Recommended Reading and Classic Novels
Often
students will ask for recommendations for reading to enhance their
literary experience. There are many sources from which we can find
novels that many people would consider to be literary classics. Here are
a few sources for quality novels:
In 1999 The Modern Library, a
division of Random House, brought a council of literary experts together
to select the best novels of the 20th Century. After this council came
up with their list of the best 100 Novels from the last 100 years, the
Modern Library opened up their web site and asked readers to vote for
the books that they believed to be the top 100 of the 20th Century. If
you click on the link, you can see the two lists that the Modern Library
put together:
The Modern Library's 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century
Reading List of Classics
The
list of classics which may be reached by the link below comes from
college professors and high school teachers. Many of the texts have
appeared on the Advanced Placement English Examination over the years.
Other texts on this list represent important works in our literary
heritage. This is in no way a complete list of classics; however, this
list is very extensive. You may reach this list by clicking on the
following link:
Reading List of Classics
A.P. English Exam Titles
The
link below will lead to a file of all of the titles of plays and novels
that have been referenced on the Advanced Placement Literature and
Composition Examination as suggested texts for answering the open-ended
questions since 1971. This is a long list, and it includes texts that
have been published within the last ten years and texts that were
published more than 100 years ago. This list includes well over 300
different titles, and all of the titles in this file would be considered
to have entered our current cannon of works of high literary merit.
Titles Used in the A.P. Literature Exam's Open-ended Response
Learner Reading Choices
The
link below will give you a list of many different titles that are
designed to appeal to many different tastes. It will give books that are
recommended by multiple sources and the choices are designed for the
tastes of a younger reader through the very experienced reader.
Learner Reading Choices
Novel Cover Images from Paperbacks and BMI Bound Books. Dayton, NJ: BMI Educational Services, 2002.