5 free classics under 150 pages

Here's my curated collection of 5 free classics to get you started in your journey of reading the classics. All of these are great books. You can read one of these beauties in one weekend. If you've wanted to get into the world of the classics, but don't know quite where to begin, this would be a good start. 

1. Frankenstein - 134 pages
   Read about Victor Frankenstein's pursuit to give life to his ambitions. In the book, the monster talks back to Victor, and is even more eloquent than the scientist. Explore the depths of the monster's feelings and see if you are not moved by his story.
   Link: http://amzn.com/B0084BN44Q
   
   
2. Red Badge of Courage - 154 pages
   Ok, this is just over 150 pages, but it's still a great read. This is a story of a young soldier that signs up to fight the entire rebel army. He's faced with his own challenge of courage, and he finds out that he might not be up to the challenge of facing the enemy. Does he find his courage? Read it and let me know what you think.
   link: http://amzn.com/B0083ZHYIU
   
   
3. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - 96 pages
   At only 96 pages, you can probably read this in one or two sittings. Dr. Jekyll lets out his darker side as he takes his magic elixirs and summons the demon within, Mr. Hyde. Do we all have an inner demon wanting to get out? Is the freedom worth it for Dr. Jekyll? Read this one to find out. link: http://amzn.com/B0083ZR7BY
   
   
4. The Pilgrim’s Progress - 136 pages
   This was the second most read book in the English language besides the bible. And it's good. If you're not a christian, the historical value alone is worth it. Follow Christian as he describes in his dream his journey from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City
   link: http://amzn.com/B0083Z665M
   
   
5. Call of the Wild - 111 pages
   This classic may not be for dog lovers (some of the dogs aren't treated that great in the book), but you'll gain tremendous insight into the primal law of the wild. Learn what Buck learns as he finds himself thrown from civilization into the primal world. Does he succeed? What does he learn in his struggle to survive about man and beast?
   link: http://amzn.com/B0083ZBW2Y
   
   
6. Bonus book!
   The Wind in the Willows - 194 pages
   At over 190 pages, it's a little longer than these other classics, but this one is definitely worth it. You may remember Toad and his love of cars, but to me, the real story is about the Water Rat that loves to be on his river messing about on boats. A classic tale of love of the land in a beautiful pastoral setting in the English countryside.
   link: http://amzn.com/B0083Z9D7U

The Pearl by John Steinbeck

This is another book, like Frankenstein, whose moral of fortune and ambition comes back with bitter friends. The book was published in 1947. In the story, there is a native Mexican, Kino, who is a pearl diver. He has a wife and a small child.

The child gets sick with a scorpion sting, where the parents take him to the doctor to get treated. But the doctor won't treat the baby unless Kino has money. Kino doesn't have money, so he dives to find a pearl to pay for the doctor.

He finds a pearl. But the pearl is so large, it attracts the attention of the entire town. Fortune at first seems benevolent, but in the end, they also taste the bitter that is attracted by Fortune.

"Luck, he said, sometimes brings bitter friends."

No sooner had he found the pearl then he was besieged by people looking to take it from him. In the end, they Kino had killed 4 people and their own child was shot in the head and was killed. The pearl had cost them the one thing they were trying to save. Kino's ambition cost him his family and a pleasant life of diving for pearls with his family.

Like Frankenstein, the ambition of Kino, like the ambition of Victor Frankenstein, ended up killing the things he loved most.

Here's another on of my favorite quotes from the book:

"But now, by saying what his future was going to be like, he had created it. A plan is a real thing, and things projected are experienced. A plan once made and visualized becomes a reality along with other realities."

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

I have to thank my friend for suggesting that I read this book. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is one of my favorites. I don't think everyone will like it, but for those of us that feel the pangs of modernism, the invisible lines that push and pull us in unseen directions, this book is a godsend.

About the book
The book describes the happenings in a mental ward in an insane assylum over a few months time. 

There's two main characters, an tall Indian, Chief Bromden, and an Irishman, Randell McMurhpy. McMurphy finds himself in the ward after some criminal mischief and begins his fun journey down the control mechanism the Chief calls, 'the combine.'

