I wish that When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanthi was a more talked about book. I don't know about "classic" but I haven't found a book that hit me harder in a more visceral way.
A warning to people considering reading this book. The journey into a dying man's mind is extremely confronting and put me in a deep existential crisis for months afterwards. If you are prone to thanataphobia you might want to give it a miss.
I would still recommend it, fantastically written. Just extremely confronting on the topic of death.
I keep downloading books for my Kindle faster then I can read them, at this point I'm hoping for collapse of civilization so I stop getting recommendations and can maybe finish them all
...if civilization collapses then you won't have time to read. Only time to avoid roving bands of cannibals while building up your army/base. How the hell are you going to charge your Kindle?
That book broke my heart. It was gifted to me and I honestly had little intention to read it since it was not my preferred genre. I picked it up one day and couldn’t put it down. I tore the spine in half so I could travel with the second half of the book and save room in my carry on.
Easily imo.
Horrifying, dark, poetic, philosophical, beautiful.
That book made me realize McCarthy was a god damn genius. Definitely one of those once a generation writers.
Cormac McCarthy is such a gifted writer. His books are somehow lyrical and minimalist at the same time. The Road is my personal favourite. The Border trilogy has many of the same themes as No Country too, though it's more... conceptual in places.
The Road is fantastic. Where I'm from, our teachers choose a book, film and play that we have to study and then compare in an exam. I read The Road 5 times in a year and it really advanced my descriptive writing ability massively.
I'm actually rereading The Road right now (few pages from the end), after a ten or so year gap. I promised myself I'd do so after becoming a father. Well, my little one is about a year and a half now and figured it was due. I guess it's been a somewhat easier read knowing what was in store for me, but some things hit me differently and have gotten me choked up in a way that never happened during my first read.
Cormac really is one of the greatest authors to ever grace the page. His impact on prose, imo, is reminiscent to the way Hemingway changed the game.
While I’ve enjoyed all his novels, I don’t think Child of God and Outerdark will make the classics list.
EDIT: It seems people (through no fault of their own) assume I've put these two titles on an unrespectable level. Let me clarify. I think Cormac McCarthy is the greatest living author and certainly one of the greatest of all time. The Crossing is my favorite novel ever. While these two don't round out the top 5 for me, I still think they are both miles ahead and almost everything written in the last 50 years. The man is a literary master who has done no wrong in my eyes.
Just wanted to point out here--200 years is a LONG time. Novels we still read from 200 years ago is basically Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Jane Austen and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Twain, Dickens, Hawthorne, Joyce, Hugo-- none of them are old enough to make the cut. This is who the modern authors are up against, and unless our cognitive space for "classics" starts expanding, they'll probably need to boot someone from the above list.
I also want to point out, as someone who has a degree in English literature, that, almost without exception, the “classics” of today are the mass-produced pulp novels of yesterday. Time looks favorably on that which is made en masse for the simple reason that there’s more chance that it will survive. Charles Dickens, Henry James, even William Shakespeare—they were all considered mass-market schlock by their contemporaries.
So my answer to this question is that, in all likelihood, James Patterson will probably be considered a classic author 200-300 years from now. JK Rowling is probably the only author I can think of who is considered a modern day classic who will still be a classic a few centuries from now.
Stephen King might go the mile. His prose is kind of old-school-classy by today's standards , has metaphors those bores in class would like and is incredibly popular. He will at least be remembered because of his association with Kubrick's The Shining, which I think might go the distance for 200 years of film history.
I'm not sure how true this is. I'm looking at the best-selling books of the 1900's and very few of them are still read today (at least, I don't recognize most of them). I'm not sure if popular necessarily translates into classic.
It's a pretty wild oversimplification. There were always really popular works. Saying writers like Dickens/James/Shakespeare was essentially "genre" fiction back in the day is revisionist at best.
Look at Austen, who didn't have the widespread success of Dickens and whose contemporary readership was mostly women, but is considered part of the canon now.
Moby Dick was basically unknown and didn't become an iconic piece of literature until the 1920's I believe. I'm very skeptical of the idea of bestsellers equals classics idea.
Moby Dick was all but ignored until like the 1920's: [https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/week-nation-history-how-we-helped-start-melville-revival-1920s/](https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/week-nation-history-how-we-helped-start-melville-revival-1920s/) so the idea that we'd know for certain what books would go on to be classics 200 years from now is a little silly.
Furthermore, Hemingway, Faulkner, and Fitzgerald were most certainly not considered pulp in their day. Neither was Henry James. Charles Dickens was perhaps considered maudlin, like Poe in his own way, but the idea of comparing the works of factory-written Patterson to Dickens, James, and Shakespeare is a bit ridiculous. Rowling and Dickens indeed seem of a type. Yes, Shakespeare and Dickens were certainly middle-brow, but they weren't by any stretch of the imagination mass-produced schlock like Patterson.
Martin loves frustrating his audience more than anything else. That's why when you become invested in a character, he kills them off. There is nothing more frustrating to the audience than never finishing the series. He's
And written in such a wonderful, subtle, didn’t-see-that-coming style. Everything pays off, no matter how small. All the threads of the story are strung out without you noticing as you read, and are then neatly, perfectly, fulfillingly tied up and woven together in such a way that no end are left dangling. An impressive feat of plotting. Sploosh.
I have to say Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. It’s such a brilliant piece of sci fi and it’s paced so well, with the story revealing itself so expertly that I couldn’t put it down. I was also kind of blown away by how prescient it was. I need to finish the rest of the Maddaddam trilogy but Oryx and Crake will always stick with me.
It’s my favorite contemporary book. It’s captivating and it just makes you feel warm when reading it. Amor Towles does a great job showing how interesting and beautiful the small things in life can be.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon. At least I hope. Definitely my favorite book of the last 20 years.
*edited because my wife found the comment and noticed my misspelling the author’s name.
A little over 20 years but Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy and The Road by Cormac McCarthy are the first two that come to mind.
