What literature should I read?

So many good suggestions have already been made. Like you, most works of literature were not required reading for me in school. In fact, David Copperfield, as JD suggested, was one of the first I read on my own. I loved it and, to this day, there is one episode in the book which causes me to laugh out loud. It was a good beginning. I do think A Christmas Carol is his easiest novel to understand, because it has less descriptive prose. Charles Dickens is one author whose works are rich and rewarding, if you can take the time to truly understand the way he worded things. With him, I might suggest you begin with some of his shorter stories, like The Signal-Man http://www.online-literature.com/dickens/2941/ or The Trial for Murder http://www.online-literature.com/dickens/2942/ or his slightly longer The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain http://www.online-literature.com/dickens/the-haunt... - each is very good.

Getting used to the wording of older works may take some doing, but it is worth it. That being said, perhaps you should begin with some easier reads like Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, Anne of Green Gables (the series) by Lucy Maud Montgomery, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett or other classic children's/young adult novels? They may help to get you used to a slightly different pattern of speech than is the norm today and prepare you for others.

Others I would recommend (no repetitions of what others have mentioned, hopefully):

-Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

-Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

-The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

-Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

-Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

-Silas Marner by George Eliot

-Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

-The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte

-A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

-Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (or any of her others...though I'd suggest leaving Mansfield Park for last)

-anything by Charles Dickens, though Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist and Our Mutual Friend are excellent

-The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

-The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson

-Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling

-The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving (short stories)

-short stories by O. Henry

-plays by William Shakespeare

-The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

-Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

-Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

-Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

-The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

-The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer

There are so many more which could be named, but you may want to look through some lists of bests online:

http://www.best100novels.com/

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/

http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestno...

http://www.cincinnatilibrary.org/booklists/?id=cla...

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2963336/44-Classic-Novel...

I hope this helps.

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Call of the Wild by Jack London

Men of Iron by Howard Pyle

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

I loved Othello by Shakespeare - the web site below has a modern translation as old english is a bit antiquated now

crime and punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky , a classic.

Wuthering Heights, emily bronte, I just love this story

Paula, by Isabel Allende. totally recommend it since you read memoirs and non fiction.

S.P

To Kill a Mockingbird is a good place to start if you haven't read it yet. It is one of those books that everyone should read but really isn't hard to understand.

http://www.amazon.com/Kill-Mockingbird-Harper-Lee/...

Night by Eliie Wiesel is also something everyone should read. It is a non-fiction account of the author's experiance as a teenager during the holocaust.

http://www.amazon.com/Night-Oprahs-Book-Club-Wiese...

The Handmaid's Tale is one of my favorites. I read it in AP english and it is still one of my favorite novels.

http://www.amazon.com/Handmaids-Tale-Margaret-Atwo...