• Welcome to BookAndReader!

    We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!

    Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.

Modern classics of all kinds

A

Asher

kickbox
Some books are classic must reads, in your opinion, which books are these?

Heres one to start off, The Tao of My Thoughts, by Chee Soo
A philosophy classic:

Previously a hidden art, taught only to family members or people who proved themselves worthy, the Taoist practices and philosophy have been under the surface of society in China for thousands of years. It is only in the last century that Taoism has become popular and widely recognised.
"These thoughts started to come to me on the 20th December 1976" the start of a book filled with views on life, love, society and the workings of the universe. This modern philosophy classic opened my eyes to alot of understated and overlooked aspects of our human way of life. Taoist philosophy dates back thousands of years, to ancient China and yet, as this book proves is undoubtedly still as relevant today as it was then. This easy to read book, in a league with writings by Chuang Tzu and Lao Tzu will become the manual by which to live your life. Written by the renowned Taoist grand master Chee Soo it helps to explain in its own way the precepts of the Taoist philosophy.
 
I enjoy Taoism so I'll be sure to look into that one, Asher.

Modern classics, hmm... Well, some of the titles that come to mind are:
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Imajica by Clive Barker

Although it is still new I believe that Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale has the potential to be a classic must-read. I'm not obsessed. Really! ;)
 
Modern classics.

would like to enter a few what I would call, modern classics.
Jack Kerouac's Desolation Mountain, The Vanity of Delouz, On the Road, Visions of Cody
Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd.
Anthony Hope's The Prisoner of Zenda.
Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage.Catalina.
Kilvert's Diary.
Thoreau's Walden.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You can find modern classics but I don't think there are any out there. Maybe Ayn Rand.

Links Removed. No advertising except in the self promo section. thanks
 
When I hear the phrase "modern classic," I have two questions:
What is "modern"?
What is "classic"?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ell
modernclassic (adj): Of or relating to the present or recent times as opposed to the remote past and judged over a period of time to be of the highest quality and outstanding of its kind.

hmm. Kind of works, but very thin.
 
I tend to think memorable, and I tend to give higher grades to works that deviate from their kind and set new directions.
But I think it's anyone's guess what will be on the shelves 50 years from now. Or 100.
Depends.
"Tale of Two Cities"? Who here knows?
"Madame Bovary"? Likewise.
"Mrs. Dalloway"?
Robert Louis Stevenson?
Ford Maddox Ford?
"I, Claudius"?
Hillary Mantell?
"Howl" ?
"Finnegans Wake"?
Walt Whitman?
T.S. Eliot?
The Color Purple"?
Maya Angelou?
Toni Morrison?
Italo Calvino?
Roberto Bolano?
Haruki Murakami?
Kazuo Ishiguru?
Lady Murasaki Shikibu?
Basho?
Gutenberg?
King James Version?
Revised Standard Version?
 
Sneezy said:
modernclassic (adj): Of or relating to the present or recent times as opposed to the remote past and judged over a period of time to be of the highest quality and outstanding of its kind.

hmm. Kind of works, but very thin.
Click to expand...
Along the same lines as Peder's previous comment:
- What's considered "remote past"?
- What's considered "recent times'?
 
remotepast (adj): Of a chance or possibility unlikely to occur and gone by in time and no longer existing.
recentimes (adjenoun): Having happened, begun, or been done not long ago or not long before and the conditions of life during a particular period.

I don't know why this is so confusing. :shifty
 
Sneezy said:
remotepast (adj): Of a chance or possibility unlikely to occur and gone by in time and no longer existing.
recentimes (adjenoun): Having happened, begun, or been done not long ago or not long before and the conditions of life during a particular period.

I don't know why this is so confusing. :shifty
Click to expand...
I'm not saying it's confusing and I'm not trying to be argumentative either. It's just that it is hard to pin down language that everyone can agree upon.
 
Sneezy said:
remotepast (adj): Of a chance or possibility unlikely to occur and gone by in time and no longer existing.
recentimes (adjenoun): Having happened, begun, or been done not long ago or not long before and the conditions of life during a particular period.

I don't know why this is so confusing. :shifty
Click to expand...
Well, what year does recent times begin? That would not be confusing.
 
“A classic usually expresses some artistic quality--an expression of life, truth, and beauty. A classic stands the test of time. The work is usually considered to be a representation of the period in which it was written; and the work merits lasting recognition. In other words, if the book was published in the recent past, the work is not a classic. A classic has a certain universal appeal. Great works of literature touch us to our very core beings--partly because they integrate themes that are understood by readers from a wide range of backgrounds and levels of experience. Themes of love, hate, death, life, and faith touch upon some of our most basic emotional responses. A classic makes connections. You can study a classic and discover influences from other writers and other great works of literature.”
Click to expand...


http://classiclit.about.com/od/basicsliteratureintro/a/aa_modernclassic.htm


“Modern” is an interesting word. It gets tossed around by cultural commentators, architectural critics, and suspicious traditionalists. Sometimes, it just means “nowadays.” For our purposes here, I’ll define modern as, “Based in a world the reader recognizes as familiar.” So although Moby Dick is certainly a classic, it has a hard time being a modern classic because many of the settings, lifestyles allusions, and even moral codes seem dated to the reader.

A modern classic, then, would have to be a book written after WWI, and probably after WWII. Why? Because those cataclysmic events shifted the way the world sees itself in irreversible ways.
Click to expand...
 
"Modern” is an interesting word. It gets tossed around by cultural commentators, architectural critics, and suspicious traditionalists. Sometimes, it just means “nowadays.” For our purposes here, I’ll define modern as, “Based in a world the reader recognizes as familiar.” So although Moby Dick is certainly a classic, it has a hard time being a modern classic because many of the settings, lifestyles allusions, and even moral codes seem dated to the reader.

A modern classic, then, would have to be a book written after WWI, and probably after WWII. Why? Because those cataclysmic events shifted the way the world sees itself in irreversible ways."​

Then that definition wouldn't apply to say, a teenager. Not many teens see the period between WWI and maybe the Vietnam War as being familiar. The cataclysmic event for him might be 9-11. (Just thinking out loud.)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top