Classics for Beginners discussion

Books I Have Read:
Wuthering Heights
Jane Eyre
Little Women
Pride and Prejudice
The Great Gatsby
A Separate Peace
Of Mice and Men
The Catcher in the Rye
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
A Tale of Two Cities
Sense and Sensibility
This Side of Paradise

Books I Plan on Reading Soon:
The Iliad
The Odyssey
The Scarlet Letter
Mansfield Park
Beowulf
Slaughterhouse-Five
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

I also want to read Slaughterhouse five!
I didn't know there was a book of Beowolf, there is a movie which was released a few years ago - though I haven't watched it - is it the same thing?

Beowulf is a really good book! I recommend the Seamus Heaney version. It's a really good translation from the Old English, and easy to understand.

OK thanks Kjerstin!

You're welcome! :)

I remembered a few more that I have read:
Animal Farm
1984
Brave New World
Hamlet
Macbeth
Much Ado About Nothing (One of my top 5 favorite books ever)
Romeo and Juliet
King Lear

I have Much Ado...and have wanted to read it forever after seeing the movie a while back. Every time I open it I am so lost though...one day I will do it!! lol

I had to watch the movie first, just to get an idea of the basic story. After the movie, I thought the book was very easy to understand. That was my approach to several of the Shakespeare plays. By the time I read King Lear, I didn't need a movie to understand anymore.

hmmmm maybe I need to watch it again and then try it. thanks!

This may be where I am going wrong with Hamlet. Though I went to see a play of Hamlet at the Lowry in Manchester and it was terrible. They made it 'modern day' though still talked in shakespeare-ian (?!) language.

The first scene showed Horatio and some other guy with shot guns. Correct me if I am wrong but shotguns were not invented back in the 1600s and it took me about half the play to realise it was a modern take as noone even told me! It was confirmed when Hamlet came out wearing a superman t-shirt and graffitied a wall.
Terrible! (I wanted to see people in tights!)

I have never read Hamlet. I skipped fourth year English and did AP. So we didn't read Hamlet. I"m not sure I will try on my own.