Easy reads for a thirty-something who wants to get started on the classics

Cafe Society
1

I’m only phrasing the title like that because it seemed appropraite should this thread get legs and find itself added to the SDMB Book Recommendation Thread Compendium…that’s what it’s basically about.

Anyways a little back story so you know where I’m coming from. I’ve never been much of a reader. In fact, up until recently, I think I’ve read maybe two books since high school. Somewhat due to really not caring but more so do to not really being able to. I was always one of those people that would read 4 or 5 pages and not have any idea at all what I read. My eyes would go back and forth, the words would go into my brain, but that’s it, I honestly couldn’t tell you what I had just read. This made reading very, very frustrating (it also really hurt my grades in college).
Anyways a few months ago I noticed Google Books on my phone and read a few books there, and finding that I liked it, got a Kindle and read more there. I think it’s a combination of the novelty of using electronics and my ADD not running at 175% ALL THE DAMN TIME anymore.

So, here’s where I stand, since I started I’ve read:
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (that was the one with the Mormons, right?)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Dracula*

I also started The Communist Manifesto, but it was ungodly boring so I gave up on it about a quarter of the way through.

What I’m looking for is recommendations for some of the classics. Nothing overly obscure and nothing terribly long. Based on what I’ve read around the Dope, I’m apparently a bit of a slow reader. Dracula is 330 pages, I started it over a month ago and I’m almost done. Seems some people here could have knocked that out in a few days. I’m sure that’s just a combination of just getting started at this, my ADD and the fact that I only read for about 30 minutes a night. Either way, I’d rather not spend 3 months on a 1000 page book.
Also, as I said in the title, I’m looking for easy reads. For example, a while back I started Pride and Prejudice, I’d like to give it another shot at some point, but the writing was just to flowery for me. I was sick of getting tripped up and spending 2 minutes on a page.

Lastly (for now) I’ve always been terrible at symbolism. In fact, unless I’m reading with some sort of guide (human or otherwise) I won’t even notice it. It won’t even dawn on me that the symbolism exists. So the book either has to be light on it or it has to still be a great book when taken at face value.

Having said that…here are my thoughts for the next read (FTR extra points for books in the public domain since I’ll be reading this on a Kindle)
-Something else from Sherlock Holmes, either short stories or another novel. I have The Sign Of Four on my Kindle, I hear The Hounds of Baskerville is good.
-And Then There Were None -Christie
-Murder On The Orient Express -Christie
-Emma -Austen
-The Marvelous Land Of Oz -Baum (I’ve always wanted to read the Oz books)
So, that’s where I stand. Looking for easy reads for someone that’s really just getting into reading but wants to read the classics. No heavy symbolism, no overly flowery language, nothing over 300ish pages…I think that’s kind of it.
Oh, and nothing terribly obscure, as someone just starting out, I’d like to be able to discuss the books I read with other people and it’s hard to do that if even the well read people around me (parents, co-workers etc) haven’t heard of the book.

*As of right now, I’m in the home stretch of Dracula, I’ve got about 20 or so pages left, please, no spoilers.

2

Definitely consider Moby Dick. And then reject it as totally awful for your circumstances. (I’d say stronger words against it, but I don’t want to hijack your thread with people defending it).

And Then There Were None is a pretty easy read, pretty fun. Similarly consider some Rex Stout mysteries. Raymond Chandler is tremendous fun: when I was reading his stories, I generally found about one turn of phrase per page to make me snicker.

Eventually, if you build up your stamina, I highly, highly recommend The Count of Monte Cristo. It’s a huge, wordy volume that moves very slowly in places, but it’s among the most rewarding books I’ve ever read. The all-time great adventure novel.

And along those lines, there’s Treasure Island. The protagonist isn’t all that, but Long John Silver, is among the greatest, if not the greatest, villain ever set to page.

3

I was surprised at how easy My Antonia by Willa Cather was to read. When my mom suggested I read it, I couldn’t bear the thought of reading another book about virtuous, plains pioneers gamely churning butter while the crops don’t come in. To my surprise, it grabbed my attention immediately and never lost it.

The Homemaker by Dorothy Canfield has a similar simple but elegant prose style and is surprisingly modern in outlook, I thought. It was written in the 1920s about a husband who hates working and a wife who hates being a homemaker and how they learn to find happiness in their family and in society.

