Classic books

1984
Green eggs and Ham

btw, Books suck, buy a dvd instead

"Brave New World's alright, 1984 is better."

I didn't like "Brave New World" that much either, maybe because they forced me to read it :(

But if I had a 50$ gift certificate to buy books from, it would surely be the "The Lord Of The Rings" Trilogy.

I am unsure what "classic" means, Savannah. If you want a "must read" 20th century American novel, I recommend To Whom The Bell Tolls by Hemingway or Grapes Of Wrath by Steinbeck - both easy to read and very compelling.

If it's about "just for fun" reading, I recommend John Irving, anything after Setting Free The Bears (beware!), for me he is the most entertaining quality novelist of our time.

You understood what "classic" means perfectly well Barb. :) I'm interested in Hemingway actually already, so you reccommending him is good. :)

Thank you all for your thoughts.

FOR Whom the Bell Tolls

And like I said...can't go wrong with The Sun Also Rises (or A Farewell to Arms for that matter).

I liked Brave New World but it was sorta sad tho. I also liked 1984, and Animal farm. Also- plays are really fun to read like No Exit by Sartre.

Silas Marner - George Eliot
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Anthem - Ayn Rand (I don't like her other books, but this one's really good)
Anything by Reginald Rose

The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

Anyone notice that most of the time when you've been forced to read something at school you end up hating it whereas most things you really like are ones you've picked yourself?

My only exceptions to that are Sylvia Plath and Margaret Atwood's excellent The Handmaid's Tale. (I highly recommend this.) Both of which, oddly, came from the same teacher.

Hey Bob

I got another one you might like, if you ever get bored.

You could try some of these, although they might not be available in a "classics" bookstore (whatever that is):

"Reservation Blues" by Sherman Alexie
"Moon Palace" by Paul Auster
"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" by Hunter Thompson
"The Stranger" by Albert Camus
"On the Road" by Jack Kerouac
"Travels With Charley" by John Steinbeck
"Slaughterhouse Five" by Kurt Vonnegut
"The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test" by Tom Wolfe

Frankenstein - Mary Shelly...a fantastic book the only book (along with 'To Kill a Mockingbird') that I ever actually enjoyed reading at school, they therefore must be good...was FORCED to read 'em and they were still fantastic!

I think For Whom The Bell Tolls was absolutely awesome, moving, fascinating, entertainig, poetic and still in simple English... and I agree that Brave New World is rather boring, but have to admit that I didn't finish it for that reason.

Update:
I used the $50 today. I bought Brave New World, Anthem by Ayn Rand, and A Farewell to Arms for myself. Since they didn't have much of a selection (and I couldn't risk asking them to order A Clockwork Orange for me because my mom went went with me and she wants me to stay away from that "cult book" :S) I also bought a friend a Dream Dictionary that she wanted and let mom get a magazine.
:) Looking forward to the readings I'm gonna do this summer.