Fall in love with a good book
I feel one of the saddest effects of modern society has been to take young people away from the joy of reading great novels. So I'll start with telling you about my own novel-reading journey. I read a few great novels while in high school. At that time they were regularly assigned to students in English classes. I don't know if they still are where you were educated, but I discovered that my youngest children were not assigned to read novels while in high school. This not only shocked and appalled me, but it actually frightened me. What has our world come to if great literature is not valued?
When I graduated from high school in 1970 I was not into novels, or reading, or much of anything good. I drifted for a few years, unable to find what I wanted to do in life. One day I made the decision to quit smoking. At the same approximate time I got hold of a copy of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. This amazing novel about the French revolution starts with the infamous line, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." For me, that was a true summation of my condition. It was the worst of times because I had to quit smoking. It was the best of times because I discovered the great joy of getting emotionally tied up in the pages of a great novel.
I've read many of the world's classics since then. Here are a few that I believe should be on everyone's must-read list, unless of course, you've already read them.
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What you'll find here:
- Charles Dickens' Classic About the French Revolution
- A Boy Discovers the Horrors of War
- Big Brother Is Watching YOU
- A Family's Survival Despite Abject Poverty
- A Woman Learns About Love The Hard Way
- Paramedic Falls In Love
- The Amazing Story of Buddha
- A Man's Search For Family
- Alabama Growing Up Story
- Did You Ever Think From A Dog's Perspective?
- Your Turn To Vote
How this lens is organized
These are not presented in any particular order - in other words, I didn't put my favorites first.
Charles Dickens' Classic About the French Revolution
A Tale of Two Cities
by Charles Dickens
You'll learn what it was like to live in Paris at that time, juxtaposed with chapters about life in London. Besides the contrast in the two cities, you get a contrast between people - from the pure and innocent, to the wickedly hateful. The novel is not cheerful or light hearted, but is a good witness to the best and worst in the human condition.
Charles Dickens wrote many other wonderful novels. I'll also recommend Oliver Twist and David Copperfield.
Charles Dickens
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Charles Dickens :: A Life Documented
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Charles Dickens documented his own life in his novels, which are quite autobiographical. You can also trace his actual life, family and travels through genealogy records and documents available online. Photos and proof of Dickens' life are presented...
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Charles Dickens and his books
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When the internet has become popular for selling downloads of novels chapter by chapter, or Amazon is selling chapters on Kindle it is a practice that Charles Dickens started as a popular format for selling his fiction in periodicals. Unlike other au...
A Boy Discovers the Horrors of War
The Red Badge of Courage
by Stephen Crane
If you are just starting to get into reading classics, this is an attention-grabbing short read that will bring you closer to an understanding of the reality of what the Civil War was about, and what all fighting is about.
Big Brother Is Watching YOU
1984
by George Orwell
Orwell also wrote Animal Farm - a much shorter novel about how power corrupts. The characters are all animals - a strange thing in a novel intended for adults. I consider both his books to be VITAL reading for informed citizens.
A Family's Survival Despite Abject Poverty
The Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck
Of course I recommend all other Steinbeck stories and novels too, for example, Cannery Row and East of Eden.
A Woman Learns About Love The Hard Way
Gone With The Wind
by Margaret Mitchell
Warning: You won't want this novel to end.
Paramedic Falls In Love
A Farewell To Arms
...by Ernest Hemingway
This is another war story - this one takes place in Europe during World War I. The main character, an ambulance driver, falls in love with a nurse. Through his somewhat detached viewpoint you see the terrors and traumas of war at that time. Hemingway was very young when he wrote this novel, but his amazing unique writing style is something to learn from and enjoy.
I also recommend The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway - a much shorter book, in case you want to start with something less intimidating than A Farewell to Arms.
The Amazing Story of Buddha
Siddhartha
...by Herman Hesse
A Man's Search For Family
Cry, The Beloved Country
by Alan Paton
Alabama Growing Up Story
My Squid-Lit Lens on To Kill A Mockingbird
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To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
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She said it was a love story, but most people think of it as a great classic of Southern life. She never had another book published, yet this one, written early in life, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961--the highest honor for great literatu...
To Kill A Mockingbird
by Harper Lee
Did You Ever Think From A Dog's Perspective?
The Call of the Wild
by Jack London
Jack London, once a citizen of the town in which I was born, Oakland, California, wrote all his amazing classic stories early in life, and died at the very young age of 40, in November 1916.
Your Turn To Vote
...also you can add classic books you recommend.
You can vote for books you want to read, or books you already read that you thought were great. You can also add classic books you think others will enjoy.
