Love Story
The Classic to Come Back To (Alternates Include Wuthering Heights, Gone with the Wind, Brideshead Revisited, Romeo and Juliet and Jane Austen: The Complete Novels)
We're not sure what's more embarrassing: the number of times we've read Love Story or the fact that we weep like a heartbroken teenager every time we finish it. Most famous for spawning the 1970 film starring Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw (as well as for the eye-roll-worthy line "Love means never having to say you're sorry"), Erich Segal's slender novel begins when preppy Harvard jock Oliver and working-class Radcliffe brain Jenny meet in a library, then blossoms from sweet courtship into epic romance complete with—spoiler alert—tragic ending. If you ever needed proof that young love never gets old, this is it.
— Ruth Baron