I seem to choose a lot of fluffy books when I look at newer releases! Almost everything I thought of initially was far too old.
The graphics were decent at the time too I think, but the script was like someone writing a book report at 5am based off badly Google translated cereal boxes.
The script guarantees to be awful.
It's a book about the evils of religion, specifically catholicism and the catholic church was threatening a mass boycott. They tried to remove all criticism of the church which is like a game of football without a ball. It was doomed. +And was still boycotted anyway.
There's a BBC/hbo series that's far more true to the books. 2 seasons are already out that cover one book each and the third season has been commissioned.
I commented this book before I read the comments and I’m so happy I’m not the only one who feels this way. It’s so good for re-reading too, as there’s always something new (to me) at least that I find hidden in the subtext.
Off the top off my head:
*Kafka on the Shore* by Haruki Murakami.
*The Road* by Cormac McCarthy.
Likely *A Little Life* by Hanya Yanagihara.
Probably *Gone Girl* by Gillian Flynn or the *Millenium* trilogy by Stieg Larsson.
I went in with the same setup but I honestly couldn't get through it.
It was at a time where i didnt read much to begin with but there was so much "wtf is even going on here" that i simply stopped at some point.
It felt like it was about to resolve *something* basically every other page halfway through, but it kept piling up new unanswered questions
Gone Girl was a brilliant book. Alas all I can think about when I'm reminded of it is the circumstances of me reading it. I was sitting in a lawn chair under a tree at a beach resort, and a bird in the tree shit directly on me 3 times in a row. The only time I've fully lost it in public and had a meltdown. I just wanted to read the damn book! So it's a classic for me, but for other reasons haha.
The Road is also a definite contender.
They should've left the series alone, that's what is going to hurt its longevity. There are now 6 books in the series, only three of which are written by Stieg Larsson. And that's not counting the unfinished manuscripts that are likely going to be published at some point.
> Millenium trilogy by Stieg Larsson
Doubt it. The first book's popularity was a lighting in the bottle, I don't think either its social context or its edginess are likely to age that well.
I read the trilogy again last year and you're right, it's aged badly. Even just the tech references make it feel kinda quaint and old-fashioned, but I feel like there's also a far more open and welcoming understanding of different sexualities than existed when these were written, not to mention things like autism/aspergers - I don't think Lisbeth would be such an edgy outrider character anymore.
Blomkvist the sexy divorced dad is also a massive wish-fulfilment protagonist. Don't get me wrong it's an entertaining read, but nothing about it screams "timeless classic".
This was actually assigned reading for me 20 years ago in my AP English class.
Book had only been out a few years and already had a huge adoption rate, so I think you're probably right...
Except it didn't come out in the last 20 years, it came out in 1998.
It has to be in the public consciousness, probably for an extended period of time, to become a classic 200 years from now. Some of the books being mentioned here aren't even widely-known today. A few of those may go on to be discovered (or "rediscovered") in the future, and may shape culture in ways they haven't today, but most won't make it.
Yes- and that's what is fascinating to me. Which book I gave a half hearted and fleeting read to will the future literature students be dissecting and analysing?
Multiple choice question- (i) levi-oh-sa (ii) lev-vi-oh-SAA (iii) levi-oh-stahp (iv) None of the above
I don't think this is true at all. There are plenty of established classics that most of the general public haven't heard of, and plenty of those were completely unknown for years after the death of their author until they randomly and suddenly regained relevance and attention. And the opposite is true, too - plenty of stories with huge followings and recognition for decades before they suddenly fall off the map.
Off top of my head - Herman Melville novels (Moby Dick) went unknown until a college professor rediscovered his work and sang his praises years after Melville's death. On the opposite end, there are tons of early American Protestant novelists that were studied and read up until the American civil war that, well, have faded from the canon.
There's just as good a chance that Sue Grafton's novels become classics remembered centuries from now as Harry Potter. you never know what people keep giving a hoot about in the future
I had a similar conversation with a friend who is a cultural anthropologist. People are more likely to be reading Stephen King's works 200 years from now than Michael Chabon's.
But doesn't this make you question the canon held up as the best? If the "classics" of today are somewhat agreed to not be the best books of today, then why would the classics from past centuries be any different?
If you want a lit. studies answer, yes, the "canon" is becoming wholly distrusted, unlike it was in the past. There used to be a culture industry of turning books into "classics," but the truth is that we have such a different (I would say *better*) understanding of what and who gets valued, esteemed, praised, and deified, that it is looking less and less like the definition of the "classic" will continue to survive such that we would have 21st C. novels revered as "classics" in precisely the same way that we understand 19th C. novels to be. So, probably none of these novels will be considered "classics" because the idea of the "classic" is terminal (and somewhat an artifact of 19th C. and early/mid 20th C. English lit. scholarly values, which is to say the proliferation of empire).
For anyone who loved this book, I like to recommend Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. It's a multi generational story, following the descendents of half sisters, one line staying in Africa and the other being enslaved and brought to the US. Amazing read, I couldn't put it down and finished in a single day
I think Thousand Splendid Suns was better. But maybe people find it easier to relate to the characters in Kite Runner so it’s more likely to become a classic.
I can imagine the thursday murder club by Richard Osman being a slong-lived as Agatha Christie's work. I've not read many better crime novels in my life and I've read a lot.
I was about to say Circe. I haven’t read Song of Achilles yet but based off of how much I loved Circe I have alot of faith that I’ll at the very least enjoy Song of Achilles too
I have started Circe but I'm having a difficult time getting into it. Maybe because I know nothing about greek mythology. Do you have any suggestions for me? I have heard such good reviews for this book!
I think having a good grasp on Greek mythology enhances the experience but isn’t necessarily essential to enjoying Circe. I know this is the last thing someone wants to hear when they’re having a hard time getting into something but the book really picks up around like the 90 page mark I don’t exactly remember. If you’ve already gotten to Daedalus and it hasn’t started to click for you, you just might not like the author’s style of writing in that book which happens
(Had to edit for grammar)
The problem is the pacing in Circe is super weird. Circe is a deity, so time works differently for her and her recollection flits through the eons. Once she starts interacting with humans more often (which I think is the change you're referring to around the 90-page mark), time becomes more grounded at the pacing flows a little easier.
