Just bought 100 classic books! What should I read first?

[Dream]

I recently picked up 100 Classic Books for the DS. It's really cool, since it has 100 classic books that I can read off the DS, plus another 10 that I downloaded off Wi-fi. I've only read a handful of them in the past, but that is going to change now I have this game. Which of these books should I check out first?

Spoiler: List of books

Little Women Louisa May Alcott
Emma Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz L. Frank Baum
Lorna Doone R. D. Blackmore
Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë
Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë
Little Lord Fauntleroy Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett
Tales from the Arabian Nights Richard Francis Burton
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll
Through the Looking-Glass Lewis Carroll
Don Quixote of La Mancha Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
The Man Who Was Thursday G.K. Chesterton
The Napoleon of Notting Hill G.K. Chesterton
The Awakening Kate Chopin
The Moonstone Wilkie Collins
The Woman in White Wilkie Collins
Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad
Lord Jim Joseph Conrad
The Deerslayer James Fenimore Cooper
The Last of the Mohicans James Fenimore Cooper
The Red Badge of Courage Stephen Crane
The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders Daniel Defoe
Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe
Bleak House Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens
David Copperfield Charles Dickens
Great Expectations Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens
The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle
The Hound of the Baskervilles Arthur Conan Doyle
The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas
The Man in the Iron Mask Alexandre Dumas
Middlemarch George Eliot
Silas Marner George Eliot
The Diary of a Nobody George Grossmith and Weedon Grossmith
Allan Quatermain Henry Rider Haggard
King Solomon's Mines Henry Rider Haggard
Far from the Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy
Tess of the D'Urbervilles Thomas Hardy
The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne
Tanglewood Tales for Girls and Boys Nathaniel Hawthorne
A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Four Million O. Henry
The Odyssey Homer
The Prisoner of Zenda Anthony Hope
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame Victor Hugo
Les Misérables Victor Hugo
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon Washington Irving
The Aspern Papers Henry James
The Turn of the Screw Henry James
The Jungle Book Rudyard Kipling
Kim Rudyard Kipling
The Man Who Would Be King Rudyard Kipling
The Phantom of the Opera Gaston Leroux
The Call of the Wild Jack London
White Fang Jack London
The Princess and Curdie George MacDonald
The Princess and the Goblin George MacDonald
The Prince Niccolò Machiavelli
Moby Dick Herman Melville
Utopia Thomas More
Rights of Man Thomas Paine
Tales of Mystery and Imagination Edgar Allan Poe
Ivanhoe Sir Walter Scott
Waverley Sir Walter Scott
Black Beauty Anna Sewell
Hamlet William Shakespeare
King Lear William Shakespeare
MacBeth William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night's Dream William Shakespeare
Othello, The Moore of Venice William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare
The Taming of the Shrew William Shakespeare
The Tempest William Shakespeare
Frankenstein Mary Shelley
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson
Kidnapped Robert Louis Stevenson
Dracula Bram Stoker
Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe
Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift
Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray
Walden Henry David Thoreau
Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace Leo Tolstoy
Barchester Towers Anthony Trollope
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Mark Twain
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Mark Twain
Journey to the Center of the Earth Jules Verne
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Jules Verne
The Time Machine H.G. Wells
The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton
The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde

Spoiler: 10 books downloaded from Wi-fi

The Secret Agent Joseph Conrad
Nicholas Nickleby Charles Dickens
The Three Musketeers Alexandre Dumas
Just So Stories Rudyard Kipling
Twelfth Night William Shakespeare
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman Laurence Sterne
Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson
The Prince and the Pauper Mark Twain
Around the World in Eighty Days Jules Verne
The Happy Prince and Other Stories Oscar Wilde

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Re: 100 Classic Books! Which of these books are must reads?

A comment on a few that I've read (and feel like commenting on):

Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad

I feel Heart of Darkness is almost the Citizen Kane of books. Really worth reading, but it comes off as long and slow when you're in the middle of it. I think the writing style is good and the book is compelling, but, at the same time, it strikes me as unnecessarily verbose.

