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. If you don’t mind female protagonists Little Women and Anne of Green Gables (the whole series, really) are quick reads too. I devored L.M. Montgomery’s works as an ADHD middle schooler, and I imagine they’d be even faster for an adult.
I recommend Cliffs Notes and Spark Notes to help understand the classics. I liked to read the book myself first and think about what the author is trying to say. Beyond the obvious. A lot of the classics involve class distinctions, culture and other ideas. After forming my own opinions I then go to the Cliff Notes. They do a good job explaining important passages.
Its important to understand the audience the author is writing for. Dickens wrote stories based on 19th century Britain and France. The social problems and poverty were important themes in his writing. Cliff Notes will explain that almost like you were in a Literature class.
Animal Farm, Orwell. A horrible downer but a quick read and fun to analyse. 1984 is much longer and an even bigger bummer.
I see The Old Man and the Sea up there but really I found In Our Time or The Sun Also Rises more interesting. Hemingway has fallen out of favor but it used to be that nearly everyone read his stuff.
Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange can be a bit tough due to the use of a bizarre slang called nadsat. If your copy has a glossary it’s a good deal easier. I found the story itself compelling.
Beowulf is short, brutal and an undeniable classic. There’s a good chance you’re already familiar with at least the outline of the story. You’ve probably read How the Grinch Stole Christmas, for instance.
I found Catch-22 fairly dense, actually, but got through it. It is funny. I remember disliking Frankenstein but it was a long time ago.
Dumas’ The Three Musketeers was a good adventure as I remember, as was Hope’s The Prisoner of Zenda.
I always wished I’d read Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye at a younger age as I think I would’ve identified a lot more with Holden Caufield. On the plus side, I didn’t turn out like Mark Chapman.
If you like Austen, you might like Patrick O’Brian, who wrote a series of (IMO) modern classics about naval warfare in the Napoleonic era. Depending on how much you like Greek myth and historical fiction you might also like Mary Renault, I find her pretty readable. I’d recommend The Bull from the Sea and The King Must Die which are about Theseus, or Fire from Heaven, the start of a trilogy of novels about Alexander the Great and the aftermath of his death. I may be venturing a little far from recognized classics, though.
I hesitate to mention this… I know anyone in academia hates them. But the OP is a casual reader that wants to read for fun.
My parents had several of the Readers Digest Condensed Books. They were a collection of classic novels in abridged form. Young readers are often frustrated at the slow pacing of older authors. A lot of words are used painting pictures for readers that didn’t have photographs available. The Condensed Books I read were really, really good. By the age of eleven I had read books we didn’t cover in Literature class until High School and College.
You can find them used on Abebooks, Ebay, Amazon, Bookfinder etc.
I read dozens of them as a youngster because the book exchange sold them for 50c each. It was highly economical, and I read things I may not have otherwise picked up.
The Little House on the Prairie books are pretty interesting, I really liked them as a teenager. Easy reads and very compelling. I haven’t reread them as an adult, and I don’t know whether they were 100% factual or partially embellished. But it’s good stuff.
Animal Farm is a fast read. Bit depressing, of course, but great content.
I haven’t read To Kill a Mockingbird, but I believe it’s a fairly short book. It was assigned reading in 9th grade lit classes starting the year after me (had been *Romeo and Juliet *when I was in 9th grade, but then they changed it). I remember my sister really liking it, and she’s never been a big reader.
What about modern classics? I don’t know anybody who doesn’t like Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series.
As a big reader (and Treasurer of the local Library Foundation), I hesitate to say this, but . . .
Shakespeare – most of his plays have pretty good versions available in video. For when you need a break from reading. Probably viewable on those electronic thingies, too. (Plus you can probably check them out from your local library, too.)
Most of them stay reasonably true to Shakespeare’s story, and even when they don’t, his writing is strong enough to withstand the changes. (What is it with Hollywood hacks thinking they can ‘improve’ classic writers?)
Richard III with Sir Ian McKellin is as good as any current action film. And a better plot than most. Romeo and Juliet - the DiCaprio version is OK, though I prefer the older one by Franco Zeffirelli. Hamlet, Lear – lots of good versions of them.
