READING IN A DANGEROUS TIME. Part 1

Books are easy to come by, either on line or by mail from Indigo or direct from the publisher. When I travel, I download to my tablet. Instant gratification. But now that libraries are closed, the tablet comes in handy. 

On Facebook recently someone suggested reading Treasure Island as a good antidote to self-isolation. Good idea. Many classics are available on line, some free and some for very little money.

Maybe now is the time to check out  those books you never got around to, those books that made your teen age years angst-free, those books that everyone else read but not you, those books with familiar names that everyone loved but, for some reason, you did not read. 

Here is a partial list of books that have delighted readers over time. They are called minor classics but I call them great reads.

For those of us who like adventure stories, you (or your older kids) are never too old for:

Treasure Island. Author Robert Louis Stevenson wrote plenty of adventure stuff including Kidnapped, and The Black Arrow

The Sea Wolf by Jack London 

The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope. Purple prose swashbuckler with a lovely princess, a dastardly villain, and a fearless hero. What more can you want? Various sequels carry on the tale. Read it as a teen and again as an adult. 

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas or The Three Musketeers and their sequels, which I read a few years ago, and enjoyed every one.

Dune by Frank Herbert – of course.

The Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. I am not a Dickens fan but I loved this book as well as Great Expectations. 

Books to Dive Into. Here is my list of reader-friendly classics:

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

The Tin Flute by Gabrielle Roy

Roughing it in the Bush by Suzanna Moodie

The Dubliners by James Joyce

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford. Never out of print. Great to read to older kids.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett – another goodie to read to older kids.

Some series: 

Anne of Green Gables, by Lucy Maude Montgomery. A good choice to read to older kids but I knew several adults who still turn to these books. Still dearly loved. The Anne books continue with Anne’s House of Dreams, Anne of Avonlea and so on. These may last until the end of the virus emergency.

The Jalna Series by Mazo de la Roche – a big hit in the 40’s, 50’s this series is almost forgotten. The books revolve around Jalna, an estate in southern Ontario and the family who lives there. The first book is The Building of Jalna.

The Fortunes of War, a six book series by Olivia Manning are considered by critics as the most underrated novels of the twentieth century. Here is a woman’s view of war from her own experience living in Rumania and eventually escaping to Palestine. The first set is the Balkan Trilogy and the second is the Levant Trilogy.