A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens

A good story, but there's been so many renditions of it I can't even say for sure that it's necessary to read it instead of watch a TV version.

Great Expectations Charles Dickens

Another book that's quite good, but, at the same time, very draining. I think it's full of interesting characters and I like Pip for the most part. I wonder if it's emphasis on class struggles is as relevant to today's world, however.

The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne

Truly, truly awful book. There are not enough negative things I could possibly say about this one. Intentionally archaic style (it wasn't something to do with when it was written, he made it tougher to read because he thought it was better that way). Pages of painful description with nothing happening and no dialogue. The book drags on and on. It's extremely depressing. It might have a good message (actually, I think it does), but it gets dragged down under its own weight. Plus, it seems quite surreal at times. You almost expected it to be a fantasy book about some demon child, which distracts from the serious point of the hypocritical nature of puritan society. Genuinely shitty book. I haven't read it in years and just thinking about it gives me shivers.

 

[DevilEyes]

Re: 100 Classic Books! Which of these books are must reads?

I'm ashamed to admit that there are quite a few I haven't read from that list. Out of those I have, here are some suggestions:

Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë (forget the sugary, watered-down film adaptations. The novel is a masterpiece. It has a very modern structure with a few unreliable narrators, and it can be seen as a dark family saga, revenge story, Gothic tale, rather disturbing semi-incestuous romance, or a very symbolic and subversive story about the clash between Nature and Society. Oh, and whatever you've seen on screen, Heathcliff is not a white English guy!)
Great Expectations Charles Dickens
Tess of the D'Urbervilles Thomas Hardy
Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift
Hamlet William Shakespeare
King Lear William Shakespeare
MacBeth William Shakespeare
Othello, The Moore of Venice William Shakespeare
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Mark Twain (Huckleberry Finn is better, but Tom Sawyer comes before it so it's nice to read it first)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain
Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace Leo Tolstoy (warning: some parts in volume 3 and 4 are very boring. Basically, there are lots of chapters where he just takes a break from the story and goes on and on about his views about history)
The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne (I love this book, but it's not for everyone; it has a unique style and it's very depressing)
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman Laurence Sterne (if you are in the mood for something really wacky)

 

[stj]

Re: 100 Classic Books! Which of these books are must reads?

Must? There is no must in novels.

Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Prince, The Rights of Man, Connecticut Yankee and Gulliver's Travels I would think are highly desirable reading, in the sense of deepening one's understanding of humanity.

The same is reported of Don Quixote which is on my to read (someday) list, but like the Tolstoy, the question of which translation (or type font, cheap versions of foreign classics are often hard on my eyes,) tends to stump me.

The "Novel Without a Hero" aka Vanity Fair is a wonderful corrective to the popular idea that absence of moralizing is pretty much the same as being a sociopath.

That said, my favorites might be the original mystery novels The Moonstone and The Woman in White.

 

[Gecko of Gorn]

Re: 100 Classic Books! Which of these books are must reads?

No Blood Meridian?

 

[Mistral]

Re: 100 Classic Books! Which of these books are must reads?

I would suggest The Secret Garden and one that isn't on the 100 list-The Wind In the Willows.

I've read about half of your list and, other than the classic sci-fi, I found those two novels the most interesting.

Gulliver's Travels was great. I read Black Beauty about 6 times as a kid. Ivanhoe was a lot of fun when I was twelve- I don't know how it would go down now.

 

[SiorX]

Since it's nearly Halloween, I'd go with Turn of the Screw, Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde or indeed Wuthering Heights.

A lot of your classics there are nineteenth century. You could start with the end of the century (Wells, Conrad, Kipling, Stoker etc) and work your way back. If you've not read a lot of Victorian lit before, that method can ease you in a bit. The downside of that method is that it takes forever to get to Austen.

 

[trekkiebaggio]

The Odyssey is my favourite book of all-time so I'd have to say that one.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Hm, there are some I definitely wouldn't want to waste my time reading, starting with Dickens, Dostoyevsky, Hawthorne and Austen, and I would have to feel very motivated to tackle Tolstoy also. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure its literatary value is very high and all that, but come on... Isn't reading fiction supposed to be somewhat entertaining?

