The last "classic" book I read was The Brothers Karamazov. Great book overall, but it took me like a year to read it since it was so boring and longwinded.
So now I'm looking for something a little more approachable. Suggestions?
The Count of Monte Cristo would probably be a good choice. The story is, although not hard to predict, really absorbing and nothing is overly complex or inaccessible or anything.
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"Virtue, Jacques, is an excellent thing. Both good people and wicked people speak highly of it..."
For readability, try some of the early-to-mid-20th-Century stuff. Mark Twain and Harper Lee if you haven't already, Hemingway, Jack London, Fitzgerald, Vonnegut, et cetera. Kerouac's a little offbeat, but good if you're into that kind of thing. On the other side of the pond, there's writers like Shaw, Chesterton, Churchill, and of course Orwell. Avoid Melville, Faulkner, Nabokov, and any Frenchman.
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Vive, vale. Siquid novisti rectius istis,
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
For readability, try some of the early-to-mid-20th-Century stuff. Mark Twain and Harper Lee if you haven't already, Hemingway, Jack London, Fitzgerald, Vonnegut, et cetera. Kerouac's a little offbeat, but good if you're into that kind of thing. On the other side of the pond, there's writers like Shaw, Chesterton, Churchill, and of course Orwell. Avoid Melville, Faulkner, Nabokov, and any Frenchman.
As a native Mississippian and an Ole Miss alum, I really want to disagree or take issue with your condemnation of Faulkner. Unfortunately you're right as far as I'm concerned.
The Influence of Sea Power Upon History by Alfred Mahan
The Naval War of 1812 by Theodore Roosevelt
On War by Carl von Clausewitz
The Art of War by Atoine-Henri Jomini
The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China translated by Ralph D Sawyer
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
The two works inspired Navalism and American naval policy, Jomini's work influenced American military campaigns until he was eclipsed by Clausewitz (who was influenced indirectly by Kant and he in turn influenced Mahan), and the Seven Military Classics are a fun little read. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie is today a conservative classic about the welfare state.
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Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.
Individualities may form communities, but it is institutions alone that can create a nation.
Nothing succeeds like the appearance of success.
Here is my principle: Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle.
Not sure which kind of classics you like... But from the 100 best novels list:
The highest ranked book on the editors list that I actually enjoyed a lot was "The heart is a lonely hunter" by Carson McCullers. Just a very emotionally real book. I think this will remain a classic for a long time.
I find it interesting that of all the "great novelists" preceding the 20th century, for ME, by far the most accessible, and least "dated" is Jane Austen. I have a feeling they will still be remaking "EMMA" in the 22nd century.
As a native Mississippian and an Ole Miss alum, I really want to disagree or take issue with your condemnation of Faulkner. Unfortunately you're right as far as I'm concerned.
I'm a Cornell alum myself. I used to walk by Nabokov's old office almost every day. I feel ya.
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Vive, vale. Siquid novisti rectius istis,
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
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So now I'm looking for something a little more approachable. Suggestions?
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candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
As a native Mississippian and an Ole Miss alum, I really want to disagree or take issue with your condemnation of Faulkner. Unfortunately you're right as far as I'm concerned.
The Influence of Sea Power Upon History by Alfred Mahan
The Naval War of 1812 by Theodore Roosevelt
On War by Carl von Clausewitz
The Art of War by Atoine-Henri Jomini
The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China translated by Ralph D Sawyer
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
The two works inspired Navalism and American naval policy, Jomini's work influenced American military campaigns until he was eclipsed by Clausewitz (who was influenced indirectly by Kant and he in turn influenced Mahan), and the Seven Military Classics are a fun little read. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie is today a conservative classic about the welfare state.
Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.
Individualities may form communities, but it is institutions alone that can create a nation.
Nothing succeeds like the appearance of success.
Here is my principle: Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle.
The highest ranked book on the editors list that I actually enjoyed a lot was "The heart is a lonely hunter" by Carson McCullers. Just a very emotionally real book. I think this will remain a classic for a long time.
I find it interesting that of all the "great novelists" preceding the 20th century, for ME, by far the most accessible, and least "dated" is Jane Austen. I have a feeling they will still be remaking "EMMA" in the 22nd century.
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.