What do you consider the essentials?

[mariaelise]

Reading through the Movie and Book topics got me thinking.

 

What do you consider "essentials" for books and movies?

I hesitate to use the words "classics", because that can be interpreted a little too literally.

 

Some arguments for each of the categories (off the top of my head)

 

Books:

The Odyssey, To Kill a Mockingbird, Pride and Prejudice, 1984, Catcher in the Rye

 

Movies:

Harry Potter, Star Wars, The Breakfast Club, The Notebook

 

As you can see, they can range greatly in topic and genre... not necessarily masterpieces, just movies/books that are either extremely relevant or valuable in society today.

 

I personally have read a lot of "classics" in school, and although most of them were great, some I found kind of outdated and unnecessary.

Also, embarrassingly enough, I've never finished the Star Wars movies. My boyfriend and I are going through them together right now, because as he said, "I can't go off to college without seeing Star Wars" xD

 

 

[Shelley]

Harry Potter should definitely be moved to the book category! lol

 

I couldn't really get into much classic literature in high school, I was really put off by the setting in which I had to read and review the books in scrutiny. Everyone should at some point in their lives should read the Diary of Anne Frank and Harry Potter (at least just a little). There's so many great books out there to explore, 1984, of mice and men, and The Metamorphosis are also great works of literature.

 

For movies I think everyone should watch Gone with the Wind, Crash, and Apocalypse Now. Hotel Rwanda also changed my life when I watched it

 

These aren't necessarily my favorite books/movies but I think they're worth time spent exploring them. (maybe not all at once, they're all kind of intense haha)

 

Oh and I totally have never watched stars wars either xD I think I watched one but I lost interest haha

[missuninvited]

This might not be *exactly* what you're looking for, but these are what I listed as the 10 books that had the greatest impact on me (in no particular order):

- Dune

- Life of Pi

- The Underland Chronicles series (don't laugh)

- The Descent

- As I Lay Dying

- The Diary of Anne Frank

- Ender's Game

- Brave New World

- Frankenstein

- Freakonomics

**Bonuses: Hamlet and Strunk & White's Elements of Style, as neither are novels. I still really love Hamlet though. God, I love Hamlet.

[.Brianna.]

*sigh* English Education major = hardest topic to respond to ever. My choice would literally be any publication in existence because the act of reading is what really matters not what is being read [end cheesy response]

 

For books my picks would have to include: 1984, Any Shakespeare (huge nerd - I literally love them all), The Book Thief, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and the entire Game of Thrones series

 

For film: Anything Hitchcock (my personal favorite is Dial M for Murder), Sabrina (the original, not the nonsense with Richard Gere), Rocky Horror, American Beauty, and American History X

 

...my lists could go on for days, but this seems like a good selection for now :)

 

 

missuninvited - I second your choice of Elements of Style (I found this fantastic hardbound copy at Anthropologie and it made me so happy)

[dawnshine]

I'm not much into movies but as far as books go:

 

All-Time Favorites

Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five (or basically any Vonnegut)

Harry Potter Series

1984 George Orwell

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (All three parts)

The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

 

Of course there are many great staples when it comes to reading but these are my personal favorites.

 

Recent Favorites

Game of Thrones (I've only read through the third book so far, but love the show also)

Lord of the Rings (Way better than the movies, although the movies are okay)

 

A couple of weeks ago I read Abraham Lincoln Vampire Slayer. I can't say I was impressed. I didn't see the movie either, but heard mixed reviews.

[WhiteWolf]

Books:

 

Phantom of the Opera (Read it five times)

Treasure Island

The Picture of Dorian Grey

Staked (J.F. Lewis) and the subsequent novels

 

Movies:

 

Casablanca

Top Gun

Australia

The Breakfast Club

Life of Pi

The Lion King

 

There are just so many more movies I can name, but I don't want to be the one who makes a three-page post on the subject. lol

The Wizard of Oz

[mariaelise]

 

Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five (or basically any Vonnegut)

Totally agree! I love all Vonnegut.

 

 

 

The Lion King

 

 

Yes! Haha no matter how old I get I still watch Lion King.... no shame. None.