And is there anybody here who's read Moby Dick? I was supposed to read that for school once, I don't know if my teacher just wanted to punish me or something, but it's ridiculously verbose and boring; one of the few books I started but didn't finish. Honestly, just watch the movie.

 

[Smiley]

Dracula, A Christmas Carol, The Time Machine, and the Holmes stories are worth checking out.

 

[CaptainCanada]

Lot of Victorian stuff there. I read Tolstoy's War and Peace earlier this year; big undertaking, but it's an interesting read (and you get to say that you read it).

The Count of Monte Cristo is another big book; despite the fact that it's been adapted so many times, it's like 1000 pages long, and there's tons of stuff there that isn't in any of the film adaptations.

 

[SiorX]

Hm, there are some I definitely wouldn't want to waste my time reading, starting with Dickens, Dostoyevsky, Hawthorne and Austen, and I would have to feel very motivated to tackle Tolstoy also. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure its literatary value is very high and all that, but come on... Isn't reading fiction supposed to be somewhat entertaining?

Dickens and Austen not entertaining? For shame, Sir!

And is there anybody here who's read Moby Dick? I was supposed to read that for school once, I don't know if my teacher just wanted to punish me or something, but it's ridiculously verbose and boring; one of the few books I started but didn't finish. Honestly, just watch the movie.

I've read Moby Dick. Truthfully, I found it a hard slog. But I did feel terribly virtuous having finished it.

 

[I Grok Spock]

Screw that crap. I recommend Gym, Tanning, Laundry: The Official Jersey Shore Quote Book.

 

[Top41]

^LOL! A must read if there ever was one.

The Victorians get a bad rap, quite unfairly IMO. There's plenty of sex and intrigue and humor in Victorian-era novels. A bunch of my favorites are on the list, but I'd recommend starting with one of these two:

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. Yes, Dickens is verbose. He's also funny and smart and writes characters that leap off the page. And his books are page-turners... they were serialized (published in parts in magazines) so every few chapters leaves off on a cliffhanger. Plus, David is one of the most human, most lovable characters in literature IMO.

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. This is just a great thriller, more exciting than most of the books that get billed as page turners these days. Victorian suspense and melodrama at its best!

There are many, many others on the list that are great. You got an excellent selection!

 

[Joy]

Anything by Mark Twain. (Tom Sawyer before Huck Finn, though, of course)

 

[Kirkman1987]

Anything by Mark Twain. (Tom Sawyer before Huck Finn, though, of course)

This. I am biased in that I was raised in Missouri and Mark Twain was shoved down our throats in school at every opportunity.

As it's Halloween, check out Jekyll and Hyde. It's an excellent and short read.

I also love the Sherlock Holmes stories, and you can't go wrong with Jules Verne and H.G. Wells.

 

[CaptainCanada]

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a bit of an oddity to modern readers, because the story is incredibly famous, but in the original it's a mystery that's only revealed in the last few pages, so there's no drama to it at all.

 

[Spot's Meow]

I really have to suggest Turn of the Screw by Henry James. It's one of my favorite books. It's just such a good read, and it's not too long, so you can probably get through it pretty quick.

I also recommend, as your first or second book, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I'm usually not one for books that are mostly made up of "thoughts" rather than "events," I prefer something to actually happen instead of just following someone's state of mind, but this book was an exception for me. You really feel like you are there feeling and thinking what the main character is, and it's not pleasant. It's such an interesting perspective though and different from any other book I've ever read.

 

[James Tiberius Kirk]

Of your list, I'd specifically recommend Tess of the D'Urbervilles, which is a book I greatly enjoyed, well paced and plotted with a good message. I can't echo the praise for Wuthering Heights, I found it an excruciating bore, populated by completely unsympathetic and uninteresting characters.

 

[stj]

All the Victorians on the list are excellent: Only the best ones are still with us.