Top Ten Tuesday – 10 favourite classics
1 July 2014 
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish. This week, 10 favourite classics is the topic and mine are as follows (with a favourite quote from each book)’:
- The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien – ‘One Does Not Simply Walk into Mordor’ – actually, as it happens, one does – take that Boromir! It is not folly I tell you!
- The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien- “Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?” – I hate mornings! I have an alarm set to 10.30 am on my phone (this is historical and I can’t be bothered resetting it) and when it goes off everyone in works knows that I’m now awake and semi-human. They think it’s amusing! It’s not though – I hate early mornings.
- A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens – “You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. There’s more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!”
- Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier – ‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again’.
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte – “I would always rather be happy than dignified.” – mmm, I seem to live by that – no dignity in rolling on the floor splitting your sides with laughter, apparently!
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen – “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” – and now all we need is a man in possession of such a fortune to come forward (boldly, where no man has gone before, I might add) and admit to that fact!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare – “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” (there’s a certain sort of undeniable truth to that statement).
- Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle – “There is nothing more stimulating than a case where everything goes against you.” – indeed
- The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by – “Daughter of Eve from the far land of Spare Oom where eternal summer reigns around the bright city of War Drobe, how would it be if you came and had tea with me?”- simply wonderful, bring on the cake and crumpets.
- Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell – “I wish I could care what you do or where you go but I can’t… My dear, I don’t give a damn.” oh, ouch!
Them’s my choices this week!
Books and travelling with Lynn 
Oohh, I’ve read more than a few of these and back your suggestions.
The Shakespeare one is tough. I gravitate towards plays like The Tempest and Hamlet but A Midsummer Night’s Dream is fun (the Gaiman play on it in the Sandman was really good as well).
I love Hamlet! But, I haven’t read it yet. I will do eventually. I found Midsummer Night’s Dream very easy to read and like you said good fun – it’s a fantasy book after all. Yes, the Sandman volume which incorporated it was excellent.
Lynn 😀
I’ve read all of them and most would make my list of favorites as well. How difficult to choose only ten! Anything by Tolkien–always. Austin, too. Shakespeare: Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing. Rebecca made a huge impression on my adolescent self, and the first line will always echo as will the image of rhododendrons!
Hamlet definitely seems to be a favourite – it’s a great story and I’ve seen adaptations but I really want to read it! Rebecca is definitely one of my adolescent reads – and I read it three times! I wonder what I’d made of it now. I sometimes think I should give it a reread and see if it stands up! I think it will do though.
Lynn 😀
Great list. I almost put Rebecca on mine. I loved Narnia as a kid. Gone with the Wind is on my TBR list. Great list. I approve! Here’s mine.
Rebecca is just so good! Plus Gone with the Wind – you know, the thing about that quote, I always thought he said ‘frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn?’ – perhaps it was just the film version though?
Lynn 😀
Gone with the Wind is such a fantastic choice – I loved seeing it on your list! 🙂
I absolutely loved it! I think it was one of the first books that I ever read where I walked around the house reading ALL the time. I couldn’t put it down and yes, OMG Rhett Butler was ‘it’!
Lynn 😀
Pride and Prejudice was disturbingly enjoyable. Not to mention, one of the best opening lines I’ve ever read.
That is a corker of an open line. It’s a good book – it’s basically a chick lit for regency women isn’t it! A house full of gossipy, flirting women, going to balls and assemblies and giggling over officers and which bonnets to wear! Not really substantial at all but very enjoyable!
Lynn 😀
Some classic classics here 🙂 It’s nice to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream getting some love ♥
I have to say i don’t understand the love for Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice, et al. I have less than zero desire to read them… “Classic” chit lit. Nothankyou.
That’s exactly what I always say about Austen – she’s the chick lit author of the era! Quite good fun though. Jane Eyre was different – more gothic and a bit darker. They’re just not for everyone though and I do wonder whether I would love them if I read them now – your reading tastes change after all but I find you maintain a soft spot for books that you read at a certain age.
Midsummer Nights Dream is great fun. I really should read more Shakespeare but I suppose that one was a natural choice for me being an early fantasy!
Lynn 😀
Some great choices here and you’ve used my favourite quote from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe 🙂
I love that quote. Love it! I could choose quite a few more books – it’s difficult to narrow down to 10 isn’t it!
Lynn 😀
Pride & Prejudice is such a favorite of mine, I try not to use it too often for TTT. I quite admire Sherlock for his brain, though he’s a bit of jerk, isn’t he?
He’s pompous and overbearing – but the Sherlock/Watson duo is good fun – particularly in The Hound.
Lynn 😀
Gone with the Wind & A Christmas Carol are on my list too! (I don’t know why that so excites me — but it does.) 🙂
Haha, I know what you mean – when you read a list and your books are similar to someone else’s it makes you really happy!
Lynn 😀
Haha, definitely enjoy the inclusion of quotes–classic quotes for classic books, I’d say!
Cheers,
joey via. thoughts and afterthoughts
Thanks. It’s funny how many quotes you remember from the classics!
Lynn 😀
I love that you have included a quote from each book, I love the one from the Hobbit, I haven’t read that yet, but I watched the film the other day and that quote really made me laugh. Great list, theres a few on it that are on mine too!
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) I’m a bit of a raging geek when it comes to LoTR and the Hobbit so I’m constantly quoting them! They just make me laugh and I never miss an opportunity to get in a quote – particularly at work – it would be folly not to!
Lynn 😀