Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish. Today’s theme was:
Top Ten Favorite Classic Books (however you define classic) or Top Ten Classics I Want To Read <or spin it some other way…”classics” in a specific genre?>
I’ve decided to write up a list of my favorite “classics” I was –forced– to read in school (middle school, high school, and college). I’ve always been a big book nerd, so I actually enjoyed a lot of the books we were assigned in school (I know, shocking!). Make sure you tell me if you’ve read any of these and which you loved (or didn’t) in the comments!
1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
This book is pretty much perfect, in my opinion. It deals so well with racism in the South. I honestly can’t put into words how beautiful I think this book is.
2. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
I don’t just love this book because the author is Scottish (and you guys know how much I love that country) nor because I could tell you about Stevenson’s inspiration, the correct way to pronounce Jekyll, when it was written, or a multitude of other information you probably don’t care about. I love this book because of its gothic eloquence, its quiet strength, its inclusion of many literary devices, and its ability to perfectly cram the HUGE story of Jekyll and Hyde into its short page count.
3. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Dystopian is my favorite genre, and this book is the definition of dystopian. I’ve read it several times.
4. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
I’m a bibliophile. Of course I loved this book. My heart belongs to books, and this book is all about loving and protecting the written word.
5. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
This book is about one of the strongest woman I’ve ever heard of and Maya Angelou is a woman to strive to be like. I hope I can be even a fraction of the woman she is: strong, kind, and full of a passion and spirit that is beautiful.
6. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
I don’t really know if this book is considered a classic, but I adored it. In essence, this book tells you that while the big things can be really horrible and screwed up, it’s the little things that can make up for it. Never take advantage of the small things in your life. Rule 32: Enjoy the little things. 🙂
7. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
“The more I wonder, the more I love.”
“We all have to start somewhere if us want to do better.”
8. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A lot of people don’t like this book, but it is a testament to Fitzgerald’s writing that the theme of the book can still be applied to our society even now.
And two plays:
9. A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
Shakespeare seems to be one of those dudes you either love or hate. I happen to be one of the people who love his work. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is my favorite of his plays; it feels magical whether you’re reading it or being enchanted during a live performance.
10. A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
This play is so unbelievably powerful. I would highly recommend seeing a live version if you can, as well as watching the movie version with Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh. WOW!
So those are my favorite classics that were assigned to me in school. Have you read any of them? What did you think? What are your favorite classics?
I hope you have read Dracula? If you didn’t, leave a space in your top ten for it!
I have! But I didn’t read that one because of school; I read it because I wanted to. I could have a REALLY LONG list if I included all of the classics I’ve read just because I wanted to. I narrowed it down by choosing books I’d been assigned in school. I love Dracula. 🙂
Shakespeare is a pretty cool dude. I remember buying a shakespeare dictionary that I was originally going to gift to my brother but then decided I wanted it more haha.
Cheers,
joey via. thoughts and afterthoughts
A Shakespeare dictionary?! I think I might need that. Ha.
I’m going to have to re-read The Great Gatsby now! Also, I need to read A Streetcar Named Desire for more reasons than one. First of all, it’s sad that as much as I love books I haven’t read it, and second of all, they have a Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival in the French Quarter every year that I’ve been needing an excuse to go to since I live like 40 minutes away from there. Now…TO READ! Great list by the way 😀
I have wanted to go to that festival for a long time but never really had anyone to go with. Please read A Streetcar Named Desire so you can understand my love and we can go! Also, The Glass Menagerie and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof are both really good as well.
I shall! We have until next March before the next festival 😀
Well that just means we can totally plan out a great trip! 🙂
Yes!! And we won’t even need a hotel since I live on the Northshore of Lake Pontchartrain.
Yeah, I don’t know what that is, but okay! Haha. 🙂
New Orleans is south of the lake so basically I have to cross a bridge and I’m in new Orleans. I live in Slidell if you wanna look it up. 🙂
Oh, cool! Well that’s awesome. 🙂
Yup so like I said. No hotel.
