discuss your favorite classic novel, or any novel at all

<p>I like the bailey school kids, goosebumps, and clueclub kids…LOL</p>

<p>SB and cowpernia; Might be interested in “living to Tell the Tale” Gabriel Garcia Marquez autobiography, part 1. Fascinating detail about the evolution of his writing.</p>

<p>achat; If you like “Lolita”, I am sure you would enjoy “Reading Lolita in Tehran”. One of my top ten books in the last five years. Gutted when I finished it.</p>

<p>Frazzled - Yes. He went familiarly by Bill…Omigod imagine being 22 and getting to read Ophelia to his Hamlet so he could learn his lines. I nearly died.</p>

<p>Garland, It’s not often that I laugh outloud while reading, but Handling Sin makes me laugh just remembering it. I’ve enjoyed his other books too. </p>

<p>I love the “Beantree” trilogy. I didn’t care as much for Poisonwood Bible, but my son read it for school and thoroughly enjoyed it.</p>

<p>anyone watching the world fihure skating championships? It’s a shame the russian men’s skating prince suffered that injury. He was the only reason i really watched the skating championship this year, other than buttle. Off topic i know, but if you have comment, please don’t hesitate to post them.</p>

<p>I wanted to add a couple fun ones: “The last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor” by John Barth. One of the most fanciful stories I’ve ever come across…involving a writer sailing on the Chesapeake in the 1980’s and Sinbad the Sailor in Mediaeval times and a story telling competition between the two in Baghdad where the stakes are life and death.</p>

<p>And, Monsignor Quixote by Graham Green. A lovely stroll across modern Spain by a monsignor who believes himself to be a descendent of Don Quixote de La Mancha and a recently ousted communist mayor of a city in the La Mancha district-- really a charming and beautiful story. </p>

<p>Any other Barth or Green fans?</p>

<p>I have four books that I can re-read over and over:</p>

<p>I Capture A Castle by Dodie Smith (unfortunately, the movie was awful)
Angle of Repose - William Stagner
Zorba the Greek - Kazanzakis - read it first while a student at Kenyon and have been hooked ever since
Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez</p>

<p>I actually really liked the Poisonwood Bible (it’s the only one of Kingslover’s books I did like - but I’ve lived overseaas for years in developing countries and her depiction of the evangelical couple living amongst the “natives” was dead-on…)</p>

<p>Memoirs of a Geisha was also compelling.</p>

<p>YES! Barth & Greene: Lost in the Fun House; The Power & The Glory</p>

<p>I also adored Love in The Time of Cholera.</p>

<p>Way yes to Love in the Time of Cholera. His description of long marriages. Haven’t read the book in 20 years but remember that phrase.</p>

<p>momofthree: I, too, am a serial reader of Jane Eye. After many, many readings, it occurred to me that it is odyssean. Jane is on a decades long quest for home and family and encounters constant obstacles and monsters, although her monsters are decidedly human. I love this book. The language is lovely, and Jane is a survivor.</p>

<p>This is one of the most original books I have read in a long time. It is one that you will want to read and immediately give away because you will want someone with whom to discuss it.</p>

<p>see post #57, mamacita! I loved it too.</p>

<p>Marshmellow Squares and Tang</p>

<p>Also, insist that your s/d wears that ugly sweater that grandma bought when shes comes to visit.</p>

<p>wait no…</p>

<p>mamacita and SBmom,</p>

<p>Thanks for a good suggestion~ Srping Break is ONE DAY away, and I am off to the library in search of good reading. Mamacita, glad to know of another JE reader!</p>

<p>I’m not a parent but I love literature, so let me chime in okay? First of all, my opinion on Romeo and Juliet: For me, after I passed about the age of fifteen, this play was never really about the lovers. It was about the feud of the families, how they were so dedicated to destroying one another that in the end they destroyed what they cared so much about (Romeo and Juliet who are so touchingly naive) It took this loss to finally end the cycle. To me, the story’s a warning. Okay, now on to my favorite classic novels.</p>

<p>Jane Eyre: This is another book that people like to reduce to simply being a love story, and it irks me. All of you who are fans of Jane Eyre, you know there’s a lot more going on in the book than that. Jane is a wonderful heroine. Like someone else said, she is a survivor.</p>

<p>Fahrenheit 451: I don’t know if I can really pick a favorite Bradbury book but this is my attempt. The first time I read it was like something grabbed ahold of me and wouldn’t let go. The writing is poetic, the characters memorable, and the premise frighteningly real.</p>

<p>A Tale of Two Cities: I’m rereading this one right now and catching all sorts of things I missed the first time around, though I fell in love with the story even then. Dickens in such a wonderful writer, I think I’m now going to have to read or reread everything he ever wrote.</p>

<p>have you read oliver twist virtue_summer?
That’s my favorite Dickens novel. For some reason it’s quite obscure even though it’s prob one of his best works.</p>

<p>I haven’t actually read Oliver Twist yet, though I know the basic story. It’s on my reading list though.</p>

<p>Crime and Punishment
Ordinary People
Catcher in The Rye
Of Mice and Men
1984
Seperate Peace
Ragged Dick
A River Runs Through It
On The Road
Beyond Good and Evil
The Purpose Driven Life
Fight Club
Great Gatsby
The Bible
The Preppy Handbook
Seinlanguage
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day
Dubliners
Kama Sutra
Goosebumps #4: Say Cheese and Die!
Atlas Shrugged
Divine Comedy
and anything by Tucker Max [greatest writer ever]</p>

<p>are the best books you’ll ever read in your lifetime</p>

<p>**btw, Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice are complete garbage. i’ll assume that post was for comic relief.</p>

<p>Why do some people insist that their opinion be the only one? Art is subjective. Literature is art. Therefore you will always find people with differing opinions. I think this is a wonderful thing. What I don’t think is wonderful is people putting other people down because they have that differing opinion.</p>

<p>Bridget Jones’ Diary …sorry but its the best book EVER
also: Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging. (louise rennison)
i love the british humor</p>

<p>song of solomon (toni morrison)
one flew over the cuckoo’s nest (ken kesey)
invisible man (ralph ellison)
are a few of my more “classic” favorites</p>

<p>and another AMAZING book, you guys must read:
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers</p>