EVERYONE Has Read This but Me - The Catch-Up Book Club discussion

Good evening!

My absolute favorite classic is The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (1802-70). Try The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (1919-2010). Fast-paced and unintentionally hysterical. You might like Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (1818-48), even though in my humble opinion all the characters deserve to be autopsied while still alive.

Jim

We’d need to (at the very least) know why you don’t like classics, or what you define as a classic.

It would help to know the gender, age, what genres of books and movies they like.

I would recommend Call of the Wild or Black Beauty to an animal lover.

I loved Tom Sawyer, Little Princess. and Little Women when I was young. As a teenager I liked A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. If they like revenge themes, you really can't beat Count of Monte Cristo. Otherwise I'd start with something shorter.

If your friend liked Bridget Jones Diary, you can tell her that it's roughly based on Pride and Prejudice. Same with Clueless and Emma.

Cheryl wrote: "Oh! Don't forget Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio! Especially you-all who like tragic and/or sad etc. The brilliance of this short book is that it is enlightening eve..."

Its's amazing that more people don't know about that book. Truly a treasure!

I hated Slaughterhouse Five. Sorry, I didn’t even finish it & I was already 3/4 of the way through. I did love Alas Babylon which might be more in the modern classic category, but I was required to read it in high school in the early 90s so it felt like a classic to me. Chronicles of Narnia is a good one. I also liked Catcher In The Rye. I’m not a classics fan typically because I struggle with reading comprehension. If the language is too dated I often have to go with an audiobook if I try it at all or I’ll never finish it. Something about it being read aloud really helps with my comprehension issue.

Frankenstein....but use the Cliffsnotes as a companion....i just learned so much!

I would suggest Uncle Tom's Cabin,Black Beauty,A Tale Of Two Cities,Pride and Prejudice,The Adventures Of Robin Hood.

American:
The Leatherstocking Saga-James Fenimore Cooper;
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer-Mark Twain;
Almost anything by Henry James and
Edgar Allan Poe.

Russian:
Anna Karenina-Leo Tolstoy;
Crime and Punishment-Fyodor Dostoyevsky;
Fathers and Sons-Ivan Turgenev.

French:
Les Liaisons Dangereuses-Pierre Choderlos de Laclos;
The Hunchback of Notre Dame-Victor Hugo;
Lost Illusions-Honore de Balzac;
The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers-Alexandre Dumas;
20000 Leagues Under the Sea-Jules Verne; and,
Germinal-Emil Zola.

English:
Tom Jones-Henry Fielding;
Frankenstein-Mary Shelley;
The Pickwick Papers-Charles Dickens;
Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights-Charlotte and Emily Bronte;
Vanity Fair-William M. Thackeray; and,
The Picture of Dorian Gray-Oscar Wilde.

Just for starters.

Great expectations is an amazing suspense/mystery with an unexpected twist in the take. I absolutely loved it!

Animal Farm,is the one I would recommend.Very quick read,rich in symbolism.

I would add... if the person has a favorite genre, I would recommend a classic that is similar to what they already like.

Too many unknowns.
Age, sex, nationality and education would all influence my recommendations

The thought of a classics resister liking anything Henry James is not just funny it is satirical.
Most things Dostoevsky I would avoid, but there is a case for The Idiot.
Or even selected Tolstoy like Hadji Murat or with a nod to the many fans of Tolstoy: Anna Karenina
These can seem like suggesting advanced molecule biology as a starting class for some one who hates going to school.

The Mill on the Floss
or better yet
Anne of Green Gables . Especially for but not limited to females. Which is a good time to plug shorterJane Austen

Younger males
Treasure Island

Lighter stuff like
The Luck of Barry Lyndon
or somewhat scandalous like Madame Bovary
Speaking of which If you know your potential reader: Lady Chatterley's Lover or more earthyFanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure

For the more spiritual Quo Vadis : A Narrative Of The Time Of Nero
BTW Henry Sienkiewicz has some other good sword and buckler excitements
For the more warrior minded
The Three Musketeers or Ivanhoe

I have to mentionCatch-22, if only because it is the one book I have re read more than any other.
I hate to mention it because I don't get it:
Don Quixote or almost as hard to appreciate
Moby-Dick, or, the Whale

Perhaps the most under appreciated classic, from an unappreciated writer:
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

I hope by now some one mentioned The Illiad and The Odyssey.
Does Zorba the Greek count as a classic?