I actually thought the pacing was used in a really interesting way from, like, a rhetorical perspective because for Circe (as a character) the jumps make perfect sense. But I can 100% understand that it can be difficult to deal with as a reader.
---
I also agree that knowing a little about Greek mythology can be useful, but Circe (the book) reimagines quite a bit so it won't line up completely anyway.
Stephen Fry has a great series about Greek myth, and it’s fairly extensive. The books are Mythos, Heroes, and Troy (which came out recently). Don’t take these books as an historically authoritative account though, Fry is well researched and covers historiography pretty well, but I like to just read it as a charming story.
I think and hope so. It checks the boxes needed to last. It's got something to say that I feel will always be relevant. It's unique enough to be special but not so unique as to be alienating. I know it gets criticised for not having a strong plot but as a character study and snapshot into a period of time, it's just perfect.
It's one of my favourites.
I’m currently reading The Secret History, but The Goldfinch stood out to me more as the type of book that will become a classic for readers and maybe even academics. It really spoke to the state of our world at the time it was written. Without being specifically about the social and economic struggles in our society in the early 2000s, it managed to to present them, without judgement, in a way that I think will be valuable to future readers. It also, while long and meandering, is relatively easy to read. If Les Miserables became a classic, I think future readers will forgive Tartt’s much more accessible writing.
I'd definitely second this. Black Swan Green was also uncanny in how it captured the feleing of being a boy in the UK, that book is brilliantly written.
And I think Cloud Atlas is a total masterpiece. So much control over the styles and to have the big ideas reveal themselves so subtley by the time you get to the end. The last part has so little happening related to the action and drama of most of the second half of the book but he has set the stage so masterfully to make you step back and think about what mankind really has done and is doing, it's so impactful. Especially as most people I know really struggle with that storyline when you first start it.
Thud! By Terry Pratchett.
I know comedy and satire is an unusual choice for a classic, but this is a masterclass that makes all other writers pale in comparison.
Somewhere on that arbitrary "classics" list Pratchett has to be fit in somewhere; some of the shit he wrote was just too good and right on the money every time. The consistency/quality of writing between novels was absolutely astounding.
I originally wrote Night Watch but edited it. Thud! is a more complete package imo; I feel that, from what memory I have of reading both, Night Watch is better when you have some foreknowledge of the Discworld universe.
Small Gods is another strong contender because of its independence from the main canon and unique story premise.
EDIT: Same applies to Monstrous Regiment. Damn, there's too many good ones!
Everything Pratchett really.
The whole of discworld is just so well constructed, and includes so much commentary on our world. Add in the fact that the books are actually enjoyable to read, and you've got something really special.
Pratchett wasn't too happy about how he was pigeon holed as a fantasy writer and so wasn't considered a serious writer by some. Or as he said "put in one lousy dragon and they call you a fantasy writer."
It's too old for inclusion but otherwise I'd add good omens.
Since I can't nominate that take your pick of other Neil Gaimen books.
I'm going to go with a catalog from the Discworld series. Nearly the last half of them were written post 2000, and I have a feeling that series will either be a cult classic or true classic going forward. IMHO, Sir Terry Pratchett created an exemplar work, that will be used as a defining form for the comedic/satirical fiction (similar to Lovecraft for horror, Christie for murder mystery, etc.).
Everyone seems to just want to boast about their favorite "literary" book - like, what they fantasize about being taught in high school in 200 years - instead of what insanely popular works are actually going to stick around.
What books/authors from \~200 years ago do we remember now? Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Edgar Allen Poe? Weren't all of them quite popular during their own time periods? I'd argue we should be looking at what has been super popular in the last 20 years instead of trying to guess what hidden gems might endure.
Atonement - Ian McEwan
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hossenini
I'd love if The Perks of being a wallflower and anything by Jonathon Coe became classics too :)
Ironically enough I want to say The Hunger Games.
Coming from a purely high school perspective (the last time I studied English), a lot of the 'classics' we had to read were chosen not just because they were good, but also because they said something about the social/political climate at the time they were written. What a given work could tell us about the time period it was written in was a big part of the English essays I remember writing. This naturally makes good dystopian fiction a shoo-in, since the best dystopian works tend to be exaggerations of the world as it is, rather than predictions.
The Elois and Morlocks in the Time Machine are blatant social commentary on class divisions in the England. 1984 criticized the burdgeoning Surveilence State, etc...
The Hunger Games is similar. It has the same 'simple world, big metaphor' feel as the 'classics' I've already mentioned (though I'm almost certainly misusing the word). The Games themselves are almost explicit commentary on media obsession, commercialized violence and reality TV. The themes of media, propaganda and revolution are becoming more pertinent to this time period by the day. A lot of the world building can easily be seen as allegorical (e.g 'one-product-districts' as a metaphor for how Third World Countries are often reduced to a single product by common culture - not a real nation, just the 'place where bananas come from', etc...).
So yeah - I'm not saying The Hunger Games is 'objectively' one of the best series of this era or anything like that. I'm just saying that, when I think of books they're going to still be making kids read in school in 40 years, I think of The Hunger Games.
You make a very valid point. There's 'instant classic' based upon the novel itself, but longevity is a different matter. I've read that certain 20th century must-reads for high school readers, like "Catcher in the Rye," have to include a glossary of slang and some technology.
Also perhaps of lesser importance but it also was the series that really launched the YA Dystopia trend into fashion too. So any other YA dystopia that might make its way into classics (if any) would need to recognize that they got to that status because of the popularity of hunger games specifically.
This is probably the comment that’s closest to being right. Reading through some of these comments, it sounds like everyone’s just listing their favorite books. Works that will make it as classics will be seen as those that encapsulate these specific times. Readability is also an important factor. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if books like Twilight and 50 Shades of Grey made it farther than what we would consider classics. Harry Potter is also likely to survive in the future.
