Classics worth reading or rereading as a 40-something

[Anonymous]

East of Eden
Grapes of Wrath
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Wuthering Heights
A Separate Peace
Rebecca
1984
Lord of the Flies
Animal Farm

[Anonymous]

Anne of Green Gables. Still very funny but a different perspective on Marilla dealing with Anne creating chaos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anne of Green Gables. Still very funny but a different perspective on Marilla dealing with Anne creating chaos.

Yes me too

Im seeing through the parents' eyes, these days

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Probably not rereads but I have pretty much dedicated my life to spinster lit, which I only just learned is a thing, and anything spinster lit adjacent -- British mid-century or slightly later books about bookish, witchy, and/or loony ladies of a certain age. Recent stars for me:

Anything by Muriel Spark, Barbara Comyns, Barbara Pym
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne by Brian Moore
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Wish Her Safe At Home by Stephen Benetar
The Girls by John Bowen

I also like modern takes on this, like Stone Yard Devotional. They're just All. So. Good and I am leaning into my spinster years even if not actually one per se.

I didn't know I loved "spinster lit"! Thanks for categorizing it for me. I've read and loved everything on your list except Wish Her Safe At Home, so I'll have to check that one out.

[Anonymous]

I'm doing a 2026 project of reading Jane Austen. I just finished Pride and Prejudice and LOVED it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
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.

This post is 11 years old but I have never met anyone else who liked Stalky & Co.
Hello out there.

I was so young when I read it, it holds up?

[Anonymous]

Villette
Tess of the d’Urbervilles
My Ántonia
Light in August

[Anonymous]

I am interesting in rereading Wuthering Heights because it appears younger readers are not reading it the same way that older generations have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I read James. Then I went back and read Huck Finn. It's interesting to read the same story from different view points.

I re-read Huck Finn before reading James so I would have the original story in mind to compare as I went along through James.
I found re-reading Huck Finn almost unbearable; whereas I rather enjoyed studying it in high school English class.
I found James to be quite over-rated, personally. But I was interested in reading the story from a different viewpoint. I'm just not quite sure what I think about the viewpoint.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

I read it for the first time. Thought it would never end.