I’ve been reading the Oz books as well, and I have to say, you should alternate some stuff in between them. Trying to read more than 3 or 4 in a row starts to wear on you. (And Ozma and Glinda are superbitches in The Patchwork Girl in Oz.)

4

I got that pretty quickly. Wonderful Wizard of Oz read very quickly but for a lot of it I wasn’t sure if I should be reading it for myself or reading it to my 6 year old daughter. My original plan, when I first picked it up, was to read them ALL. After I finished it I realized that, at most, I could do one on between each ‘normal’ book lest I might feel like I was in 3rd grade. It was good, don’t get me wrong, but it was too easy. I need something to think about. I really want to read the next one, but I’m still not sure if I want to go back to it. I feel like I want to wait until I’m a better reader and I can zip through it in a few days. I really want to read it, but I’m not sure I want to be stuck in something so mindless for 3 weeks.

I’m not looking for a challenge, but I’m not looking for something that middle school kids do book reports on either. If it helps, Dracula and Sherlock Holmes seem just about right.

5

Tom Sawyer. I’d suggest avoiding political stuff.

Also you may want to read juvenile classics-not lame or for little kids but simpler easier to read.

6

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a pretty light read, but not so easy as to become boring like Oz does (and I’m an Oz fan as well.) But it is bizarre and a bit flowery rather often.

The Hobbit is also an easy classic. Good descriptions, but still in easy English (as in: you don’t have to puzzle out what they’re trying to say because the dialogue is so archaic.) It isn’t as rife with symbolism as the LOTR trilogy, but makes a good intro to it if that trilogy is something you would eventually be interested in reading.

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Well, I won’t pretend I’m the world’s most discerning reader but I’ve never read an Agatha Christie I didn’t enjoy so, I vote for those. My favorites are the Poirot ones but I haven’t read a clunker yet.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett was a favorite of mine ever since I was a kid. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are also quality kids fare with something for adults as well.

8

I’ll add Huckleberry Finn, The Great Gatsby, Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden

9

A quick scan of the top 100 downloads on Project Gutenberg lists some titles I remember as being easy reads.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Importance of Being Earnest by same
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

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I watched Murder on the Orient Express so long ago that I don’t remember it…at all. In fact, I either remember so little about it or was paying so little attention to it at the time that years later when I got into the Poirot TV series I didn’t make the connection. But I did enjoy Poitrot as much as Marple and Columbo, plus since it all takes place on a train that would imply I’ll have less characters to keep straight, something else I struggle with even in a movie or TV show. At the moment, in the lead are:
Murder on the Orient Express
Something From Sherlock, maybe just one or two short stories
And Then There Were None

Also, one more I forgot to add to the OP, some sort of a handful of short stories from Edgar Allen Poe.

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I’m pretty sure there’s something on the order of 11 or 12 characters who you need to remember in Murder on the Orient Express.

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I wouldn’t describe Gulliver’s Travels as an easy read. Heart of Darkness would get my vote from this list for meeting the OP’s requirements.

The first two Agatha Christie books are in the public domain so they are free at Project Gutenberg, The Mysterious Affair at Styles and Secret Adversary. The best Sherlock Holmes novel is The Hound of the Baskervilles and a short story compilation you’ll probably like is The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. I’ll also recommend Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

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I found it easier than Dracula. To each his own.

14

The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway. Short, punchy, easy reading, simple language, and a timeless classic. If that doesn’t get you where you live there’s something wrong with you, IMO.

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Define “classic”.

John Steinbeck is very easy to read, keeps things simple. Grapes of Wrath is great, **Of Mice and Men. **
But what kinds of stories engage you? When a younger friend of mine who had blown most of her youth and young adulthood being a junkie hooker told me how much she loved to read, I showered her with lots of wonderful books that aren’t necessarily considered "classics’, but have definitely stood the test of time in terms of remaining compelling, beloved reads for successive generations:

Gone With the Wind
Stranger in a Strange Land <—HUGE favorite that I’ve read 5-6 times. Sci Fi, but not really.
Twain anything, but I recommend that you warm up with his shorter pieces to learn his rhythms
**Lonesome Dove **- never read a Western before or since, and it’s in my Top Ten of All Time.
Probably my all time favorite book, though it’s really hard to call, is A Prayer for Owen Meany, which is not old enough to qualify even by my loose definition, but it is passionately adored by most of the people who read it.