"So she works with the an eye to adjusting the outside world too. Working alongside others like her who I called the 'combine,' which is a huge organization that aims to adjust the outside as well as she has the inside, has made her a real veteran at adjusting things."

The fog descends upon all, and Chief Bromden realized that there was safety in the fog, so instead of fighting the fog, he used it as a cover, an impenetrable shield of being lost in the all-encompassing, ever-present world of the combine. He was safe there, in the system, until McMurphy, a burly, well-built IrishMAN showed up. McMurphy descended into the fog and pulled the chief out of it, made it clear to see, perhaps for the first time in decades, what life was, or what life could be, for a man. What life could be if you lived it on your own terms, in your own way, without anyone else putting limits on how you live. 

McMurphy was the last primal male. He was the last of his kind before the fog rolled in and 'civilized' him. 

"Peckin at your balls, buddy, at your ever lovin balls."

The genius in Kesey using the Indian to show the connecting fight between the last Indian males to fight the system, and losing, and how it is now the white man's turn. The last brave Irishman before the system takes out his kind, too. The age of the white male is over! 

"Papa says if you don't watch it people will force you one way or the other, into doing what they think you should do, or into just being stubborn and doing the opposite out of spite."

The prototype manly man that had the power, the balls, to fight the system, the combine, by taking on one of its head enforcers, the male impostor, Nurse Ratched. Through the total tyranny of the ward, Nurse Ratched would squeeze the pressure on the men bit-by-bit. She never let the men get to her, and she knew that she would always get her way, at least in the end. And she did. 

"wait for a little advantage, a little slack, then twist the rope and keep the pressure steady. All the time."

"It could no longer conceal the fact that she was a woman."

This book is quite the ride down modernity lane. Like Kafka, Kesey shows us the myriad of complex, invisible lines that pull and push on humanity, without ever being visible to us. The rules and policies can be maddening, but them's the rules, friend! McMurphy gets lost in the combine, picking his battles where he can to fight it. But the combine is bigger than he is. Bigger than all of us. When we are gone, it will still be here. When our children are gone, it will still be here. Rolling out and rolling over anyone that opposes it. 

"It's not just the big nurse by herself, but it's the whole combine, the nationwide combine that's the really big force, the nurse is just a high-ranking official for them."

Progress!! 

"This world belongs to the strong, my friend! The ritual of our existence is based on the strong getting stronger by devouring the week. You must face up to this. No more than right that it should be this way. We Must learn to accept it as a law of the natural world. The rabbits accept their role in the ritual and recognize the wolf as the strong. In defense, the rabbit becomes sly and frightened and elusive and he digs holes and hides when the wolf is about. And he endures, he goes on. He knows his place. He most certainly doesn't challenge the wolf to combat. Now, would that be wise? Would it?"

1 year anniversary of reading classics

I don't remember the exact date that I started reading the classics, but I know it was in February of last year. I read an article somewhere on the interwebs that challenged me to read 40 classics. I could count on my right hand how many classics I had actually read all the way through in my life up to that moment. With $100 in my paypal account, I purchased most of those 40 classics on amazon. I stacked them next to my reading chair, and I read. For a year.

I had not read many books through high school and college. There seemed to be some type of encouragement to not read any books. I'm not sure how that was the case, but in some sense, I did feel a bit of pride by not having to actually read the books and still do well on the tests.

I'm a bit conflicted. On one hand, I feel bad in not reading these books sooner, but on the other hand, being a bit older and having more life experience, these books mean much more to me than I think they ever would have in my younger days.

Experience can give you insight. Not always, but it can. I've gained more life experience, and I'm open to more possibilities than the sureties I had in my younger days. I was much like the young and naive Henry Fleming in The Red Badge of Courage, full of enthusiasm and ready to conquer the entire rebel army. And then reality hits and you realize you cannot conquer anyone at all, especially yourself.

And now, after reading my first 40 classics, I'm much more contented with this life that I live. A fire in front of me, a piece of chocolate next to me, and a very good book in my hands is all that I require, or hope to acquire, in this life.

