Books that I’ve read
Jane Eyre, (still haven’t found a movie adaptation that I can sit through) Villette, Shirley, The Professor, all by Charlotte Bronte
Pride and Prejudice, (1995 adaptation I love, 2005 a dud) Northanger Abbey, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, (adaptation was okay) Persuasion, Mansfield Park, all by Jane Austen
Pamela by Samuel Richardson
Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Lord of the Rings Trilogy, (the book was better than the movie, but I must admit that I hated the movie when I first saw it. That’s change) The Hobbit, all by J. R. R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Crime and Punishment, Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
As You Like It, Othello, The Tempest, Macbeth, Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, all by William Shakespeare
Daisy Miller, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Wuthering Heights, (saw the black and white version with Laurence Olivier, loved it) by Emily Bronte
Agnes Grey, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, (adaptation, couldn’t get past the few minutes) by Anne Bronte
The Great Gatsby, (a book I loved, but finding it hard to read again) This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and the Damned, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler
Far From the Madding Crowd, Tess of d’ Urbervilles, Mayor of Casterbridge, Under the Greenwood Tree, Jude the Obscure, The Woodlanders, all by Thomas Hardy
Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin
North and South, (saw the adaptation, like/hate) by Elizabeth Gaskell
House of Mirth, (saw the adaptation with Gillian Anderson, loved) by Edith Wharton
The Adventures of Hukleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Last of the Mohicans, (saw the movie, loved it. If I’d read the book before the movie, I don’t think I would’ve watched it) by James Fenimore Cooper
The Phantom of the Opera, (saw the movie, it was okay) by Gaston Leroux
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
What Every Woman Knows by J.M.Barrie
The Scarlett Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Things Fall Apart by Chiuna Achebe
Animal Farm, 1984, by George Orwell
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Hatter Fox by Marilyn Harris
The Lost Horizon by James Hilton
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Native Son by Richard Wright
The Warden, Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
Father Brown Mysteries by G.K. Chesterton
The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett
A Declaration of Independence by W. H. Canaway
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Lady Windermere’s Fan by Oscar Wilde
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (watched the movie version with Susan Sarandon)
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (saw the movie with Gregory Peck. Loved it)
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery
Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
The Pearl by John Steinbeck
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll (Um, what an imagination).
To Sir With Love by E.R. Braithwaite [Saw the movie, loved it.]
Waverley by Sir Walter Scott
Madame Bovary by Gustave Falubert [what a bore]
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
Diary of a Young Woman by Anne Frank
Woman In White by Wilkie Collins
The Hunchback of Notre Dame & Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Plays
The Hairy Ape by Eugene O’Neill
A Raisin in the Sun, (saw the movie with Sidney Poitier, loved) by Lorraine Hansberry
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
The Mikado by Arthur Sullivan and W.S. Gilbert
Odeipus Rex, Antigone by Sophocles
Tartuffe by Moilere
Arms and the Man by Bernard Shaw
The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov
A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen
The Lesson by Eugene Ionesco
The Zoo Story by Edward Albee
Riders to the Sea by John Millington Synge
Trifles by Susan Glaspell
The Man in a Case by Wendy Wassertein
Shakespeare should be down here
These I can remember so far
Posted by trisha on November 5, 2009 at 11:46 am
seems you too are thomas hardy fan.. i just love his works, try return of the native.. its fabulous. i have read tess… its one of the most heart touching stories i have ever read, so is return of the native. i dont recollect the name but i have read anothe book by him which was fabulous.
have you read shakespeare’s sonnet? they too are fabulous. there is a website which delivers them in your inbox..
i am a big fan of arthur conan doyle, maupassant and maugham. his book “of human bondage” is my hot favourite book (there are round about 99 more with it in the same pedestal.
i have read shakespeare in easy english. among the new writers (comparatively) i like clarke, louis l amour, asimov.
crime and punishment is one of the most moving novels i have read, another one is les miserables by hugo.
Posted by girlgeum on November 6, 2009 at 7:31 am
Did you know that Jude the Obscure was Hardy’s last book, because it got such bad and scathing reviews, he only wrote poetry after that?
I’ve read Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day, Nor marble, nor gilded monuments, When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes, Let me not to the marriage of true minds, Th’ expense of spirit in a waste of shame, My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun. Don’t think I’m remembering these from the top of my head. I have a book with them in it. And I’m always writing things down somewhere.
