1984 is on the list. I read three-quarters of it when I was fifteen or sixteen but then gave up.
Did Animal Farm at school.
I may read Keep the Aspidistra Flying and The Clergyman's Daughter some time.
I'm sure I've read some of Arthur Conan-Doyle but I don't really want to read any more.
Not sure I'd go for the above novels next; go for the semi-factual ones : Wigan Pier, Homage to Catalonia, Down & Out in London & Paris for starters along with various essay collections. And do give 1984 another go - I read it some 30 years ago. after a few pages I thought a bit weak, but after a few pages more was hooked and finished it, emotionally drained but wide awake at about 3am!
The greatest novel of the 20th century by its greatest writer ? (discuss....)
Other Modern classics: Catch 22, or for a very different theme, Mervin Peake's Titus Groan.
Apparently Heller was asked by a journalist if he minded critics saying he'd never written anything else as good as Catch 22 - he replied that he didn't mind, "after all, who has?" As Mohammed Ali use to say, "it ain't braggin', if you can back it up"
