Hi everyone this is my first time posting in this section. I am wanting to widen my reading and I would like to start with some great classic books but I do not know where to start. I hope someone could name a few books that are must reads. I am open to all suggestions. Thanks

Tiffany, what kind of books do you usually enjoy?

Paranormal romance However I would love to get away from them. I would like to just try anything that will open me to more reading. I did request Tom Sawyer because I have NEVER read any books like that before.

I think you will like Tom Sawyer,  Huckleberry Finn is a great sequel (even better, IMO) if you like the first.  You might enjoy Jane Erye by Charlotte Bronte as another starting point.  Enjoy!

I found that The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins was a real page-turner.  It might be a good one for you to start with since, even though I like/love many of the classics, I find that some are not as easy to read as this one.

I am looking to challage my mind I guess. Thank you all for your suggestions. Keep them coming if you would like.

Since you are into romances, you might want to start with Pride and Prejudice.  It's a classic lovestory if you will.

Try Dracula!!!

I read the scarlet letter in high school and loved it. I love sci-fi fantasy, but at that age didn't care much for fantasy or paranormal, only liked social type sci fi. It was a fairly easy read, as well.

Thanks for all your advise

+1 for Dracula--- had never read it though watched all the movies in the 70's and thought I knew the story.  What a surprise-- it has great romance and mystery!

Wuthering Heights for a romance--- I can't stand the Eyre books-- I'll vote for the Bronte sisters every time!

The following ten books are classics that will pull you in and take you on momentous journys (not all of them joyful)!  They cover a rather wide range of styles and stories, but all of them are considered by many to be must-read classics.  Enjoy.

1984 by George Orwell has to be the ultimate must-read novel.  Its language and its concepts have become a part of our society.  This is where "Big Brother"  and the "Thought Police" were introduced. 

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier is mysterious, romantic, suspenseful.  One of the all time great classic gothic novels.

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh is a story of an upper class wealthy but dysfunctional English family that takes place after World War I.  It's themes include faith and love and hope.  Routinely listed on "Literature Lists" as one of the 100 best of the 20th century.

The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood was the basis for the play and movie Cabaret.  It illustrates Berlin in the 1930's as seen through the very perceptive eyes of the author -- he says "I am a camera with its shutter open."  I think it is one of the best books I have read that presented the mood of the German people prior to WWII.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is one of the best-loved classics of all time, named by the Library Journal as the best novel of the 20th century.  It tells the story of a lawyer defending a black man charged with the rape of a white woman in the deep south of the 1930s as seen through the eyes of his children. 

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell is the ultimate love story.  Forget the movie -- the book chronicles the growth of Scarlet from a silly simpering Southern miss to a woman who is strong, who can take care of those she loves and who survives. 

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is a novel about the best of times and the worst of times.  It is set against the background of the French Revolution and is ultimately about resurrection.  At the same time, it's a ripping good yarn.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates the Jazz Age in all of its decadence and opulence.  Gatsby's love for Daisy is the foundation for what some consider one of the greatest American novels of all time.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad follows the story of a man who travels into the heart of Africa on a riverboat.  At times unnerving, it is a short but very dense read.  Frances Ford Coppola used it as a basis for the movie Apocalypse Now.

I tentatively list The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane.  It is tentative because I found this book so disturbing in its subject matter I could barely finish it.  It is very short and is the account of a soldier in battle during the Civil War.  It is a blood and guts account that is extremely difficult to read, but I believe one of the most important pieces of American literature.