Contemporary Classics

I've been asked to run a schools session in October entitled "Literary Landscape". Basically I'll be talking to a group of year tens about a group of contemporary classics that I feel have the power to shape the way you think and that are interesting and worthwhile reading.

Not everyone gets into 'classics'. At a recent panel launching Meanjin's Tournament of Books  (a literary smackdown pitting Australian canonical novels by women against each other until a bloody winner is revealed) there was a great deal of debate as to what makes a 'classic'. There are certain texts that are considered seminal, but often these are associated with heavy, old, boring books who smack you in the face with their teachings and are read only by people who want to look 'clever'. Whether this stereotype is true is really irrelevant, especially when the aim is to get a younger audience to read older texts. Readers will only discover the quality of a book once they actually read it, so if there's an idea that stops them from doing that, for many, these texts will remain unread and underrated.

So I'm excited to be doing this panel. It's a chance to talk about books (awesome) and especially a list of modern and/or edgy classics that have particular relevance to me. And it's a great chance to sit at home and revisit these books.

So this is my list (in no particular order)

1984 - George Orwell

The Malese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett

The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

The Ballad of the Sad Cafe - Carson McCullers

The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

The Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

A Room of One's Own - Virginia Woolf

Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut

I'm going to try to post about each as I re-read them, but with A Thousand Words Festival coming up this weekend (!) some may be brief, so be warned :)

In the meantime, I would love to hear some of your favourite underrated novels that you think all young adults should read - or books that you feel should be a 'classic' but aren't.