Book recommendations

[the_tyrant]

Hello guys, I need your help in selecting a good book for my English class

Of the books I am looking at right now, these are the ones that I am considering. Either because I like the author, or my friends recommend them.:

Nostromo
Lord Jim
The Secret Agent
Catch 22
Atlas Shrugged
The Jungle
Brave New World
Lolita (A friend really recommends it, and my teacher says she is fine with it)

Ideas? thanks!

[Falkirion]

Can't say I've read any of them myself. I always recommend Matt Reilly's works for a good action read though if you want a fast paced story you can't put down.

[Herr-Berbunch]

I've only read Catch 22 and Brave New World - I think the latter must have been done to death in schools around the globe so I'd recommend Joseph Heller's finest. :yep:

But Lolita sure would be tempting... :hmmm:

[Stealhead]

I'd go with Nostromo it is less well known than the other books and has an interesting plot.

[Sailor Steve]

Catch-22 is not only a good read, it will keep you entertained and laughing.

[kiwi_2005]

Catch 22. Ive seen the movie but never read the book, I thought the movie was pretty good, usually the book is always better.

[Sailor Steve]

Catch 22. Ive seen the movie but never read the book, I thought the movie was pretty good, usually the book is always better.
In this case the book isn't necessarily better, but the movie only covers half of what's in the book, if that much. The book is much more rich in characters and goings-on.

[Tribesman]

Hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy.

[Onkel Neal]

Hello guys, I need your help in selecting a good book for my English class

Of the books I am looking at right now, these are the ones that I am considering. Either because I like the author, or my friends recommend them.:

Nostromo
Lord Jim
The Secret Agent
Catch 22
Atlas Shrugged
The Jungle
Brave New World
Lolita (A friend really recommends it, and my teacher says she is fine with it)

Ideas? thanks!

I suggest Catch 22, The Jungle, or Lord Jim.

All these are great choices (have not read Nostromo). Atlas Shrugged is a powerful book, exploring some fundamental truths, but very long and in many places, the pacing is brutal. Lolita is a great study of obsession.

Let us know what you select and how it spoke to you.

[Esanssi]

I finished reading 'In Cold Blood' a month or so ago. A very interesting read and you should definitely consider that unless you have of course already read it yourself. Capote translated the facts very well into a non-fiction novel.

Other than that, I'm a fairly 'trashy' reader, consuming Sven Hassel by the bookful while sinking my teeth into Robert Harris' work every now and then(currently reading 'Imperium').

Next on my list is either the sequel to 'Imperium' or 'Grapes of Wrath'. Both are on my to-read list, but now's the time to decide which I read first. :haha:

[kranz]

You can skip Joseph Conrad. I'm finishing my M.A about his colonial (and not only) novels and they are a waste of time.
Brave New World- a nice read in terms of anti-utopian matters, tho there are better stories.

[Osmium Steele]

I'd recommend The Killer Angels and Ender's Game.

I consider both works to be as just as important as any of the titles listed above, half of which I've read and own.

[mookiemookie]

I'd go with Brave New World. It's very pertinent to today's world.

[Egan]

This is for a high school class?

*Puts on TLS reader's hat*

My dear boy, what a ghastly list....I can't imagine why any friend would recommend Lolita when there are far finer places to start with Nabokov...and Atlas Shrugged isn't a novel - it's something the right try to frighten liberals with (although it doesn't work because it's awful.)

*Takes of jaunty hat*

It wouldn't be a list of my first choices, although Catch 22 is a brilliant book. Out of the bunch of sorry characters you have there I would go with that one. Be warned, though, it's a book that seems to divide like no other; for every person I know who loves it, there is somebody else who hates it with a passion.

No Orwell? Unforgivable. :D Especially seeing as you have Brave New World there which still seems to me little more than a pale shadow of Zamyatin's 'We.' I'd put Animal Farm on there, or even 1984, before Brave New World.

How about:

Tender is the Night - Fitzgerald

Heart of the Matter - Graham Greene

Animal Farm - George Orwell

A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

Ask the Dust - John Fante

I orginally put a couple of more left-field choices but these are pretty much the books I remember reading for various projects in school. (except for Ask the Dust which I believe to be the forgotten Great-American-Novel by a writer who is every bit as good as Fitzgerald.

Let us know what you read and what you thought. We expect at least 1500 worlds with double spacing and sources!

[kranz]

P.S. concerning Joseph Conrad- dunno why did you take Lord Jim (ok, many ppl say it's the best of his novels), Nostromo (in a nutshell- a hodge-podge in at least 3-4 themes, hard to read etc...)and The Secret Agent (I have read only fragments) but if you really want to read something by Conrad I would go for The Heart Of Darkness plus An Outpost of Progress. If you read one you must somehow read the other. Much shorter than your selection but they also have a vast range of topics to discuss(the European colonialism, the condition of European conscience concerning slavery etc). There are also many good (short and not only) stories concerning "otherness" but dealing with the Malayan area. And the selection of possible stories is much bigger.

