# most famous books you haven't read



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Currently, mine is probably _War and Peace_, and I'm starting it.

One of my 6th graders really wants to read it, and another one wants to read it perhaps just to keep up with the other one. I deeply wish I'd been like that in 6th grade! But I am grateful to them, for I have put this off a couple of decades too long.

I think my second is _Beloved_, which I will probably read this summer with 9th graders. I don't know when I will get to Joyce's _Ulysses_.

Others on my list:

_All the Pretty Horses
Anna Karenina 
Atonement
Blindness
The Bonfire of the Vanities
Brewster's Millions 
Brideshead Revisited 
Buddenbrooks
Cities of Salt
A Confederacy of Dunces
Darkness at Noon
The Decameron
Dubliners
The Handmaid's Tale 
Howard's End
Invisible Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
Melmouth the Wanderer
Middlemarch 
Midnight's Children 
My Name is Red
The Name of the Rose
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich 
Omensetter's Luck 
Père Goriot
The Power and the Glory
A Prayer for Owen Meany
Red and Black 
The Romance of the Forest
The Sound and the Fury
The Tin Drum
The Turn of the Screw
White Noise 
Zorba the Greek_

I think of Baloo's line in the Disney cartoon of _The Jungle Book_, after the panther (Bagheera - sp?), believing him dead, has given him a nice funeral oration, and he sits up, "Don't stop there Baggy, there's more, lots more!" But you know - I need to go read!


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

If I were to ever reveal the names of the "important" books I haven't read to such a well-read and articulate community I would fear a lynching. As such... gotta go!

<insert delightfully quirky chase music here>


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## Guest (Apr 9, 2012)

Any particular criteria you use in determining famous? A certain threshold of weeks on a bestseller's list? Number of languages into which it has been translated? Some other yardstick? There are numerous books I have not read, but which I hope to some day - but most of them tend to be classics, as opposed to modern.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I've read very little fiction, so that would be a long list. I do like Tolstoy, and I've been meaning to read The Resurrection one of these days.


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## peeyaj (Nov 17, 2010)

Moby Dick... It's enormous as a whale.


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## Cnote11 (Jul 17, 2010)

The Twilight Saga


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

I'm with PJ on this one.



Cnote11 said:


> The Twilight Saga


Good for you.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

I can think of two classics I had unsuccessful attempts with. Dostoyevski's Crime and Punishment gave me a headache after 50 pages. D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover I have read until the first bed scene and then threw it in the trash (I was pretty radical back then, you see) .


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

Haha,...as I was opening the thread I was thinking _War & Peace._


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## Kopachris (May 31, 2010)

Let me rephrase the OP: I haven't read most famous books. It'd be easier to list the ones I _have_ read.


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## Guest (Apr 9, 2012)

I typically don't read a lot of current famous books, as I am usually disappointed. I had to read Amy Tan's Joy Luck Club several years back, and was moved to tears . . . with boredom. I have read George R. R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice series (Game of Thrones, for those of you who only know it through HBO). And I was a fan of Tom Clancy's for a while. Otherwise I do read famous books, but typically historically famous - Dickens and such. I have read several books that are famous for their influence on our culture - e.g. The Prince, Plato's Republic and the like. 

As for more modern famous books, there are quite a few that I have not read, and don't have any plans to. There are some famouse books that I have read that I wish I hadn't - the most obvious that comes to mind is the Da Vinci Code. Sure, the premise was kind of goofy, but that didn't bother me so much as some of the other stretches - come on, a cryptologist as hero? Really? And his action tends to be over the top. He tries to enshroud his fiction with an air of being based in fact, but even there he stretches the limits of credibility. My brother-in-law bought me his next book - The Lost Symbol - for Christmas, and without telling him, I returned it to my local Barnes & Noble and picked up a classical CD instead - I believe it was Michael Tilson Thomas' recording of Mahler's 4th symphony, and it was a great exchange!


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

DrMike said:


> And I was a fan of Tom Clancy's for a while.


Me too! In fact I still am.


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## Guest (Apr 9, 2012)

SiegendesLicht said:


> Me too! In fact I still am.


He lost me beginning with Red Rabbit - extremely disappointing. Some of his earlier ones were excellent. Red Storm Rising was wonderful.

