OHH it's such a great question but i really had to stop and be like ok.. what books do i actually like... to be honest i'm not reading much serious literature nowadays, or any books. here and there something would pop up but i feel like i don't even register it, it's all in the same flow with the fics and everything else. anyway, to answer your questions (i've taken some time to think), i've barely read any english/american classics, have not touched any jane austen or anything like that. i probably should have if i wanted my 1920s english to sound more plausible in chicago 1920s lol but i didn't care. in school, we mostly read russian lit instead of foreign lit (post-soviet realities). i didn't find many favorites there, either, but i discovered bulgakov's the master and margarita, which is meant for high school, but i read it like at 12 and was amazed by it. still love it. i think it's the first time i realized classics could be fun and creepy and horny and interesting to the same extent as the modern tween romance or detective books i was reading at the time. i really loved the vibe and also the style of that book, the drama and irreverence and naked witches and talking cats and everything else. still love it. i also like nabokov for his style as well, i think they're similar in a way. beside lolita, i really liked the invitation to a beheading when we were studying it at uni, but then i tried to reread it this year and i was like tf is this ?? dskjdds so ig there's a right moment for everything. og also edgar allan poe? also discovered him around 12 and also got fascinated by the aesthetics and the macabre romanticism of it all (my favorites are "The Masque of the Red Death" and "The Pit and the Pendulum"). recently i've read the flowers in the attic and enjoyed it a lot. i think you can see a common trend in all these, i love me some taboo topics against an aesthetic backdrop. i was never one for any grungier/grimier modern classics like idk bukowski or something - hated it. hated the catcher in the rye too, although i've not read it in 10 years. i'll probably send this and then remember something important in 20 mins dskhjdss but alas