Classics worth reading and those not worth the time - (Popular but not classics books are okay to include too, forgot about them)

[liam dees]

whatever happened to books that used to be considered classics, but don't get reprinted nowadays as often by the big publishers. like Prisoner of Zenda was considered a big classic book like 50-70 years ago, but it's hardly talked about now despite being a pretty solid book.

or, like, anything by Sir Walter Scott. Ivanhoe, Black arrow, Rob Roy. What happened? They're worth reading.

I literally never heard of these authors until today. Sad! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

I literally never heard of these authors until today. Sad! Thanks for sharing.

this makes me cry because I dearly loved Ivanhoe as a kid.. I had some antique '50s edition with a patterned cloth cover and adored the old film adaptation.

Probably the gateway for me to love stories of knights and whatnot.

Speaking of which, I think more old sci-fi/fantasy/pulp writers should be a little more well known. Howard/Lovecraft/Chandler/Hammett are acknowledged as classics that were in the pulps, but I'd love to see more people giving a look at more of these old authors that just get relegated to being "genre fiction staples".

Like I think Richard Matheson and Robert Bloch should be more well known.

 

[JJLiautaud]

Speaking of which, I think more old sci-fi/fantasy/pulp writers should be a little more well known. Howard/Lovecraft/Chandler/Hammett are acknowledged as classics that were in the pulps, but I'd love to see more people giving a look at more of these old authors that just get relegated to being "genre fiction staples".

A good pulp story that is worth read is The Rocketeers Have Shaggy Ears, comes recommended by David Drake himself.
Can be read here:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64772

 

[Alexander Thaut]

A good pulp story that is worth read is The Rocketeers Have Shaggy Ears, comes recommended by David Drake himself.
Can be read here:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64772

i forget that gutenberg has way more pulp stuff these days.

 

[JJLiautaud]

Just finished Canticles for Leibowitz and man was it good. Well worth the read

 

[Alexander Thaut]

Just finished Canticles for Leibowitz and man was it good. Well worth the read

I've been meaning to get to that this year. Well, after I finish the current cycle of sci-fi novels. (Van Vogt's Slan, Budrys' Rogue Moon, Simak's City, and Zelazny's Lord of Light. )
Next cycle after those will probably include Canticles for Leibowitz and a Heinlein/Asimov/Clarke novel each. Thinking Foundation-Moon is a Harsh Mistress-Childhood's End.

So, kiwis, what would be your definitive horror classics? I'm figuring that Edgar Allen Poe's on the list alongside Lovecraft and Stoker.

Robert E. Howard's Pigeons story is scary. I am Legend by Richard Matheson's also a damn fine horror sci-fi tale.

 

[red lichen0]

So, kiwis, what would be your definitive horror classics? I'm figuring that Edgar Allen Poe's on the list alongside Lovecraft and Stoker.

The first version/edition of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

 

[Kit Marz]

Worth reading is Gone with the Wind. Scarlett O'Hara feels like a real person in the way that she acts. The theme of letting the past die, moving on, and doing anything you can to survive is a really effective one in the book.

I've never been able to finish Count of Monte Cristo. I've always found it dry and it's very repetitive. It's a shame, because the premise is really good.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

The first version/edition of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

Frankenstein's a weird book. It's good and important, but it's a slow burn for me.

Anyways essential horror off the top of my head.

• H. G. Wells' famous quartet. THe War of the Worlds, Invisible Man, Island of Dr. Moreau, and Time Machine all have good horror elements.
• William Hope Hodgson, Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Sheridan le Faneau, and related writers of the proto-weird horror tales of the 19th and early 20th century.
• Robert Bloch's Psycho is good.
• I'd honestly consider a lot of Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith to be good horror, perhaps even essential.

Dunno about Stephen King. I've avoided him because he's oversaturated the market.

 

[Lord of the Large Pants]

So here's a weird thing. CS Lewis is best known for Narnia, which sucked. However, before that, he wrote some sci-fi books that were actually pretty good. No, really! Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength.

... okay, that last one is kind of a mixed bag. But the first two are surprisingly badass, if a little slow to start.

 

[JJLiautaud]

So here's a weird thing. CS Lewis is best known for Narnia, which sucked. However, before that, he wrote some sci-fi books that were actually pretty good. No, really! Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength.

... okay, that last one is kind of a mixed bag. But the first two are surprisingly badass, if a little slow to start.

Narnia is great and same with That Hideous Strength

 

[Alexander Thaut]

So here's a weird thing. CS Lewis is best known for Narnia, which sucked. However, before that, he wrote some sci-fi books that were actually pretty good. No, really! Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength.