Frankenstein taught me to be content with my lot in life and not sacrifice what I have on the alter of vain ambition. The Brave New World taught me that what is happening in the world around me has been happening for a long time, and that the ever push for progress in science and mathematics is by design. The leaving behind of history and the classics in literature in formative schooling is seen as a worthy sacrifice for the total scientific tyranny of the future.

Animal Farm taught me that some animals, even in the name of equality, were more equal than others, very similar to today's political mantra that some cultures, even though all cultures are equal, are more equal than others. The Grapes of Wrath and The Jungle taught me that life can be so much harder than it is today. Economic realities are shifting under our feet in America, but this is nothing new. An entire generation already lived through this, and some are still living today. This economic new world has already been experienced, and it is what we are experiencing now, and will experience more of in the future - a severe reduction in economic standards of living.

Dante's Inferno taught me the underlying demonic structure of life. Get into one place with a few demons whipping the underlings, only to find that the more you venture out, the worse the demons get. The Confederacy of Dunces showed me the life of helpless, institutionalized college goers where the university acted as a surrogate father to the generations of abandoned young men.

Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz left me in a surreal world where the laws of this earth are not ever followed, and they are happy there. A sorry existence in a world of forever ever unreality. Robinson Crusoe, probably my most favorite read, brought me back to sanity. Crusoe found himself on a deserted island, but it was more than that; he found himself, he found the first true order of life, and he found god.

Metamorphosis and the Trial by Kafka showed me the mind-numbing reality of the modern labyrinth, also known as society. Society has its own rules, its own mind, and you are invited to participate, or not. The rules are hidden and very complex, and if you don't follow these rules, then you are crazy.

The Wind in the Willows gave me hope in a quiet life full of great books, good writings, good friends and messing about on boats. Your entire life can be lived next to a river, and that is quite alright.

Thank you to all the authors that put so much of their life into their writings.

100 classics book challenge

At first my challenge was to read 40 classical books. I did it! I'm up over 40 now, so here's another list of 100.

Northanger Abbey

Wind in the Willows

Vanity Fair

Great Expectations

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Paradise Lost

Anne of Green Gables

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea

Little Women

The Great Gatsby

Peter Pan

Emma

Pilgrim’s Progress

Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Pinnochio

The Age of Innocence

1984

East of Eden

In Search of Lost Time

Madame Bovary

The Good Soldier

Frankenstein

Wurthering Heights

The Inferno

Grapes of Wrath

The Importance of Being Earnest

The Red Badge of Courage

A Room with a View

Lolita

Sleepy Hollow

Silas Marner

The Arabian Nights

Dracula

Pride and Prejudice

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Wizard of Oz

Moby Dick

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Animal Farm

Confederacy of Dunces

Tess of Durbervilles

Metamorphosis

The Time Machine

The Scarlett Letter

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

To Kill a Mockingbird

The Secret Garden

Treasure Island

Catch-22

One Hundred Years of Solitude

A Farewell to Arms

Of Mice and Men

Fahrenheit 451

Iliad

Neurmancer

Walden

Slaughterhouse 5

David Copperfield

Swiss Family Robinson

Sense and Sensibility

The Jungle Book

The Jungle

Oliver Twist

The Woman in White

Brave New World

Tale of Two Cities

Romeo and Juliet

Gulliver’s Travels

Don Quixote

Madame Bovary

Heart of Darkness

Invisible Man

Around the World in 80 Days

Ivanhoe

Rob Roy

The Picture of Dorian Gray

The Fountainhead

The Three Musketeers

Heart of Darkness

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

The Wind in the Willow

Lord of the Flies

Last of the Mohicans

Misanthrope

The House of the Seven Gables

On the Road

Cather in the Rye

Ulysses

Tom Sawyer

War and Peace

Old Man and the Sea

The Sound and the Fury

The Stranger

The Karamzov Brothers

The Count of Monte Crisco

Mansfield Park

Jane Eyre

Robinson Crusoe

Annan Karenina

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Wizard of Oz

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz wasn't so wonderful. Fanciful, maybe, but not so wonderful.

