classic books

[5029]

i want to read some classic books (although ones that are easy to read) either adults or childrens.  any suggestions?

[woofgang]

Wind in the Willows, anything by Arthur Ransome, anything by Jane Austen for a kick-off

[Ric.ror]

Why dont you get a list of the top 100 books from the BBC - kick out Lord of the Rings and the Harry potter rubbish and work your way through.  There are some really good ones - To kill a Mockingbird, Great expectations etc

[kick3m0n]

To Kill A Mockingbird is just superb, I'd start with that.

[delilahcat]

I've always loved Jane Eyre.

[spudqueen]

The Railway Children, Pride and Prejudice, A Tale of Two Cities

[spudqueen]

Oh, and the Narnia series

[Cetti]

Very, very easy to read classics:

The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

Moonfleet - J. Meade Faulkner

Under the Greenwood Tree and The Trumpet Major - Thomas Hardy.

The Diary of a Nobody - G and W Grossmith

[chinadoll]

Got a book a few years ago....it was a slim paperback...titled "How to be well read in one Year" I loved it ....it gave a list of "good books".... on each page it introduced you to one book, a brief synopsis and then gave you the titles of two or three others that were similar should you want to dip in to that type of writing....just to browse thru the book opened so much for me.....

[Shipstabber]

I found Wilkie Collins very easy to read, especially 'The Woman in White'. For modern classics 'The Catcher in the Rye' is very readable.

[banjo]

Anything Enid Blyton, though in particular the Famous Five series and the Enchanted Wood books.

 

I also second the Chronicles of Narnia - absolutely amazing!

[undercovers]

george orwell - animal farm, nineteen eighty four, lord of the flies - all classics and should all be read, not only are they a great and grinpping read but the ideas they raised are still being revisited by other books, tv programmes and in general conversation to such an extent that we almost assume understanding.

[Famous5]

Treasure Island, any Sherlock Homes, Coral Island, Oliver Twist

[EssJay1]

Winnie the Pooh, Alice in Wonderland Peter Pan, Just So Stories.
To Kill a Mockingbird, Brave New World
Harry Potter - it needs to be read!
Avoid Shakespeare, but try to find synopsis so you can pretend!

[Trillipse]

definitely steinbeck - "the grapes of wrath" ; though he can be a bit wordy, he is a great storyteller. also, solzhenytsin - "one day in the life of ivan denisovich" - a wonderfully straightforward, readable book. "poor things" by alisdair gray (perhaps not exactly a "classic"). albert camus: "the plague". graham greene "our man in havana". marvellous, marvellous, marvellous.

[Trillipse]

"themayor of casterbridge" by thomas hardy. (maybe not as easy to read as it might be...) and "far from the madding crowd" is less depressing. at times. charles bukowski, if you're not *at all* easily offended, is extremely readable and considered "classic" by many... ("post office", "women", "factotum", for examples)

[Loopy Lou]

The 'Anne of Green Gable' series, about 8 books in all following her life, it will make you laugh and cry.

enchanting

[MikeMikeMike]

The Little Prince - Saint-Exupery. It'll only take you half an hour to read. Although it will start taking up halff an hour about once  week for the rest of your life,...

[Guinevere]

Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome.  Very easy to read and hilarious!

[Ivy jo]

Oh, you have to try the "His Dark Materials' Trilogy by Phillip Pullman. They are called 'Northern Lights', 'The Subtle Knife' and "The Amber Spyglass" and come in that order and they are just terrific. Not children's books by any means, they are brilliant and completely different from anything you would have read I'm sure, encompassing physics, religion and other worlds.