Whoa, you
liked The Faerie Queene, but don't like Paradise Lost? Interesting . . . I find the Faerie Queene droll and uninteresting for the most part. Its didacticism makes me want to kick my own ass.
I'm finishing my English (American Lit) degree this year, so I've done extensive reading in the catagories most have picked from, and I'll agree with most all - good selections guys(although Brave New World is potentially the most overrated book ever, in my opinion - Aldous Huxley was a fucking moron).
My favorite "book" of all time would be Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn - although it's more of a full-length essay. My favorite piece of literature of all time would probably be Blake's "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" - although I'm not the beatnik epicurian hippy that would make me seem.
In a more "classic" sense, I'll posit that the best (modern) book written would be Moby-Dick, because it never strays from the goals, themes, and style Melville intended (note that Fitzgerald was about there with Gatsby too), although it's not the most interesting read in parts.
For entertainment, however, I stick to things like our good ol' coked-up buddy, Sherlock Holmes, and brain candy. Good stuff.
Quote:
Originally posted by sugar and spice
"Classics" I loved:
This Side of Paradise (my favorite book ever -- I like it a thousand times more than The Great Gatsby -- and Fitzgerald's short stories are even better)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
1984
Brave New World
To Kill a Mockingbird
Pride and Prejudice
The Faerie Queene
"Daisy Miller"
Lolita
anything by Dorothy Parker
Classics I hated:
Paradise Lost
Great Expectations
Hawthorne's short stories
As an English major, I've found that the literature I'm lacking in tends to be the stuff that was originally written in Russian or Italian or French or what have you -- Anna Karenina, Dante's Inferno, etc. -- since most of my classes are English or American lit classes. Also, since I spent most of my childhood reading junk like Sweet Valley High, I missed out on a lot of children's classics like Little Women or Peter Pan. I went back and read a lot of classic children's books this summer  and I would definitely recommend that too -- most of them are just as good and more interesting than the "grown-up" classics.
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