The Wizard of Oz is the type of book I'd give to my enemies' children. I'd do that in order to bamboozle their minds into thinking that magical things are real, and the real things in life are gray and boring. And then I'd make a real theme park where they could take themselves and believe that the magical things are the only real things in life, where they can touch the magical creations and then tell themselves breathlessly how wonderful it all is that they can live in magic land.

This book, along with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Peter Pan, make up the surreality trifecta - crazy stories that make kids crazy-minded.

About the book
The books was about Dorothy's jaunt into another realm beyond America. Much of the book was about slaves and kingdoms. The Wicked Witch kept the Munchkins as slaves.

"She has held all the Munchkins in bondage for many years, making them slave for her night and day. Now they are all set free, and are grateful to you for the favor."

There were benevolent witches and wizards. Each wizard and witch ruled over a kingdom. In the end, the lion, tinman, and the scarecrow all ruled in their own kingdoms (don't go expecting democracy or a republic up in here).

The witches would also cast spells on Dorothy, introducing children to the wonderful world of the occult.

The book had some interesting characters, and it talked much about courage, brains, and having brains, which are admirable, but the story was quite juvenile and the prose was quite flat. Not that everyone has to be a Lord Byron, but after reading Wind in the Willows, this book falls short in depth. But the forms of the characters are interesting.

The whole time I was reading about the wonderful land of munchkins and how much they adored Dorothy from freeing them from bondage and slavery, I thought to myself, "why doesn't Dorothy stay there?" Especially because Kansas, according to the author, was so gray and boring.

In the land of the munchkins, she could have contented herself to living with the little people, but instead, she had this quaint notion that 'there's no place like home.' This is true, but it was also true that there was no place like the dull, flat, and gray prairies of Kansas, which was not such a good thing. And besides, her family could have been killed in the cyclone. After reading the fanciful tale, she really should have just stayed in Oz. We would have all been better off for it.

Red Badge of Courage

The Red Badge of Courage is a war novel about a fictional battle in the Civil War. The book was published in 1895. The book discovers the life of an 18 year old, newly enlisted private, Henry Fleming, and his experiences in a great battle.

The book details the story of Fleming as he joins the army, gets ready to fight his first battle, runs away from the first battle he is in, walks around the battlefield and laments and philosophizes about his fate, and then joins the battle again and shows some real courage.

The red badge of courage is the bloody wounds of the soldiers that stayed and fought. They could show that they had courage because they had the red, bloody wounds to prove it - this was their red badge of courage. Fleming didn't have that badge, because he ran away.

The story shows his naiveté of wanting to experience the 'Greeklike' struggles of war, to becoming a coward of that war, and then finding vindication through bravery. At the end of all this, his soul had changed.

Wanting to fight:

"He had long despaired of witnessing a Greeklike struggle. Such would be no more, he had said. Men were better, or more timid. Secular and religious education had effaced the throat-grappling instinct, or else firm finance held in check the passions."

"There was a lavish expenditure of bread and cold meats, coffee, and pickles and cheese. As he basked in the smiles of the girls and was patted and complimented by the old men, he had felt growing within him the strength to do mighty deeds of arms."

Running from his first fight:

"lots of good-a-'nough men have thought they was going to do great things before the fight, but when the time come they skedaddled."

As he perceived this fact it occurred to him that he had never wished to come to the war. He had not enlisted of his free will. He had been dragged by the merciless government. And now they were taking him out to be slaughtered.

The brigade was hurrying briskly to be gulped into the infernal mouths of the war god. What manner of men were they, anyhow? Ah, it was some wondrous breed! Or else they didn't comprehend—the fools.

If none of the little pieces were wise enough to save themselves from the flurry of death at such a time, why, then, where would be the army? It was all plain that he had proceeded according to very correct and commendable rules. His actions had been sagacious things. They had been full of strategy. They were the work of a master's legs.