He fell into the same problem that I found with Robert Ludlum and Vince Flynn - the creativity seemed to start to dry up, and the stories just weren't interesting anymore. There was always a bit of the fantastic in his books, but when he crashes a passenger plane into Congress and elevates Jack Ryan to the presidency, it was a bit much.


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

Kopachris said:


> Let me rephrase the OP: I haven't read most famous books. It'd be easier to list the ones I _have_ read.


I'm pretty much with you on this one.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

Obviously there are many books considered great that I have not read. Maybe my "greatest" unread books are:

Fiction: Dostoyevsky's Brothers Karamazov, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey
Non-fiction: Newton's Principia, Darwin's On the Origin of Species
Other: The Bible (I've read sections but not all), The Koran


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## Cnote11 (Jul 17, 2010)

I own several copies of The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Bible, The Quran, and On the Origin of Species. My library gives out On the Origin of Species like its candy. If you don't happen to have a copy of the Quran, I would be happy to point you in the direction of obtaining one for free.


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## samurai (Apr 22, 2011)

*Lord Of The Flies
Last Of The Mohicans
Moby Dick
*


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

Cnote11 said:


> I own several copies of The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Bible, The Quran, and On the Origin of Species. My library gives out On the Origin of Species like its candy. If you don't happen to have a copy of the Quran, I would be happy to point you in the direction of obtaining one for free.


No _Principia_, the most important book I mentioned? Looks like you'll need to buy 5 or 10 copies at least.


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## Cnote11 (Jul 17, 2010)

mmsbls said:


> No _Principia_, the most important book I mentioned? Looks like you'll need to buy 5 or 10 copies at least.


It is the one I'd be least inclined to read. Not that I'm not interested in mathematics and physics, because I am, but it does consist basically of stuff I've learned in formal classes throughout my life.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

Cnote11 said:


> It is the one I'd be least inclined to read. Not that I'm not interested in mathematics and physics, because I am, but it does consist basically of stuff I've learned in formal classes throughout my life.


That was roughly my point. The thread is about the famous books you _haven't read_, not the ones you own many copies of.


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## Cnote11 (Jul 17, 2010)

I realise that. I was just trying to help you out  Those ones are quite easy to obtain copies, and quite cheap/free, if you are interested in doing so. I'd even be happy to gift you a Darwin, as there is another copy at my library. Nobody seems to want to take it...


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

Thanks. The main reason I have not read those books is that I am not interested in reading them (with the possible exception of The Brothers Karamazov). There are simply far too many fascinating books waiting to be read. Every year there will be even more famous or important books that I have not read. Such is life.


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## jalex (Aug 21, 2011)

mmsbls said:


> Thanks. The main reason I have not read those books is that I am not interested in reading them (with the possible exception of The Brothers Karamazov). There are simply far too many fascinating books waiting to be read. Every year there will be even more famous or important books that I have not read. Such is life.


I can understand with Darwin and Newton where the ideas are more important than the words, but the Iliad, the Odyssey and the Bible are three of the cornerstones of Western literature. I don't really see how they can be ignored if you have any interest in reading. I'd frown if someone told me that the symphonies of Beethoven can be ignored because 'there are far too many other fascinating pieces of music to be heard'.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

All of them....

Ok I've read 2 Harry Potter books and 5 Narnia books. 

Not "classic" I guess but pretty famous I would say.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

jalex said:


> I can understand with Darwin and Newton where the ideas are more important than the words, but the Iliad, the Odyssey and the Bible are three of the cornerstones of Western literature. I don't really see how they can be ignored if you have any interest in reading. I'd frown if someone told me that the symphonies of Beethoven can be ignored because 'there are far too many other fascinating pieces of music to be heard'.


Sorry if I made you frown at my post. I acknowledge that the Iliad, Odyssey, and the Bible are "great" works of literature, and I would never suggest that someone should ignore them. Perhaps my interest in reading is rather dissimilar to yours. I'm not sure how many cornerstones of Western literature there are, but I have read quite a few, and I know there are many I have not read.

