Fonty Posted March 14, 2014 Share Posted March 14, 2014 There are several strange titles on the list. Why Bridget Jones's Diary, I wonder? I've never read it myself, although I enjoyed the film. Should it be included in a list that contains Joyce, Plath and Shakespeare, for example? And there was a lack of what I would call good, popular literature. I am thinking of the likes of Bernard Cornwall, Ruth Rendall, Minette Walters, Reginald Hill, Val McDermid, Ian Rankin.... You can see that my taste runs to detective stories. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loveclassics Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 Despite always having my nose in a book I only scored 43! Though having seen so many of the filmed versions I never read the original books because I knew I wouldn't enjoy them. Very surprised there was no Raymond Chandler on the list - I still re-read all of his along with Scott Fitzgerald's works. And no Henry James or Edith Wharton either - most surprising. Glad that others are also enjoying Sharon Penman's novels, so much historical fiction is dismissed as being trivial but her characters illuminate events so vividly and confirm, as Shakespeare said, 'the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but ourselves'. In other words: character forms destiny. I never really understood civil wars before but her depiction of King Stephen as a basically decent chap whose flaw was wanting to please everyone, makes what happened next perfectly logical. Currently enjoying 'Longbourne' too along with Spillover by David Quammen, about zoonotic diseases (those that cross the species barrier such as Bird Flu, Ebola & West Nile fever). I've also just discovered Ford Maddox Ford's The Good Solder, same era as James but a bit easier going. But for light relief I like Jill Paton Walsh's Peter Whimsey novels, carrying on from the great Dorothy L Sayers and my guilty pleasures are P G Wodehouse and Dodie Smith. Thanks for the Healthy Planet books for free info. Now I can happily recycle all my old books and replace them with uniform editions from the Book People. Pity we can't organise a similar scheme for all forum readers as we seem to have remarkably similar tastes in literature! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTL Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 No Chaucer, no Trollope (Anthony, of course), no Ovid, Dante, Proust, Gogol, Homer, Goethe, Chekhov, Sartre - even in translation? Not remotely definitive, more like an intern's list of "Books I have heard of", except that there's nothing whatsoever from the published oeuvre of "One Direction". Actually, I find it quite interesting that Goodreads members have only averaged 23. Read whatever you can get hold of and you'll soon work out for yourself what's worthwhile and what's best ignored, and everyone's list will be different. Mine is almost entirely non-fiction nowadays. And yes, I only scored 44. Back to my Wittgenstein now. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melody Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 53. Pretty sad if people have only read six; there are a lot of classics in the list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fonty Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 Yes, there are a lot of classics, which is the reason I scored quite highly. Even Mr Font, who hardly ever reads fiction, managed a respectable 35, purely because of that. I agree about Trollope, I would have expected him to be included, except that he seems to have gone out of fashion for some reason. One omission from the modern books is Mantel's Wolfe Hall. I find that quite surprising, and I would have thought people would have been far more likely to have read that than some of the others on the list. Several people have mentioned Edith Wharton. I borrowed my first book from the library by her a couple of weeks ago, as I thought it was time to add her to my reading list! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 I am reading Darling Monster, the letters of Lady Diana Cooper to her son John Julius Norwich. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cornishprincess Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 reading The Book Thief at the moment 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porthesia Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 Only 28. Not the Thomas Hardy that I have read; Return of the Native, The Woodlanders and the Mayor of Casterbridge. My memory goes and I can't remember if I've read Great Expectations or just seen it on TV, same with Jude the Obscure, Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy so I've not added these. Obviously I read too much Science Fiction/Fantasy - and I did notice a distinct lack of Asimov. No I've not read Ulysses but I had to study Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man and that put me off James Joyce completely, although having to study Return of the Native did give me a love for Hardy! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huddsballetmum Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 reading The Book Thief at the moment I love that book cornishprincess. I have just given it to my dd to read. It is one of my favourite books. