Somehow I missed reading "The Last of the Mohicans" earlier in life.

[Lex]

Should I check it out of the library? Is it pretty good?

A few others I've been pleased with that I made a point to read recently (that I didn't read while in school) were:

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
O Pioneers by Willa Cather
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Don't miss those, if you missed them up to now. Wonderful!

[Richardo]

1. I haven't read it either, however,...

... I did read Mark Twain's essay 'Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses'. Hilarious deconstruction of Cooper's fiction and story-telling ability, or lack thereof. Suffice it to say that Twain did not think much of him. :rofl:

http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/learnmore/writings_fenimore.html

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. Yes! and The Wind in the Willows and...

The Prince and the Pauper
and White Fang
and Red Badge of Courage

I collected many of these 2 for $1 at Walmart 15 years ago when my boys were too young to read them. We've cracked open several of them in the past year.. all marvelous stories. :)

[Staph]

3. If you haven't already,

you must read Jane Austen. Start with Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility, and then go on through the other four, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, and Emma.

[lovelylifenow]

4. Funny you should mention that..

of course no one can read everything. I have an English degree, but found myself a stay-at-home mom in the nineties with some free time in the summers (spending a couple of hours at the pool in the summer - kids were really old enough to swim on their own, but I needed to be there to supervise). Those were the years when I filled in the gaps.. The Good Earth, Sense and Sensibility, and ~~ really, my favorite of all time, Jane Eyre. I also finally finished Marcel Proust A la recherche de temps perdu. Can't think of the English title - it's late.

Yes, you should read The Last of the Mohicans and you should rent the movie, which takes liberties with the novel but was great nonetheless (Daniel Day-Lewis).

Don't forget Look Homeward, Angel. Also, A Death in the Family by James Agee is a wonderful novel.

[Speck Tater]

5. I agree with Mark Twain.

To quote one modern review that also quotes Twain,

"Come, friends," a scout says typically in James Fenimore Cooper's novel "The Last of the Mohicans." "Let us move our station, and in such a fashion, too, as will throw the cunning of a Mingo on a wrong scent, or our scalps will be drying in the wind in front of Montcalm's marquee, ag'in this hour tomorrow."

Modern readers who find "The Last of the Mohicans" heavy sledding will be glad to know they are not alone. "Cooper's word-sense was singularly dull," Mark Twain wrote in his famous essay "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses." And: "If Cooper had any real knowledge of Nature's ways of doing things, he had a most delicate art in concealing the fact." And: "It would be very difficult to find a really clever 'situation' in Cooper's books, and still more difficult to find one of any kind which he has failed to render absurd by his handling of it."

Twain went on to say "Cooper hadn't any more invention than a horse, and I don't mean a high-class horse, either." and "There are nineteen rules governing literary art in domain of romantic fiction -- some say twenty-two. In "Deerslayer," Cooper violated eighteen of them."

Read the complete text of Twain's " Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses" here: http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/projects/rissetto/offense.html

Now if you really want some great writing, read Mark Twain.

ON EDIT: Do not fail to read "Grapes of Wrath" if you haven't already.

[lovelylifenow]

6. The worst that could possibly happen, as with most books

is that you check it out, find you just can't make yourself read it, and turn it back in.

[Jim__]

7. I read it when I was young - loved it.

I haven't read it in years, so I'm not sure how I would react to it now.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

8. When the Mohican's movie came

out a few (several?) years ago, a co-worker mentioned seeing a preview for it at the movie he'd been to the night before. He thought it sounded good, being as it was a 'western' with 'cowboys and Indians.'
'From the Cooper novel' I pointed out.
'Oh.' he asked, 'there's a book about it?'