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Recommend a Classic

Skeptic said:
That's the one book I disagree with you about... yes, I've actually read it, but I just don't see what's so great about it. Perhaps the "whaling manual" parts in it put me off.
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Well, like I said, it ain't for everyone. It's extremely referential, to other literature and to world religions. The only well-known work I can think of these days that has the level of religious symbol play are the Matrix movies, which are absolutely packed with it. So the book is like one long inside joke mixed with shop talk. But if that's your shop, it's absolutely brilliant.

Btw, couldn't agree more re Master and Margarita, as well as Lolita.
 
I feel a bit out of my league stepping in here, but decided to put in a penny's worth anyway.

First, I agree with all of Piggy's list except that I haven't read Don Quixote but have been told by several people I respect that I must. All the rest, I know of firsthand.

I emphatically agree with the descriptions of both Huckleberry Finn and Moby Dick, but would add that you cannot go wrong with anything by Melville.

I strongly recommend Melville's Battle Pieces, a collection of poems about the Civil War and the road to Reconstruction. Much of the poetry has a labored structure, but some of it is brilliant. And all of the poems have an intrinsic--and intrinsically American--beauty about them that is riveting.

If you can only read one, read The Housetop.
 
bigred said:
Did you have to mention that crapola? Now I feel like I need to go shower.
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Y'know, I hated the first one -- I'm not into video games or comic books. But there's a lot of wonderful symbolic playfulness in those films which, for me, compensates for the cheesy gloss and Keanu's Eastwood-on-ludes acting style. By the end of the trilogy, I'd been captivated by the complex multi-religious symbology and the PK Dick-style multi-layered paranoia.

If I were still teaching, I might use these films as a point of departure for discussing intertextuality.
 
Admittedly saying this w/o having seen more than chunks of the last 2 here and there - as that's all I could stomach - these movies redefined bad movie making. Watching kids play "Mortal Kombat" on a video machine would be more interesting. In fact I doubt I could tell the diff when you get down to it. What little symbologies I recall were blatant, pointless, and boring....just like everything else about these aimless films. Shame too, as the the orig premise was good and the effects - although now way overused/overhyped -were good. Too bad they didn't have the time/interest in developing the script enough to make a legitimately good movie, relying instead on the Arnold action/effects angle...except they did it with the dopey Reaves vs muscle guy Arnold. Bleccch - some choice.

Sorry, just my .02.
 
Montaigne essays. Any newer translation.

Nietzsche The Gay Science, and others. Not Zarathustra.

Moby Dick

Walt Whitman--any anthology of his poetry.

The only friends or self-help books you'll ever need.
 
I am surprised that no one has mentioned Charlotte Bronte's (don't know how to do the dotted e) Jane Eyre. One of the finest books I've ever read, and there were quite a few of those already mentioned here among them.
 
I confess I'm amazed someone suggested Wuthering Heights. blech.
 
Alexandre Dumas (both of them actually :) ) books - specially "Le Comte De Monte-Cristo" and "Three Musketeers". Really like adventures, ay!

Leo Tolsoy's "Anna Karenina" and "War and Peace". Explanaton not neccessary, I assume...

Henrik Ibsen - "Hedda Gabler", "Peer Gynt", "A Dolls House" and "Ghosts". Very good plays, both to read and see on stage!

Oh... Almost forgot; J.K Toole's "A Confederacy of Dunces" :p Just great!
 
Gargoyle said:
Alexandre Dumas books - specially "Le Comte De Monte-Cristo"
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Yknow silly as this may sound, I am interested in reading this and "Les Miserables" as both movies were not just good movies in themselves, but somehow you could get a feel from the movies how great the books must be, ie all the complexities/progression of the plot etc.
 
bigred said:
Yknow silly as this may sound, I am interested in reading this and "Les Miserables" as both movies were not just good movies in themselves, but somehow you could get a feel from the movies how great the books must be, ie all the complexities/progression of the plot etc.
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First of all, I must say that there is nothing silly about reading good books, and those two are among the elite! They might have a oldfashioned linguistic usage, but don't let that scare you. It is a great asset to have read them, because a "classic" is a book that everyone have heard of but never actually read themselves. :cool: Run to the library now...

Second, do not compare films with the original book since they are two separate narrative styles. Often there is some modification of the storyline so it will fit the pace of films (but I do not think that is a problem with any of above books).
 
Thx but I think you missed my point.....it seems a little silly to want to read book based on the movie adaptation.
 
bigred said:
Thx but I think you missed my point.....it seems a little silly to want to read book based on the movie adaptation.
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Well, I'm inclined to agree that it is silly (no offense) to read that kind of books. They are more than often badly written, simplistic and one-dimensional.

I never read books based on a film based on a book, specially if it's based on a classic. :boggled: It does not exist in my world because it usually is a total waste of time.... Always keep to the original ;)
 
Piggy said:
No, seriously, you didn't get it.
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I know. Twice. Wasn't trying to take a shot or anything. But really, I think it's well worth dropping....

Back to the classics. Am I the only Shakespeare fan who just can't get into the "historical works?"
 
Three from the 20th century

Twelve Chairs and The Little Golden Calf by Ilf and Petrov

The Good Soldier Svejk by Hasek.
 
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