Books - Short modern classics

This list contains 10 entries

About the list: I know that many people find it difficult to acquire the habit of reading. Here are ten modern novels which offer quality, entertainment and, most importantly, brevity! My tastes are slightly old-fashioned, but these are books that I have thoroughly enjoyed.

About the author: Michael Cook is the editor of MercatorNet. His reading tastes were formed by total immersion in DC Comics, Mad Magazine, and the short stories of Saki. His favourite CD is Carmina Burana and the world's greatest movie is Seven Samurai.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

1979 | Douglas Adams

Not one of the greatest-ever novels, but its quirky humour stays with you. It tells the hilarious story of Arthur Dent's travels after being plucked from Planet Earth moments before it is destroyed to build an inter-galactic freeway.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

1962 | Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

You will get a glimmpse of the soul-destroying nature of Communism after reading this piercing novel. This was Solzhenitsyn's first and it created a sensation when it was first published in the Soviet Union. It relates what happens to a prisoner in one of Stalin's gulags on a typical day. A sombre book which recognises that man is more than what he eats.

The Lord of the Flies

1954 | William Golding

I don't mind pessimism, at least in small quantities. This famous novel is dark, dark, dark, but beautifully written and very thought-provoking. A group of British schoolboys are shipwrecked on a desert island. Instead of cooperating and acting like civilised Boy Scouts, they turn into murderous savages.

The Old Man and the Sea

1952 | Ernest Hemingway

This is a moving story of physical and moral struggle told in Hemingway's spare but beautiful prose. A aged and unlucky Cuban fisherman hooks a huge marlin in his tiny boat, but sharks attack it as he returns home.

Cry, the Beloved Country

1948 | Alan Paton

This is South Africa's greatest novel, a harsh story of mercy, forgiveness and social justice. An Anglican priest from a country parish goes to Johannesburg to look for his wastrel son and discovers a disaster.

Animal Farm

1946 | George Orwell

This is a brilliant analysis of why the high ideals of the Russian Revolution collapsed into a welter of corruption, oppression and inefficiency. But it is told in the form of a parable: animals revolt and take over a farm.

Scoop

1938 | Evelyn Waugh

A scathing and side-splitting commentary on the media, as relevant today as it was in the 1930s. William Boot, nature correspondent for an obscure corner of England, is dispatched to the fictional African country of Ishmaelia as a war correspondent. Waugh is one of the century's great stylists.

The Code of the Woosters

1938 | P.G. Wodehouse

Since P.G. Wodehouse wrote nearly 100 novels, all of them enjoyable it is hard to select one. The Code of the Woosters features his great characters, the nitwit Bertie Wooster and his highly intelligent valet Jeeves. The plot is intricate, the characters hare-brained British aristocrats, the language supremely entertaining.

Death Comes for the Archbishop

1927 | Willa Cather

Willa Cather stands amongst America's greatest writers, but has never received the recognition she deserves. This is a simple story of a French priest who ministers to a fascinating group of people in the days when the Wild West was opening up. She has a rare ability to portray genuine virtue.

The Bridge of San Luis Rey

1927 | Thornton Wilder

This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is a thoughtful reflection upon the meaning of human life. A group of travellers plunges to their death as they walk across a rope bridge in 18th century Peru. A passing monk asks why God chose them to die at that time.

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