Hi!
My boyfriend almost exclusively reads classics but is wanting to branch out and start reading some more recent releases/modern books!
From what I can tell he is pretty open to try anything but is especially interested in books that we will look back at in 100-200 years and refer to as the classics of this time. He said he likes interesting stories as well and doesn't particularly see the appeal in reading the kind of story that has been written and re-written 100 times before (which actually sparked a very interesting conversation about how the the human experience never really changes and the positives of books with similar stories to make them accessible for different generations, David Copperfield/Demon Copperhead was a big example) so would like something that is a bit unique, or that blew your mind a bit the first time you read it
He said his top 5 books would probably be (in no particular order): Count of Monte Cristo, 1984, The alchemist, Ready player one, Great expectations.
He's just finishing up Frankenstein at the moment, and is wanting something from the last 25 years (ish) as his next read!
It would be a bonus if anyone has any suggestions for a book I could read and annotate for him as one of his Christmas presents!!
Thankyou!!
by quite-confused-
6 Comments
I REALLY enjoyed rereading Oliver Twist and then following it up with Terry Pratchett’s Dodger, which examines the Twist story from a different perspective.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke is very unique and atmospheric. Plus it was published in 2020 I believe.
I’m a firm believer that sci-fi (or speculative fiction, if you want some clout to swing around) will pan out to be the literature of the modern era. If he loves the style of The Count of Monte Cristo, check out “Too Like the Lightning” by Ada Palmer. It very intentionally takes the style of 18th century literature for what pans out to be a wild reason.
Alternatively, anything by Ursula K Le Guin. I just finished “The Dispossessed” for the first time and it took my breath away.
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
If he likes *Great Expectations*, what about *The Cider House Rules* by John Irving? Irving is sort of a modern-day Charles Dickens, who writes *bildungsromans* about orphans making their way in the world.
If you’re looking for something in the last 25 years that’ll be considered a modern classic I think 2666 by Roberto Bolaño fits that bill. It’s extraordinarily dense. You could spend a ton of time analyzing it. Was number 6 on New York Times’ top 100 books since 2000.
It’ll be taught in graduate classrooms for years to come in my opinion.