Perfect! I’ve never actually been to New Orleans so this would be fun! I’ve lived here for 13 years and never been. Not sure how that happened.
I hadn’t been until I moved here and my fiance took me. We will have to play tourist together.
Wooo!
I really want to read most of these, and a few made my list! My sister is reading Lord Of The Flies at the moment and I really hope I get to read it after her!
Check out my TTT!
Katrina @ Chased By My Imagination
I hope you get to read LotF too! It’s really good. Let me know what you think when you read it!
Thanks for stopping by! Heading to check out yours now. 🙂
My favorite that I had to read was actually Great Expectations! 🙂 I didn’t mind most of the books, but I remember that I absolutely hated Silas Marner. Hated it. Ugh. I’d still pick up and read Lord of the Flies today though!
Great Expectations is actually one of the classics I haven’t read. It’s on my list though! I’ll definitely have to check it out if it’s your favorite!
Oh, man. I love Lord of the Flies!! Such a great book.
Thanks for stopping by, Allison! 🙂
We were required to read To Kill a Mockingbird back in freshman year, and although I wasn’t that enthusiastic in reading it, I was surprised by how much I loved it at the end. Though I did flop big time in my oral report ha. 😛
I’m also really interested in reading A Midsummer Night’s Dream! 🙂
I love To Kill a Mockingbird. 🙂 I’m glad you loved it in the end!
Ahhh. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is amazing. I’ve read it so many times and seen it performed live three times. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by and for the follow!
Jeckyll and Hyde also made my list; I decided to make a list of monster classics. 🙂
I love everything here—-especially To Kill a Mockingbird, God of Small Things, and Lord of the Flies. Oh, and Gatsby. Yes, everything. lol
🙂 Yay! I love seeing so much love for these books. It makes me especially happy to see some love for God of Small Things. It’s underrated in my opinion.
Oooo. Monster classics! Heading to check out that list now. I love monsters.
Yes, I think you’re right about God of Small Things being underrated. I read it in a class at the W, and I was blown away.
Me too! Which class? With Dunkleberg?
I think it was, actually, a postcolonial literature class that he taught online. That would’ve been in 2004/5-ish, so I’m having trouble with memory recall. lol
Haha. Yeah! That’s the class I took too. It was online but we met once a week (if we wanted to) to discuss. Such a great class. We also read Things Fall Apart which I also liked.
I loved Lord of the Flies! Dystopians are my favorites and LotF is the classic in that genre. Just memorable. Great list! 🙂
So very true. Dystopian is my favorite genre, so LotF is a staple of that genre for sure. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by!
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is on my list to read. I didn’t care for Lord of the Flies, though. It’s probably the least favorite book I read in high school.
Thanks for visiting The Book Connection.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is very good. It’s also very short, so it’s definitely worth checking out. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by!
We listed the classics we need to read, but if we had listed our favorites, To Kill A Mockingbird would be on our list for sure!
Nicole @ The Quiet Concert
I adore that book. It’s brilliant.
Thanks for stopping by! Heading to check our your list now! 🙂
I am so in love with your list. The Color Purple is one of my favorite books of all time. And Streetcar is pure genius. Thanks for sharing!
Our TTT!
So much love for Lord of the Flies. And A Midsummer Night’s Dream ♥ Definitely my favourite Shakespeare!
Yay! I’m so happy to find so much love for my favorites. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by!
Great list, To Kill a Mocking bird and The Great Gatsby are some of my favorites and were on my list too.
I’m happy to see those two books on so many lists this week!
Thanks for stopping by!
To Kill A Mockingbird!!! Man, I loved that book 😀 I was forced to read it and didn’t think I’d enjoy it, but it was amazing. I read The Great Gatsby but didn’t like it much… in fact it took me a lot of time to finish it, lol. And I may or may not have read A Midsummer Night’s Dream… I can’t remember, haha!
Great list 😀
To Kill a Mockingbird is absolutely incredible!!
Haha. You’d probably remember A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It’s got all the fairies…and Puck. Puck is unforgettable. 🙂
Thanks!
Nice list, my friend.
Thanks!