My bookshelf is filled with many unread books on numerous topics including climate change, evolution, economics, philosophy of mind, politics, music, theology, sociology, sports, physics, and more. I have a choice in what to read, and for me, there are just many books I would prefer to read than certain literary classics. To anyone who suggests that I _ought_ to read the Iliad over improving my knowledge of macroeconomics, increasing my understanding of evolutionary theory, or further exploring the nature of consciousness, I would respectfully, but strongly, disagree. It turns out that the Iliad is easily passed over even for those with a great interest in reading.


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## jalex (Aug 21, 2011)

mmsbls said:


> My bookshelf is filled with many unread books on numerous topics including climate change, evolution, economics, philosophy of mind, politics, music, theology, sociology, sports, physics, and more. I have a choice in what to read, and for me, there are just many books I would prefer to read than certain literary classics. To anyone who suggests that I _ought_ to read the Iliad over improving my knowledge of macroeconomics, increasing my understanding of evolutionary theory, or further exploring the nature of consciousness, I would respectfully, but strongly, disagree. It turns out that the Iliad is easily passed over even for those with a great interest in reading.


Ah, if your interest is primarily non-fiction then it's a different matter (although I still strongly recommend the Iliad and the Odyssey).


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## Moira (Apr 1, 2012)

jalex said:


> I can understand with Darwin and Newton where the ideas are more important than the words, but the Iliad, the Odyssey and the Bible are three of the cornerstones of Western literature. I don't really see how they can be ignored if you have any interest in reading. I'd frown if someone told me that the symphonies of Beethoven can be ignored because 'there are far too many other fascinating pieces of music to be heard'.


There was no television in South Africa until 1976 (late 1975 if one counts the testing phase). By that time I had read the Bible, the Iliad and the Odyssey.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

It would be easier for me to list the famous books I HAVE read, if I'm to be honest. The one I really want to complete is Crime & Punishment but I get bogged down and it defeats me each time, which is a shame as I am genuinely fond of what Russian fiction I have dabbled with (mainly Gogol). On the whole, I tend to read more about history - one real fave is Natasha's Dance, Orlando Figue's history of Russian culture. Another is Where They Ain't (Burt Solomon), recounting the rise and fall of the original Baltimore Orioles Baseball Club and the predominantly Irish-American backbone of the team which was central to their controversial win-at-any-cost philosophy during their 1890s heyday.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Many, many, many, many, many.

Rather than make a list, it's probably easier just to describe by country and time period. I'm most well-versed on English medieval literature with a bit of Anglo-Norman, French and Latin thrown into the mix, followed by English Romanticism and various styles that flourished in the Victorian period (more Gothic than realism though). Of course, when we talk about "books", most of what I've read have been story collections or poetry rather than novels.

The most obvious gaps in my literary travels are the American classics (I've read a lot of Poe, but have Twain waiting for me on my shelf), and Russian (I'm a huge fan of Chekhov and have read lots, plus a little of Pushkin. I can't say I've ever actually been intrigued by Tolstoy so may skip him, though I will make a stop with Dostoevsky). Classical works, as well, are things that I largely know by reference in later works which I ought to read directly.

There's a lot of 20th Century stuff on the cards that I could list, but I think I'm most interested in dystopian and sci-fi (a recent development).


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## Argus (Oct 16, 2009)

Famous books I _have_ read:

Shogun
Dune

Much of what I read is non-fiction and music related so I'm not sure how famous books like Gradus ad Parnassum or On the Sensations of Tone are in the universal sense.


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## Taneyev (Jan 19, 2009)

The Bible.


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## Guest (Apr 10, 2012)

Argus said:


> Famous books I _have_ read:
> 
> Shogun
> Dune
> ...


Dune is great - but the end of the series got truly weird. I understood his grand picture, but it really turned weird in the end. And don't get me started with his son's continuation of the series - I thought it was okay at first, but then ended up being a big advertisement for his prequel regarding the Butlerian Jihad, which just seemed kind of preposterous to me.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

DrMike said:


> Dune is great - but the end of the series got truly weird. I understood his grand picture, but it really turned weird in the end. And don't get me started with his son's continuation of the series - I thought it was okay at first, but then ended up being a big advertisement for his prequel regarding the Butlerian Jihad, which just seemed kind of preposterous to me.


I had essentially the exact same feeling. I generally love sci-fi that takes a large scale view of civilization, and in general I willingly withhold most skepticism. But, the series did seem to go beyond what I was comfortable accepting. The original _Dune_ was great though.


