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Classic novels everyone should read


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Anything Faulkner. Absolutely my top recommendation. Especially The Sound and the Fury, Light in August, and Absalom, Absalom.

Pretty much anything Hemingway. Especially For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Sun Also Rises.

Walker Percy, Lancelot, the Moviegoer, etc.

Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Grey.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce.

Too many more to list, but those are what immediately popped into my head. I guess Walker Percy isn't really in the 'classic' category, but I think his stuff is really enjoyable and underrated.

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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Life, the Universe, and Everything

So Long and Thanks for the Fish

Mostly Harmless

Anything by Vonnegut.

Oh, and Catcher in the Rye sucked. Most boring damn thing I've ever read and I worked for a financial publisher for 3 years.

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The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli

Considered by most to be the authoritative text on statesmanship and power (how to obtain it as well as an illustration of its trappings), although certainly a shrewd one.

From this arises an argument: whether it is better to be loved than feared. I reply that one should like to be both one and the other; but since it is difficult to join them together, it is much safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking.

Essentially, Machiavelli advocates letting your people have their property and women, but making sure that they know what you are capable of doing if they step out of line.

I know people that take this story to heart......never realizing it was a satire.

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New classic: Wicked by Gregory McGuire. Fantastic book!

Reading it now. At the part where she is leaving Kiamo Ko going back to Muchkinland to see her sister. Got about a 100 pages left.

Canterbury Tales by Chauncer. Although I think I must have read only parts of it for English class. I don't know how big the whole thing is.

I think im gonna have to go to the library soon and get Catch-22 and Animal Farm.

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I think im gonna have to go to the library soon and get Catch-22 and Animal Farm.

I HIGHLY recommend Catch-22. I read it while I was doing some business travelling and there were quite a few times when I had to put the book down to save myself the embarrassment of laughing way too loud on a plane. Not only is it funny but it has quite a poignant and relevant message to it. Great read.

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I HIGHLY recommend Catch-22. I read it while I was doing some business travelling and there were quite a few times when I had to put the book down to save myself the embarrassment of laughing way too loud on a plane. Not only is it funny but it has quite a poignant and relevant message to it. Great read.

Yossarian is my homie

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I am America (and so can you) by Stephen Colbert

I love that book!

Might I also recommend: America by Jon Stewart.

Okay back to the "Classics":

A tale of 2 cities (my favorite story of all-time.)

I agree with Ford....The Sound & The Fury is an excellent choice

The Sun Also Rises

A farewell to Arms

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Catch-22 is great. Has anyone read the sequel "Closing Time"? Is it worth getting?

I don't know if anyone's included it yet, but Crime and Punishment is excellent. Its dry at times but overall is a rewarding read.

I also recommend Grendel by John Gardner, I could never get through Beowulf probably due to the language. But Grendel is written beautifully.

Native Son is in a word, amazing.

One classic you should NEVER read but most of us are forced to in school: Pride and Prejudice :puke:

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I don't count choose your own adventure books.

I hated number 12, Inside UFO 54-40 by Edward Packard. You have to escape a UFO, and in the beginning of the book, it teases you by saying that getting to Utopia is possible, but there's a way and you have to find it.

NO WAY GETS YOU TO UTOPIA! I finally read every page in order, and it's on like page 63, but there's no instruction to get there.

Stupid philisophical statement... :mad: :laugh:

It's like the Kobayashi Maru!

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Dune

Forrest Gump (Seriously, it's hilarious.. it's not the same as the movie.)

The Killer Angels- Michael Shaara

The Dark Knight Returns -Frank Miller (Best comic ever)

The Shining -Stephen King (SO much better than the movie)

Citizen Soldiers- Stephen A Ambrose

The DaVinci Code

The 13th Valley

~Bang

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