Top Ten Favorite Classic Books

Tuesday, July 1, 2014


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
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.

14 comments:

JoAnn said...

2 and 10 would definitely make my list, too. David Copperfield will be my next Dickens and I can't believe I've never read GWTW... that might make a good summer project. Hmmm.

Jess @ Jessticulates said...

I'm determined to cross The Count of Monte Cristo off my TBR list this year, I think I'd love it if I just stopped being intimidated by its size and read it. :) I Capture the Castle is another classic I'd love to read, too!

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

JoAnn - I reread Gone with the Wind last year and loved it even more!

Jess - It's so good! The size is daunting, but about halfway through the book I couldn't put it down.

*ೃ༄ Jillian said...

Gone with the Wind! ♥

Anonymous said...

Great choices! I would definitely put To Kill a Mockingbird, Persuasion, and Jane Eyre on my list too. My husband just finished reading Persuasion (he wrote about it on my blog on June 17th), and now he's listening to the audiobook of Jane Eyre.

Anonymous said...

I love I Capture the Castle. Gone with the Wind is an excellent choice, too. I am surprised that I haven't seen it on more lists.

Anonymous said...

I purposely excluded my top 10 authors from my list today, so Austen, Dickens, and Doyle were out. Otherwise, yeah, Persuasion (and P&P), David Copperfield, and some Sherlock Holmes would've been there.
Jane Eyre, To Kill a Mockingbird, and GWTW would've made it into a top 20, for sure!
I didn't even think to put Shakespeare! Probably because I prefer to watch rather than read Shakespeare. I think I'm going to try some full cast audio recordings of Shakespeare.

o said...

We've got Jane Eyre in common :) I nearly went for Travels with Charley, but picked Grapes of Wrath instead. It's hard to pick just ten!

Anonymous said...

'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' is such an awesome book! 'Jane Eyre' was on my list too, but I had a hard time deciding which Austen to choose. I almost went for 'Persuasion', but then settled on 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Northanger Abbey'. :)

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

Marianne - Sooo good!

misfortuneofknowing - Lucky girl! I don't think I could get the Huz to read either of those.

eveningreader - I think people give GWTW a bad rap as a romance novel, but anyone who has read it falls in love with the history side of things more than the romance!

abibliophilesstyle - That's a good way to do it! The full audiocast recordings of Shakespeare are usually wonderful. I love seeing it performed live more too, but even the Bard's language on the printed page still gets me!

o - Grapes of Wrath is fantastic too. You can't really go wrong with Steinbeck.

majoringinliterature - I could put almost any Austen on there and be happy, but Persuasion is my personal favorite!

Ellie said...

David Copperfield, Persuasion and Jane Eyre would probably all make it onto my list too. Shakespeare definitely deserves his own bonus spot!

Trish @ Love, Laughter, Insanity said...

Some really long ones on your list! Hitchhiker's Guide is on my to-read list and I keep hearing such amazing things about I Capture the Castle. Travels with Charley was such a fascinating read!

Rudejasper said...

David Copperfield is also my favorite Dicken's novel. I also LOVE I Capture the Castle and Gone with the Wind but they didn't even occur to me, dang it!

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

Ellie - There are too many great plays from the Bard to pick from!

Trish - Hitchhiker!!! You must read it.

Stephanie - I've been wanting to reread Castle for awhile now. I think it's time.