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## Argus (Oct 16, 2009)

DrMike said:


> Dune is great - but the end of the series got truly weird. I understood his grand picture, but it really turned weird in the end. And don't get me started with his son's continuation of the series - I thought it was okay at first, but then ended up being a big advertisement for his prequel regarding the Butlerian Jihad, which just seemed kind of preposterous to me.


I've only read Dune and Dune Messiah, but I know someone who's read most (if not all) of the Dune books and he says the quality does go downhill when his son took over too. He still reads each new release though.


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

'and how can this be? for he is the Kwisatz Haderach'


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## Argus (Oct 16, 2009)

kv466 said:


> 'and how can this be? for he is the Kwisatz Haderach'


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## Cnote11 (Jul 17, 2010)

jalex said:


> Ah, if your interest is primarily non-fiction then it's a different matter (although I still strongly recommend the Iliad and the Odyssey).


My interest in primarily non-fiction but The Odyssey is one of my favorite books. The Iliad is great as well and both are highly recommended.


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## aphyrodite (Jan 9, 2012)

Cnote11 said:


> The Twilight Saga


Never got interested in it, even though some has encouraged me to read the first book. But still, nay.


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## Igneous01 (Jan 27, 2011)

has anyone ever read Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo? A friend let me borrow it and recommended I read it. Im reading the Odyssey now as we speak. 

I feel bad about how I never came across Homers works while in highschool or in elementary school. I mean, shakespeare is important, but do we have to read it every year?


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## samurai (Apr 22, 2011)

Igneous01 said:


> has anyone ever read Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo? A friend let me borrow it and recommended I read it. Im reading the Odyssey now as we speak.
> 
> I feel bad about how I never came across Homers works while in highschool or in elementary school. I mean, shakespeare is important, but do we have to read it every year?


I read the Trumbo book right before I was going into the Army, and later saw the movie of the same name. It is probably one of the greatest--and most chilling--of any anti-war book ever written, ranking right up there alongside "All Quiet On The Western Front" as a classic exemplar of that genre. Regarding "Johnny Got His Gun" I had to put it down for a week before I summoned up enough courage to begin reading it through to its end. Have you read it yet? If you haven't, be fore-warned: it's chilling in its implications.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

In my younger years, I was an avid reader of fiction of all kinds, esp. of literature before c.1950.

Now, I'm lucky if I get through one fiction book in a year. Over the years, I bought a few dozen novels that I felt I_ should _read, but in most cases never got around to it and passed them onto acquaintances (hint for everyone -_ never _throw out a book, someone else is bound to want it!).

These days, I'm more likely to read non-fiction, esp. music, history & some practical psychology.

But I'm kind of worried about this as well -



Crudblud said:


> If I were to ever reveal the names of the "important" books I haven't read to such a well-read and articulate community I would fear a lynching...


Not exactly a lynching, but being painted as lowbrow, which I'm not (in any case, it's a stereotype, it's not reality). I do like a number of _airport novelists_, I think they can spin a good yarn. I like to be entertained, I'm kind of bored now by profound things. But I've had a fair deal of exposure to them in the past, so I'm not totally ignorant of them. But anyway.


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## Igneous01 (Jan 27, 2011)

samurai said:


> I read the Trumbo book right before I was going into the Army, and later saw the movie of the same name. It is probably one of the greatest--and most chilling--of any anti-war book ever written, ranking right up there alongside "All Quiet On The Western Front" as a classic exemplar of that genre. Regarding "Johnny Got His Gun" I had to put it down for a week before I summoned up enough courage to begin reading it through to its end. Have you read it yet? If you haven't, be fore-warned: it's chilling in its implications.


now you have peaked my interest. I will definitely read it now


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## Guest (Apr 12, 2012)

Igneous01 said:


> now you have peaked my interest. I will definitely read it now


Read "All Quiet on the Western Front" as well - by Erich Marie Remarque. EXCELLENT story. I read it in high school - I am a nerd, and read it because I wanted to. I have always loved reading - my dad had a huge collection of hardbound classics that he inherited from his father - one of those collections you would get from the door-to-door salesman. The first book I cracked in that collection was Ivanhoe. Anyways, All Quiet is one of those true classics. The old black and white movie is also very good - the final scene is iconic.


