I'm thinking of starting with Moby Dick, which will be a re-read.
Epic books I've enjoyed:
Lonesome Dove
Crime & Punishment
Don Quixote
East of Eden
Grapes of Wrath
The Octopus
The Prize
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Catch-22
Cryptonomicon
Foucault's Pendulum
A Suitable Boy
The Stand
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
11/22/63
Gone With the Wind
Wolf Hall
Independent People ….
I tend to like books with a strong story and interesting characters, and some humor. Dark humor is good. I'm not that into slow philosophical stuff… or flowery writing. I didn't like The Goldfinch.
by sozh
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The Count of Monte Cristo
Lord of the Rings
Anna Karenina
The Master and Margarita
The Three Musketeers
Les Miserables
Great Expectations
Demon Copperhead
Count of Monte Cristo
Dune
Native Son
All the King’s Men
Lord of the Rings
Emma
Dracula
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Swan Song
IT
Empire Falls
Life after Life/a god in ruins
Parable of the sower/Parable of Talents
Americanah
The Alice Network
James Ellory’s LA Quartet
The Brothers Karamazov
Tom’s Crossing (new book, and I’m just starting but one to look into)
The Terror
Edit to add: King Sorrow. I just finished and it was my fav book of 2025.
The illiad
The odyssey
2666
Infinite Jest
Underworld
Killing Commentadore
Bleak House
Judging by that description, I think you’d like h{{The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway}}. It’s an American classic that meets all of those criteria.
Count of Monte Cristo, Lord of the Rings, Dune, Robot Series by Isaac Isamov, Les Miserables, and Dracula are my favorite classics.
On my list is Catch-22, Odyssey and Illiad, The Old Man and the Sea, War and Peace, Paradise Lost, and The Brothers Karamazov
The Name of the Rose
Wuthering Heights
The Red and The Black
Persuasion
Anna Karenina
War and Peace
Middlemarch
Jude the Obscure
Buddenbrooks
The Magic Mountain
A Portrait of The Artist as a Young Man
Mrs. Dalloway
A Man Without Qualities
Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnameable
The Crying of Lot 49
A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
So far The Stand is a ride. I love it.
is Barbara Kingsolver’s book a poisonwood Bible a classic yet ?
That’s a great list you’ve already read. I’d add:
Count of Monte Cristo – Alexander Dumas
Swan Song – Robert McCammon
Underworld – Don DeLillo
2666 – Roberto Bolano
Infinite Jest – David Foster Wallace
Gravity’s Rainbow – Thomas Pynchon
Pillars of the Earth – Ken Follett
Jerusalem – Alan Moore