Early Retirement Extreme Forums

I am looking for my next book to read, and want to expand my search for books that are considered classics.

What would you consider your top 3 must read classic books?

Just read Catch-22 three times

I read these over a decade ago, but remember enjoying them, and plowing through quickly.

Anna Karenina

A Tale of Two Cities

The talented Mr Ripley. My favourite book of all time. The film is good but the book is *much* better.

- Independent people, Halldór Laxness
- Dead souls, Nikolai Gogol
- The twelve chairs, Ilya Ilff and Evgeny Petrov

Siddhartha
Ishmael
Dune

Spicing things up with some non-adult classics that are enjoyable as an adult:
“Pierre: A Cautionary Tale in Five Chapters and a Prologue” Maurice Sendak
“The Littles” series John Peterson
“Little House on the Prairie” series Laura Ingalls Wilder

I’d probably go with the Iliad, the Odyssey, and Plato’s Republic; but that’s probably because I haven’t made it much further than that yet.

John Senior has an absolutely wonderful list that I’ve used to plug holes in my own reading and for ideas on books to buy for and read with my kids: https://seascs.net/documents/2017/10/Jo ... 20List.pdf

The Odyssey
Walden
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

theanimal wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 20, 2023 10:47 pm

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Do US schools even teach this one anymore, along with Tom Sawyer?

1. Moby Dick: just read the first chapter and you'll get a sense of Melville's inimitable writing style. You'll know right then whether or not you want to keep going with it. His writing floors me but it's not for everyone.
2. Conan the Barbarian (book series by Robert Howard): some of the best fantasy writing you'll ever encounter. Fast-paced but surprisingly deep. They're in Gutenberg.org so I consider them classics.
3. Great Expectations: very funny, very sad, and also very moving.

All fantastic suggestions.. I have a lot to consider there are quite a few I've never even heard of.

@theanimal I definitely want to read Walden again. I started it, but never finished it.

@ Hristo Botev thanks for the list!

@clark thanks for the tip. I find now that I use the library for 99% of the books I read I will stop reading books completely if I don't get drawn in immediately. When I used to buy them I would read them no matter what, and that was not always pleasant. I will find as many of these at my library, and skim them to find ones that I like.

I like dystopian future books for some reason.

Fahrenheit 451
1984
Brave new world

Add starship troopers and I am Legend, my two favorite fantasy books of all time

Seppia wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 21, 2023 7:59 am

I like dystopian future books for some reason.

There's an entire thread on that.
viewtopic.php?t=6374

Thanks, will go though it!

Seppia wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 21, 2023 7:59 am

Add starship troopers

I remember watching this movie with my uncle when we were kids. I am reading the Reacher series now for light reading so I will check this out when I am done with the series.

kawaivf1 wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 21, 2023 9:13 am

I remember watching this movie with my uncle when we were kids. I am reading the Reacher series now for light reading so I will check this out when I am done with the series.

I'm a trademark lawyer and so make my money walking the fine line between naked licensing and consumer goodwill, but even I have to blush when I read about the origin story of "Starship Troopers, the Movie." Even Wikipedia acknowledges that the whole point of the movie was to undermine the book. It's so weird how that move came to be; the tin foil hat side of me would say it is as if "they" are purposely trying to keep anyone from taking Heinlein's ideas seriously, or even talking about those ideas at all.

Starship Troopers is an easy read, but I wouldn't call it light reading, necessarily. It's absolutely one of my favorites, and I'm most certainly NOT a sci-fi guy; but I am a fan of anyone making a halfway serious attempt at dropping some philosophy bombs in a place where you wouldn't really expect it (Dune sort of fits this mold as well, IIRC; Huck Finn also).

Agreed - the book has nothing to do with the movie, they couldn’t be further apart.
The book is approximately 80000 times better.
Same as I am legend

Seppia wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 21, 2023 11:03 am

Agreed - the book has nothing to do with the movie, they couldn’t be further apart.
The book is approximately 80000 times better.
Same as I am legend

Writer: "Hmmm, I wrote a crappy screenplay, and no one wants to buy it."

Producer: "It reminds me a bit of Starship Troopers; why not just say that's what it is?"

Writer: "OK, but I really should change around a couple things to make it at least partially resemble the book."

Director: "How about instead we turn the movie into a satire of the book, subtly working to ensure that no one who sees the movie will ever want to read the book?"

@Seppia

I am Legend was a great little read.

I would add "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" as well as Mary Shelleys "Frankenstein". All three of these books as vastly better than the film adaptations.