One of our readers asks: Hi NYPL! I am looking to beef up my reading resume with some "classics." Only, time is precious and I don't want to be bored out of my skull. What "classics" do you think a 21st century person can really dig into? 

Italo Calvino published a collection of essays entitled Why We Read the Classics in which he makes 14 points and then talks about them. There are many places that show his list of the 14 reasons why and while they are good and make enough sense, I think his justifications below them really enrich what he is trying to get at, and shows that for him classics are not static but ever changing and blossoming artifacts, ideas that we relate to individually as well as on the whole. There are books held in canons that are of great worth, and yet we might have our ideas of classic literature in our own sense. —Ian Baran, Yorkville Library

Focusing on the "time is precious" directive, I'll limit my "classic" suggestions to short stories.  A collection of short stories is perfect for the time-sensitive reader because if you don't like one story, you can stop and go on to the next one. So, the titles I would recommend are: A Good Man Is Hard To Find by Flannery O'Connor.  O'Connor overlays her stark, savage morality tales with a veneer of incisive wit.  Included in this collection is probably her best story, "Good Country People." Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger.   In which Salinger introduces his beloved Glass family who you will either love or hate - but certainly not forget.  The collection also includes "The Laughing Man", which is one of the most heart-breaking stories I have ever read. Metamorphosis and Other Stories by Franz Kafka.   I know that this was already recommended by Alison, but this past year I read Michael Hofmann's translation of Kafka's most well-known stories and I had forgotten how powerful they are.  Perhaps no other writer has influenced modern literature more than Kafka, and yet his body of work remains inimitable, and the genius of his stories unsurpassed. —Wayne Roylance, Selection Team

I am going to throw in a short story collection as well—Dubliners  by James Joyce. A taste of Joyce, before diving into a five-course meal like Ulysses. —Lynn Lobash, Readers Services

In terms of accessible classics, I'd love to put in a plug for The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras-Cubas by Machado de Assis. It's the pinnacle of 19th-cent. Brazilian literature, but is so witty and surreal and insightful and it moves so quickly, I think it holds up very well in the 21st century. I've read it several times over the years and it never fails to delight and astound me. I would recommend the Rabassa translation. —Annemarie von Roessel, Billy Rose Theatre Division

For the sake of brevity, I'll offer three modern "classics" that are often referenced and are still relevant for a 21st century person: Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf: taking note of how every turn of your day leads you to a greater understanding of yourself. References the stream of consciousness writing of Joyce's classic Ulysses, while inspiring contemporary novels like Cunningham's The Hours. 1984 by George Orwell: In this famously banned book your paranoia will be encouraged as you learn that the government is always watching you. Speedboat by Renata Adler: Challenges the form of a novel while maintaining a strong central voice in the character of Jen Fain, who spends much of the book navigating life in 1970s New York. —Jessica Cline, Mid-Manhattan Library

If you can find an unabridged version, try The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas. It is very long but never boring and attuned to the 21st century and contemporary media.   The plot is famous as a relentless narrative.  But the unabridged version has flash backs, plot swerves and detours for back stories for dozens of minor and major characters.  An epic for short attention spans. —Barbara Cohenstratyner, Curator of Exhibitions at The Library for Performing Arts

One of my favorite classics is The Red and the Black by Stendhal. The plot is well paced, and the book works on many levels. For a science-fiction classic American author, I would recommend Fritz Leiber and his Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories. —Jenny Baum, Jefferson Market

Some "classics" I love are Great Expectations by Dickens and Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk.  There are also some "modern classics" like The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. And, the most classic children's book of them all, Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh. —Ronni Krasnow, Morningside Heights

There are quite a few classics that I've enjoyed reading and re-reading over the years, but I have three personal favorites. I was assigned to read Long Day's Journey Into Night by Eugene O'Neill in high school, and I became such a fan of O'Neill after reading that play that I bought the entire collection of his plays, and I've seen Long Day's Journey Into Night multiple times live and on video.  I love reading Arthur Conan Doyle's original Sherlock Holmes stories and novels.  I re-read them every couple of years, when enough time has passed that I no longer remember "who done it" so I can be surprised all over again.  And I also love re-reading the original Grimm's Fairy Tales, because they're dark and gruesome and also because there has been so much literature that continues to be inspired by those original stories! —Andrea Lipinski, Kingsbridge Library

Of the ones that left the most lasting impact on me from high school, In the Time of the Butterflies  by Julia Alvarez was powerful enough that I still enjoy reading about the danger Dominicans lived through during Rafael Trujillo's regime of the mid-20th Century. I also vividly remember Night  by Elie Wiesel, which powerfully depicted the atrocities faced as a young boy in the concentration camps during the Holocaust. —Sherise Pagan, Grand Concourse Library

I can't remember anything that I read in high school, I can suggest three that I've been thinking about re-reading. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, Passing by Nella Larsen, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. —Alison Williams, Macomb’s Bridge

