Put my classics to read list in order please.

[Steel Icarus]

Dont read catch 22. Its crap.

I'm scared to read it in case I don't like it. But if I don't I'll never know.

 

[B.I.G]

I'm scared to read it in case I don't like it. But if I don't I'll never know.

Try it and let me know

 

[Beats & Pieces]

If you stick to the list then I would suggest:

1. Fahrenheit 451
2. The Scarlet Letter
3. A Tale of Two Cities
4. The Count of Monte Cristo
5. Tess
6. Moby Dick
7. Madame Bovary
8. The Trial
9. Northhanger Abbey
10. War & Peace
11. Don Quixote

I wouldn't bother with Catch 22 - and would consider reading just one book by Dickens - his style is very easily recognised and remains consistently sentimental. The two greatest novels (in your list) I would leave until last, and I would have a break between them. Don Quixote is a beautiful book - despite having often been rendered down as a child's book in reductive abridgments - it is fascinating. Part Two is probably the most important part (despite an apparently rushed ending) in terms of Western literature as a future cannon. If you are reading the non-English books in translation then this will clearly have to be a major consideration in your choice!

 

[Orang Utan]

I'd read the Scarlet Letter first if I was me, because it's the only one I haven't read (assuming the Trail is Kafka's the Trial. If it isn't, then read that first because I've neither read nor even heard of the Trail).

Other than that, read them in the order you fancy.

The Trail was written after Kafka got lost on a country walk.

 

[Orang Utan]

Catch 22 is brilliant. So funny and wise.

 

[Orang Utan]

. If you are reading the non-English books in translation then this will clearly have to be a major consideration in your choice!

I don't think anyone else is expecting Me76 to learn another language just so they can read War & Peace or Don Quixote!

 

[weltweit]

I don't know why peeps have a downer on Catch 22. I read it quickly a year or more ago and enjoyed it, it is fun, then I read it a second time and enjoyed it again. It isn't like the other books on that list.

 

[Orang Utan]

I don't know why peeps have a downer on Catch 22. I read it quickly a year or more ago and enjoyed it, it is fun, then I read it a second time and enjoyed it again. It isn't like the other books on that list.

It's much more accessible than the others and way funnier. Perhaps that's why some ponces sniff at it.

 

[Beats & Pieces]

I don't think anyone else is expecting Me76 to learn another language just so they can read War & Peace or Don Quixote!

I didn't want to assume that the OP was not able to access the texts in their original languages.

 

[Beats & Pieces]

It's much more accessible than the others and way funnier. Perhaps that's why some ponces sniff at it.

It's much more accessible than the others and way funnier. Perhaps that's why some ponces sniff at it.

Because it doesn't fit with the other books in the list - is it likely to be read in 100 years or more? I don't think so.

 

[Orang Utan]

I didn't want to assume that the OP was not able to access the texts in their original languages.

It would be daft so assume that anyone would be reading them in anything other than English.

 

[weltweit]

Did anyone who enjoyed Catch 22 go on to read Heller's sequel Closing Time .. I did but I did find it in places very weird indeed. Still I read it all and didn't bail on it ..

 

[Orang Utan]

Because it doesn't fit with the other books in the list - is it likely to be read in 100 years or more? I don't think so.

I think so, yes.
The only fit these books have with each other is that they are deemed to be canonical.

 

[Beats & Pieces]

It would be daft so assume that anyone would be reading them in anything other than English.

No. It would be impolite to assume that the OP might not be capable of doing so.

 

[Orang Utan]

Did anyone who enjoyed Catch 22 go on to read Heller's sequel Closing Time .. I did but I did find it in places very weird indeed. Still I read it all and didn't bail on it ..

Yes, it was crap

 

[Beats & Pieces]

I think so, yes.
The only fit these books have with each other is that they are deemed to be canonical.

By whom? For whom? By what criteria?

In terms of fit - these books are life enhancing.

 

[Orang Utan]

No. It would be impolite to assume that the OP might not be capable of doing so.

Au contraire.

 

[Orang Utan]

By whom? For whom? By what criteria?

In terms of fit - these books are life enhancing.

Let's not go there.
But Catch 22 is certainly life enhancing.

And come on, only academics are going to read these texts in their original language.
This is a UK board. We tend to read in English.

 

[Beats & Pieces]

Let's not go there.
But Catch 22 is certainly life enhancing.

And come on, only academics are going to read these texts in their original language.
This is a UK board. We tend to read in English.

This is not an argument worth having.

 

[Sirena]

This is not an argument worth having.

Speaking as someone who has read Don Quijote in the original, I'm not so sure......

 

[Argonia]

Read war and peace first. It's a belter.

 

[Beats & Pieces]

Speaking as someone who has read Don Quijote in the original, I'm not so sure......

It is an English (speaking?) board so presumably...

 

[B.I.G]

Lots of people on these boards will speak spanish. And a few russian.

 

[Orang Utan]

But it arrogant to assume that a stranger would be reading, say, War & Peace in Russian on a UK board. But then the person who did seems to live in an elitist acedemix bubble

 

[Beats & Pieces]

But it arrogant to assume that a stranger would be reading, say, War & Peace in Russian on a UK board. But then the person who did seems to live in an elitist acedemix bubble

Nonsense. But, are you suggesting that 'Academia' should not be elitist?

 

[B.I.G]

But it arrogant to assume that a stranger would be reading, say, War & Peace in Russian on a UK board. But then the person who did seems to live in an elitist acedemix bubble

Lots of people living in the uk that used to live in parts of the USSR will speak Russian.

 

[Orang Utan]

Lots of people living in the uk that used to live in parts of the USSR will speak Russian.

Sure, but it is safer to assume that the OP doesn't read Russian.

 

[Orang Utan]

Nonsense. But, are you suggesting that 'Academia' should not be elitist?

No, I just think you're a twat

 

[Beats & Pieces]

No, I just think you're a twat

Nice.

 

[Orang Utan]

Nice.

Happy New Year!
But you are just as rude in your own way.