[krashkart]

<snip>dunno why did you take Lord Jim</snip>

I wonder if it's about our very own jimbuna? :hmmm:

[frau kaleun]

I love Joseph Conrad. That is all. :DL







Seriously though if you want Conrad and haven't yet read Heart of Darkness I'd start there. I would also recommend much of Heller's work so Catch-22 is definitely a good choice IMO.

Are you free to choose any book you want (assuming it's considered a "classic" worthy of being read for class)? Because then the possibilities are... endless.

[Egan]

Being rude about Atlas Shrugged reminded me of this quote:


There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Atlas Shrugged.’ One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.


:O::D.

Frau has a good point: Is it a totally free choice or are there some guidelines you have to stick too? I'm assuming 1000 days of sodomy would probably be frowned upon? :DL

[kranz]

Are you free to choose any book you want (assuming it's considered a "classic" worthy of being read for class)? Because then the possibilities are... endless.
this.
I would go for: The Grapes of Wrath, Rabbit Run (or anything by Updike), Master and Margarita, 1984, Great Expectations (yeah, Dickens ftw), The High Rise ( this one kicks a...tho I'm not a fan of Ballard), The Glass Room, The Man in the High Castle,The Lord of the Flies (someone has already mentioned it I guess)...

[Skybird]

School classes and literature. You can burn young people so easily and never have them reading a book voluntarily... Keep them interested! At the same time it should allow the teacher to hold up something that can be debated about and can be conmpared, and made a lecture on.


Ray Bradbury: The Martian Chronicles

T. Williams: The Cat on the Hot Tin Roof

David Lindsay: The Haunted Woman


Judging by own school experience, I wold generally saY: avoid the "typical old classics", they do more damage for most students than they do good for a few: too boring, leaving students to be too desinterested. Young people interested in classic literature will discover and explore it all by themselves when time is ripe for it. Do never force this old heavy stuff onto the young minds.



And as a special tip for the more exotically interested class or for what in German would be called "Leistungskurs":

Mervyn Peake: Gormenghast 1, and if time and interest allows: 2 (skipping 3 is no loss). Its because of the intense and artistic narration and verbal description of characters and places, both of which is magnificent.

[Oberon]

:hmmm: Tricky question. Catch-22 is a very good book, although I found it a bit hard to get into, however that was a long time ago, I imagine if I tried again now I might find it easier.

I'm going to be epically bias here and recommend The War of the Worlds. It's a good read, well described and opens up some questions about the sociopolitical goings on at the time the novel was written (Colonization being chief among them).

[Egan]

Oh yes, War of the Worlds! Superb novel. I'm long overdue another read of it.

[BossMark]

I will recommend this author and all his books
Sven Hassel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sven_Hassel

[Skybird]

I will recommend this author and all his books
Sven Hassel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sven_Hassel

--->
"
The Danish writer Erik Haaest (http://www.subsim.com/wiki/Erik_Haaest) has been disputing Hassel's claims for many years.[4] (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/#cite_note-3)
Haaest writes that Sven Hassel is actually Børge Villy Redsted Pedersen, a Danish Nazi (http://www.subsim.com/wiki/Nazism) who never served on the Russian (http://www.subsim.com/wiki/Russia) front. According to Haaest, the author spent the majority of World War II in occupied Denmark (http://www.subsim.com/wiki/Denmark) and his knowledge of warfare comes second-hand from Danish Waffen SS (http://www.subsim.com/wiki/Waffen_SS) veterans whom he met after the end of the war. Haaest also alleges that Hassel's first novel was ghostwritten (http://www.subsim.com/wiki/Ghostwriter) and when it became a success, he employed his wife to write the rest of his books.
In 2007 the Danish Arts Council was criticized for providing funding to Haaest for research into Danes who served in the SS, on the grounds that Haaest had stated that the concentration camp gas chambers never existed and that the Diary of Anne Frank (http://www.subsim.com/wiki/Diary_of_Anne_Frank) was a forgery.[5] (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/#cite_note-4)
Haaest claims that during the war period, Pedersen/Hassel, was in fact a member of the HIPO Corps (http://www.subsim.com/wiki/HIPO_Corps) or Hilfspolizei, an auxiliary Danish police force created by the Gestapo (http://www.subsim.com/wiki/Gestapo), consisting of collaborators. According to Haaest, Pedersen aka Hassel was actually put on trial in Denmark, but avoided a death sentence – a fate that many HIPO members faced.
While Haaest has been instrumental in casting public doubt on Sven Hassel's stories, they were never taken seriously by military or history professionals to begin with. For example, there was a 27th regiment in the German Army, but it was not penal. Tiger I (http://www.subsim.com/wiki/Tiger_I) tanks were in short supply, and were organized in special battalions, directly under Corps command, but attached to a few elite divisions; they certainly were not given to any penal formation as shown in Hassel's books."