... okay, that last one is kind of a mixed bag. But the first two are surprisingly badass, if a little slow to start.

C.S. Lewis is a perennial classic and I wish he was more respected.

also on topic, uh

I guess I wish P. G. Wodehouse and other short story writers were more widely taught and spread around in this era of e-reading.

Moby Dick isn't a fun read. I wish James Fenimore Cooper's works were spread and taught more because they're honestly good reads. The Last of the Mohicans was good.

 

[Hazel Motes]

this makes me cry because I dearly loved Ivanhoe as a kid.. I had some antique '50s edition with a patterned cloth cover and adored the old film adaptation.

Probably the gateway for me to love stories of knights and whatnot.

Speaking of which, I think more old sci-fi/fantasy/pulp writers should be a little more well known. Howard/Lovecraft/Chandler/Hammett are acknowledged as classics that were in the pulps, but I'd love to see more people giving a look at more of these old authors that just get relegated to being "genre fiction staples".

Like I think Richard Matheson and Robert Bloch should be more well known.

Matheson is America's Kafka. I Am Legend is the greatest vampire novel (including Dracula) and one of the darkest books I have ever read.

 

[MySonDavid]

Don't know if they would be considered classics but I just finished reading all of the Dying Earth books by Jack Vance. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was far more comical than I was expecting. Normally I wouldn't come to the farms to talk about a book I just read but the mention of a certain river "Troon" in Cugel's Saga made me giggle. Furthermore, in one of the novellas in Rhialto The Marvelous, the titular character, nuts deep in his quest to recover the true and honest perciplex, encounters 3 young women picking berries who, upon noticing Rhialto, express great fear at the possibility that Rhialto might be a "Pooner". Yes I am serious. 10/10 would read again.

 

[Zemblan Physics]

I just read this weird novel from 1891, Là-bas by JK Huysmans. If you’ve read houllebecq’s Submission- and I hope you have because it’s great - you might recognize Huysmans, the protagonist of Submission wrote his thesis about him.

Anyway, Là-bas centers around a couple of autistic occultists who… well, read occult books, sperg about church bells, visit scenes of ancient horrors and hate women, the church & the current era. Actually they hate everything. Best book I’ve read in ages, 10/10. Can’t recommend it enough.

 

[JJLiautaud]

Anyway, Là-bas centers around a couple of autistic occultists who… well, read occult books, sperg about church bells, visit scenes of ancient horrors and hate women, the church & the current era. Actually they hate everything. Best book I’ve read in ages, 10/10. Can’t recommend it enough.

Sounds Unironically kino ill give it a read after im done rereading LoTR.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

Don't know if they would be considered classics but I just finished reading all of the Dying Earth books by Jack Vance. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was far more comical than I was expecting. Normally I wouldn't come to the farms to talk about a book I just read but the mention of a certain river "Troon" in Cugel's Saga made me giggle. Furthermore, in one of the novellas in Rhialto The Marvelous, the titular character, nuts deep in his quest to recover the true and honest perciplex, encounters 3 young women picking berries who, upon noticing Rhialto, express great fear at the possibility that Rhialto might be a "Pooner". Yes I am serious. 10/10 would read again.

Vance is severely under-appreciated and I wish his work were more publicly appreciated.

Speaking of which, Lord of Light by Zelazny is a fun one. It's a worthy classic of SF and features a reincarnated man named Brahma that was originally a woman named Madeline. Brahma proceeds to have intense insecurities about his/her masculinity and feels both inferior to and sexually intimidated by some war god. I don't know if Zelazny was based, but this seems to be an accurate depiction of a woman larping as a man.

 

[Spectre Saren]

The Plain in Flames by Juan Rulfo is a great collection of bleak short stories inspired by rural Mexico during the mexican revolution and the industralization of the country after it. Its not about war or action, but poor fucks that had to deal with the repercussions.

Jorge Luis Borges' short story collections are wonderful. Sometimes they seem a bit too up their ass but the ones that land are totally worth it.

 

[Ratboy Genius]

I'm reading the novel Flowers for Algernon for the first time. So far it's really good. Just wish I didn't know the ending already, from the short story. Anybody who appreciates the art of grammar/spelling/punctuation/literary devices as a story element will enjoy Flowers for Algernon I think.

Other classics I've enjoyed are the works of Zane Grey (westerns), The Importance of Being Earnest (hilarious), Of Mice and Men (i cry everytim), and ummmm..... I read that book by Maya Angelou and hated that shit Had to skip the pages where she described being raped--hit right in the childhood trauma lol. It dumbfounded me when none of my classmates were bothered at all.