And maybe The Tale of Genji but here I am cheating because I have not -Yet_ read this but I also worry that classic seems to mean, American, English Russian and if pushed French with males super predominating.

I have to agree with:
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Old Man and the Sea
Tom Sawyer
On the Road

This thread has been so interesting to read. Since I see a post from this year (2020) I will also belatedly venture to add my comments, some of which echo many of the wonderful recommendations before this.

My general recommendations are similar to others (I would choose from among these depending on the person):
Fahrenheit 451 - Tim Robbins' audiobook is an excellent option
Treasure Island - also an excellent audiobook choice
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Anne of Green Gables - Rachel McAdams' audiobook is phenomenal
Cyrano de Bergerac
A Tale of Two Cities or A Christmas Carol
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
or perhaps something by Willa Cather, Ernest Hemingway, Evelyn Waugh, or F. Scott Fitzgerald as they are more modern authors.

My family of origin had some interest in a smattering of classics (Shakespeare, Austen, Tolkien, Dickens, and Sc-Fi), but only my younger brother and I (among 5 children) actively continue to read new-to-us classics. Based on what I've observed, I would definitely consider the following before making a specific recommendation:

1 - Interest - This is absolutely ESSENTIAL. Rare is the classic that will hook someone who doesn't want to be reading it. I think we have all experienced this first or second hand. I would only recommend a classic to someone if they genuinely want a recommendation (admittedly also rare).

2 - Age - I'm assuming the target audience would be teenagers+. For children/teens at home, I think I would read aloud to them as much as possible to expose them to "older" language. Poetry exposure is also helpful as it can foster patience and appreciation for language. I would absolutely watch period films with them. (My father and my brothers all read Jane Austen after watching film adaptations.)

3 - Reading speed - I mention reading speed because I think it is a very real factor that can hinder someone's experience. My husband is a MUCH slower reader than I am, in spite of being extremely intelligent, and he gets frustrated with how long it takes him to read (he is an excellent reader, just not very fast). Audiobooks have made a huge difference for him. Similarly, my friend with dyslexia finds great success with audiobooks. Otherwise, reading a physical book is just not worth the work required. I can imagine that if some of the books I enjoy took me twice as long to read I might never have read them.

4 - Previous exposure and past failures/successes - I would find out what a favorite childhood or high school read was, but I would also ask about which ones they hated (and why).

- In my opinion, taking an English class with a passionate instructor is one of the best ways to really get "hooked." (Even better than this, I imagine, is having a parent who reads them aloud to you, watches period films with you, etc.) I was the only of my siblings who took a class of this sort, and two out of my three instructors were very enthusiastic, with one being exceptional. I think this gave me a lot of exposure and confidence compared to my siblings' experiences in high school English classes. My husband took AP Lit but his teacher was lackluster so that also was a very different experience. He did a London study abroad in college, however, which I think was helpful exposure as well. I think a dynamic book club could also be influential.

PLAYS - I agree with others that plays can be a great gateway. Go see a play together, or, as that's not always possible, consider listening to an audiobook while reading along with a play. Reading is ideal in order to not miss out on stage directions and adding the audiobook will bring the "performance" element which the playwright intended. Reading aloud together is an option as well.

Recommendation examples:
If I know a reader liked The Great Gatsby, I might suggest Tender Is the Night (also by Fitzgerald), Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, or The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway. These are all more recent classics, with beautiful, unadorned prose. Honestly, I would probably recommend all three so they could choose from among them. I would also get feedback when they've finished to see if they thought the recommendation was good.

- If I have a friend who is an ardent feminist, I might suggest we read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte together and discuss why it was radical for its time (and why Emily and Charlotte Bronte suppressed its publication!). Or, two shorter reads... The Awakening by Kate Chopin or A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen could be good possibilities.