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## Igneous01 (Jan 27, 2011)

DrMike said:


> Read "All Quiet on the Western Front" as well - by Erich Marie Remarque. EXCELLENT story. I read it in high school - I am a nerd, and read it because I wanted to. I have always loved reading - my dad had a huge collection of hardbound classics that he inherited from his father - one of those collections you would get from the door-to-door salesman. The first book I cracked in that collection was Ivanhoe. Anyways, All Quiet is one of those true classics. The old black and white movie is also very good - the final scene is iconic.


I watched the original black and white film of it, and it was very moving indeed. and I agree the final scene is iconic, and in a sense ironic as well. Will definitely aim to read that after I have read the two current books i have now.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Sid James said:


> Not exactly a lynching, but being painted as lowbrow, which I'm not (in any case, it's a stereotype, it's not reality). I do like a number of _airport novelists_, I think they can spin a good yarn. I like to be entertained, I'm kind of bored now by profound things. But I've had a fair deal of exposure to them in the past, so I'm not totally ignorant of them. But anyway.


I think that the profound literature of the past has a tendency to be unnecessarily verbose, even for its time - that's what I find most off-putting about works like _War and Peace_ or _Middlemarch_ or other hefty tomes. They are brilliant, but brilliance embedded in a lot of (to me) uninteresting fluff.

If you're interested in getting into some reading that is neither heavy-going nor airport fiction and don't like poetry that much, I would strongly urge you to try short stories - it's an underrated form, but arguably the best one for the "modern lifestyle". From the past, of course, there is Chekhov who never ceases to be amazing (the first of his that I read was _An Avenger_, and I loved how masterfully it distilled how rage changes in a person, also with lots of humour, then his works like _Ward No. 6_ give an eerie sense of profundity), alternatively there are folks like Poe if you're into more Gothic works; V. S. Pritchett was a big name and good starting point for 20th Century short works, and Arthur C. Clarke wrote many sci-fi short stories. Then, for a living writer, I've recently come to read the collected stories of Lydia Davis, and have been enjoying them greatly.

There is a lot of fantastic short fiction that, despite its length, is of equal gravity and interest as 600 page books - you just have to know where to look.


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## emiellucifuge (May 26, 2009)

Im about 4/5ths of the way through War and Peace and no fluff so far Polednice. Of course he does go into tremendous detail, but I think this really works very well in creating the effect of the characters being 'cogs in the machine', which is quite obviously what hes getting at.

Short stories are great too, my favourite are those by Kafka.

There's far too much I havent read, my bookshelves are overflowing with unopened books, but I have time yet.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

emiellucifuge said:


> Im about 4/5ths of the way through War and Peace and no fluff so far Polednice. Of course he does go into tremendous detail, but I think this really works very well in creating the effect of the characters being 'cogs in the machine', which is quite obviously what hes getting at.


I just realised that the fluff I was thinking of is actually in _Anna Karenina_ - I don't know if Tolstoy's style is different in W&P, but I find the style of Karenina very off-putting (far, far, far too much detail!).


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## Guest (Apr 12, 2012)

I think a lot of the fluff stems from the fact that many novels from the 1800's in particular were originally published in serial form - it was only later that they were collected into a single novel. Authors would be paid for each edition, so it was in their financial interest to stretch out a story as far as it could go. I think in particular of Les Miserables - the unabridged version can go off on some pretty extensive tangents, to the point that when you get back to the main plot, you are scratching your head, going, "now where the hell were we?" I believe this was also the case for many of Dickens' novels. Some are more tolerable than others.

On the subject of short stories, and serialized books, for those into science fiction, I would highly recommend the works of Isaac Asimov. Several of what we think of as his novels are actually just related collections of short stories - I, Robot, and the original Foundation series (Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation) are justifiable classics of the genre, and I recommend them wholeheartedly.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

DrMike said:


> Read "All Quiet on the Western Front" as well - by Erich Marie Remarque. EXCELLENT story. I read it in high school - I am a nerd, and read it because I wanted to.


"Time to Live and Time to Die" by the same author is an even better anti-war story. I read it in high school as well, just at the time we schoolkids were fed the usual propaganda about "the holy war against those German monsters" in history class. After that I never swallowed the propaganda any more.


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