Geez I just wrote out a whole mess about how in high school I believed curriculums should only feature modern YA lit because then students wouldn't grow up hating books (I thought classics were a total drag). And then I deleted that spiel cause it was getting too long and autistic lol. I have a better perspective now anyway.

 

[A Very Big Fish]

About two years ago, I made a point to start reading a whole bunch of religious and philosophical texts, and I will say, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the Quran is the worst book I have ever fucking read. I don't mean in terms of philosophy, or theology, though it is insipid in those regards, but it is a meandering ramble. It organizes the alleged revelations that took place over 20+ years, and sorts them by length. There is no cohesive narrative, there is no particular thread of thought it follows. It is fucking bizarre, and I for the life of me cannot figure out why it was compiled this way. To show you what I mean, I've spoiled a chart that shows how the Bible would be organized if it follow this fucking insane principal. It would start with Jeremiah, and end with the third epistle of John.

Spoiler: If the Bible was formatted the same way

Rank​	Book​	Word count​
1	Jeremiah	33,002
2	Genesis	32,046
3	Psalms	30,147
4	Ezekiel	29,918
5	Exodus	25,957
6	Isaiah	25,608
7	Numbers	25,048
8	Deuteronomy	23,008
9	2 Chronicles	21,349
10	1 Samuel	20,837
11	1 Kings	20,361
12	Luke	19,482
13	Leviticus	18,852
14	2 Kings	18,784
15	Acts	18,450
16	Matthew	18,346
17	2 Samuel	17,170
18	1 Chronicles	16,664
19	Joshua	15,671
20	John	15,635
21	Judges	15,385
22	Job	12,674
23	Mark	11,304
24	Proverbs	9,921
25	Revelation	9,851
26	Daniel	9,001
27	Nehemiah	8,507
28	Romans	7,111
29	1 Corinthians	6,830
30	Ezra	5,605
31	Hebrews	4,953
32	Esther	4,932
33	Zechariah	4,855
34	Ecclesiastes	4,537
35	2 Corinthians	4,477
36	Hosea	3,615
37	Amos	3,027
38	Ephesians	2,422
39	Lamentations	2,324
40	Galatians	2,230
41	1 John	2,141
42	Micah	2,118
43	Ruth	2,039
44	Song of Solomon	2,020
45	James	1,742
46	1 Peter	1,684
47	Philippians	1,629
48	1 Timothy	1,591
49	Colossians	1,582
50	1 Thessalonians	1,481
51	Joel	1,447
52	Malachi	1,320
53	2 Timothy	1,238
54	Zephaniah	1,141
55	2 Peter	1,099
56	Jonah	1,082
57	Habakkuk	1,011
58	Haggai	926
59	Nahum	855
60	2 Thessalonians	823
61	Titus	659
62	Jude	461
63	Obadiah	440
64	Philemon	335
65	2 John	245
66	3 John	219

I enjoyed the Bhagavad Gita, and I bought a beautiful old leatherbound version, which had some beautiful illustrations, however it also had commentaries from A.C. Bhaktivedanta who is the founder of the Hare Krishna movement, and while reading and seeing his commentaries right next to what I was reading, I found myself rolling my eyes, because his exegesis sucked.

When I read through the major stoic works, I found the Meditations, despite being probably the most famous, I think it may have been the least interesting. Don't get me wrong, it has some great lines and thoughts, however, because it's basically just Aurelius' diary, it kind of just... rambles a lot, and comes to the same few ideas multiple times. I preferred Epictetus and Gaius Musonius Rufus. I think there's a certain irony that the better stoics (at least in my opinion) are the ones who had a modest career as a teacher (Rufus) and the one who rose from slavery (Epictetus, who was Musonius' student) as opposed to an emperor (Aurelius) and an imperial advisor (Seneca).

C.S. Lewis is a perennial classic and I wish he was more respected.

I love Lewis' writing. I especially love some of the narrator's remarks in the Narnia books.

“Aravis also had many quarrels (and, I’m afraid even fights) with Cor, but they always made it up again: so that years later, when they were grown up they were so used to quarreling and making it up again that they got married so as to go on doing it more conveniently.”

Also, and somewhat related to the above, but after watching a bunch of debates on religion featuring Muslims, I felt much the same sentiment as Bree when I heard "peace be upon him" for the roughly billionth time.

"I say," put in Shasta in rather a shocked voice, "oughtn't you to say 'May he live for ever'?"
"Why?" asked the Horse. "I'm a Free Narnian. And why should I talk slaves' and fools' talk? I don't want him to live for ever, and I know he's not going to live for ever whether I want him to or not."