Honestly, I’ll re-read anything by Alexander Dumas, Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Three Musketeers, The Count Monte Cristo especially when I’m sick. Every one remembers them from their high school reading lists, but really, they’re just rollicking good adventure stories.

D.H. Lawrence’s Women in Love. Favorite of all time. Then The World According to Garp, which is not a classic but just thought I’d toss it onto the pile.

Ordinary People—it’s got the Catcher in the Rye vibe except a lot less pretentiousness. Also The Bell Jar.

Seconding Native Son!

I feel like it’s recently become very uncool to say so, but I still love The Great Gatsby. I just find the writing beautiful.

The Scarlett Pimpernel.

Anything by P.G.Wodehouse, really, and a lot of his stuff is out of copyright so you can get it from Amazon for kindle for free.

Anna Karinina. My spelling could be off. But I was a poor kid who never really got the culture of the world. When I was 14 I went to a women's house to babysit. She had books and old black and white movies and a piano. I stole that book and Cold Sassy Tree. Last year I found Cold Sassy Tree and opened it and there was…

Slaughterhouse 5. It’s one of the strangest, most haunting books I’ve ever read. Someone did a stage adaption of it in Seattle a year or so ago, and I have no idea how that’s even possible.

I’m super late to the party...these aren’t “classics” but they are classic - The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and some Agatha Christie - my faves are “And Then There Were None,” “The ABC Murders,” and “Murder on the Orient Express.”

Dune by Frank Herbert. Usually rated as the best science fiction novel ever written.

I came here to say Jane Eyre but she’s been well covered. My favourite book of all time is Cannery Row by John Steinbeck; a short read, but utterly delightful.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is pretty good.

Nora Zeale Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God

Oh hell no, subway bruiser should also be in a cast. May your next injury be wasted related. ;)

Eep, sorry to hear about your knee! Pride and Prejudice, Flowers for Algernon, Dandelion Wine, and Fahrenheit 451 are some personal faves. If you’re in the mood for something light and fun, The Princess Bride and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy are both a blast (although I know I’m sorta getting out of the realm of…

Haha, it’s because I’ve read so much crap that I know what the good ones are. My sister and I have our own sort of shitty book club where I find the most outrageous books possible and then we read them and laugh about how ridiculous they are. For example: I found a series about high school spies that seems to be…

100 Years of Solitude, Madame Bovary, The Sound and the Fury, Heart of Darkness - I think those haven’t already been mentioned.

The Great Gatsby.

Aw, so sorry about your knee. Hope you’re not an too much pain. I love any collection of Ivan Turgenev short stories. First Love and Other Stories is my favorite. But try to find an older edition. The new one cut out a couple of beautifully written stories. Feel better. Tell us how you broke it.