He, the enlightened man who looks afar in the dark, had fled because of his superior perceptions and knowledge. He felt a great anger against his comrades. He knew it could be proved that they had been fools.

He remembered how some of the men had run from the battle. As he recalled their terror-struck faces he felt a scorn for them. They had surely been more fleet and more wild than was absolutely necessary. They were weak mortals. As for himself, he had fled with discretion and dignity.

He wanted a red badge of courage:

At times he regarded the wounded soldiers in an envious way. He conceived persons with torn bodies to be peculiarly happy. He wished that he, too, had a wound, a red badge of courage.

He threw aside his mental pamphlets on the philosophy of the retreated and rules for the guidance of the damned.

After showing Bravery on the battlefield:

He had been to touch the great death, and found that, after all, it was but the great death. He was a man.

So it came to pass that as he trudged from the place of blood and wrath his soul changed.

The book was well written and made me feel a bit sheepish for having any trifles in my life that I think are so much bigger than what they really are. 

Climbing Parnassus

Parnassus was a mountain in the ancient world that called to the lovers of wisdom. At the top of the mountain lived the nine muses:

"To climb Parnassus was to strive after the favor of Apollo and the nine muses - calliope, Erato, Clio, Euterpe, Melpomene, polymnia, Thalia, Terpsichore, Urania"

"And among those gifts most sought was the civilizing, cultivating book of eloquence, of right and beautiful expression."

"The hard, precipitous path of classical education ideally led not to knowledge alone, but to the cultivation of mind and spirit. Knowledge did not, in and of itself, justify the sweat. The climb was meant to transform one's intellectual and aesthetic nature as well."

This book, Climbing Parnassus, makes the case for the lost study of the classical works. I enjoyed the book thoroughly and will add it to my collection. I've written a bit about what a classical education was, and the author of this book can set you on the right track, if you want to take the challenge yourself.

As for me and my house, we will be studying Latin and Greek.

Some of my favorite quotes from the book:

"Early humanistic education began with the cultivation of character. Whatever intellectual feats a man might bring off, they were of scant value if he had not first achieved a goodness and tranquility of the soul."

"The cultivated man was, in a real sense, the literary man, the man of words." 

"After Isocrates, intellectual culture became scribal; it depended on books, written words, collections of which overtime with foreman authoritative list of best works." 

"Isocrates taught all who came after that anyone, before he can be called civilized, has to read his culture's books."

"Originality was not price so much as reverence."

"Whatever wisdom is, we're not born with it."

"Isocrates did not, leaving a "sound judgment "to be the proper and realistic aim; the best one could hope to do is to point up the finest examples in the annals of virtuous thoughts and deeds."

"With the Gramatiko students learn to understand and explain what they read, not to "respond" to it. Their opinions were worthless."

'A training in rhetoric, the art of persuasion an eleoquence, might last until a young man's 20s, and its pursuit made up what we now call "higher education." It was finishing school for the articulate. To Speak well was the indispensable ability – and unmistakable sign – of the educated man, whose upper education had instilled recte loquendi scientia, the knowledge of correct speaking."

"They had learned to think and speak and write with precision and flair. They tried not to say something new; they tried to say something worthy, and to say it perfectly"

"The standard was set not by the man in the street, but by the man in the forum."

"For the ancients were marked, as Marrou wrote, by an "utter lack of interest in child psychology. "There's were not "child – centered" societies."

"Greek and Latin weren't needed to get out of the university, they were necessary to get in."

"Never have so many people earned so many academic degrees and known so little. Yet never have so many thought they know so much."

Reading this book brought me back to the difference between the education I had when growing up vs. the education the author talks about from antiquity. The ancients were concerned with reading the best books, reading them with reverence, and then trying to master the art of writing, as the ancients had done themselves. This was the civilizing side to education. Education was not a training for a job, it was cultivation for life.

I remember some of the first courses in philosophy I took at the university where we were to critique some of Plato's writings. But the idea to me was ludicrous on its face. How was I, a university freshman, supposed to critique Plato? I had barely read any of his works, let alone the work of any other ancient Grecian. The idea is still silly to me, and yet this is what passes for education, a series of 'responses' to ideas and writings we have no understanding of, with no context which to judge them.