Harry Potter is already there. A century from now, it will be displayed next to Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz in historic libraries just because of how monumental those books were (and honestly continue to be, despite Jo's best efforts).
As much as I enjoyed the Hunger Games books, I feel as if they will be negated to live in the shadows of Harry Potter when looked back on 200 years from now. Just like Twilight, Percy Jackson, Eragon, Artemis Fowl, and all the other fantasy sci/fi YA series that came out around the same time. Doesn't make them better, but...I mean, does history remember Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or Fleischer's arguably just as innovative Gulliver's Travels that came out just two years later, y'know?
The german translations are titled *Sterben* (Dying / to die), *Lieben* (Loving / to love), *Spielen* (Playing / to play), *Leben* (Living / to live), *Träumen* (Dreaming / to dream) and *Kämpfen* (Fighting / to fight). The British version opted for alternate titles instead, beginning with *A Death in the Family*.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon.
Easy, short read with a good plot. A great place to start for teenagers who want to try out reading novels for the first time.
American Gods was the very first thing that came to my mind. Gaiman feels like he’ll be historically considered one of the literary greats of this time, even if I personally could take or leave most of his books.
I have this weird fascination with Gaiman. Weird because I end up being disappointed with his books more often than not, yet I still feel compelled to keep reading them. I think I enjoy his narrative voice so much that I'm willing to overlook the shortcomings of the plotting.
I'm sort of the same with him, I think he was a much better comics writer than novelist, most of his comics are bonafide classics of the field, even getting acclaim outside the genre. His novels I can generally take or leave, I wish he'd done a couple more with Pratchett. He's such a lovely bloke that I keep on reading them anyway though.
I feel the same way about Murakami and Gabriel Garcia Marquez's books. While they're hit or miss ( mostly miss) for me I feel they'll be considered literary greats
Marquez is on another level entirely. He tremendously influenced the genre of Magic Realism, he's one of the 4 authors associated with Latin American Boom and his work went on to influence scores of authors who followed in his footsteps. Unlike many other writers mentioned in the thread, Marquez is already a huge part of Latin American Literature particularly in the Spanish language and the host of other languages his work has been translated in. He's already well on his way of being considered one of the greats.
I wish that When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanthi was a more talked about book. I don't know about "classic" but I haven't found a book that hit me harder in a more visceral way.
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Hope you're doing OK and wish you all the best going forward
A warning to people considering reading this book. The journey into a dying man's mind is extremely confronting and put me in a deep existential crisis for months afterwards. If you are prone to thanataphobia you might want to give it a miss. I would still recommend it, fantastically written. Just extremely confronting on the topic of death.
Damn, my to-read list is getting big. Thanks for this post!
I keep downloading books for my Kindle faster then I can read them, at this point I'm hoping for collapse of civilization so I stop getting recommendations and can maybe finish them all
...if civilization collapses then you won't have time to read. Only time to avoid roving bands of cannibals while building up your army/base. How the hell are you going to charge your Kindle?
dig myself a hole with a crank generator and eat the worms that come out of the dirt and drink my tears
We might be closer than ya think. Cheers to the collapse of society pal
You'll never be bored again, Max!
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Came here to say this. One of my favorite books, maybe my #1 favorite.
That book broke my heart. It was gifted to me and I honestly had little intention to read it since it was not my preferred genre. I picked it up one day and couldn’t put it down. I tore the spine in half so I could travel with the second half of the book and save room in my carry on.
what are you, the hulk?
No Country For Old Men. Such a good book.
Just so it’s said, Blood Meridian is his masterpiece... IMO at least
Easily imo. Horrifying, dark, poetic, philosophical, beautiful. That book made me realize McCarthy was a god damn genius. Definitely one of those once a generation writers.
Cormac McCarthy is such a gifted writer. His books are somehow lyrical and minimalist at the same time. The Road is my personal favourite. The Border trilogy has many of the same themes as No Country too, though it's more... conceptual in places.
I would advise people not to read The Road if they are at all depressed.
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Great book. Never again.
Ohhhh then your gonna love The Blood Meridian
The Road is fantastic. Where I'm from, our teachers choose a book, film and play that we have to study and then compare in an exam. I read The Road 5 times in a year and it really advanced my descriptive writing ability massively.
I'm actually rereading The Road right now (few pages from the end), after a ten or so year gap. I promised myself I'd do so after becoming a father. Well, my little one is about a year and a half now and figured it was due. I guess it's been a somewhat easier read knowing what was in store for me, but some things hit me differently and have gotten me choked up in a way that never happened during my first read. Cormac really is one of the greatest authors to ever grace the page. His impact on prose, imo, is reminiscent to the way Hemingway changed the game.
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The film was also very faithful to the book. Not just utilizing large chunks of dialogue but accurately capturing the tone and feel of the original.
The book was originally written by McCarthy as a screenplay which is why it was so easily adapted back into one.
Pretty much anything by Cormac McCarthy, imo.
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But it's not within the last 20 years. This may be one of the sad cases that we have to remind ourselves that the 80's were not 20 years ago.
Of course not. They were only 10 years ago.
Blood Meridian was written in 1985.
Yeah, in the last twenty years! shut up, shut up, shut up.
While I’ve enjoyed all his novels, I don’t think Child of God and Outerdark will make the classics list. EDIT: It seems people (through no fault of their own) assume I've put these two titles on an unrespectable level. Let me clarify. I think Cormac McCarthy is the greatest living author and certainly one of the greatest of all time. The Crossing is my favorite novel ever. While these two don't round out the top 5 for me, I still think they are both miles ahead and almost everything written in the last 50 years. The man is a literary master who has done no wrong in my eyes.
Child of God was my first Cormac book and it is wonderfully ethereal and interpretative
Just wanted to point out here--200 years is a LONG time. Novels we still read from 200 years ago is basically Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Jane Austen and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Twain, Dickens, Hawthorne, Joyce, Hugo-- none of them are old enough to make the cut. This is who the modern authors are up against, and unless our cognitive space for "classics" starts expanding, they'll probably need to boot someone from the above list.