1984 by George Orwell
George Orwell's prophetic, nightmarish vision of "Negative Utopia" is timelier than ever-and its warnings more powerful.11 points
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
"When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.... When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident. I maintain that the Ewells started it all, but Jem, who was four years my senior, said it started long before that. He said it began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out."Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the D...6 points
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Richard Maxwell.5 points
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
First published in 1903, The Call of the Wild is regarded as Jack London's masterpiece. Based on London's experiences as a gold prospector in the Canadian wilderness and his ideas about nature and the struggle for existence, The Call of the Wild is a tale about unbreakable spirit and the fight for survival in the frozen Alaskan Klondike.5 points
Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Please visit www.ArcManor.com for more books by this and other great authors5 points
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
MAXnotes offer a fresh look at masterpieces of literature, presented in a lively and interesting fashion. Written by literary experts who currently teach the subject, MAXnotes will enhance your understanding and enjoyment of the work. MAXnotes are designed to stimulate independ ent thought about the literary work by raising various issues and thought-provoking ideas and questions. MAXnotes cover the essentials of what one should know about each work, including an overall summary, character lists...3 points
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Margaret Mitchell's epic novel of love and war won the Pulitzer Prize and went on to give rise to two authorized sequels and one of the most popular and celebrated movies of all time. Many novels have been written about the Civil War and its aftermath. None take us into the burning fields and cities of the American South as Gone With the Wind does, creating haunting scenes and thrilling portraits of characters so vivid that we remember their words and feel their fear and hunger for the rest of o...3 points
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
In the novel, Siddhartha, a young man, leaves his family for a contemplative life, then, restless, discards it for one of the flesh. He conceives a son, but bored and sickened by lust and greed, moves on again. Near despair, Siddhartha comes to a river where he hears a unique sound. This sound signals the true beginning of his life -- the beginning of suffering, rejection, peace, and, finally, wisdom.2 points
Jane Eyre (Dover Thrift Editions) by Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë characterized the eponymous heroine of her 1847 novel as being "as poor and plain as myself." Presenting a heroine with neither great beauty nor entrancing charm was an unprecendented maneuver, but Brontë's instincts proved correct, for readers of her era and ever after have taken Jane Eyre into their hearts. The author drew upon her own experience to depict Jane's struggles at Lowood, an oppressive boarding school, and her troubled career as a governess. Unlike Jane, Brontë had...2 points
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
Following its initial appearance in serial form, Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage was published as a complete work in 1895 and quickly became the benchmark for modern anti-war literature. Although the exact battle is never identified, Crane based this story of a soldier's experiences during the American Civil War on the 1863 Battle of Chancellorsville. Many veterans, both Union and Confederate, praised the book's accurate representation of war.1 point
A Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway
The best American novel to emerge from World War I, A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse. Hemingway's frank portrayal of the love between Lieutenant Henry and Catherine Barkley, caught in the inexorable sweep of war, glows with an intensity unrivaled in modern literature, while his description of the German attack on Caporetto -- of lines of fired men marching in the rain, hungry, weary, a...1 point
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
A cry for attention to a sad, culture-destroying apathy during the era of Apartheid in South Africa.1 point
A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
The early masterpiece of V. S. Naipaul's brilliant career, A House for Mr. Biswas is an unforgettable story inspired by Naipaul's father that has been hailed as one of the twentieth century's finest novels.
In his forty-six short years, Mr. Mohun Biswas has been fighting against destiny to achieve some semblance of independence, only to face a lifetime of calamity. Shuttled from one residence to another after the drowning death of his father, for which he is inadvertently responsible, Mr. Bi...1 point
The Third Witch: A Novel by Rebecca Reisert
If you like history, Shakespeare and fiction, you may enjoy this book as much as I just did.
In this stirring debut novel, Rebecca Reisert enters the world of Shakespeare's Macbeth, in which a young woman's search for vengeance plunges her into a legendary tale of deceit, murder, and retribution....1 point
The Horse Whisperer (Penguin Readers, Level 3) by Evans
The extraordinary first novel that is taking the publishing and film worlds by storm, The Horse Whisperer is at once a gripping adventure and an epic love story that weaves an incredible tale of healing and redemption, an emotional journey that explores our ancient bonds with earth and sky and hearts untamed.1 point
Do you love to read?
Here's a short poll. I am guessing that most people who come to a lens like this are avid readers, but let's find out for sure.
Links to sites about the books I've featured here
- A Tale of Two Cities - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- A Tale of Two Cities From Wikipedia
More Classics...
- Befriending the Bard
- How to read Shakespeare with understanding rather than with dread.
- Classical Library - Author Index
- Author Index for The Classical Library -
Online Editions of the Great Books - Bleak House
- Bleak House is a satirical look at the complicated legal system in London as it consumes the minds and talents of the greedy and nearly destroys the lives of innocents.Dickens's tale takes us from the foggy streets of 19th century London and the maze of the Inns of Court to the peaceful countryside
Thanks for visiting my lens!
I love good novels and if you're reading this lens, I'm sure you do too. Feel free to mention the names of novels you loved in your comments (see below). I'm always looking for something exciting to read.I just finished re-reading: To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and now I'm reading: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
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Your comments are welcome!
...I'd like to get to know you.
Please let me know what you thought of those novels (if you've read them) or better yet, recommend a great classic novel for me to read!
puzzlemaker wrote...
I love how you titled your modules with a short description of the book, and not the book titles. Genius.
KimGiancaterino wrote...
Blessed... I'm featuring this lens on my Squid Angel Diary this week.
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