And get a book or class (the Great Courses has one) or you'll get past maybe the 1st chapter and then you'll come to a screeching halt. Unless you send for reinforcements, you won't have a clue and you'll miss a lot of what Joyce is doing. Be prepared to spend at least a month on it, although parts are fun (again, once someone tells you what's going on.) Don't worry, it's not you, it's Joyce and Ulysses.

I have this problem with Dostoyevsky. I've tried to read Crime and Punishment half a dozen times in my life, and I cannot, cannot get past the pathetic drunk in the bar, whose patheticness seems to run from about page 60 to 120 or so.

1. I love the Great Courses. If they have something on Joyce, go for it.
2. Would it help to read it while drinking at the Dubliner? Somehow I have a feeling that would help. At least drinking at the Dubliner is fun.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP once more. Take James Joyce. I look at Ulysses, and think What the hell? But, I should read it, right?

You don't just randomly read Joyce. It is no joke. I would read about 25 others before anything by him.

And get a book or class (the Great Courses has one) or you'll get past maybe the 1st chapter and then you'll come to a screeching halt. Unless you send for reinforcements, you won't have a clue and you'll miss a lot of what Joyce is doing. Be prepared to spend at least a month on it, although parts are fun (again, once someone tells you what's going on.) Don't worry, it's not you, it's Joyce and Ulysses.

I like this list from the Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/4248401/100-novels-everyone-should-read.html

Anonymous wrote:I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
Up From Slavery, by Booker T. Washington
The Souls of Black Folk, by W.E.B. DuBois
Civil Disobedience, by H.D. Thoreau

Propaganda

Wow, 21:51, you must be fun to hang out with!
You should try reading Up From Slavery, you'd like it. A lot of folks on your side use it as propaganda (or used to). At one point, it has a pretty rousing defense of separate-but-equal. And your hero Justice Thomas has a portrait of Booker T. hanging in his chambers. (Personally, I think he should swap it for Booker T. Jones. One man's opinion.)

Mark twain is a good place to start. Love his stuff - hilarious and easy to read and enjoy.

I actually enjoy his non-fiction much more than his fiction. Loved Life on the Mississippi; read it over and over. But it's true his novels are the American classics.

Anonymous wrote:Can't believe I haven't seen Wuthering Heights on this list. I was an English lit major and this was my favorite.

Look again. It's been mentioned more than once, lol.

Never hated anything more in my life. I dropped freshman English and moved to a sophomore composition class to avoid having to finish it.

Anonymous wrote:OP according to your. Riteria I'm not well read at all, even though I read 2-3 books each week. I have no desire to read any of those books, and it's never a problem conversationally. Just read what you like. Enjoy reading.

+1 I read a few books a month but nothing that would be on this thread. Oh well.

Anonymous wrote:Can't believe I haven't seen Wuthering Heights on this list. I was an English lit major and this was my favorite.

Look again. It's been mentioned more than once, lol.

I'm terms of the Greek and Roman classics, add the Aeneid to the Iliad and Odyssey. But keep in mind that you want to find a "good translation" of these epic poems. Often translators strive to be very accurate to the text and the English comes out a little awkward. Or they try to put It into poetry which is fine but maybe a bit stilted sometimes. So try to see which translation is better reviewed, and see if they contain useful footnotes to explain things which may be hard to pick up without being a history major.
Ovid's Metamorphoses retells a lot of myths, and Plutarch provided some short biographies of Caesar, Cicero, and many other Romans of the time. (My paperback has them all in one volume.). You might really like these, OP, if you have a interest in history. I personally have never read Caesar's own writings about his campaigns. While generations of British schoolboys learned Latin through the originals of these, i have not been inclined to pore through military history.Roman history is fascinating to me, though.
More recently, agree with to kill a mockingbird. Loved it! Also tale of two cities and hamlet, the last one so embedded in modern culture that it's worth knowing about.

Don't forget Oscar Wilde!

Mark twain is a good place to start. Love his stuff - hilarious and easy to read and enjoy.

Anonymous wrote:OP once more. Take James Joyce. I look at Ulysses, and think What the hell? But, I should read it, right?

You don't just randomly read Joyce. It is no joke. I would read about 25 others before anything by him.

Anonymous wrote:I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
Up From Slavery, by Booker T. Washington
The Souls of Black Folk, by W.E.B. DuBois
Civil Disobedience, by H.D. Thoreau

Propaganda

Anonymous wrote:French lit major hear agreeing with English lit major*: Read what you like. A lot of classics are not my cup of tea. Currently reading Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio. If you like biography, you might like memoir. Liar's Club (Mary Karr) and This Boy's Life (Tobias Wolff) are classics in that genre. Two of my favorite books. I also loved Gertrude Stein's Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. It is one of the funniest books I have ever read in my life.

* Did you try Joyce's Dubliners? More accessible than the rest.

Looooove Sherwood Anderson!