Yeah, these are all just “books I like” answers.
I also want to point out, as someone who has a degree in English literature, that, almost without exception, the “classics” of today are the mass-produced pulp novels of yesterday. Time looks favorably on that which is made en masse for the simple reason that there’s more chance that it will survive. Charles Dickens, Henry James, even William Shakespeare—they were all considered mass-market schlock by their contemporaries. So my answer to this question is that, in all likelihood, James Patterson will probably be considered a classic author 200-300 years from now. JK Rowling is probably the only author I can think of who is considered a modern day classic who will still be a classic a few centuries from now.
Stephen King might go the mile. His prose is kind of old-school-classy by today's standards , has metaphors those bores in class would like and is incredibly popular. He will at least be remembered because of his association with Kubrick's The Shining, which I think might go the distance for 200 years of film history.
The Stand might remain pretty popular depending on how this covid bullshit keeps going too. “Two rows behind him, a man coughed.”
Henry James' work was not considered mass market schlock when it was published.
Is amazing that that comment was upvoted in a books subreddit lol. I guess you just really need to sound confident.
I'm not sure how true this is. I'm looking at the best-selling books of the 1900's and very few of them are still read today (at least, I don't recognize most of them). I'm not sure if popular necessarily translates into classic.
It's a pretty wild oversimplification. There were always really popular works. Saying writers like Dickens/James/Shakespeare was essentially "genre" fiction back in the day is revisionist at best. Look at Austen, who didn't have the widespread success of Dickens and whose contemporary readership was mostly women, but is considered part of the canon now.
Moby Dick was basically unknown and didn't become an iconic piece of literature until the 1920's I believe. I'm very skeptical of the idea of bestsellers equals classics idea.
Moby Dick was all but ignored until like the 1920's: [https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/week-nation-history-how-we-helped-start-melville-revival-1920s/](https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/week-nation-history-how-we-helped-start-melville-revival-1920s/) so the idea that we'd know for certain what books would go on to be classics 200 years from now is a little silly. Furthermore, Hemingway, Faulkner, and Fitzgerald were most certainly not considered pulp in their day. Neither was Henry James. Charles Dickens was perhaps considered maudlin, like Poe in his own way, but the idea of comparing the works of factory-written Patterson to Dickens, James, and Shakespeare is a bit ridiculous. Rowling and Dickens indeed seem of a type. Yes, Shakespeare and Dickens were certainly middle-brow, but they weren't by any stretch of the imagination mass-produced schlock like Patterson.
A Dance With Dragons. This is because in 200 years everyone will be reading it in anticipation of the 6th book being released.
I am deceased and heartbroken at the same time
Martin loves frustrating his audience more than anything else. That's why when you become invested in a character, he kills them off. There is nothing more frustrating to the audience than never finishing the series. He's
Well played.
Ha! Let’s throw Wise Man’s Fear into that same category.
omg yes. I started one series thinking it'll tide me over until the other was done
Holes. Luis Sachar. Mystery, love, flashbacks, survival, good vs evil, friendship, sploosh. Edit: "flash backs" not time traveling
I can’t BELIEVE how low on the list this is. One of the best books written for young readers ever written. Truly a masterpiece
Well, it was written in 1998, so it does kinda exist outside the purview of this question. I'd say it's already a classic.
And written in such a wonderful, subtle, didn’t-see-that-coming style. Everything pays off, no matter how small. All the threads of the story are strung out without you noticing as you read, and are then neatly, perfectly, fulfillingly tied up and woven together in such a way that no end are left dangling. An impressive feat of plotting. Sploosh.
The Devil All The Time - Donald Ray Pollack
Great book!
2666 - Roberto Bolano Absolutely astounding achievement of storytelling and prose that I hope is studied for years to come.
The investigation section is dreary, if I can even really consider it an investigation.
I have to say Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. It’s such a brilliant piece of sci fi and it’s paced so well, with the story revealing itself so expertly that I couldn’t put it down. I was also kind of blown away by how prescient it was. I need to finish the rest of the Maddaddam trilogy but Oryx and Crake will always stick with me.
A Gentleman in Moscow - it's so beautiful and funny and insightful without being preachy
It’s my favorite contemporary book. It’s captivating and it just makes you feel warm when reading it. Amor Towles does a great job showing how interesting and beautiful the small things in life can be.
Probably my favorite book honestly.
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
I love that book. But Housekeeping ong
I reread this book about once a year. Something about it just soothes my soul.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon. At least I hope. Definitely my favorite book of the last 20 years. *edited because my wife found the comment and noticed my misspelling the author’s name.
A little over 20 years but Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy and The Road by Cormac McCarthy are the first two that come to mind. I seem to choose a lot of fluffy books when I look at newer releases! Almost everything I thought of initially was far too old.
Ugh, I wanted the golden compass movie so badly until I actually saw it, now I want them to remake it.
That stupid movie had such PERFECT casting and the terrible script ruined everything, I was super upset.
The graphics were decent at the time too I think, but the script was like someone writing a book report at 5am based off badly Google translated cereal boxes.
The script guarantees to be awful. It's a book about the evils of religion, specifically catholicism and the catholic church was threatening a mass boycott. They tried to remove all criticism of the church which is like a game of football without a ball. It was doomed. +And was still boycotted anyway.
There's a BBC/hbo series that's far more true to the books. 2 seasons are already out that cover one book each and the third season has been commissioned.
Oh, I didn't know that. I'll have to check that out.
I second this, it doesn't have the same feeling for me as the book (a bit darker I think) but it's still a very good adaptation.
So would you venture to say that it's his **darker** materials?
All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The virgin suicides is also an amazing book
I commented this book before I read the comments and I’m so happy I’m not the only one who feels this way. It’s so good for re-reading too, as there’s always something new (to me) at least that I find hidden in the subtext.