Maybe better not.

[BossMark]

@ Skybird not sure what to believe but never the less I still enjoyed reading his books.

[the_tyrant]

Are you free to choose any book you want (assuming it's considered a "classic" worthy of being read for class)? Because then the possibilities are... endless.

Yeah, pretty much

I can chose anything over 200-300 pages, and is considered a classic with merit
Heart of Darkness is not possible though, I read it last year

Anyways, I'm not in a hurry, so I bought a whole stack of books

I just started Catch 22, so far so god:yeah:

[Onkel Neal]

this.
I would go for: The Grapes of Wrath, Rabbit Run (or anything by Updike), Master and Margarita, 1984, Great Expectations (yeah, Dickens ftw), The High Rise ( this one kicks a...tho I'm not a fan of Ballard), The Glass Room, The Man in the High Castle,The Lord of the Flies (someone has already mentioned it I guess)...

Great choices! :up:

[DieReeperbahn]

Hello guys, I need your help in selecting a good book for my English class

Of the books I am looking at right now, these are the ones that I am considering. Either because I like the author, or my friends recommend them.:

Nostromo
Lord Jim
The Secret Agent
Catch 22
Atlas Shrugged
The Jungle
Brave New World
Lolita (A friend really recommends it, and my teacher says she is fine with it)

Ideas? thanks!

I like Aztec by Gary Jennings and I've only read Brave New World from your list which is also very good.

[Esanssi]

--->
"
The Danish writer Erik Haaest (http://www.subsim.com/wiki/Erik_Haaest) has been disputing Hassel's claims for many years.[4] (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/#cite_note-3)
Haaest writes that Sven Hassel is actually Børge Villy Redsted Pedersen, a Danish Nazi (http://www.subsim.com/wiki/Nazism) who never served on the Russian (http://www.subsim.com/wiki/Russia) front. According to Haaest, the author spent the majority of World War II in occupied Denmark (http://www.subsim.com/wiki/Denmark) and his knowledge of warfare comes second-hand from Danish Waffen SS (http://www.subsim.com/wiki/Waffen_SS) veterans whom he met after the end of the war. Haaest also alleges that Hassel's first novel was ghostwritten (http://www.subsim.com/wiki/Ghostwriter) and when it became a success, he employed his wife to write the rest of his books.
In 2007 the Danish Arts Council was criticized for providing funding to Haaest for research into Danes who served in the SS, on the grounds that Haaest had stated that the concentration camp gas chambers never existed and that the Diary of Anne Frank (http://www.subsim.com/wiki/Diary_of_Anne_Frank) was a forgery.[5] (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/#cite_note-4)
Haaest claims that during the war period, Pedersen/Hassel, was in fact a member of the HIPO Corps (http://www.subsim.com/wiki/HIPO_Corps) or Hilfspolizei, an auxiliary Danish police force created by the Gestapo (http://www.subsim.com/wiki/Gestapo), consisting of collaborators. According to Haaest, Pedersen aka Hassel was actually put on trial in Denmark, but avoided a death sentence ***8211; a fate that many HIPO members faced.
While Haaest has been instrumental in casting public doubt on Sven Hassel's stories, they were never taken seriously by military or history professionals to begin with. For example, there was a 27th regiment in the German Army, but it was not penal. Tiger I (http://www.subsim.com/wiki/Tiger_I) tanks were in short supply, and were organized in special battalions, directly under Corps command, but attached to a few elite divisions; they certainly were not given to any penal formation as shown in Hassel's books."



Maybe better not.

That doesn't make the books any less enjoyable, does it? I mean, it's quite clear even for the uneducated reader that most of Hassel's stories couldn't possibly be real.

I'd say a good liar makes a great writer. :O:

It would be a different matter if Hassel displayed himself and the other characters as heroic and took credit for that sort of stuff, but these guys are mostly bastards. But that makes them much more interesting.

[nikimcbee]

Call me a Homer: I vote Nabakov.

[nikimcbee]

Yeah, pretty much

I can chose anything over 200-300 pages, and is considered a classic with merit
Heart of Darkness is not possible though, I read it last year

Anyways, I'm not in a hurry, so I bought a whole stack of books

I just started Catch 22, so far so god:yeah:

So I guess "War and Peace is out then?

Go for Chekhov "Short Stories"
or "Crime and Punishment.":D