And then that's when I realized that most of my education was just the reading and rebutting other 'experts' talking about their interpretation of the source material. That's it. Experts talking about their expertness. What hubris! What silly people to think they could expound on Plato, Aristotle, Tacitus, Dionysos, Longinus, Quintilian, Cicero and many, many more. What balderdash!

And yet this is what it means to be educated today.

For me, education must start with a serious reverence for these great minds. Then, if possible, to train your own mind to think like theirs and to write like they wrote. If one can do this, they will have cultivated the one thing that separates us from the beasts in the wild and the wild barbarians; they will have cultivated their own intellect and their own expression of their intellect through the written word.

Wind in the Willows

I love English literature and Wind in the Willows is one of my favorite. I wasn't expecting much when I read this book, but it pleasantly surprised me.

I didn't really care for the character of Toad, and all his immature antics; however, I was duly pleased with the sublime passages detailing the beautiful English countryside and the quiet life these animals had carved out for themselves.

About the book:
The book takes place in the English countryside at the turn of the century. It was published in 1908, just about the time the motorcar was making its scene in the world, before WW2 had started, and the ending of the aristocratic caste in the Western world.

The story follows the life of a water rat, a toad, a mole, and a badger. And they are all very good friends. The story is broken up along their different lives and how their lives intertwine with each other.

The wind in the willows is the music the Water Rat hears all through the country.

"with his ear to the reed-stems he caught, at intervals, something of what the wind went whispering so constantly among them."

'I hear nothing myself,' he said, 'but the wind playing in the reeds and rushes and osiers.'

He is a poetic rat that writes his own lines, and enjoys the river immensely, along with his own house and his provisions. It is hard to describe the enchanting scene that the author writes, but it is wonderful.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes:

"The Badger's winter stores, which indeed were visible everywhere, took up half the room—piles of apples, turnips, and potatoes, baskets full of nuts, and jars of honey" 

"eating oatmeal porridge out of wooden bowls." 

"broad meadows, and cattle browsing in them, raked by sun and wind; of kitchen-gardens, and straight herb-borders, and warm snap-dragon beset by bees; and of the comforting clink of dishes set down on the table at Toad Hall" 

"The smell of that buttered toast simply talked to Toad, and with no uncertain voice; talked of warm kitchens, of breakfasts on bright frosty mornings, of cosy parlour firesides on winter evenings, when one's ramble was over and slippered feet were propped on the fender; of the purring of contented cats, and the twitter of sleepy canaries.' 

"we shall be home-sick once more for quiet water-lilies swaying on the surface of an English stream." 

"Why, sometimes I dream of the shell-fish of Marseilles, and wake up crying!" 

"he took care to include a yard of long French bread, a sausage out of which the garlic sang, some cheese which lay down and cried, and a long-necked straw-covered flask wherein lay bottled sunshine shed and garnered on far Southern slopes"

"Much of the book was about letting go of ambition and enjoying what was already there."
"It is a goodly life that you lead, friend; no doubt the best in the world, if only you are strong enough to lead it!" 

"I had everything I could want—everything I had any right to expect of life, and more"

What I didn't much care for was the aristocratic life of the Toad and his immature love of motorcars. I've seen enough love for motorcars in my life from those in my current culture, and find it all to be a bit silly. The story really shows you the English life, with commoners and aristocrats. Toad being of the latter variety. 

"You common, low, FAT barge-woman!' he shouted; 'don't you dare to talk to your betters like that! Washerwoman indeed! I would have you to know that I am a Toad, a very well-known, respected, distinguished Toad! I may be under a bit of a cloud at present, but I will NOT be laughed at by a bargewoman!"

"Stuff and nonsense!' said Toad, very angrily. 'What do you mean by talking like that to me? Come out of that at once"

The maturity of Toad and his friends that go the extra mile for him is endearing. But I would much rather read the intimate experiences of the Water Rat and his subtle joys of his life along the river.