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| Do you like to read the Classics. There are some that I find really interesting, while others I just find too stuffy and boring. I am a fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who wrote the Sherlock Holmes series of stories. I find these intriguing and will eventually share them with my children. I also love to read Agatha Christie mysteries and Dashiell Hammet who wrote books that were turned into movies with Humphrey Bogart. One of them was The Maltese Falcon. The movie and the book were both excellent. Some of the other authors and books that I like are: Jane Eyre by Bronte The Postman Always Rings Twice by Raymond Chandler The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway What are some of the classics that you like?
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| I actually made a mistake as The Postman Always Rings Twice was written by James M. Cain and not Raymond Chandler as I stated in the above post. Just thought I would put that out there in case someone looked it up. | |
| Classics are really a class apart. sometimes after reading lots of modern fiction and not very high brow literature, you read a classic, it is like experiencing a fine meal after consuming a lot of junk food. My favourite writers are Jane Austen. I just love Pride and prejudice, Charles Dickens and earnest Hemingway. I really want to read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Catcher in the rye and many other classics but they demand a lot of respect and concentration. i can read modern fiction with one eye closed but classics cannot be read that way. I have the entire collection of Sherlock Holmes and my children love it as much as I do.
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| @dawnwriter I agree. Most of the classics cannot be read as modern books. Sometimes, the variation of language can be a hindrance to faster reading. I love to be able to go back in time when I read a classic and to gain knowledge of those times. I read The Great Gatsby in high school and fell in love with it. We had to do a report on either the book or the author and I chose the author. I learned a lot about him and his life doing that. I wish I still had the report today. I have not read Catcher in the Rye yet but I would like to. I absolutely adore Sherlock Holmes and I am sure that my son would love them as well. I even started watching Sherlock on Netflix and I think it is pretty close to the way the books are except with a modern twist. I think the books are written in such a way that make them timeless and enjoyable to everyone even today.
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 Anonymous Topics: 74 Replies: 1212 Rank: Newbie | @morgoodie Classics are a delight to read. My favorite is Jane Austen. ‘Pride and Prejudice’ has been my all-time favorite novel. Another favorite of mine is ‘Gone with the wind’. |
| I agree @shaloowalia the classics are great. I have not read the two that you have mentioned. I just have never really had the desire to read Gone with the Wind. I never really cared for the movie either. Right now I am reading Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain and it is really good. I have not seen this movie either so the next time I see it on I will have to watch it and see how close to the book it is. | |
| My children and I have always loved to read Jane Eyre. I also quite liked Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, and in a similar vein the Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Other favourite authors of classics would include: Dickens, Mark Twain, and Edith Nesbit, who wrote Five Children and It and The Railway Children. I enjoy classic adventure and satire, as well as social commentary. | |
| @ruby3881 I have not heard of Edith Nesbit before so I am going to have to look into those. I am always looking for interesting books to read with my children. We like to read at night before bed even though they are getting older, but I will keep doing it for as long as I can. I loved Jane Eyre too. I never really got into Dickens and Twain. Another of my favorite classic books is The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde. This is a wonderful book and it was also made into a movie which was very good. | |
| @morgoodie Nesbit wrote adventure stories in which children were the protagonists. There are very exciting for both children and adults! If you enjoy any kind of social commentary, it can be interesting to read Dickens. His novels were rather autobiographical. He had spent some time in a work house as a child, because his father had debts he couldn’t pay. There is a lot of detail in his stories about British society around the time of the Industrial Revolution. If your kids enjoy readalouds, the Baldwin Online web site is a treasure trove of great children’s lit. You can find a lot of free classic texts on the site, and if you like you can search those same texts on LibriVox to find free audiobooks for them 🙂 | |
| @ruby3881 I have tried to read Dickens but I just was never able to finish them. I guess they are just not my thing. My children used to be into a series called The Magic Treehouse and there was one where they went back to the time of Dickens and met him. I really enjoyed those books too. This one went into a lot of detail about Dickens’ life which made it very interesting. Thanks for sharing the site for the free books. I use Kindle and have found a few classics on there. I will check this out. | |
| @morgoodie Have you & your kids watched the 2005 Roman Polanski adaptation of Oliver Twist? My kids all loved this one! We went through both a VHS and DVD copy; they wore them down to the point where they wouldn’t play anymore! My autistic son especially enjoyed the film. It’s very dark, so you’ll want to preview it and decide if your kids are ready for it yet. But if they are, and if they do like it, try reading a children’s abridged version of the book. Sometimes just switching to an abridged version makes all the difference in the world… | |
| @ruby3881 No we have not watched Oliver Twist but I am sure I would like it. I will have to check it out and see if I can find it for them to watch. I never thought about reading an abridged version of the books. When we get settled in our new home, we will have to check out our local library and see about these children’s books. Thanks for the tips! | |
| @morgoodie The ones we read as kids were I think called the “Children’s Illustrated Classics,” or something like that. It was a lovely hardcover series that was abridged so kids wouldn’t get bored with the story. My kids got a lot of books from this series, as my Mom used to buy them from garage sales whenever she saw them. I don’t think they’re in print anymore, but the library will likely have them. | |
| @ruby3881 Oh I remember those books. I am not sure that I read many of them though. When I was a child, I was more into Nancy Drew books. I will keep an eye out for them when I am at the library and even the thrift stores. You can find many older books at thrift stores and I am always looking in the book section. | |
| @morgoodie I was a big Nancy Drew fan too! I had a huge collection of them! Yes, the old classics pop up a lot in thrift stores and second-hand book shops. They are usually priced very reasonably, and most are in almost new condition. My kids got better use of that series than of any of the more recent paperback editions. I think it’s the look and feel of the book that they like so much 🙂 |
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