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 The film is lovely too. Because my partner is a member of BAFTA he gets sent these films up for BAFTA awards every year and I am the one who is usually still awake at the end of watching one!! I never usually like the films that much which get all the awards and this year was no exception. The Book Thief was one which stood out for me and Inside Llewyn Davis. Anyway this is a book thread and I'm on a light relief book at mo called "the Rosie Project" it's by Graeme Simsion. And if you've never heard of him it's because it's a debut novel and a very funny one at that. If you need a bit of a cheer up its definitely worth considering Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thecatsmother Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 Anyone recommend a bit of light escapism read. Something with a reasonable storyline but more humour than horror or heartbreak? I liked the concept of 'the woman who went to bed for a year' but the ending was weak IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anjuli_Bai Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 Anyone recommend a bit of light escapism read. Something with a reasonable storyline but more humour than horror or heartbreak? I liked the concept of 'the woman who went to bed for a year' but the ending was weak IMO. Have you tried reading books by Farley Mowat? Though not a novel - he has a wonderful sense of humor. Loved "Never Cry Wolf." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thecatsmother Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 I shall look into it Anjuli. Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted March 19, 2014 Author Share Posted March 19, 2014 I love Lindsay Davies books about the Ancient Roman private detective Didius Marcus Falco - very well researched and full of humour. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 Yes, so do I, Jan. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porthesia Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 I shall be looking for Lindsay Davies on my next trip to the library. I'm struggling to get into anything at the moment. All the books I keep to re-read are just not enticing me at the moment, they crook their fingers and say come along, follow the road with me, but I'm just not feeling the pull. I have some books which I have never read and still can't get into them - picked up a Winter's Tale as they've just produced the film and I still can't get into it, I bought this decades ago and periodically give it a try. I have the same trouble with a Nicholai Tolstoy book and also a William Morris - perhaps I'm never destined to finish these books. Has anybody else got some books which they just can't get into? Perhaps we could swap? Do we call these UFR's (unfinished reads)? Unfinished cross stitch is referred to as a "UFO" which is an acronym I love, but perhaps someone could come up with a better acronym for those books we just can't finish. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted March 20, 2014 Author Share Posted March 20, 2014 I have tried to read Onegin loads of times (and in 2 different translations) but gave up after about 20 pages. I only managed 9 pages of Far from the Madding Crowd!! Just as well I love the ballet. I had terrible trouble with Hunchback of Notre Dame - I just couldn't get to grips with the incredibly wordy architectural descriptions. Then my friend lent me a wonderful abridged version that took out most of the wordy architectural descriptions and I raced through it. I wept buckets at the end which I found incredibly moving. I never would have got there with the unabridged version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 Love the UFR shortening!! Mine is Lord of the Rings Ive tried to get into this several times over the years thinking this time will be it but just can't for some reason!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fonty Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 Has anybody else got some books which they just can't get into? Perhaps we could swap? Do we call these UFR's (unfinished reads)? Unfinished cross stitch is referred to as a "UFO" which is an acronym I love, but perhaps someone could come up with a better acronym for those books we just can't finish. For me, it is Henry James. I am an English graduate, so I am supposed to love him. But I don't. I can't. Although I do find The Bostonians a wonderful cure for insomnia. And with a few notable exceptions such as Wolf Hall, anything that has won the Booker prize. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 I'm not proud of the fact but I have given up on War and Peace and Anna Karenina not once, not twice, but several times. I just cannot get into them and I do not know why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fonty Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 (edited) I am exactly the same, Fiz, never managed to get into War and Peace. It is all those names, and the fact that each character is either called by their first name, surname, or nickname. And as the book seems to have a cast of thousands, that is one heck of a lot of names to remember. The last time I tried, I was lying on a beach in the sun, and the tales of people toiling through a Russian winter seemed most inappropriate. So I tossed it aside and took out an old copy of Agatha Christie instead. Much more entertaining....! Edited March 20, 2014 by Fonty 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 Well I did manage War and Peace a VERY long time ago now!! I'd think twice about reading again now though would no doubt understand better! But Agatha Christie now.....a great holiday choice or familiar light relief read!! