Top Ten Favorite Classic Books

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for our Top Ten Favorite Classic Books, which is one of my favorite topics! It's also incredibly hard to just pick ten!

1) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

2) The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

3) Persuasion by Jane Austen

4) David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

5) The Sign of Four (Sherlock Holmes) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

6) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

7) Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

8) I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

9) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

10) Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck

 

BONUS: Shakespeare! I can’t pick between his plays so I’m going to give him his own bonus spot.

Top Ten Dogs from Literature

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish is a freebie week, so I decided to pick my top ten dogs I love from different books. 

 

1) Charley from Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley; a road-tripping dog.

2) The brilliant “watchdog” Tock from The Phantom Tollbooth

3) Odysseus’ dog Argos from The Odyssey; never stops hoping to see his master again.

4) Hagrid’s dog Fang from the Harry Potter series

5) Mr. Rochester’s dog Pilot from Jane Eyre

6) Crab from Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona

7) Kojak from The Stand; the most loyal pup ever.

8) Nana from Peter Pan, who wouldn’t want a nanny that’s a dog?

9) The Starks’ direwolves from Game of Thrones (I know they aren’t technically dogs)

10) Harold from the Bunnicula series.

Most Influential Books

Jillian at Random Ramblings posted about ten most influential books in her life and she encouraged others to do the same with one rule... you can’t explain your choices. I tend to over explain my choices for lists, so this was an intriguing idea. Then Brona listed her books and Adam listed his and I knew I had to join in the fun.


Jillian said "I love a lot of books. However, I've learned that the favorites list and the most influential list are two completely different things." As I started making my own list I realized the same thing. The most influential book I read by one author might not even be my favorite by them.
 

So here’s my list…
1) Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck
 

2) Hamlet by William Shakespeare
 

3) The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
 

4) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
 

5) Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
 

6) The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
 

7) Matilda by Roald Dahl  
 

8) Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
 

9) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
 

10) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott  

Photo by moi.

December Classics Club Meme Question

What is your favorite classic book?

The Classics Club originally asked this question in August 2012 and my answer was Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck. I thought for this question I’d pick another one of my favorites. I’m going to venture into Russian territory for this one for two reasons.

1) I think that Russian lit is incredibly intimidating for some people (it was for me!)

2) I read this book before I started blogging and so I’ve never written about it on the blog.  

So the book in question… Anna Karenina. This one was an unexpected delight for me. I was expecting a melodramatic romance and lots of “woe is me” bits. Instead I found a novel that delved into personal happiness vs. social expectations, religion, and Russian culture.

The booked is packed with interesting characters, only one of which is mentioned in the title. Anna might be the headliner, but she’s certainly not the only act. The book really parallels the lives and journeys of two characters, Anna and Levin. At the beginning of the book Anna is optimistic. She travels to visit her family to help her brother put his marriage back together. By the end of the book her life has been thrown upside down and she loses her faith.

Levin on the other hand is awkward and pessimistic. He’s in love, but has no idea how to go about wooing the woman he’s interested in. Throughout the book he finds solace in hard labor. Through his struggles and trails he finds his faith. He learns the meaning of true love and understands the difference a good woman makes to his life. Both characters seem to do a complete 180 by the end of the novel.

There is so much more that I’m not even touching on. Tolstoy deals with the social customs at the time, the ease at which people can be welcomed or shunned from society and the rights women didn’t have during that time period, etc. He makes the reader consider the difference between momentary bliss and the sometimes sedate, but long-lasting joy of family, but at the same time he never makes it feel like a preachy cautionary tale.

If you’re thinking about trying Tolstoy I would highly recommend starting here. There are fewer major characters than there are in War and Peace and the plot is easier to follow.

Join in the fun here. 

Reading the States: Road Trip

Over the past year I’ve posted about books and authors from every single state in America. You can see the complete list here.

I loved learning a bit more about each state and the authors and books that capture its unique characteristics. But I must admit I’m glad I finally reached the end! I hope people are able to use the lists as references in the future when they’re hoping to explore a new state. It’s always fun to read books set in a state you’re about to visit.

For this final post I wanted to give you all a few great road trip books. These are all books that are set in multiple states or involve a trip across the United States. Read a few and I promise you you’ll have a hard time resisting the urge to hit the road.

Also, here's another great blog to check out for more suggestions: LitMap Project.

- Travels with Charley* by John Steinbeck 

- April 1865* by Jay Winik

- A Journey through Literary America by Thomas Hummel

- The Lost Continent* by Bill Bryson

- Blue Highways* by William Least Heat-Moon

- On the Road* by Jack Kerouac
- The Island of Lost Maps by Miles Harvey

- A Walk across America by Peter Jenkins

- Way Off the Road by Bill Geist

- I'm a Stranger Here Myself by Bill Bryson

- Undaunted Courage* by Stephen E. Ambrose 

- Roughing It* by Mark Twain 
- State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America by Matt Weiland
- The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet* by Reif Larsen
- Liner Notes* by Emily Franklin
- Amy & Roger's Epic Detour* by Morgan Matson

The Classics Club: August Response

Lately I haven’t been the best at commenting on blogs and visiting all you lovely people. A big reason why is the wonderful Classics Club Blog which is now up and running. I am so excited that we have so many new members and reviews up, but it’s also been pretty time consuming keeping everything up to date, so I’m sorry! But on the plus side, here’s one of the wonderful new bits, the club is hosting a monthly meme question and here’s the first one…

"What is your favorite classic book? Why?"

There are so many books that have found their way into my heart over the years; To Kill a Mockingbird, Great Expectations, Rebecca, Little Women, A Moveable Feast, Jane Eyre and so many more. So it’s difficult to answer which one is my absolute favorite, but here’s what I came up with:
 
Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck

Unlike much of his other work, Travels with Charley is not fiction and it’s not depressing. Let’s face it, Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden and Of Mice and Men might be powerful books, but they’re also serious downers. Over the decades Steinbeck's books have been lauded by critics and readers alike and he has written some truly remarkable books, but "Travels with Charley" hit me on a completely new level. 

It’s different from almost any other classic I’ve read and I think that’s why it has stayed with me for so long. 

It's a nonfiction book written later in Steinbeck's life. After having written about the underdogs in America for years he realizes he has grown out of touch with his beloved country. He decides to take his dog Charley and travel across the United States in a camper. The book is about the people he meets and the thoughts he has along the way. The book combines so many things that I love; great writing, travel memoirs, a deep love for pets.

It’s also a beautiful look at connecting with the place you’re from and the people who live there. It’s easy to reduce a country, (even your own) to a cliché. Traveling through it reminds you of both the good and the bad, but in my experience it’s usually the good that stands out. I think this book where my love of road trips was born. When you fly from one city to the other you miss so much along the way. Steinbeck captures the feeling of really connecting with a place and the unexpected friendships you can form along the way.

Image from here.