This week The Blue Bookcase asks:
What work of literature would you recommend to someone who doesn't like literature?
It would really depend on the person you are recommending the piece of literature to, as each person is different and therefore their tastes are different. But if I did have to suggest a piece of literature, I would recommend To Kill A Mockingbird, as the story is fairly straightforward, but also complex at the same time. I would probably also suggest something like A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens because it is one of the more simpler books that Dickens wrote (not that I haven't read much by Dickens). I may also suggest Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood. Yes, I realize that the story probably has a feminist bent to the book, but it still is an excellent read (I read it when I was 16 and it still is one of my favourite books).
I would also suggest This Side of Paradise, which I found to be a fairly easy read and also quite engrossing. And despite its size, I would suggest East of Eden by John Steinbeck. While the book is over 600 pages, I found the book to be something that a non-literature fan would probably enjoy due to the awesomeness that is the book and the fact that I didn't really grasp The Grapes of Wrath, which I found to be somewhat non-readable and maybe a little too long.
Like I said earlier, it would really depend on the person you are recommending a piece of literature to, as not everybody may like it.
4 comments:
To Kill a Mocking Bird was one of my picks also-it is an easy to follow loved by all book with a great message-The open chapter of A Tale of Two Cities is really great and might hook some new to quality literature readers
Nice picks! I recently grabbed a free copy of This Side of Paradise for my Kindle and look forward to reading it. I think the size of East of Eden would scare off anyone - lit fan or not! But you're right it's a great read. I'd probably give them Kafka's The Trial b/c it's such an intensely twisted story. It's probably nothing they would have expected.
And if they're young enough, there's always Harry Potter.
@mel U I agree with your comments, but Tale may scare off some people simply because its Dickens.
@brokenpenguins You are probably right; East of Eden would scare a lot of people off. I have never read The Trial, although I have read The Metamorphosis by Kafka, which was strange enough! And yes, there always is Harry Potter :)
Not a great fan of dickens, so would have to go with Atwood.
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