Classics Without All the Class discussion

This thread is for adding suggestions to the bookshelf for future polls. Each month the thread will close and a new thread will open in order to keep the threads shorter.

Before you make a suggestion, please make sure you check the bookshelves. Your suggestion might already be there. :) Go to the home page of the group, and click the link to the left that says bookshelf. All the suggestions so far are on the shelf. We have chosen to give a ten year gap to give a book a chance to be deemed "classic." Here are the guidelines for making suggestions for the group:

1. Nothing published after 2003. Please feel free to ask if you are unsure if a book falls under the category of "classic." This can be an especially difficult issue for contemporary classics.
2. No children's novels
3. No non-fiction
4. No poetry
5. No dramas (plays) - not even Shakespeare or Dante's Inferno!

Although these suggestions can't be made for the group, there may be times that exceptions are made for special reasons. Also, feel free to make suggestions from these categories in threads that are created by members, like yourself! :)

Thanks!!

I would like to suggest The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

I was thinking it would be cool to read selections from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Courtney wrote: "I was thinking it would be cool to read selections from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle."

Hi, Courtney. Thank you for the suggestion. We actually did read Sherlock this past March. We did a reader's choice format where we can chose any and as many Sherlock books we wanted.

But please participate in our Catch-up and Mustard Challenge where we read books previously read at CWAtC and share with others!

But that book was a perfect suggestion by you since it clearly fits into our classics category and we did in fact put it on our shelf.

Great job and keep thinking!

I'm a fan of the Bronte's sisters. I'd like to add Villette and The Professor.

I'd also love to read Stranger in a Strange Land sometime.

I wanted to get you guys' opinion on something I noticed.

Would any of you consider Ender's Game a classic? I noticed on goodreads and other places some do consider it one. What are your thoughts on this?

Jessica wrote: "I wanted to get you guys' opinion on something I noticed.

Would any of you consider Ender's Game a classic? I noticed on goodreads and other places some do consider it one. What are your thoughts ..."

It's very popular these days, with the upcoming movie. I'd have to do some research. Maybe??

Angie wrote: "
4. No poetry"

Would this extend to prohibiting Milton's Paradise Lost?

William wrote: "Would Crime and Punishment be good?"


Whoohoo! C and P has my votes!

Jessica wrote: "Would any of you consider Ender's Game a classic? "

I wouldn't. I know the term "modern classic" is tossed about a lot, but my personal view is that no book can be considered a classic until it has spoken with significance to at least three generations of readers. So many books are touted as modern classics one year, but a few years later, who remembers or reads them?

Go back to the lists of famous book prize winners -- the Nobel or Pulitzer prizes (the Booker is still too new) and see which of the prize winners -- books at the time considered the best of the best -- have survived. Some have, certainly. But many others haven't.

Of course, we are all entitled to our own definition of "classic." The best definition I've come across in some time is from Robert Fears, who defines a great book as one that "has a great theme, speaks across the ages, is written in noble language, and can touch the reader as an individual."

For me, the most important element of that definition is that the book should speak across the ages. There are many very good books that speak primarily to one generation, or at most two generations. But they are not great books, in my definition, until they have proved that they can speak to different generations, living in different circumstances, but still concerned with the great questions of life: why are we here? What does it mean to live a good life? What is our responsibility to our fellow men and women? How should society be organized? What is beauty? What is goodness? What is justice? What is truth? How can we make our lives matter? How can evil be overcome and good be brought to triumph? These and many other questions are the questions that men and women all over the world and through all the ages have wrestled with; these, in my view, are the issues that great books, that the classics, will help us explore and try to find our own answers to.

Everyman wrote: "Jessica wrote: "Would any of you consider Ender's Game a classic? "

I wouldn't. I know the term "modern classic" is tossed about a lot, but my personal view is that no book can be considered a cl..."

I just read a great article about this idea regarding Kafka.

(disclaimer/confession: I have never read Kafka)

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/a...

these are good suggestions. Angie?

Everyman wrote: "Angie wrote: "
4. No poetry"

Would this extend to prohibiting Milton's Paradise Lost?"

Yes. That includes Paradise Lost, but thanks for the question!

William wrote: "Would Crime and Punishment be good?"

Yep! And it is already on our bookshelf. Feel free to check out the bookshelves to see what other books have been suggested. Thanks!

Jessica wrote: "I wanted to get you guys' opinion on something I noticed.

Would any of you consider Ender's Game a classic? I noticed on goodreads and other places some do consider it one. What are your thoughts ..."

Hey, Jessica! So, I did some research on the book, and have decided to go ahead and add it to the contemporary classics shelf. It is an award winning novel that is regularly taught in high schools across America. And, it meets our criteria of being at least 10 years old. Thanks for the suggestion!!

Tiberius wrote: "Everyman wrote: "Jessica wrote: "Would any of you consider Ender's Game a classic? "

I wouldn't. I know the term "modern classic" is tossed about a lot, but my personal view is that no book can b..."

Interesting article, Tiberius! Thanks!

Marwa wrote: "I'd also love to read Stranger in a Strange Land sometime."

Thanks, Marwa! It's already on the shelf. Hopefully it will be selected some day soon!

Marwa wrote: "I'm a fan of the Bronte's sisters. I'd like to add Villette and The Professor."

Added both of these! Thanks!

Francie wrote: "I would like to suggest The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett"

While this book is well-read and enjoyed in book clubs all over the world, it doesn't meet all the criteria I look for in determining a classic. Because contemporary classics are difficult to define, I try to stick with books that are not only at least 10 years old, but are also award winning novels. At this time, The Pillars of the Earth doesn't meet that criteria. Thanks for the suggestion though, and keep them coming! :)

A few suggestions, all missing from the bookshelf as far as I can see.

Cervantes, Don Quixote

Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim

George Eliot, Adam Bede

George Eliot, Silas Marner (yeah, we all hated it in 9th grade, but give it another try. It's worth it)

George Gissing, The Odd Women

Goethe, Faust

Thomas Hardy, Adam Bede

Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd

Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ

Alan Paton, Too Late the Phalarope

what about "The Giver” ?

Johnmichael wrote: "what about "The Giver” ?"

Hi Johnmichael, Yes. The Giver is a great book, and classic, at that. However, it is also a young adult novel. I'm sorry, but we don't include YA novels on our shelves. There are just so many great classics to include that we have to draw the line somewhere. :) Thanks for the suggestion!

Everyman wrote: "A few suggestions, all missing from the bookshelf as far as I can see.

Cervantes, Don Quixote

Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim

George Eliot, Adam Bede

George Eliot, Silas Marner (yeah, we all hated it i..."

These are great suggestions! I will go through them and add all appropriate suggestions this week. Thanks so much!

I totally misunderstood this group. I thought it was about classics for the more lowbrow-not Highbrow Books for lowbrows. ha ha ha! Well let me just pick up my copy of 'The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13 and a half' and be on my way. Ha ha ha!
Actually I love classics. I've read the combined top 100 lists of the U.S, Aus and UK and then some.
But if anyone wants to talk 'Adrian' too-I'm here ;)

I would love to re-read Papillon....great story!

Moby Dick exhausted me last time. Fabulous story but is there a version without all the shipping blueprint stuff? I feel like the last was so detailed I could construct one by memory