Classics worth reading or rereading as a 40-something
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Anonymous
| The Grapes of Wrath. I read it in high school and really liked it. I just reread it again (I'm now in my mid-30s) and got so much more out of it. Parts of it are just hilarious, I was laughing out loud. Other parts made me really stop and think about my grandparents' generation and how much times have changed. When I read that book in high school, reflecting on the Depression and the dust bowl era didn't seem like so far away. But I think about if my kids read that in high school - they will be reading about events that happened 100 years ago. I just don't know if it will have the same meaning for them. |
Anonymous
| Catcher in the Rye. Seemed pointless as a teenager(abd sexually shocking!), profound and insightful in my 30s. |
Anonymous
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I have always re-read my favorite classics, and know next to nothing of contemporary authors. Bleak House Little Dorrit Jane Austen, including the amusing unfinished Lady Susan, her only anti-heroine. Oscar Wilde, including his delightful Fairy Tales for children, that you can read aloud to your own children. Rudyard Kipling, my favorite being the little known Stalky and Co. James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. |
Anonymous
It will happen again in their lifetime. The book will be a good advance look. |
Anonymous
| don quixote, huck finn, the metamorphosis |
Anonymous
Ooh, yes, love Wharton. It's been too long. |
Anonymous
| A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Never read it as a teenager and saw it at the library recently - decided to give it a try. What a wonderful, sad, funny, touching book. I just loved it and keep thinking about it. |
Anonymous
I loved that book too. The movie was quite well done as well: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038190/?ref_=nv_sr_1 |
Anonymous
| Brave New World ... are we there yet? |
Anonymous
I came on here to post The House of Mirth. |
Anonymous
| Who is John Galt? Atlas Shrugged |
Anonymous
| Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. Fabulous book. |
Anonymous
| I reread Middlemarch every few years--the older I get, the more I appreciate it. Also liked The Master and Margarita, Bleak House, Anna Karenina, Emma, Vanity Fair, The Woman in White, The Way We Live Now, Jude the Obscure, Mrs. Dalloway, The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, Portrait of a Lady, The House of Mirth, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Catch-22, All the King's Men, Brideshead Revisited. |
Anonymous
This has been my favorite book for 20+ years. I reread it every couple years and always find something new. Loved Watership Down as an adult. |
Anonymous
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The Great Gatsby
Anna Karenina The Awakening Huck Finn Sense and Sensibility Howards End One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich DH is reading Moby Dick and loves it. |