Student looking for some good novels

Hey there, I'm a first year University student, and I'd like to find some novels to read. Specifically, I'd like to read some novels that are fairly well known and important. I'm not sure if that's pretentious, but I don't dedicate that much time to reading. If I don't read many books, I'd at least like the ones I do read to be well enough known that I could start a conversation about them.

I'd choose the books for myself, but when I look at most lists of good books from the last century, it's hard to tell if the book is suited for my level of education. I'm a good reader by high school standards, but I'm taking math courses in University, so I don't have any sort of extensive English knowledge. So if you make a suggestion, I'd appreciate if it was relatively easy to read. Keep in mind I don't necessarily mean a simple or shallow novel, as I like to think about what I'm reading, but I don't want to read a book that I need to struggle through because I don't understand the language.

I'm sorry if this post is written badly, since I've never actually asked for a book suggestion before. I'd be glad to provide more information if anyone wants.

Most so called classics are considered classics not because they are good books but because they are 'worthy' or the first time an authour had wrote a story quite like that.

One clasic authour that actully does manage to be both worthy and a good read is Orwell so I seccond the reccomendation of >>5

The BBC did a poll a few years ago to find Britain's 100 fave reads and this poll is also a good place to find a few good books. The poll does have its drawbacks, avoid the pullman book like the plauge for example because it is pretentious shit, but most of the books in the top 20 or so are worth a look in if you like the way the plot sounds. http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml

If you want to read something for fun though I'd reccommend giving Terry Pratchett a go if you've not already and Robert Ranken (who just gets funnier and funnier the more of his books you read).