- If I have a friend who loves murder mysteries, I might suggest Rebecca by du Maurier, and The Woman in White or The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.

I agree with many on here that I can't imagine Dumas or Scott would be the best choices for someone to get hooked on classics, and yet, for my younger brother, it was The Three Musketeers and Ivanhoe that captivated him at 15 (the result of a father-son "book club" my dad initiated out of concern that my brother didn't like reading). And I, like some of you, fell in love with The Hobbit, or There and Back Again in my childhood, but struggled to keep momentum with The Lord of the Rings and didn't read it until after college.

So interesting to reflect on how/why we find ourselves drawn to or repulsed by classics and what possible "gateway books" could be. Great topic!

Great thread! I’ve always shied away from classics. Y’all have given me lots of choices, some of which I own. You know, planning to read them *someday*.

I like several that have been mentioned already but thought I'd add a few new ones written pre-1970:

Exodus
The Godfather
The Good Earth
Heidi

I always go with The Picture of Dorian Gray when asked this question!

Great thread! I read a few of the classics back in HS/college (English major), but they're not something I've actively sought out over the years. One of the reasons I joined this group was to start filling in the gaps in my reading, especially with classic works. I just added a handful of books from the thread to my TBR list :)

From my own limited classics reading, the ones that I've enjoyed and thought were fairly easy to read/understand are-
1984
Animal Farm
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
The Postman Always Rings Twice
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
The Last Unicorn

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Without a doubt, it's short and very entertaining

I think some of Agatha Christie's work. The Count of Monte Cristo read a lot faster than I thought it would. Jules Verne and HG Wells are always fun. It's hard that some people are just set against classics. To me the story is it.

a few that came to mind when i seen this thread:

Great expectations - I really like the exaggerated almost comic like nature of Dickens characters and i think that they can pull people into the stories he is telling. They did for me anyway. Even his heavier work, like bleak house, can still be engaging due to the fun nature of the characters.

iRobot - not sure if this counts as a classic, but i am a bit of a sci fi guy and this is among my favourites. I think its a good introduction to what sci fi can be! Also the logical way the robot series is written, i.e here are my axioms (the laws of robotics), now i'll play with them.

War of the worlds - Such an engaging read and a short straight forward tale. Absolutely the book that pulled me into sci fi.

Lord of the flies, to kill a mocking bird.

I have seen 1984 mentioned quite a few times below. I enjoyed it, but i wouldn't have called it an easy read, large portions where it is all in winstons head and not a lot happens, and maybe not one that i would suggest to someone who is new to that type of dystopian fiction. As brilliant as it is.

After reading through below comments i have added count of montecristo to my want to read list :-)

The Hound of the Baskervilles
Ten Little Indians (aka And Then There Were None)
Pride and Prejudice
Therese Raquin
Nicholas Nickleby
Daisy Miller
Washington Square
First Love (Turgenev)
The Beetle

Lee wrote: "The Master and Margarita

This is my favourite book of all time. Any genre, any era. You can read incredibly deeply into it, or just take it at face value as an incredibly insane story...."

I second this recommendation. However, I needed two attempts to get through it. You need to be prepared for strangeness.

THE OUTSIDERS was written in the early 1960’s so I think it can be considered a classic. It should be on everyone’s must-read list. NIGHT by Elie Wiesel is pretty heavy but you will tear through every page. It was written after 1970 so it may not fit the prereq for the classic label (new girl here). But how could a Nobel Prize winner not be a classic? Most people don’t like classics because they are slow and need much more aggressive editing IMO. These two present neither obstacle to the reluctant reader.

I would recommend The master and margarita by Bulgakov, or An invitation to a beheading by Nabokov

Jane Eyre cuz is easy and really moving

I would definitely go with To Kill a Mockingbird and Great Expectations. I have read them from the second try, as they are both a little monotone in the beginning, but it's worth it. Ones of my favorite classics of all time.

I second Great Expectations. One of the best novels of all time. Also, All Quiet on the Western Front—the best book ever written about the realities of war. Not for the squeamish.