 

You guys got me thinking, and I think I'd have to add a few -

 

The Blind Assassin (or any Margaret Atwood)

Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

Shadow of the Wind

 

My senior year in high school really made me fall in love with postmodern literature, and for anyone who is bored with the "classics" in school, I highly highly recommend them. They're of the same literary stature yet soooo multifaceted that literally every person in our class would have a completely different essay just from one book.

[neopets98]

My senior year in high school really made me fall in love with postmodern literature, and for anyone who is bored with the "classics" in school, I highly highly recommend them. They're of the same literary stature yet soooo multifaceted that literally every person in our class would have a completely different essay just from one book.

What modern books would you recommend?

 

I haven't read To Kill A Mocking Bird, but I've watched the movie and it was really good. I was surprised because I usually don't like old movies. I also watched Stalag 17 which was great.

 

I would consider Tangled an essential. Can't think of anything else I would consider essential rn.

[mariaelise]

neopets98 - The three that I mentioned in my last post I loved.

[WhiteWolf]

yay for casablanca, thanks for putting that one, whitewolf. and it is funny you should mention top gun, i enjoy that movie, but i have a buddy who called me up while he was watching it with his gf, and then he pretty much quoted the movie line for line into the phone. i guess he wanted me to enjoy it with them as much as i possibly could over the phone, lol, i eventually got him to hang up though.

You're welcome! I can quote Top Gun so easily it scares people. When it was re-released for its 25th anniversary, you better believe I went to the theater! To this day, the F-14 remains my favorite Navy aircraft.

[hrosanna]

Books- ugh, so many to choose from here,it's almost physically painful to just pick a few

 

my sisters keeper by Jodi picoult

His dark materials series by Philip Pullman

Chronicles of narnia by c.s Lewis

Alex rider series

White fang and call of the wild are good if you like classic animal stories (like black beauty).

Silver brumby- I grew up reading this book religiously

 

Movies

X- men series, including wolverine origins, disregarding The Wolverine

Home alone series

 

And completely off topic, the Evangelion anime, mainly the original series and to a lesser extent the modern movies that follow the series. The characters just sneak in and starts bashing at your heart with a sledgehammer, especially later in the series when everything starts going to hell.

The director didn't pull any punches; it's a story about giant robots and apocalypses seasoned liberally with the unvarnished truth of humanity and how no matter how you're messed with sometimes you just need to get up and fight. Evangelion is the original giant mecha vs monsters series, and I just recommend it, plain and simple :)

[brynchilla]

*sigh* English Education major = hardest topic to respond to ever. My choice would literally be any publication in existence because the act of reading is what really matters not what is being read [end cheesy response]

I agree with this! People can get so picky about what other people choose to read and how they choose to read it. I'm just happy they're reading! It's not my responsibility to tell people what they can and cannot read and how they should read it. Or even if they read at all! If someone genuinely does not like to read, forcing them to read will only make them like it less.

 

am surprised no one has mentioned the percy jackson novels- this got me back into greek and roman mythology big time, the series is kinda dragging on and getting not as fun as it goes, but i gotta love Pery Jackson as a character- Harry Potter could be kind of stupid sometimes in my humble opinion, i prefer Percy as the hero in a book.

Oo, I love the Percy Jackson series! I had to read the first one for an elementary lit class, and just kept reading the rest! I'm on the Last Olympian now. It's really reinforced my love for Greek (and soon Roman) mythology

 

 

 

As for me, I never really read a lot of classics in high school. I went to a college prep catholic school, and I just didn't have the teachers who made me read it

I did read Animal Farm, which I ended up liking. I started 'To Kill a Mockingbird', but I never finished it.

 

 

Classics (both movies and books)

*Lord of the Rings

*Harry Potter

*Catcher in the Rye and other stories (including short stories) by JD Salinger

*Black Beauty

*Buffy: The vampire slayer

*Classic Disney movies

[nousha]

Wonderful topic :) I read the posts and made notes what to read and watch next ;)

 

I love books and I'm not so much into movies so my book list would be longer :) So:

Master and Margarita by Bulgakov

The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Still Life with Woodpecker - Tim Robbins

Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

East of Eden and Cannery Road by Steinbeck

O.Henry's short stories

Andersen's tales

I can go on and on, so I'll stop here :)

 

Movies...

English Patient

American History X

You've Got Mail

Sleepless in Seattle

Mamma Mia!

