The Broke And The Bookish presents us every week a new top ten with a different theme. And this Tuesday it’s time to post my Top Ten Classics I’ve Read Or Are TBR! These ten books below are a general representation of the classics I’ve read during the last few years, with a few of them still waiting on my TBR pile… In no particular order and with short descriptions copied from Goodreads:
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: “A portrait of the Jazz Age in all of its decadence and excess, Gatsby captured the spirit of the author’s generation and earned itself a permanent place in American mythology.”
- Finished: March 7th 2014 // Review: here
- To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee: “To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior – to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos.”
- Finished: February 10th 2014 // Review: here
- Animal Farm by George Orwell: “Tired of their servitude to man, a group of farm animals revolt and establish their own society, only to be betrayed into worse servitude by their leaders, the pigs…”
- Finished: January 27th 2014 // Review: here
- One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey: “Ken Kesey’s hero is Randle Patrick McMurphy, a boisterous, brawling, fun-loving rebel who swaggers into the world of a mental hospital and takes over. A lusty, life-affirming fighter, McMurphy rallies the other patients around him by challenging the dictatorship of Nurse Ratched.”
- Finished: January 7th 2014 // Review: here
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley: “Far in the future, the World Controllers have created the ideal society. Through clever use of genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs, all its members are happy consumers. Huxley’s ingenious fantasy of the future sheds a blazing light on the present and is considered to be his most enduring masterpiece.”
- Finished: December 22nd 2013 // Review: here
- One Hundred Years Of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: “The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the family. It is a rich and brilliant chronicle of life and death, and the tragicomedy of humankind.”
- Finished: April 23rd 2013 // Review: still pending
- The Diary Of A Young Girl by Anne Frank: “Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, Anne Frank’s remarkable diary has since become a world classic—a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit.”
- Finished: before starting this blog // Review: N/A
- Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell: “Set against the dramatic backdrop of the American Civil War, Margaret Mitchell’s epic love story is an unforgettable tale of love and loss, of a nation mortally divided and its people forever changed. At the heart of all this chaos is the story of beautiful, ruthless Scarlett ‘O’ Hara and the dashing soldier of fortune, Rhett Butler.”
- Finished: still on my TBR list
- 1984 by George Orwell: “Written in 1948, 1984 was George Orwell’s chilling prophecy about the future. 1984 presents a “negative utopia,” that is at once a startling and haunting vision of the world—so powerful that it is completely convincing from start to finish.”
- Finished: still on my TBR list (to be read soon!)
- Lord Of The Flies by William Golding: “William Golding’s compelling story about a group of very ordinary small boys marooned on a coral island has become a modern classic.”
- Finished: still on my TBR list
The Diary of Anne Frank was such an amazing read. I read it while I was in elementary school and it was one of my favorites. You have to read 1984 and Lord of the Flies soon! They’re two of my all time favorite classics! 🙂
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Since I grew up in Holland, The Diary Of Anne Frank was an obligatory read as well as a visit to the Anne Frank house. Surely an overwhelming experience…
1984 is one of the next books on my TBR; and I hope to get a copy of Lord Of The Flies soon! 🙂
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Wow, yes that must have been overwhelming. I would love to visit the Anne Frank house someday. She’s such an inspiration.
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She truly is! And yes, it is definitely worth it to visit the Anne Frank house when you get the chance to visit Amsterdam. 🙂
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1984 is on my TBR list too. It’s been there for a long time, because my Dad talks about it and that’s the year I was born. (Yes, I know I’m old, don’t remind me.)
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Not that old, I’m only four years away. 😉 1984 sounds like an interesting read, especially since they say the vision of the future Orwell describes in his book is actually quite accurate.
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Ha! For some of us, 1984 was the distant future the first time we read it! 😉
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Hahaha I do admit the book was probably more interesting to read before the year of 1984, just so you could see if his vision would turn out to be accurate. 😉
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These are some great classics. I want to read The Great Gasby. But, I can not afford it right now.
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It’s a great classic to keep in mind when deciding what to read. 🙂
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I really need to read Animal Farm and 1984… they seem like such interesting and thought-provoking novels. Great list! 🙂
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Animal Farm is a great and entertaining read, and 1984 sounds really interesting too. I will probably read 1984 later this month. And thanks! 🙂
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Wow. I’ve never read any of these, heh. I prefer Gothic classics.
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Hehe, the beauty of different taste in books… What would your favorite classics be?
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Ah! Top of the list is definitely Dracula. I also love The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The Man in the Iron Mask, Macbeth, and because I’m weird like that, Little Women, lol.
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Those are some great books! Macbeth was one of the few forced reading projects I didn’t mind at school, and I remember enjoying Dracula and The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow too. 🙂
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Great list. I’ve read them all except 1984 (which I’m reading along with my 13 year old this summer) and Brave New World, which I would like to get to this year. I’m not a Lord of the Flies Fan, but hope it clicks for you.
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Thanks! Brave New World is a great read if you like dystopian novels. And I’ve heard mixed opinions about Lord Of The Flies, so I will probably read it later this year just to find out what I make of it.
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I have read 1984 and it’s probably my favourite dystopian novel out there. Although I am in the midst of reading Brave New World and I dunno, this book may overtake 1984!
Another interesting and rather pointless comment. Zamyatin, a Russian writer, published his dystopian novel “We” in 1924 and it’s identical to Orwell’s book. To top it off Orwell actually reviewed his book years before he published 1984. Potentially got his inspiration from him? Hard to speculate but an interesting overlap nonetheless!
PS- Lord of the Flies is one of my absolute favourites 🙂
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Reading all those positive comments made me really curious about 1984, and I will probably choose it as one of my next reads. And the point about the Russian writer is really interesting and worth investigating; if it’s so similar to Orwell’s book, he might indeed have been inspired by it! 🙂
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Great choices. I’ve read most of the books but I didn’t know about Top Ten Tuesday till last month.
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It’s always great to read a classic or two once in a while… I’ve since read 1984 and Lord Of The Flies, and only Gone With The Wind is missing to complete the list. 🙂
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