Top Ten Tuesday, a concept started by The Broke and the Bookish, is a themed post that connects bloggers to bloggers, bloggers to readers, and readers to readers. Every Tuesday has a special topic, and this Tuesday is Top Ten Favorite Classic Books / Classics I Want to Read.
Whenever someone mentions “classic,” my brain immediately jumps to British classics. It’s my love, my passion, my one true academic piece of nerdom. But sometimes this person means “classic” like Greek and Roman plays or epic poems, or classic world literature, or American literature. I’ve played a game since high school to see how long I can go without having to read Hemingway, Vonnegut, Kerouac, Red Badge of Courage, The Things They Carried, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Catcher in the Rye…you know, Good Solid American Classics.
Favorite Classic Books
Jane Eyre because really, if you haven’t figured this out by now…wow.
Northanger Abbey is my absolute favorite Austen. Early YA right there!
Wuthering Heights not for the love story (because we can all admit it’s…odd), but for the passion, the class clash, the discrimination, all the topics used to discuss in literature courses. SO MUCH STUFF is in here, and it’s golden.
Dante’s Inferno, mostly because my AP Lit teacher would point out all the fart jokes and other inappropriate humor. He taught us that, no matter how high brow or difficult the language can be, one can still find something humorous in the writing.
Shakespeare’s Macbeth, as it’s another interesting study in human character (like Wuthering Heights).
Classics I Want to Read
Emma, even though I know what happens. There’s something intriguing about Austen loving the public’s least favorite heroine.
Les Misérables because it sounds so enriching.
Little Dorrit has always fascinated me. It seems relatively short for Dickens, but just as wonderfully creepy.
As You Like It, mostly because it’s one of the least talked-about Sheakespeare plays. I like going in blind!
Villette, because as autobiographical as Jane Eyre began, this is Brontë’s true autobiographical story (with a changed ending, of course).
What are some of your favorite classics? What classics would you like to read? Have you read any of these, listed above?
Scribbles & Wanderlust 