Dracula.

The Once and Future King has it all: romance, humor, betrayals, battles. To top it off, it has several levels of meaning so it can be read for pure entertainment or for a more philosophical endeavor.

sink or swim, drop them in the deep end with the likes of War and Peace , Ulysses, and/or Don Quixote

The Call of the Wild
Treasure Island
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Time Machine

Pride and Prejudice cuz all the wittiness makes one fly through it, and anything by Agatha Christie.

Author wrote: "Get my book for absolutely free👇
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Hi! I get that you are trying to promote your book in many threads in this group but you should at least respect the topic for each thread.

As you can see, this thread is looking for classic recommendations and I'm pretty sure your book isn't one of them.

I get that it's important for you to promote your book in all the threads but this behaviour is not respectful.

Thanks.

The Picture of Dorian Gray and Rebecca

The grapes of wrath

Animal Farm is short and easy to read. There are many parallels to history but the story is straightforward

Yes! That's a good one.

Gunnar's Daughter
Address Unknown
Tipping the Velvet
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
The Shadow of the Wind
I Capture the Castle
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Jane Eyre

This is such a great question! I'm not the biggest fan of most mainstream popular classic novels... and do have to mentally brace myself before reading them (...it may have taken me 6 months to finish Anna Karenina).

Anyway, my recommendations would be:

Wuthering Heights - the plot was entertaining, it was reasonably character oriented vs. too much detail about the scenery. With that said, it took me until I re-read this in my early 20s to actually appreciate this book.

Animal Farm - who doesn't like talking animals used to give an allegorical warning about the perils of certain political philosophies? This was probably one of my favourite classic reads mandated in high school.

Gone with the Wind - this is my favourite book of all time and I often re-read it. Great characters and great storyline.

The Catcher in the Rye - the short chapters and 'relatable' character, made this an easier classic to get into.

Classics that didn't work for me on first attempt were Frankenstein, Pride & Prejudice, Jane Eyre and Tess of the D'Ubervilles. These were more enjoyable on the second (or third) attempt.

Ellisse wrote: "This is such a great question! I'm not the biggest fan of most mainstream popular classic novels... and do have to mentally brace myself before reading them (...it may have taken me 6 months to fin..."

Love this answer. Gone With The Wind is also one of my favorites. The readability is very good, and I really cared about the characters.

I’m definitely an avoider of classics but I recently finished Watership Down and while it did take me longer than usual to finish, I’m glad that I read it.

I think I'd choose Jane Eyre and The Metamorphosis

both great choices, I think!

I would say Peter Pan by James M Barrie. Such a beautiful, sad, engaging novel

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

We can make all the lists we want here, but what to recommend depends a great deal on the person and their interests. I wouldn't recommend P&P to a guy who's into the great outdoors, when he would obviously prefer action/adventure stories like Call of the Wild. I wouldn't recommend Jeeves to someone who's into murder mysteries. Go with Crime and Punishment, or even good old Conan Doyle's Sherlock novels for that person.

For people who've stopped reading after school, or don't read often, ask them what films/TV shows they enjoy. That will tell you plenty about where to guide them with the classics.

Eclecticbookreviewer wrote: "Oliver Twist is heartwarming and Little Women is splendid."

I find that long books, especially those of the Victorian era, are much harder for non-classics readers to feel like they're not back in secondary school English lit class again. Better to get them with shorter, punchier works. For instance, you can get all of the heartwarming family life of Little Women with Eight Cousins, in less than half the pages. And you can get a similar rags to riches tale in Twain's Prince and the Pauper in fewer pages than Oliver Twist.

Just like I'd recommend P&P any day over Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South to a reader not used to classics. North and South actually has a much more important story to tell, and its characters are as good, or even better, than those of P&P (yes, I said it). The problem with N&S is that it's a much longer book, and it's longer because Gaskell spends way too many pages building up the story. It takes ****FOREVER***** to get to the great novel it is, with its great characters.

I would certainly suggest Alexander Dumas for beginners. His novels are light and enjoyable, making them perfect for newcomers to dive into the world of literature.