Plenty of wonderful books in this thread: What BOoks Would You Describe as “Brilliant”?

And I envy you…my ADD wasn’t diagnosed until I inadvertently stopped medication myself with a steady stream of nicotine when I quit smoking and overnight found myself unable to read novels at all, after a lifetime of passionate reading that meant multiple books per month. I miss it terribly; oral medication does not have the same effect as nicotine. Sigh.

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I have a hard time reading “classics” because I get the feeling they’re supposed to be hard to read and full of symbolism and emblems and other literariness that I’m too stoopid for. That said, I would recommend a few:
[ul]
[li]The Red Badge of Courage (Stephen Crane), pretty short, free on Kindle. I don’t usually like war books but I liked this one.[/li][li]Catch-22 (Joseph Heller).[/li][li]Slaughterhouse Five (Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.).[/li][li]The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (Robert Heinlein).[/li][li]The Good Earth (Pearl Buck).[/li][/ul]

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I know you say you don’t do symbolism, so in a way this is a terrible suggestion, but I think it will work for you nonetheless: Animal Farm, by George Orwell. The symbolism is VERY overt, the book is short, and it’s brilliant. It’s not in the public domain, though (as far as I know).

You can get started on Dickens with “A Christmas Carol.” It’s such a well-known story that I think you’ll be able to follow it, and it honestly has some of Dickens’s most beautiful writing. (Project Gutenberg) His most accessible novel is probably A Tale of Two Cities. (Also on Project Gutenberg)

If you like things that are atmospheric and creepy, you might consider Poe. (Public domain)

I’ll second Tom Sawyer. It’s not as good a book as Huck, but it’s an easier read. (Public domain)

And To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee has some symbolism, but is just an outstanding novel on many levels. Not in the public domain.

The Call of the Wild, by Jack London. Adventure story about a dog. (Public domain)

If you like mysteries, maybe Wilkie Collins: The Woman in White and The Moonstone. (Public domain.)

Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane. I don’t actually remember a thing about this book, though I read it many years ago. (Public domain)

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World might fit. Again, it’s been a while since I read it and I hope someone will correct me if I’m steering you wrong.

18

Very early suspense/horror almost a hundred years before Stephen King mastered the genre.
The House of the Seven Gables Nathaniel Hawthorne

fun read and easy for a new reader
Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson

A Tale of Two Cities Dickens, the only book of his I liked. David Copperfield was too bleak for me. Dickens can be a bit over wordy.

19

Well, I’m off to bed now, should be done with Dracula tonight or tomorrow night depending on how long it takes me to knock out the last 20 or 30 pages (like I said, I don’t read as fast as most people). I think I’ve got a lot of good suggestions to get started on and haven’t made up my mind yet. Part of my problem is that it takes me forever to make up my mind. Not just here but everywhere. I’m the person that will narrow something down to 3,4,6,10 choices then spend 3 days reading reviews all over the internet before pulling the trigger. I’ve been reading all kinds of top 10, 50, 100 lists all day before I started this thread and they were basically just random lists of books. I started this one specifically to narrow it down to easier reads…which I think I got.
I’m still leaning heavily towards Murder on the Orient Express which I got from one of the other threads here but I see The Hounds Of Baskerville is only 162 pages so I might do that one first.
Also, my mom won’t stop talking about Frankenstein (thought she did just read it) as well as a handful of others I’ve seen mentioned here.

Choices, choices… Keep em’ coming…I’m still listening and I’m planning to refer back to this thread when I’m ready for my next book.

I wish I was one of those people that could read multiple books at once, but I’m not. If I’m interested in a book, I’ll want to read it every night, if I switch off between two books, I’ll eventually lean more towards one then the other and soon stop reading one of them…I know myself that well. I also don’t want to spend 4 hours a day reading. 30-60 minutes a day is suiting me just fine.

20

I totally disagree. The Hobbit is one of only two books I’ve ever gotten so frustrated trying to wade through that I threw it against the wall, though it’s not the difficulty of understanding the words but a lack of patience with how the author uses them. I got through Anne Rice and Frank Herbert around the same time without difficulty, but even their wordiness is no match for Tolkien.

Anyway, I also recommend Charles Dickens. Start with Oliver Twist and David Copperfield, then move on to Great Expectations.