# Modern Classics



## Iwritelotsofbooks (Nov 17, 2010)

What current and recent books do you think people will still be reading fifty or a hundred years from now--if any.


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## nicholaslasalla (Mar 5, 2011)

I think Clive Barker's _Imajica_ will be one of the admired classics fifty years from now. It's a big, epic fantasy not that far removed from the imagery of Blake's poetry, encapsulating Barker's beliefs about everything from love, life, birth, death and all that craziness in between that haunts our dreams when we pretend that everything is all right late at night.

Stephen King's work has had surprising longevity and I think that will continue. I wouldn't be surprised to see some of his "tamer" work being studied in schools. I haven't read _Just After Sunset_ or _Under the Dome_ but I have heard he has returned to his balls-to-the-wall roots and is shocking the bajeezus out of everyone again.


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## sighdone (Feb 4, 2011)

Author, Author by David Lodge.


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## TWErvin2 (Aug 7, 2010)

I believe Mitch Albom's *The Five People You Meet in Heaven * will still be read for decades to come. The 'five lessons' from the people Eddie (the main character) meets contain relevant timeless messages.


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## JimC1946 (Aug 6, 2009)

I love time travel stories. I think Audrey Niffenegger's *The Time Traveler's Wife* will be considered a classic one day.


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## DYB (Aug 8, 2009)

Hmm....  Good question and virtually impossible to predict.  But I think Cormack McCarthy's books are going to be around in 50 years.  I agree about Stephen King; his popularity has not waned.  

Now that I think about it I think 50 years isn't long enough to gauge this.  Some of us will still be around in 50 years to carry on our favorites' names.  I think 100 years would be a better benchmark; once we are all gone - will anyone still care about, say, Anne Rice?  I was going to say Yes, but then thought harder and I'm not convinced.  Her popularity has certainly fallen even within the last 10 years.  But there are always rediscoveries, so maybe in 100 years her early work will explode again.


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## Guest (Mar 5, 2011)

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien.

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris is also a possibility, and I just met him and had him sign my copy last week!


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## Iwritelotsofbooks (Nov 17, 2010)

foreverjuly said:


> The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien.
> 
> Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris is also a possibility, and I just met him and had him sign my copy last week!


Where was he that you met him?

No votes for Jonathan Franzen?


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## Daphne (May 27, 2010)

Not an original or startling prediction, but I think JK Rowling has what it takes - children in a hundred years time will still be enjoying the magic and brilliant imaginative details of the Potter books. But I hope by then someone has made a better film version.


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## nicholaslasalla (Mar 5, 2011)

foreverjuly said:


> The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien.
> 
> Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris is also a possibility, and I just met him and had him sign my copy last week!


I just picked up "The Things They Carried" a week ago, really looking forward to reading it. Good to hear it comes with high recommendations! It is also an interesting case, as it is a book of interconnected short stories as I understand it.


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## DYB (Aug 8, 2009)

Daphne said:


> Not an original or startling prediction, but I think JK Rowling has what it takes - children in a hundred years time will still be enjoying the magic and brilliant imaginative details of the Potter books. But I hope by then someone has made a better film version.


I agree. I think the Harry Potter books will stick around.


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## Edward W. Robertson (May 18, 2010)

I'd say David Mitchell's _Cloud Atlas_ has a shot to last. It's interesting structurally, supremely well-written, imaginative, genre-hopping, and thematically developed. Just a really great book.


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## Jon Olson (Dec 10, 2010)

lacymarankevinmichael said:


> Where was he that you met him?
> 
> No votes for Jonathan Franzen?


Boy I didn't like The Things They Carried. It lacked form and grew pretentious. But I'd vote for Franzen, especially Freedom.


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## joanhallhovey (Nov 7, 2010)

_*Water for Elephants*_ by Sarah Gruen and _*The Story of Edgar Sawtelle*_ by David Wroblewski. Having said that, it depends on if some professor or literature scholar will see fit to push them forward.


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## Ruth Harris (Dec 26, 2010)

My nominees:

The Things They Carried -- a portrait of war from the soldier's POV
The Catcher In The Rye -- captured a period and a character perfectly
The Collector by John Fowles -- truly creepy first-person narrative & a precursor to The Silence Of The Lambs

I'm not sure about Steven King -- doesn't mean I'm negative, just that I'm not sure


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## Guest (Mar 5, 2011)

lacymarankevinmichael said:


> Where was he that you met him?


Williams college. He's a nice guy!

I think you can draw a straight line from Catch-22 to The Things They Carried. They capture the fragmented, ambiguous nature of war.


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

A Shore Thing by Snooki

(runs and hides)


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## Ruth Harris (Dec 26, 2010)

Why not?  There are those of us who enjoy an occasional Trashfest from the past.  Remember Rona Barrett's Miss Rona?  Or THE BIG LOVE? Florence Aadland’s book was about her 15-year-old daughter’s affair with the aging Errol Flynn. Another masterwork of schlock.

Surely, Snooki rates right down there among trash to be recalled in years to come.


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## Guest (Mar 5, 2011)

Geoffrey said:


> A Shore Thing by Snooki
> 
> (runs and hides)


Haha! I bet this is going to be the one thing aliens find when they discover our planet after humans have been wiped out.


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## valeriec80 (Feb 24, 2011)

I definitely see King as filling a kind of Edgar Allan Poe niche in the next hundred years or so. 

Alas, poor Eddie is becoming too verbose for the younger generation of today. Never thought I'd see the day, but I can't get my 11th graders to get into "The Fall of the House of Usher" or "The Pit and the Pendulum." 

Of course, in another hundred years, English may have abandoned vowels altogether in written English, and we may all write in abbreviations and strange symbols, IMHO. LOL.


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## RJ Keller (Mar 9, 2009)

Geoffrey said:


> A Shore Thing by Snooki
> 
> (runs and hides)


*Thunk!!!* 

I second (or third, by now) the Harry Potter series. Also adding The Book Thief. Very powerful, and timeless, book.


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## RobynB (Jan 4, 2011)

What a fun and thought-provoking question! I agree with some of the others about King, Rowling, McCarthy, and Franzen, though as many of you pointed out, it's hard to predict. (But it's sure fun playing!)

I'm wondering about the likes of Alice Munro (in terms of short stories).


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