What should I read next?

[mummytait]

I'm rereading the books I read as a child. Lord of the flies, the great Gatsby, a cider with rosie, To kill a mockingbird (still can't get through it)

On the whole I'm enjoying them much more with the benefit of a couple of decades.

Have I missed any classics?

[Rosetta]

Awww, I love To kill a Mocking Bird.

A good modern classic is Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
Or how about Wilkie Collins, either The Moonstone or THe Woman in White.
Daphne du Maurier' s Rebecca.
Rider Haggard,s novels are good ripping yarns.

My all time favourites are Jane Austen's books.

I am sure there will be loads of other great suggestions

[mummytait]

Thanks for those suggestions. I have just finished Rebecca again. That's another one that was wasted on my youth.

Thanks

MT

[chelle7272]

oh To Killa mockingbird is my favourite ever book!

How about any John Steinbeck - I loved them back then and still do, Of Mice and Men or Grapes of Wrath?

[mummytait]

Oh yes you're right. I have never read of mice and men and always meant to.

Thanks

MT

[eash]

1984?

[sfsorrow]

I have recently read the last whales by lloyd abbey,i would strongly reccomend this,also have you read the plague dogs by richard adams?both will have you in tears but are truely worthwhile and essential reading

[mummytait]

1984 I can start but not finish which is strange because i absolutely love Brave New World and fahrenheit 451 which I tend to put in the same bracket.

Thanks for all the titles. Keep them coming.

MT

[Marijn]

It's never too late to read Winnie-the-Pooh or The Wind in the Willows, if you haven't already.

[baileybird]

Have you read Jamaica Inn By D Du Maurier - that is another great book.

To kill a mockingbird is the best book ever.
Wuthering Heights is brilliant and so is Elizabeth Gaskill's North and South,

[saxy_jag]

Great Expectations is must read for anyone (but then I'm biased).

What about some of the children's classics: The Railway Children, The Secret Garden or Carrie's War?

[zzxxee]

mmmmmmm how about the classic we are going on a bear hunt? or horrid henry gripping stuff lol

[paddywak]

A Tale of Two Cities (in my opinion the best of Dickens many great books )
The Three Muskeeters
The Count of Monte Christo
The Man In The Iron Mask
The Hunchback Of Notre Dame
Treasure Island
Kidnapped,
King Solomons Mines
I could go on for pages there are that many great books about
PS I must have read To Kill A Mockingbird about 10 times, its right up there with the best of them

[Bathsheba]

I like to revisit Monica Dickens now and then, for some light reading.
Or,A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith.
or
Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky
Hangover Square.....both by Patrick Hamilton

[VHG]

Catch 22 is a funny (but also horrifying) look at war and how it effects people.

All the characters in the book are fully fleshed out with some amazing humorous background details and some of the lines from the book still stick with me even thought it is over 20 years since I read it.

It is a real "laugh out loud" book with some crazy characters (also sad of course when his friends die).

I remember one character whose birth name was Major Major Major (his parents were in the army). When he joined the army he of course became a major, so he was Major Major Major Major.

But he did not want to be a Major, so he told his secreatry the only time poeple could come in and see him was when he was OUT of his office, when he was IN his office nobody could see him.

People would sit outside his office wanting to see him, but would not be allowed in because he was there. When he left his office (by climbing out the window) people would thern be let in his empty office.

It has a real zany "Monty Python" feel about it.

[VHG]

I remember another section from Catch 22 that made me laugh.

The writer gives a detailed background to each of the soldiers in the book, and one soldier in the book had a father who was a farmer.

His father grew a crop called Alfalfa. But in the USA they had too much Alfalfa, so they paid farmers NOT to grow it.

His father was paid not to grow it, and with the money he got he bought MORE land, so he could NOT grow Alfalfa on that land either.

So he got even more money, and bought more land to NOT grow Alfalfa. Soon he had thousands of acres, all not growing Alfalfa.

The soldier then used to say as a proud boast "My father is the biggest non-grower of Alfalfa in the country".

Wonderful humour.

[kirstywllc]

I've got a big list of books to read aswell-I've never even read Pride and Prejudice-i'm put off by the language!
You need to read Catcher in the Rye!

[Bbbananas]

Someone has beaten me to it - but yes, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is a good one.

Read the book, then watch the film (even if you've seen it already - it might give a slightly different view)

[lorri24601]

Catcher in the rye is still one that i remember really enjoying.