My desert island classics are The Complete Novels of Jane Austen and The Lord of the Rings, but here are a few other ideas: A book that has stayed with me is A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. Ignatius P. Reilly is an unforgettable character that amuses, appalls, and instructs the reader as he tries to navigate the working world in his native New Orleans while crusading against pop culture and expounding on medieval philosophy. Ignatius is hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time, a character whose isolation a 21st century reader would be able to understand, and the mid 20th-century New Orleans setting jumps off the page, especially the speech. Inspired by Rebecca Mead's My Life in Middlemarch, I reread George Eliot's novel at the beginning of the year and was bowled over by the layers of human experience conveyed in the book. I couldn't wait to leave my 21st century New York existence to return to life in that 19th century English town every evening. A nearly 900-page book entitled Middlemarch: A Study in Provincial Life might sound ponderous, but it's not. As the characters try to figure out how to best live their lives, they face material and spiritual struggles that resonate today, and Eliot's observations are often dryly humorous as well as insightful. On the briefer and lighter side, I'd recommend any of the Jeeves books by P.G. Wodehouse. The characters are delightfully ridiculous and the intricate, farcical plots will make you laugh out loud. The main reason to read Wodehouse, however, is his glorious, inventive use of English. (There are over 1750 Wodehouse quotes in the OED.) Reading him is like taking a linguistic bubble bath. The gold standard is The Code of the Woosters and the first Jeeves novel is Thank You, Jeeves, but Jeeves and his hapless employer Bertie Wooster appeared in many short stories before this, such as those in The Inimitable Jeeves. And I agree with Andrea about the re-readability of Sherlock Holmes! —Elizabeth Waters, Mid-Manhattan Library

I would be sad if I hadn't been assigned to read The House on Mango Street. —Melissa Scheurer, Mid-Manhattan Library

I was living and teaching English in a small village in the south of France, when I first read James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room. I was mesmerized by Baldwin's use of language to create characters that felt like they were sitting in the same cafe in France with me. If you aren't sure that Giovanni's Room is a Modern American Classic, maybe David Foster Wallace can convince you because he included this book on his English 170R syllabus. It was not Wallace that set me on the path to read Baldwin's book, but the formidable F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night with the pulse and swirl of the French Riviera and his creation of Nicole and Dick Diver. Now living in New York City, I have discovered another Modern American Classic that draws from science fiction, rather than realism, to elevate the senses. Octavia Butler's Fledgling raises the vampire narrative up to encompass a vulnerability and humanity through her characters and plot. As I read through Butler's works I am convinced that she should be included on that imaginary list of must-read Modern American Authors.  —Karen Ginman, Chatham Square Library

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane always stuck with me after I read it in high school. Sure it's set in the Civil War but it's a battlefield story that speaks to anyone who contemplates courage and struggle. I second the inclusion of Octavia Butler, especially her allegorical book Wild Seed.  Reading Doro and Anayanwu's constant conflict was an eye-opening science fiction revelation. Isaac Asimov should always be included on a list like this, especially the Foundation series. Terrific blend of futurism and math and grand vision by an even grander master of the craft. —Joshua Soule, Spuyten Duyvil

As a literature major in college, I had to read many of the traditional classics.  My two favorites are: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy.  Both of them are captivating, heartbreaking stories which focus on the false values of society. —Jean Harripersaud, Bronx Library Center

Here are three meaty modern classics from other countries that are both worth the time and enjoyable in their own right. The densest & knottiest of the three, One Hundred Years of Solitude (which has one of the best first lines ever, by the way) is famous as Gabriel Garcia Marquez's magical-realistic chronicle of a town and a family, their ups and downs, relationships, losses, wars, and miracles. The House of the Spirits: Chilean literature by Isabel Allende, is a less-sweeping but also multi-generational piece, that embroils us in politics, class, love, mysticism, civil war, and justice, all pinned together by the story of one family's ties both in this world and the other. A quote by author Fay Weldon on the inside of my paperback read "now that's written the rest of us can all go home." Lastly, The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera is a playful, erotic, poetic, philosophical novel of two love affairs and many big questions, long on musings and set in Czechoslovakia and Switzerland. —Jill Rothstein, Andrew Heiskell Library

I still recall how I could not put Lord of the Flies down in high school. I did not want to read it at the time, thinking it a "boy's book" and picked it up reluctantly. I was captivated by the intricacies of human relationships and our ability to be so cruel. Peace, power, politics - the many themes have stayed with me my entire life. I think of this book often and recently my husband and son read it together. They were similarly "wowed". —Maura Muller, Volunteers Office

I'll throw in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley—this dystopian novel is sometimes overlooked in favor of 1984, but Huxley's view of a dark future is fascinating and startlingly similar to some elements of our own society today.  An unforgettable read that will leave the reader with much to chew over. —Stephanie Whelan, Seward Park Library