Book Recomendation...

[Zjoot]

So, I've got an independent novel project coming up for my English class, and we got a large list of classic novels to chose from. I've narrowed it down to seven that sounded the most interesting to me based on their synopses and such, so now I want help from you guys choosing which one to do.

So what are you thoughts on the following:

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Watership Down by Richard Adams
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Marukami

If you've read any of these, which ones would you recommend? No spoilers please. :smallwink:

[erikun]

I've only read Watership Down, although I found it very good. It does a very good job of presenting the rabbitness of the characters, which is something I very much enjoy.

[Cazaril]

Careful; reading Watership Down may cause you to try and bug your skeptical friends into playing Bunnies and Burrows (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=82542)!

[Weezer]

Watership Down is an excellent book, a great demonstration of how an on the surface fluffy and lighthearted subject (a bunch of rabbits) can be written with a good deal of depth and even become dark.

The Road and Brave New World are the other two I've read, really liked both of them, the Road is one of the best post apocalyptic novels I've read and Brave New World is only behind 1984 in the realm of distopian novels.

[Feytalist]

Heart of Darkness is, as everyone probably already knows, the book that Apocalypse Now was based on. It's obviously rather quite dark (as is all the books on that list that I recognise, anyway) but I found it really good. The writing itself isn't brilliant, but the narrative and characterisation makes up for it.

Brave New World is good as well. Ridiculously dystopian setting, as has been mentioned. It's also a classic.

I've heard good things about Marukami's work, but I haven't read any of it myself yet.

[GoblinArchmage]

From that list, I personally have read Things Fall Apart, Heart of Darkness, and Brave New World. I think that, out of the three, I liked Heart of Darkness the best, although when I read the oher two I was still in Highschool and less mature, which might be a reason for that. What I really liked about Heart of Darkness, though, was the dark humor. There is a lot of sarcasm in it that makes it quite funny if you pay attention.

Edit: All three are quite good, though.

[FoeHammer]

While all of those are great books, I cannot recommend Things Fall Apart strongly enough. It really tells a story that we in the modern West never hear, and is probably the most widely read book in or about Africa. Not only is it well written, but it gives the reader a huge insight into a modern Africa defined by colonialism by presenting the pre-colonial Africa with which we are so unfamiliar.