Joyeux Noel

Dirty Dancing

[passiflora]

Wow, this is hard. I know what my own personal essentials are, but I wouldn't say they're necessarily things that would have to make others' lists hahaha.

 

 

Books: Tough to decide. My dream is pretty much to have my own personal library. :p

 

• The Hobbit (Tolkien)
• His Dark Materials (Pullman)
• Lord of the Flies (Golding)
• Fight Club (Palahniuk)
• Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls (or anything else by David Sedaris)
• Huck Finn (Mark Twain)

 

 

Master and Margarita by Bulgakov

Love love LOVE this book!!!

 

 

------------------

 

Movies:

• The Lion King
• Toy Story series
• Up
• The Wizard of Oz
• Grease
• Happy Gilmore

[mariaelise]

I really need to read the Percy Jackson series, I've heard a lot of people rave about it and I LOVE Greek Mythology... definitely on my to do list.

 

I agree with everyone having their own tastes... as long as you're reading, good for you! I know I definitely have a few more books on my list to read after reading through this topic. :)

[Naamah D.]

My taste in literature is kind of odd. My essential books are defiantly:

 

1. "Vampire Academy" by Richelle Mead

2. "Ghost Boy" by Iain Lawrence

3. "Enchantress from the Stars" by Sylvia Engdahl

4. "Zink" by Cherie Bennett

5. "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken

6. "The Dark is Rising" by Susan Cooper

7. "Green Angel" by Alice Hoffman

8. "Define Normal" by Julie Anne Peters

9. "A Stir of Bones" by Nina Kirki Hoffman

10. "Dangerous Girls" by R.L. Stine

 

I recommend all of these books. "Zink" is kind of hard to read because it is an extremely tragic story. I can't even think about the book without feeling sad.

 

I don't know about movies though since my taste in movies is stuff like Movie 43 and Scary Movie 2 :p

[blowupthesun]

I agree with a lot of the novels posted before, and others I will definately need to read, but I still think the greatest books are the ones that meant the most to me as a child.

Roald Dahl, anything of his, really

The Chronicles of Narnia

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Ella Enchanted (ugh, puberty)

Shel Silverstein's Falling Up and Where the Sidewalk Ends (not novels, but that's ok!)

I love the way Dickens writes, my favorites are David Copperfield and Great Expectations

 

Movies:

How has nobody said Mary Poppins??

The Sound of Music

Cabaret

 

Most of the movies I consider essential are comedies, and no, not exactly Citizen Kane, but whatever:

Ghostbusters

Caddyshack

Christmas Vacation

The Jerk

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

SUPER TROOPERS!

Billy Madison

Monty Python and The Holy Grail

Back to the Future

The Blues Brothers

[mariaelise]

SOUND OF MUSIC oh my goodness how did I forget that movie. One of my all time favorites. Maybe I'm biased because I was named after Maria von Trapp.... nah ;)

 

Also love Monty Python, hilarious and an essential for comedy.

[neopets98]

Some movies I would consider essentials are Les Miserables (2012), X-Men: First Class, 21 Jump Street, She's the Man, Footloose (2011), Freaky Friday, 13 Going on 30, Real Steel, classic Disney movies, and there's probably more.

 

Books I would consider essentials are Keeping the Moon (anything that values confidence/tells you to be confident is good), Hunger Games series (haven't finished the last book yet). I can't think of any others right now. I would recommend giving The Fault In Our Stars and Looking for Alaska a read though. I think there's a lot of truth in those novels.

 

I've never read Harry Potter (besides some of the last book) but I want to read it in the future.

[fullonparanoid]

Hmmm...I think that the 'classics' in either genre are classics for a reason.

 

As such, I will list a very few of my 'essentials' sans any classics.

 

Books:

 

Aztec - Gary Jennings

Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett

Egyptian Series (River God, The Seventh Scroll, Warlock, Quest) - Wilbur Smith

Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley

Jitterbug Perfume - Tom Robbins

The Far Pavilions - M. M. Kaye

Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson

 

Movies:

 

City of Lost Children ("La cité des enfants perdus")

The Goonies

Time Bandits

Empire of the Sun

The Color Purple

Hugo

The Black Stallion

 

I am a voracious reader and a lover of film. The above are VERY (very very) abbreviated lists...but might contain titles some have not read/seen (enjoyed) before.

 

:P