40 Classic Books You Should Have Read in School
JulieEarlier this month Jim Swayze challenged you to read Classic Literature, but if you are anything like me, you wonder when a book stops being a regular book and starts being a “classic.” Interestingly enough, no one really knows. In fact, essays have been found debating the topic since the early 19th century. The term “classic” is accepted to mean that the book is noteworthy and stands the test of time. However, the noteworthiness of the book is also very subjective.
So how are you to know whether the book you are reading is a classic? Well, lucky for you, our employees know books. We conducted an extensive and amusing poll, consisting of the ever-so-technical question, “So, what do you think?” Without further ado, here are our employees’ selections for 40 Books You Should Have Read in School, a.k.a. Classic Literature.
So, how many of you read that list saying, “Read it. Read it. Hated it. Want to read it. Never heard of it . . ." ? Wow! You are like me. If so, I know that you will be itching to read those books that you haven’t read, and why not enter to win a $50 HPB gift card in the process. You have one more week to sign up for the HPB Reading Challenge: Lit Classics.
Tip: Les Miserables is almost 1,500 pages. A Christmas Carol is a little more than 100 pages. I’m just saying.
Did we leave out your favorite classic lit from our list? Let us know in the comments below.
-- Julie
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Reader Comments (9)
So happy to see my favorite (Rebecca) on this list! And I've read the 1500 page behemoth of Les Miserables twice. It's that good.
I did read at least seven of these in junior high or high school as part of a class (Moby Dick, Pride and Prejudice, A Christmas Carol, Huck Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Grapes of Wrath, A Farewell to Arms). So, yay Arkansas public schools?
But I've only read 16 altogether, so I have some catching up to do.
Shockingly, I have only read 15 of the 40 listed. I currently own 11 of the 15 I've read and I own 1 I have not yet read. Even though "The Great Gatsby" was a must-read in school, I preferred "Tender Is The Night". Great blog!
Call of The Wild by Jack London
I've read 18 of the 40 but only 5 were required reading in high school. Others I'd read because they were picks in my book club or because I thought they looked interesting or they were assigned in a lit class in college. I can see I still have a long ways to go.
Rebecca and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn are wonderful. Rebecca being my favorite. I read a few of these in high school and some in recent years. I have catching up to do as well!
Ten of these I read in high school, and most of them I enjoyed. "Les Miserables" is my favorite novel (I have read it five times in my life, always unabridged), and "To Kill a Mockingbird" is right behind it on my list. Although it usually isn't read in high-school and isn't on this list, Wilkie Collins's "The Woman in White" is a must-read. And also not included in this list is "War and Peace," which I finally read a year ago, and it is definitely worth reading all 1300+ pages!
I own about thirty books on this list and have read almost all of them. It's such a shame that most modern authors lack the genius, creativity, and copious vocabulary exhibited by the classic writers. Sure J. K Rowling and Stephen King create interesting stories, but you have to admit, nothing today can compare to Dickens, Shakespeare, or Tolstoy.
I've read most.
I'd add A Separate Peace, Silas Marner, and Lorna Doone.
I'd like to erase Lord of the Flies from my brain.
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
My Antonia by Willa Cather
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Two novels to consider:
James Dickey's DELIVERANCE, (great movie too, look for Dickey as the sheriff and Ed O'neill as a security guard).
Cormac McCarthy's BLOOD MERIDAN or THE EVENING REDNESS IN THE WEST, (our angry American West).