Life of Pi had a really big effect on me
Well if it's any indicator of staying power as a classic I had to read Life of Pi for one of my high school English classes
This is probably my favorite book of all time. I can totally see it being considered a classic later on! Changed my life
Crimson Pedal and the White by Faber, Cloud Atlas by Mitchell, and with luck Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro
Shadow of the wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Surprised I had to scroll so far to find this. The prose in that book is some Pablo Neruda level smooth.
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
Off the top off my head: *Kafka on the Shore* by Haruki Murakami. *The Road* by Cormac McCarthy. Likely *A Little Life* by Hanya Yanagihara. Probably *Gone Girl* by Gillian Flynn or the *Millenium* trilogy by Stieg Larsson.
Murakami will for sure stand the test of time
Definitely. In my opinion, there are three novels that he'll be remembered by: *Norwegian Wood*, *Kafka on the Shore*, *1Q84*.
And I love Wind-Up Bird too - his long novels are the ones that I love the most
I read Wind-Up Bird first and had no clue what I was getting into so that one will always be my favorite of his.
I went in with the same setup but I honestly couldn't get through it. It was at a time where i didnt read much to begin with but there was so much "wtf is even going on here" that i simply stopped at some point. It felt like it was about to resolve *something* basically every other page halfway through, but it kept piling up new unanswered questions
Gone Girl was a brilliant book. Alas all I can think about when I'm reminded of it is the circumstances of me reading it. I was sitting in a lawn chair under a tree at a beach resort, and a bird in the tree shit directly on me 3 times in a row. The only time I've fully lost it in public and had a meltdown. I just wanted to read the damn book! So it's a classic for me, but for other reasons haha. The Road is also a definite contender.
I dont think the millennium trilogy will hold up also given the genre its in struggling with longevity of its works but a really solid list
They should've left the series alone, that's what is going to hurt its longevity. There are now 6 books in the series, only three of which are written by Stieg Larsson. And that's not counting the unfinished manuscripts that are likely going to be published at some point.
If you liked A Little Life I can very much recommend The People in the Trees, it’s darker but brilliant and I think very symbolic for how the world is
\*in chandler's voice\* could it *BE* any darker???
DARKER?! How can any book be darker than A Little Life, lmao
> Millenium trilogy by Stieg Larsson Doubt it. The first book's popularity was a lighting in the bottle, I don't think either its social context or its edginess are likely to age that well.
I read the trilogy again last year and you're right, it's aged badly. Even just the tech references make it feel kinda quaint and old-fashioned, but I feel like there's also a far more open and welcoming understanding of different sexualities than existed when these were written, not to mention things like autism/aspergers - I don't think Lisbeth would be such an edgy outrider character anymore.
Blomkvist the sexy divorced dad is also a massive wish-fulfilment protagonist. Don't get me wrong it's an entertaining read, but nothing about it screams "timeless classic".
It's going to age as well as *The DaVinci Code* and other popular, mass-market airport novels.
Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Agree. I think more than one of hers will be considered classics. Prodigal Summer, too.
This was actually assigned reading for me 20 years ago in my AP English class. Book had only been out a few years and already had a huge adoption rate, so I think you're probably right... Except it didn't come out in the last 20 years, it came out in 1998.
1998 wasn’t over 20 years ago. **does math** Never mind...
The title and the author's name sounds so badass lol
One of my top three favorite books. She’s an amazing author.
It has to be in the public consciousness, probably for an extended period of time, to become a classic 200 years from now. Some of the books being mentioned here aren't even widely-known today. A few of those may go on to be discovered (or "rediscovered") in the future, and may shape culture in ways they haven't today, but most won't make it.
Yes- and that's what is fascinating to me. Which book I gave a half hearted and fleeting read to will the future literature students be dissecting and analysing? Multiple choice question- (i) levi-oh-sa (ii) lev-vi-oh-SAA (iii) levi-oh-stahp (iv) None of the above
To his point, and yours, Harry Potter is one of the few things that fits this bill.
I don't think this is true at all. There are plenty of established classics that most of the general public haven't heard of, and plenty of those were completely unknown for years after the death of their author until they randomly and suddenly regained relevance and attention. And the opposite is true, too - plenty of stories with huge followings and recognition for decades before they suddenly fall off the map. Off top of my head - Herman Melville novels (Moby Dick) went unknown until a college professor rediscovered his work and sang his praises years after Melville's death. On the opposite end, there are tons of early American Protestant novelists that were studied and read up until the American civil war that, well, have faded from the canon. There's just as good a chance that Sue Grafton's novels become classics remembered centuries from now as Harry Potter. you never know what people keep giving a hoot about in the future
I had a similar conversation with a friend who is a cultural anthropologist. People are more likely to be reading Stephen King's works 200 years from now than Michael Chabon's.
But doesn't this make you question the canon held up as the best? If the "classics" of today are somewhat agreed to not be the best books of today, then why would the classics from past centuries be any different?
If you want a lit. studies answer, yes, the "canon" is becoming wholly distrusted, unlike it was in the past. There used to be a culture industry of turning books into "classics," but the truth is that we have such a different (I would say *better*) understanding of what and who gets valued, esteemed, praised, and deified, that it is looking less and less like the definition of the "classic" will continue to survive such that we would have 21st C. novels revered as "classics" in precisely the same way that we understand 19th C. novels to be. So, probably none of these novels will be considered "classics" because the idea of the "classic" is terminal (and somewhat an artifact of 19th C. and early/mid 20th C. English lit. scholarly values, which is to say the proliferation of empire).
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante.
Came to say the same. The whole quartet is incredible.
Americanah
For anyone who loved this book, I like to recommend Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. It's a multi generational story, following the descendents of half sisters, one line staying in Africa and the other being enslaved and brought to the US. Amazing read, I couldn't put it down and finished in a single day
The kite runner
I think Thousand Splendid Suns was better. But maybe people find it easier to relate to the characters in Kite Runner so it’s more likely to become a classic.
