I'm reading Hitch-22. The great thing (one of many) that you get from reading Christopher Hitchens is a whole new reading list. Next stop, WH Auden.
If you are of a liberal/anti-authoritarian/atheistic bent this will have you punching the air. Even now he makes a case for invading Iraq that had nothing to do with the presense or otherwise of WMD. Hitchens saw Saddam as an individual of pure evil, he believes we should pick fights with fascists wherever we find them. It's a view.
...and on Kindle, Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw - The Quantum Universe. At last, I'm getting the hang of physics, been meaning to find a book like this for years.
And Catcher in the Rye? I thought some pages had fallen out. Nothing actually happened in it, it made no sense
I thought that when I finished it, but to appreciate it you have to think about when it was written, this book invented the teenager.
Agree with most of your reviews on your site, but what's up with all the L. Ron Hubbard though?
One book which should be on that list is this:
finbar - Member'Crime and Punishment' is probably my favourite of 'classics' - can't beat a bit of Dostoevsky. 'Brothers Karamazov' is excellent as well.
I much prefer Tolstoy to Dostoevsky. So much, well, "nicer". Probably why i don't care for Joyce.
Sorry don't understand, nicer?
Sorry don't understand, nicer?
For the most part Tolstoy writes about beautiful rich people, much like Jane Austen. Dostoevsky is obviously a bit grittier.
It's a work you don't understand but experience
Is spot on. I read it at Uni (studying English Literature) and at the time found it utterly brilliant.
I tried re-reading it a year or so ago and barely understood the notes I'd written about it, let along the book itself.
Salman Rushtie is awesome, BTW, I remember staying on the train for several stops longer than I should have due to being so engrossed in The Satanic Verses (a Virgin train, I mean, not some little local thing!)
Any pleasure in reading Ulysses is like the pleasure of finally squeezing out that brick after an extended bout of constipation. Over-rated pretentious literary ****.
Over-rated pretentious literary****
Would also cover a lot of the rest on that list, especially the alarming amount of Rand, Heinlein and Hubbard.
I'm going to read it and enjoy it just so I can be much cleverer than you lot.
Just as soon as I manage to finish Gravity's Rainbow.
Just as soon as I manage to finish Gravity's Rainbow.
Don't bother. It really isnt worth it. Give me Jack Reacher or Myron Bolitar over Slothrop and Enzian any day.
finbar - MemberSorry don't understand, nicer?
For the most part Tolstoy writes about beautiful rich people, much like Jane Austen. Dostoevsky is obviously a bit grittier.
Ah, most definitely. But I think that's what attracts me. The aristocracy was pretty much the same everywhere but all the details about the lives of the serfs etc I love and haven't come across elsewhere.
I did give up on 'House of the Dead' just found it a bit rambling and incredibly depressing, even by his standards!
try William S Burroughs - Naked Lunch
slightly more coherent (ish) but with added (very) naughty sex and violence
Yunki - they've made that into a film... why waste any more that 139 mins of your life?
Will Self is good too, I've read Liver which is a good starting point as it's 3 short(er) stories and just finished My Idea Of Fun which dragged a bit in the middle but was totally worth it for the ending.
He has a unique style.
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