Very good list! I didn’t expect to see so similarities between you and me!
In fact you’ve mentioned 4 of my favourite books: God of Small Things,Lord of the Flies,To Kill a Mockingbird,and The Great Gatsby.It was a very pleasant surprise to see Roy’s book on your list!
Streetcar Named Desire is also unforgettable to me,because I studied it in high school.It was a delight to read about Williams’ life and the little details he included in his play!
As for the Colour Purple,Farenheit 451,they are both on my wish list!
Yay! It’s awesome to find other people who love that book. You don’t see it around very much, but it was my favorite book I read in that class. 🙂
I actually went to university where Tennessee Williams was born (Columbus, MS), so we were big on his plays, which worked for me because I LOVE him. 🙂
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is such a good Shakespeare choice! Also Great Gatsby definite yes. Great list!
I just adore that play. The fairies, the magic, Puck. So good.
Thanks for stopping by!
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of my favorites too. 🙂 A happy Shakespeare, go figure.
Haha. I love that play. It’s definitely a nice change from some of his tragedies.
Great list! I love The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – in fact I’m a big fan of Robert Louis Stevenson as a whole. Have you read his short story The Body Snatcher? 🙂 It’s another really fun, gothic read.
I LOVE Robert Louis Stevenson. Yep, I’ve read that story! It’s soooo good. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by!
Totally agree with your first 3 picks – I enjoyed them all a ton more than I normally would reading a book that’s required! Great list! 🙂
🙂 Yay!
Thanks for stopping by, Emily!
Not liking Shakespeare is like not liking chocolate – I just don’t get it! One of my favorite college courses was just Shakespeare. With the exception of 2 theater majors, who were starring in The Tempest that semester, I was the only non-English major in the class. I just wanted to read Shakespeare!
I’ve already started reading Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb to my kids. 🙂
I really love his work too, but I can understand not liking it. It’s dense sometimes and it’s got that old English feel going on… But personally, I love his work.
I took a class just on Shakespeare as well. 🙂
I often use hyperbole. 😉 I actually DO understand why people don’t enjoy reading Shakespeare – it’s so much better to see a play or film version. I want to start listening to full cast audio productions of Shakespeare’s plays – apparently David Tennant has recorded quite a few!
YESSSS. Anything with David Tennant is worth doing. You should send me links if you find any of those recordings. 🙂
I’ve already found a few things:
David Tennant reads Sonnet 18:
http://www.touchpress.com/titles/shakespeares-sonnets/18/Shall-I-compare-thee-to-a-summers-day/
David Tennant radio dramas (not much Shakespeare, but lots of other goodies):
http://www.david-tennant.com/2009/id95.html
Ooooooohhhhh no. I know what I’m doing later. I could listen to him talk ALL day.
Thanks for sharing!
I really want to read The Colour Purple. Good list, gave me some new things for my TBR.
http://jazminjade.wordpress.com/2014/07/01/top-ten-tuesday-classics/
Yay! I’m glad. 🙂 Hope you like it!
Oh, I really enjoyed reading A Streetcar Named Desire and Fahrenheit 451, too! These were one of the few books that I actually really liked although they were assigned to us in school. Fahrenheit 451 was in fact one of the first dystopias I ever read. Anyways, my favorite classics are all books and plays written by Oscar Wilde!
That being said, it still gives me headaches when I think of Shakespeare’s works we had to read in school, especially his comedies such as AMND. I always felt like the most idiotic person when it came to analyzing them. Ugh. 😀
Fahrenheit 451 was one of my first dystopians too, along with Lord of the Flies. They are probably the reason I fell in love with the genre!
Haha. Shakespeare isn’t for everyone, and that’s okay. 🙂
There’s a reason these books are high school staples — they’re excellent books which have influenced generations of writers. I wasn’t a Lord of the Flies fan (not so into the dystopian novels) so I’d swap that for Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon or Of Mice of Men, both of which I read my sophomore year.
I love both of those as well! Toni Morrison is a wonderful writer, and Of Mice and Men is definitely a classic for a reason.
Thank you for stopping by! 🙂