I like Roman Polanski’s version of Macbeth, but there are other good ones, too.
Most of the comedies are pretty good. Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor in the Taming of the Shrew is a memorable one.
I quite enjoyed reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as an adult (having been familiar with the movie and various T.V. productions since childhood), but I just want to add that I did not enjoy Through the Looking Glass. Sure, it has “Jabberwocky” but that holds up fine as a stand alone poem without reading the novel. While reading it, I felt very strongly that I might enjoy it more if I understood how to play chess. Chess is really central to the story. If you understand chess, you might not have the same problem with it that I had.
Hmmmm, I’m a fan of The Old Man and the Sea but if I recall correctly there are no chapter breaks, right? I know the entire book is less than 100 pages start to finish, but if the OP is a slow reader breaking his reading up into short sittings the lack of chapter breaks may be a problem. I read it straight through in one sitting, but I remember having trouble with Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury precisely because there were no convenient breaks to stop reading and pick up later.
No recommendations for Graham Greene yet. He’s one of my favorites. He himself categorized some of his writings as “novels” and others as “entertainments”. As you may suspect, the “entertainments” are lighter than the novels (personally, I think in such categorization he was selling half of his work short- the “entertainments” are wonderful novels and are well worth taking seriously).
I’d recommend getting started on Graham Greene with Our Man in Havana.
Also, buy an anthology of H.G.Wells novels and read through any one of them while taking a break after a “heavier” read, or anytime that you just can’t yet decide on what your next read will be.
**Elfkin **was talking about **Frankenstein **but I think this applies to a lot of classics. We get them shoved down our throats in high school and told they are “classics” and “great works” and so we hate them and reject them on principle.
I would normally recommend **Pride and Prejudice **at this point, and say that what the English teachers don’t usually mention is that it is “funny” and “subtly sarcastic” but I see the OP has bounced off of it already.
My second suggestion, and I think perfect for the OP, is **Ivanhoe **by Sir Walter Scott. I read it when I was way to young, and it completely baffled me. I tried it again when I was about 30, thinking I could handle a complicated work, and found it easy. This is a fun, exciting adventure work.
For the record I would anti-recommend a couple of other works mentioned here, especially Heart of Darkness, which is a long sea-mile from “fun.”
I suggest Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis. Not only is it a Great Book and a Pulitzer Prize winner (though Lewis declined the prize), it’s also a truly engrossing story with memorable characters. Very readable.
The most exciting book I have ever, ever read is Beau Geste by P.C. Wren.
Another vote for Steinbeck or Twain. East of Eden in my favorite book, it is long, but very easy to read. For Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court would be my suggestion. Short and funny.
It personally took me forever to get through The Hobbit, but I am just not a fan of fantasy. I think it’s one of the few books I never finished.
Oh I totally forgot about* To Kill A Mockingbird*! That sounds like the perfect book for you.
Project Gutenberg is a great resource for anyone into the classics or just older books. They offer totally legal EBooks free.
I checked several titles recommended in this thread and many were on Project Gutenberg. I’m downloading House of Seven Gables to reread this week. They have Around the World in 80 Days and I want to reread it too.
If you were to ask me, which you did, I would select “Of Mice & Men” and “To Kill a Mockingbird” as your next reads. I am emphatically NOT a fan of “The Old Man & The Sea” true, it’s short, but its more boring than you imagine a short book can be. For my money, “Tom Sawyer” is just ok.
For a little more challenge I also liked “The Grapes of Wrath.” You might want to read up a little on the Dust Bowl, if you don’t know too much about it. There’s a really good “American Experience” episode on PBS, “Surviving the Dust Bowl” which you can watch online.
I think while you are dipping your toes in the waters, American classics will have more familiar context, and thus, be more enjoyable and at the same time you’ll get more out of them. JMHO.
Another vote for To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s wonderful. And just to warn, the first few pages are a bit dense to get through. But once you get past that history of the family/county part, it’s a page-turner. So don’t give up on it until you’re at least a couple of chapters in.