I remember a LOT of books, and hopefully will into my 80’s. Dickens, Austen, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, all memorable classics. But for books that really feel like they stick *to* you beyond just sticking *with* you …
Frankenstein, Shelley
Good Omens, Gaiman & Pratchett (be warned about recent revelations regarding Gaiman)
Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit, Tolkien
Bonus:
Remembrance of Things Past, Proust
It’s not in the main list because I don’t know that 20-year-olds can fully appreciate the nostalgia and the “memory lane” theme. I’m 39 now reading it, and I think it will deserve a reread further down the road. That might be the opposite answer to your question: A book to read in your 80s while remembering your 20s. Or maybe best read at both ends of the timeline.
Arms_Akimbo on
I read “An American Tragedy” in my 20s and I’m in my 60s now and I think about that book probably more than any other.
I read all the available Kurt Vonnegut books in my late teens and early 20s and they never really left me. I’m rereading them now and nothing could have prepared me for how different they are to me now.
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I remember a LOT of books, and hopefully will into my 80’s. Dickens, Austen, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, all memorable classics. But for books that really feel like they stick *to* you beyond just sticking *with* you …
Frankenstein, Shelley
Good Omens, Gaiman & Pratchett (be warned about recent revelations regarding Gaiman)
Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit, Tolkien
Bonus:
Remembrance of Things Past, Proust
It’s not in the main list because I don’t know that 20-year-olds can fully appreciate the nostalgia and the “memory lane” theme. I’m 39 now reading it, and I think it will deserve a reread further down the road. That might be the opposite answer to your question: A book to read in your 80s while remembering your 20s. Or maybe best read at both ends of the timeline.
I read “An American Tragedy” in my 20s and I’m in my 60s now and I think about that book probably more than any other.
I read all the available Kurt Vonnegut books in my late teens and early 20s and they never really left me. I’m rereading them now and nothing could have prepared me for how different they are to me now.
DEMON COPPERHEAD BY BARBARA KINGSOLVER –
The Outsiders