Top Ten "Older" Books You Don't Want People To Forget About.
I'm warning you now; I
I've always, always been a reader. Typical "excellent work" stickers and move up a class behaviour in school, but the reason I've always loved books so much is because of my mum. She'd read to my brother and I aloud every night when we were little and she's the type who always has a book on the go, and growing up I fell into the same patters. When I fist started branching out from kids or YA fiction at about 10 or 11 the first books my mum put into my hands were from authors like Dickens, Austen and the Brontë's, and I've never looked away from the "classics" since. These books have survived the test of time for a reason, here are some of my favourites.
1) Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë - My favourite love story of all time. Desperate, haunting and absolutely fantastic.
2) Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen - I've written a review on this book which you can read here.
3) Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë - I think I like Jane's character more than I like the books itself, and that seems to be the case with quite a lot of people, She's very...real, and she's the constant underdog.
4) Tess Of The D'urbervilles - Thomas Hardy - Poor Tess, I feel so terrible for her every time I read this. A book which shows you haw far women's rights have come and makes you truly understand the terrible stigmas put on girls in those times.
5) 1984 - George Orwell - I wrote a review on this book a few weeks ago, which you can read here. One of the most important books I feel I'll ever read, makes you so aware.
6) Little Women - Louisa May Alcott - I love the characters in story, and my favourites are the obvious; Jo and Beth, such a lovely, heart-warming tale about family and again women's rights, I love that Jo won't take no for an answer and is determined to write.
7) The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald - Again, I've written a review on this recently which you can read here.
8) A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess - A book I still find difficult to read, even after a few times. Ultra Violence and Human Nature. Viddy Well, Little Brother.
9) On The Road - Jack Kerouac - Again...haha, I have written a review of this which you can read here.
10) Junky - William Burroughs - In the same wild times of On The Road, such an exciting and well written (considering!) book, not for the less mature audience.
11) Little Birds - Anais Nin - Definitely not for the less mature audience. I adore Nin, I think her writing is fabulous, but lets leave it at that.
12) Howl - Allan Ginsberg - I think this must be included, one of my absolute favourite poems of all time, I'm with you in Rockland.
13) Tropic Of Cancer - Henry Miller - I'll leave this one vague for the same reasons as Little Birds.
14) Fiesta - Earnest Hemingway - Hemingway had to be on this list, I wasn't sure which to put down but Fiesta is a favourite of mine. Wonderful, vibrant, exciting, and home to one of my favourite females in literature, Brett Ashley.
I'm looking forward to seeing every one else's top ten!