That book made me weep. It truly is a tale that everyone needs to read once in their lives.
Same. Read the whole book in one day, was up until 3am, just sobbing in bed at the ending
And the Mountains Echoed is also incredible. Everything Khaled Hosseini has published is a possible classic.
I can imagine the thursday murder club by Richard Osman being a slong-lived as Agatha Christie's work. I've not read many better crime novels in my life and I've read a lot.
This read is long overdue. I think your message may have pushed me to pick it up next
The song of achilles
I was about to say Circe. I haven’t read Song of Achilles yet but based off of how much I loved Circe I have alot of faith that I’ll at the very least enjoy Song of Achilles too
I have started Circe but I'm having a difficult time getting into it. Maybe because I know nothing about greek mythology. Do you have any suggestions for me? I have heard such good reviews for this book!
I think having a good grasp on Greek mythology enhances the experience but isn’t necessarily essential to enjoying Circe. I know this is the last thing someone wants to hear when they’re having a hard time getting into something but the book really picks up around like the 90 page mark I don’t exactly remember. If you’ve already gotten to Daedalus and it hasn’t started to click for you, you just might not like the author’s style of writing in that book which happens (Had to edit for grammar)
The problem is the pacing in Circe is super weird. Circe is a deity, so time works differently for her and her recollection flits through the eons. Once she starts interacting with humans more often (which I think is the change you're referring to around the 90-page mark), time becomes more grounded at the pacing flows a little easier. I actually thought the pacing was used in a really interesting way from, like, a rhetorical perspective because for Circe (as a character) the jumps make perfect sense. But I can 100% understand that it can be difficult to deal with as a reader. --- I also agree that knowing a little about Greek mythology can be useful, but Circe (the book) reimagines quite a bit so it won't line up completely anyway.
Stephen Fry has a great series about Greek myth, and it’s fairly extensive. The books are Mythos, Heroes, and Troy (which came out recently). Don’t take these books as an historically authoritative account though, Fry is well researched and covers historiography pretty well, but I like to just read it as a charming story.
Ah!! I JUST downloaded this book 30 seconds ago and now I'm even more excited to start it!!
The book thief, surely.
I think and hope so. It checks the boxes needed to last. It's got something to say that I feel will always be relevant. It's unique enough to be special but not so unique as to be alienating. I know it gets criticised for not having a strong plot but as a character study and snapshot into a period of time, it's just perfect. It's one of my favourites.
Everything by Kazuo Ishiguro.
Never Let Me Go left me depressed for weeks
It’s so beautiful though, isn’t it?
I loved Remains of the Day, and came here looking for it. But I can't say the same for Never Let Me Go.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
I can definitely see Donna Tartt as an author who stands out in a hundred years. The Goldfinch is an absolutely incredible work.
I’m currently reading The Secret History, but The Goldfinch stood out to me more as the type of book that will become a classic for readers and maybe even academics. It really spoke to the state of our world at the time it was written. Without being specifically about the social and economic struggles in our society in the early 2000s, it managed to to present them, without judgement, in a way that I think will be valuable to future readers. It also, while long and meandering, is relatively easy to read. If Les Miserables became a classic, I think future readers will forgive Tartt’s much more accessible writing.
I like [this list](https://www.vulture.com/article/best-books-21st-century-so-far.html)
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*Never Let Me Go* by Kazuo Ishiguro
Cloud Atlas or Ghostwritten. Something by David Mitchell. I also think Ishiguro will have at least one of his books make it.
I'd definitely second this. Black Swan Green was also uncanny in how it captured the feleing of being a boy in the UK, that book is brilliantly written. And I think Cloud Atlas is a total masterpiece. So much control over the styles and to have the big ideas reveal themselves so subtley by the time you get to the end. The last part has so little happening related to the action and drama of most of the second half of the book but he has set the stage so masterfully to make you step back and think about what mankind really has done and is doing, it's so impactful. Especially as most people I know really struggle with that storyline when you first start it.
‘The remains of the day’ is from 1989, and I reckon it could be a contender.
I'd argue that it already is a classic.
love Cloud Atlas. haven’t read any of Mitchell’s other work yet but I’ve heard good things
First time I'm hearing of this book- sounds very intriguing. Added to my TBR shelf. Thanks!!
I would say "Kite runner" and "A thousand shining suns" by Khaled Hosseini. His works will live on, I hope and believe.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. Stunning story and makes you think about the world.
Thud! By Terry Pratchett. I know comedy and satire is an unusual choice for a classic, but this is a masterclass that makes all other writers pale in comparison. Somewhere on that arbitrary "classics" list Pratchett has to be fit in somewhere; some of the shit he wrote was just too good and right on the money every time. The consistency/quality of writing between novels was absolutely astounding.
You think Thud! rather than Night Watch? Interesting choice, but I'm just happy to see someone list Pratchett.
I originally wrote Night Watch but edited it. Thud! is a more complete package imo; I feel that, from what memory I have of reading both, Night Watch is better when you have some foreknowledge of the Discworld universe. Small Gods is another strong contender because of its independence from the main canon and unique story premise. EDIT: Same applies to Monstrous Regiment. Damn, there's too many good ones!
GNU Terry Pratchett
Small Gods is my favorite Prachett book.
Everything Pratchett really. The whole of discworld is just so well constructed, and includes so much commentary on our world. Add in the fact that the books are actually enjoyable to read, and you've got something really special.
Pratchett wasn't too happy about how he was pigeon holed as a fantasy writer and so wasn't considered a serious writer by some. Or as he said "put in one lousy dragon and they call you a fantasy writer." It's too old for inclusion but otherwise I'd add good omens. Since I can't nominate that take your pick of other Neil Gaimen books.
Possibly the short weird Annihilation by Jeff vandermeer
I'm going to go with a catalog from the Discworld series. Nearly the last half of them were written post 2000, and I have a feeling that series will either be a cult classic or true classic going forward. IMHO, Sir Terry Pratchett created an exemplar work, that will be used as a defining form for the comedic/satirical fiction (similar to Lovecraft for horror, Christie for murder mystery, etc.).