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 I am relieved that I am not alone! I don't mind Henry James but I do find him over rated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porthesia Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 LinMM, you could try reading The Hobbit first, although I did read LOTR first and then The Hobbit. I do tend to skip some of the poetry - sacrilege some might think I've read the books so many times. Every 4 or 5 years I pull them out again. I had to study Henry James for 'A' level - Portrait of a Lady. Never read it, I thought it was dire which possibly explains the fact that I got an 'O' level pass at A level. Our other books were Brave New World and Two Cheers for Democracy. I found that the teacher could have a bearing on how I felt about a book. The old biddy teaching us Forster would spend the first 15 minutes of the lesson berating us for how much time we'd wasted in the last lesson, but she was so easy to get off topic and it was quite a boring book. The lady teaching Henry James was also incredibly boring. The Greek Professor teaching us Chaucer (Wife of Bath) used to snigger at all the smutty parts and his English was not the best. The final teacher (yes, we had FOUR different teachers), had ah English degree but purportedly didn't have any teaching qualifications was absolutely brilliant, he took us for poetry and Huxley. I honestly think if we had been able to have him for all the English that I would have got the A level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anjuli_Bai Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 Right now I am reading: "The Society for Useful Knowledge: How Benjamin Franklin and Friends Brought the Enlightenment to America" by Jonathan Lyons - and enjoying it very much. I adored every word of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. I thought the prose almost biblical in its cadence. Place names like "River Running" and "Crack of Doom" - make for immediate mental pictures and brings the prose to the edge of poetry. Has anyone read The Far Pavillions by M.M. Kaye? Or Theodore Dreiser or Somerset Maugham or Jack London? Wonderful wordsmiths all and tellers of stories. M.M. Kaye describing the "green sky of India" or London's description of the far north or the death of Wolf Larsen. A well written, well balanced sentence will stop me for hours of admiration. Such as a sentence from The Sea Wolf by Jack London: "Somewhere within that tomb of the flesh still dwelt the soul of the man." What a marvelous sentence. And isn't that word picture true of all of us? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted March 20, 2014 Author Share Posted March 20, 2014 I've read Far Pavilions, all 900 pages - 600 of which I sobbed my way through! A wonderful book... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anjuli_Bai Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 I've read Far Pavilions, all 900 pages - 600 of which I sobbed my way through! A wonderful book... When I finished it I felt it was 900 pages too short - so I started again...... M.M. Kaye also wrote a couple of auto-biographies. She had quite a wonderfully interesting life. As I recall she had a family member involved in that horrific battle in Kabul. She was born in Simla. When she wrote of India - she was writing of a land, a people and a history in which her family was deeply involved. Ashton Pelham-Martyn and Anjuli Bai....... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 I read it many years ago and cried throughout it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loulabelle Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 The Far Pavillions is my absolute favourite book. Someone (sorry can't remember who) mentioned currently enjoying Longbourne, I'm reading and enjoying that at the moment too. I'm a little Jane Austen obsessed so anything about her characters appeals to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 I am reading Gilliam Flynn's novel Gone Girl. I read her first one yesterday, Sharp Objects. The characters were all pretty unpleasant and there are complaints on Amazon about this but it dragged me in, despite starting slowly. This one seems to be more of the same but it had rave reviews when it was published in 2012. I am persevering and it is interesting. All is not what it seems... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melody Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 Just picked up a discounted copy of Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan at the bookstore in the mall last evening when I was there to watch the RB Sleeping Beauty at the cinema. The setting at the Paris Opera ballet sounded very appealing, although I've got such a huge backlog of unread books that I'm not sure when I'll get round to it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 I want to read that but it is quite a price on Amazon or was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted March 22, 2014 Share Posted March 22, 2014 I didn't like Gone Girl at all. Both the main characters are horrible and deserve each other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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