“A classic is a book which people praise and don’t read.”
This quote attributed to Mark Twain made me think of classics I didn’t enjoy, but also those I did. I have a lifelong habit of choosing classics for my leisure reading.
When I was in the seventh grade, I enjoyed Gone with the Wind so much I read it a second time. Unfortunately, this intense involvement in the full story caused me to be very disappointed in the movie when I saw it for the first time in college because time constraints meant they had to leave out too much of the 1200-page plot.
After I decided to not to read Gone With the Wind a third time (partly because Daddy told me it was time to move on), I tried to read Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray, but for whatever reason, I couldn’t force myself to finish even the first chapter. Maybe now is a good time for me to give that book another try!
Enjoy the cartoon! Then let us know your thoughts below.
Your turn:
Other than the Bible, what is your favorite classic book?
What classics do you aspire to read?
Do you have a list of classics you would like to read again?
Do you think movie versions of classics do the books justice?
How fun to pop on here and see titles of classics I’ve read. Some I loved, some not. 🙂 I enjoyed Pride and Prejudice. I like the essence of Jane Austen’s stories, but I’ve had trouble getting through some of them. 🙂 I read the Great Gatsby in high school, and then later because I wanted to re-read it. I don’t know if Malcolm Muggeridge’s The Razor’s Edge is a classic, but that one left an imprint in my memory.
My favorite classics are the ones by Louisa May Alcott, the Anne of Green Gables series (do those count? :)), everything I’ve read by C.S. Lewis. The Hobbit By JRR Tolkein.And yes, Pride and Prejudice.
Ones I aspire to read include Jane Eyre, Tale of Two Cities, The Lord of the Rings series, and more.
I’m hoping this doesn’t show up twice later on. 🙂 I posted a few minutes ago, came back to add, and nothing I wrote is showing up. 🙂
Anyway, I love Louisa May Alcott books. To Kill a Mockingbird (read this at least twice), The Scarlet Letter, The Great Gatsby, and yes, Pride and Prejudice. Oh,the Anne of Green Gables series (does that count?), The Hobbit and everything I’ve ever read by CS Lewis.
Classics I want to read include Jane Eyre, Les Miserables (love the movie version with Liam Neeson!), The Count of Monte Cristo, Tale of Two Cities and the Lord of the Rings series.
What a fun post! It’s fun reading titles I read in high school and college, and remembering tidbits of the stories. 🙂
There are so many, it is hard to name a favorite. I suppose, if I must pick one, The Pilgrim’s Progress is as good of one to pick as any.
I tend to avoid reading the classics (even though I watch classic movies). Canterbury Tales was the “classic” that once and for all confirmed my avoidance of classics.
I fully suspect that some so-called classics earned that title merely because there was relatively little competition when they were published.
Thanks for starting this! I, too, love talking about literature.
Like many others, I enjoy Jane Austen. I’ve read all her books except Mansfield Park … & P&P several times. I highly recommend Northanger Abbey. It’s delightful.
When I was in college, I read about two-thirds of War & Peace, but it was a library book & I moved before I could finish it. This might sound strange but I loved the feel of the actual book I’d started & never got back into it. But I remember that summer of eating Doritoes, reading War & Peace, & trying to learn German.
Over the past few years, I’ve decided to devote more time to reading classics &, so far, I’ve crossed the aforementioned Austen books, The Sun Also Rises & To Kill a Mockingbird off the list.
If you like comedy, I highly recommend P.G. Wodehouse. Last summer I read a little book of his called The Small Bachelor. It’s hilarious!
Thanks for all the recommendations, btw. I plan to add GWTW & Gatsby to my list. . . .
Oh, & I like pretty much any movie based on a classic, especially if it’s Austen. HATED Lost in Austen with a passion. Everyone who’s read & loved P&P knows Darcy & Elizabeth are meant to be together. To destroy that is to make a mockery of the author’s vision. And it’s very popular to do that with her books nowadays. I’m just glad Jane isn’t here to see how people have sliced & diced her work for their own financial gain.
Sorry. Guess I feel strongly about this.
I have to be honest, I haven’t read that many classics, (although I’m very slowly working my way through a list), but by far my favourite is The Pilgrim’s Progress.
I have the old English version, which takes a bit of getting used to, but I love it.
What a mind-blowing, and still throroughly relevant, story.
I’m amazed by the way John Bunyan weaved biblical imagery right the way through it (with the footnoted references at the bottom of each page).
If I had to choose one book to read for the rest of my life, other than the Bible, that would be it. Honestly.
I’d have to say my favorite classic at the moment in Dickens’s Great Expectations. I thought it painted a vivid picture of what happens when people get too focused on themselves. Also, I appreciated the way Dickens portrayed that even if a person knows that a choice is foolish, that person may still make the choice.
Other than that, I enjoy some Austen. Pride and Predjudice is probably my favorite (the Colin Firth movie was the best, in my opinion)–Austen has a way of putting some of the things we all live and think onto paper. And her sense of humor (would it be fair to say it was sarcastic sometimes?) amused me. Also, I really enjoyed her book Northanger Abbey.
As a kid, I loved A Tale of Two Cities, Les Miserables, the Hobbit, How Green Was my Valley, and more, but never considered myself an avid reader until I was a new mom, stuck in an apartment in the country with no car and living in four rooms. That’s when I discovered reading again. Began again, reading everything in my reach, often several at a time. Now, I read mostly mysteries after years of non-fiction. Can’t stand Jane Austin, though. Too wordy.
What a fun question! It is a delight to see what others think about classic literature, and a puzzle to see so much agreement. I am pleased to see someone else has read George McDonald; I thought I was the only one who remembered him. I much prefer adventure to romance. I have read The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson at least eight times, and my grandchildren have gone to sleep many times as I read to them his A Child’s Garden of Verses. Sir Walter Scott is out of fashion, I suppose, but Ivanhoe has never been out of print. William Faulkner’s The Fable is altogether different from his Misissippi tales, and it is probably the very best Christian and inspirational story of the early 20th Century. There is nothing else like it. But the absolute best by far is Longfellow, America’s first great poet. The Song of Hiawatha is epic poetry at its best because it is packed with accurate details and genuine tragedy. There is a classic I would love to read, but my German is not good enough to read Friedrich Schiller, and I have not yet found an English translation of his work. I possibly suffer from a too vivid imagination since no movie has ever been really satisfactory. The scenes I imagine while reading are immensely more satisying than mere moving pictures. The only movie I have seen that comes close to the book is Ben Hur. I enjoyed all the comments, and look forward to more.
My favorite classic is Anna Karenina by Tolstoy. As a former educator, I LOVE the classics. There are so many lessons to be learned in them. I’ve actually been tossing around the idea of blogging through a Barnes and Noble list of books entitled “50 Books to Read Before You Die,” which consists of all classics (half of which I’ve read). Since my blog always falls by the wayside, it would probably take me about two years to do so.
Which ones do I read over and over? Anna Karenina, Les Miserables, The Count of Monte Cristo, and Ben Hur are at the top of the list. Oh, and in my opinion, the movie is NEVER as good as the book! 🙂
As soon as I got my kindle I downloaded some classics. Some I read as a teen like “The Scarlet Letter,” and others like Edgar Allen Poe, then read “The Christmas Carol” for the first time last year and loved it. No, I won’t scream “Classic!” LOL. I still keep the hard bound copy of Heidi for inspirational reading. The language is beautiful. The Count of Monte Cristo I read a few years ago and thought it was better than the movie; Les Miserables, too.
Wow, I go on business travel for a few days and miss all the fun! I love these comments! I am making my “to read” list now.