of Ivan Ilyich - Tolstoy - Pretty philosophical but a great introduction into Tolstoy. Look for the origins of Ivan in Anna Karenina's Levin. (great character - better than Anna!) Plus some speculate Ivan Ilyich is Tolstoy himself. Not too hard a point to get to actually.

5. Anna Karenina - Tolstoy - Since I'm on the topic and all... Wonderful piece of literature. If you want to understand the beauty of Russia's rich cultural history, this is a good place to start (although certainly not the most revealing). Better than War and Peace, in my opinion. You can see Tolstoy writing about himself in the character of Levin.

6. Madame Bovary - Flaubert - Some say it's the first feminist novel, so it's worth reading just to have an informed opinion on the subject. I happen to disagree. I don't think it's the first and I don't think it's feminist. But that's just me. It does open your eyes to the struggles of women in a period when men were the end all be all. Especially in sexuality.

7. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Kesey - Completely high school but inspirational still.

8. Farenheit 451 - Bradbury - Read it if you're at all worried about where this world might be headed.

9. Beloved - Morrison - Love your flesh!!!!! Morrison's best, imho. The absolute horror of some people's lives and how they deal with them is the subject of this amazing book. Did I mention mystical? Because it is.

10. Chronicle of a Death Foretold - Marquez - See what happens when no one does anything. And it's pretty creepy, too!

And my #1 most influential book is Metamorphoses - Ovid - It allowed me to shed my religious blinders and ask the really important questions. It's not a religious book, though. It's a collection of greek mythologies but it was written way before the Bible. Read it and see if any stories seem familiar to you. Then ask some questions. It will be a remarkable journey. Plus, I believe this book is the origin of almost every other book ever written. Check it out.

Tara · Dooney & Bourke

Add Frankenstein. I love that book - I still reference it often....as a matter of fact I just had a discussion about Frankenstein last night!

Tara · Dooney & Bourke

2 more must reads:

Blindness - Jose Saramago

100 Years of Solitude - Marquez

manhattanmonkey · Kenneth Cole

Wow. Thanks so much! I have started a long list and will start looking for them in my local library and the library at school before I buy any books.

Thanks again...and keep the suggestions coming!

honey · Gucci

classics aren't really my area of expertise, but just wanted to add a few more, that are slightly more contemporary, but people tend to reference a lot.

*catch-22 -- joseph heller

*a confederacy of dunces -- john kennedy toole

*the moviegoer -- walker percy

Mia · Kate Spade

Lots of them already here but I want to add:

Goethe, 'The Sorrows of Young Werther'

'Tender is the Night' and 'This Side of Paradise' by FS Fitzgerald

And reading this thread is making me feel guilty...argh...

blubirde · Chanel

quote:
Originally posted by: Mia
"Lots of them already here but I want to add:
Goethe, 'The Sorrows of Young Werther'
'Tender is the Night' and 'This Side of Paradise' by FS Fitzgerald
And reading this thread is making me feel guilty...argh..."

Ah! I completely forgot about Young Werther! Definitely a must.

Tara · Dooney & Bourke

Honey! I love Confederacy of Dunces!! Thank you for reminding me of this book - I think I am taking it on the plane with me tomorrow......so excited to read it again