Sherlock Holmes I love.
I’ve read a short story by Maupassant. Love: Pages from a Sportsman’s Book. I think I’ve read more than one; I can’t remember.
My sister loves Louis L’armour and Dick Francis.
It was either a play or a movie that I saw Les Miserables. I was very young then, and was too silly to appreciate it. I also read the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Too silly to appreciate that as well.
I love the classics.
I’ll check out Of Human Bondage and Return of the Native.
I’ve heard about Asimov and Clarke. Sci-fi
Posted by trisha on November 7, 2009 at 4:32 pm
hunchback of notre dame is a masterpiece. i have read the translation and sniffed like crazy
i just love hardy’s writings. i did not knew that harsh criticisms made him stop writing novels, what a loss to readers. you know, every talented person has to be aware of these free riders, who dont have any thing to do and try to make themselves heard by making fun of others.
i wish there was a proper library nearby. in india its better to simply buy and read books. that was easy before, but now the prices of books (specially english ones) have almost reached moon.
my family had a huge stock of books which was ruined by negligence, but i finished them before that catastrophe.
i have subscribed for shakespeare sonnets and have read them in the mails, they are simply gorgeous. no wonder people were crazy about him.
if you can get a collection of maupassant or maugham’s short stories read them, you will love them. i have a quite a lot of maupassant’s short stories. they are simply adorable.
in case of books i try to read every thing i get, and read again and again mostly classics like you. i have some books by bengali classical writers i have read them dozens of times, and still read them
Posted by girlgeum on November 9, 2009 at 7:56 am
Books are like movies when I’m reading them. Different emotions are awaken.
Many people here don’t like to read books; no, read, period.
I’ve added Of Human Bondage and The Return of the Native to my list of books to read. Right now I have Madame Bovary, Oliver Twist, Treasure Island and the Call of the Wild. I’m going to start with Oliver Twist.
My list of short stories that I’ve read is extensive. Maybe I’ll put it up.
There’s a debate that’s ongoing, on whether Shakespeare wrote any of those masterpieces that are assigned to him. People have way too much time on their hands.
Posted by Darshee on November 13, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Oh, books are better than movies. (-:
You have a good taste in books. I like.
Posted by girlgeum on November 16, 2009 at 7:37 am
Definitely.
Thanks.
Posted by mydomainpvt on November 19, 2009 at 6:18 pm
dearest gg,
these people always impress me, who are forever busy digging up graves
books are like a movie to me too, i can visualize them.
i have read oliver twist, call of the wild and of course treasure island but translations in bengali.
i would rather give shakespeare benefit of doubt
with lots of love.
Posted by Nena Brodjonegoro on December 23, 2009 at 10:05 am
Wow, you’ve read a lot!
It seems like you’re a fan of classic literature? My literature knowledge is very limited, so pardon me..
I’ve read some of the books that you listed – I love The Picture of Dorian Gray. I think it captures human nature very well. But, then again, I love how Oscar Wilde writes..
Have a great holiday!
Posted by girlgeum on December 24, 2009 at 7:40 am
I prefer classic to contemporary. The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of my favorites, and you’re right in it depicting human nature. Some people would give up anything for something. Society plays it role in this.
You too, have a great holiday.
Posted by trisha on January 11, 2010 at 4:12 pm
i have missed “Picture of Dorian Gray” would love to read it some day.
Posted by girlgeum on January 12, 2010 at 7:14 am
Awesome book. They should make this into a movie–again.
What will people give up in order to gain?
Posted by Kim on June 22, 2010 at 7:48 pm
Wow such a great list of books. I noticed that you really like classic books.
I miss reading “non-academic” related books.
Posted by girlgeum on June 23, 2010 at 6:57 am
I hated reading, but then one day I had to read Native Son by Richard Wright, and the rest is history. I’ve found that when ever I try to read a book that’s not a classic, it isn’t as much fun.
Next on my list to read is Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.
Yeah, academic books while useful can be monotonous at times.
Posted by snydeen on July 29, 2010 at 1:24 pm
I love books! Great list. I’ll have to check out some of those I haven’t read yet.
Posted by girlgeum on July 30, 2010 at 5:24 am
So many books to read, so little time.