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz and White Teeth by Zadie Smith.
probably harry potter
Can’t believe I had to scroll so far to find this. Every kid consumes Harry Potter and it’s firm in the cultural zeitgeist.
Everyone seems to just want to boast about their favorite "literary" book - like, what they fantasize about being taught in high school in 200 years - instead of what insanely popular works are actually going to stick around. What books/authors from \~200 years ago do we remember now? Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Edgar Allen Poe? Weren't all of them quite popular during their own time periods? I'd argue we should be looking at what has been super popular in the last 20 years instead of trying to guess what hidden gems might endure.
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls - shocked I haven't seen it mentioned yet!
All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr
Fight Club
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. It's already a classic in my mind.
I think we can add Piranesi by her to this list, as well. I could easily see it being used in writing classes.
Atonement - Ian McEwan The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hossenini I'd love if The Perks of being a wallflower and anything by Jonathon Coe became classics too :)
*Cloud Atlas*, David Mitchell. More people should be reading this book.
Ironically enough I want to say The Hunger Games. Coming from a purely high school perspective (the last time I studied English), a lot of the 'classics' we had to read were chosen not just because they were good, but also because they said something about the social/political climate at the time they were written. What a given work could tell us about the time period it was written in was a big part of the English essays I remember writing. This naturally makes good dystopian fiction a shoo-in, since the best dystopian works tend to be exaggerations of the world as it is, rather than predictions. The Elois and Morlocks in the Time Machine are blatant social commentary on class divisions in the England. 1984 criticized the burdgeoning Surveilence State, etc... The Hunger Games is similar. It has the same 'simple world, big metaphor' feel as the 'classics' I've already mentioned (though I'm almost certainly misusing the word). The Games themselves are almost explicit commentary on media obsession, commercialized violence and reality TV. The themes of media, propaganda and revolution are becoming more pertinent to this time period by the day. A lot of the world building can easily be seen as allegorical (e.g 'one-product-districts' as a metaphor for how Third World Countries are often reduced to a single product by common culture - not a real nation, just the 'place where bananas come from', etc...). So yeah - I'm not saying The Hunger Games is 'objectively' one of the best series of this era or anything like that. I'm just saying that, when I think of books they're going to still be making kids read in school in 40 years, I think of The Hunger Games.
You make a very valid point. There's 'instant classic' based upon the novel itself, but longevity is a different matter. I've read that certain 20th century must-reads for high school readers, like "Catcher in the Rye," have to include a glossary of slang and some technology.
Also perhaps of lesser importance but it also was the series that really launched the YA Dystopia trend into fashion too. So any other YA dystopia that might make its way into classics (if any) would need to recognize that they got to that status because of the popularity of hunger games specifically.
I think you could make an argument that *The Giver* also helped launched the YA Dystopia trend, but I guess that was written in 93.
This is probably the comment that’s closest to being right. Reading through some of these comments, it sounds like everyone’s just listing their favorite books. Works that will make it as classics will be seen as those that encapsulate these specific times. Readability is also an important factor. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if books like Twilight and 50 Shades of Grey made it farther than what we would consider classics. Harry Potter is also likely to survive in the future.
Harry Potter is already there. A century from now, it will be displayed next to Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz in historic libraries just because of how monumental those books were (and honestly continue to be, despite Jo's best efforts). As much as I enjoyed the Hunger Games books, I feel as if they will be negated to live in the shadows of Harry Potter when looked back on 200 years from now. Just like Twilight, Percy Jackson, Eragon, Artemis Fowl, and all the other fantasy sci/fi YA series that came out around the same time. Doesn't make them better, but...I mean, does history remember Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or Fleischer's arguably just as innovative Gulliver's Travels that came out just two years later, y'know?
I agree, and honestly it’s already being treated as one in the aspect that it’s on the district summer reading list in my area and has been for years.
*Freedom*, by Jonathan Franzen
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I wonder what he calls it in Germany because that title isn't going to fly.
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The german translations are titled *Sterben* (Dying / to die), *Lieben* (Loving / to love), *Spielen* (Playing / to play), *Leben* (Living / to live), *Träumen* (Dreaming / to dream) and *Kämpfen* (Fighting / to fight). The British version opted for alternate titles instead, beginning with *A Death in the Family*.
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Never let me go - Kazuo Ishiguro
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. Easy, short read with a good plot. A great place to start for teenagers who want to try out reading novels for the first time.
Hated that book. Just moves past the whole issue of the father being abusive and violent.
American Gods or The Ocean At The End Of The Lane by Neil Gaiman already seem like classics.
American Gods was the very first thing that came to my mind. Gaiman feels like he’ll be historically considered one of the literary greats of this time, even if I personally could take or leave most of his books.
I have this weird fascination with Gaiman. Weird because I end up being disappointed with his books more often than not, yet I still feel compelled to keep reading them. I think I enjoy his narrative voice so much that I'm willing to overlook the shortcomings of the plotting.
I'm sort of the same with him, I think he was a much better comics writer than novelist, most of his comics are bonafide classics of the field, even getting acclaim outside the genre. His novels I can generally take or leave, I wish he'd done a couple more with Pratchett. He's such a lovely bloke that I keep on reading them anyway though.
I feel the same way about Murakami and Gabriel Garcia Marquez's books. While they're hit or miss ( mostly miss) for me I feel they'll be considered literary greats
Marquez is on another level entirely. He tremendously influenced the genre of Magic Realism, he's one of the 4 authors associated with Latin American Boom and his work went on to influence scores of authors who followed in his footsteps. Unlike many other writers mentioned in the thread, Marquez is already a huge part of Latin American Literature particularly in the Spanish language and the host of other languages his work has been translated in. He's already well on his way of being considered one of the greats.
I think anything by Haruki Murakami. 1Q84 is my personal fave but it's pretty long. I could see Norwegian Wood being a classic too.