Books

[Katster]

Or maybe its more of a blokes book? (Not being sexist)

[Rufus Gwertigan]

Am I the only person on the planet that reads Stephen Donaldson, except him of course, and his editor..

[Langdale Wolf]

Just finished Tell No One by Harlan Coben. An excellent read.

[Radar]

Please please please can someone recommend me a DECENT classic?

[The Nal]

I wouldn't have said so really, dunno. I didn't not enjoy it because it was about boys things, I didn't enjoy it because for a book about someone having a nervous breakdown, it wasn't all that clear he was having a nervous breakdown. I wanted it to get all nitty gritty but it never did, it just told of him repeating himself and shouting.

[worm]

Please please please can someone recommend me a DECENT classic?

[greenfairy43]

Please please please can someone recommend me a DECENT classic?

[sifi]

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

Edited August 4, 2009 by sifimaster

[JessPear]

Love harry potter, and not ashamed! I absolutely loved the road recently too, and am really looking forward to the movie, although worry it will not be able to capture the darkness of the book in quite the same way! The ending of the book confused me somewhat though, not sure if it was a reality or not, i guess its down to your own interpretation, so it will be interesting to see how the film puts it forward

[The Nal]

Please please please can someone recommend me a DECENT classic?

[Katster]

I thought it was very obvious he was having a breakdown, what was even more depressing about it is that he didn’t really know he was having one. But we did.

[The Nal]

Different strokes I guess? I appreciate we knew more about it than he did. I dunno, perhaps I'm really sick,

I wanted him to go proper mental or something, and was dissapointed when he never did

[nightcrawler13]

buddha of suburbia, which ye can borrow if ye ask nicely

[Huevos y Bacon]

Is it just me or are 'classics' generally shite, or over-rated at the very least?

The Wasp Factory - I worked out the ending

The Catcher in The Rye - If you're going to write a book about someone having some sort of nervous break down, can you please actually make it feel like that's what it is?!

Please please please can someone recommend me a DECENT classic?

I'm currently reading The Red Room by Nikki French.

Edited August 4, 2009 by Huevos y Bacon

[worm]

For a real fun but genuine classic in the ye olde sense try 'The Three Musketeers' by Dumas, I guarantee it will completely confound your expectations.

Edited August 4, 2009 by worm

[Huevos y Bacon]

I prefer The Count of Monte Cristo. Not a fan of romantic prose, but Dumas is very good.

[worm]

It's too serious. The Musketeers rarely, if ever, get out of their own lodgings or the nearest bar. When they try they realise they've sold all their kit to buy booze and can't. It's not the book I expected it to be put it that way.

[Huevos y Bacon]

Fair enough if you're into that sort of thing. I prefer great lines myself and The Count of Monte Cristo has some great ones. It is massive though.

[worm]

Which makes me think, if Katster is looking for a genuine american classic 'The Great Gatsby' takes some beating.

Edited August 4, 2009 by worm

[philipsteak]

Which makes me think, if Katster is looking for a genuine american classic 'The Great Gatsby' takes some beating.

[Katster]

What do you like?

Both the books you've mentioned are relatively modern. Perhaps more 'classic' books by (relatively) modern American authors, which I think are better than 'Catcher In The Rye', would include:

'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest' - Ken Kesey

'Catch 22' - Joseph Heller

'American Dream', 'Naked and the Dead' and 'Harlot's Ghost' - Norman Mailer

'Blood Stain' - Philip Roth

For fun read 'Jitterbug Perfume' by Tom Robbins.

Off the modern American side of the tracks:

I like the Father Brown stories by GK Chesterton, they have wonderful prose.

For a real fun but genuine classic in the ye olde sense try 'The Three Musketeers' by Dumas, I guarantee it will completely confound your expectations.

For great detective stories before the classification existed try the 'Woman in White' or 'The Moonstone' by Wilkie Collins. Trollope's 'The Eustace Diamonds' is good too, though they all have that Victorian serial 'stringing things out' feel (not the Woman in White so much).

Hopefully these are all enjoyable recommendations. They're good reads and not overly pretentious or too clever for their own good.

Edited August 6, 2009 by Katster

[nightcrawler13]

I like lots of different things, some things I've enjoyed are:

My Memory Keepers Daughter (about a doctor who gives up one of his babies because she has downs syndrome and he keeps the other baby who hasn't, he doesn't tell his wife, she thinks one of the twins died, and he lives to regret his decision).

The Others (about a bloke brought back from the dead for another chance to be good in life who ends up investigating the dissapearances of a baby and part of his investigation involves visiting an old people's home which turns out to be a place where experiments on people take place and all sorts of mutant creatures are being kept in the home. It also involves a good skull f**king but I won't go into that).

Killing Me Softly (about a woman who bumps into a man in the street and ends up going back to his place right away and then gives up her life to be with him only for him to turn out to be a complete and utter sociopath with a very shaded past).

The Pact (about two teenagers who apparently make a pact to kill themselves together but the girl ends up dead and the lad lives and an investigation takes place as to whether the suicide pact wentwrong or whether he simply shot his girlfiend and made up the suicide pact).

So, anything quite sick it would appear?

Don't get me wrong, I did like the Wasp Factory and Catcther in the Rye, I just didn't find them life changing reads which to me is what being a classic is all about. Isn't it?

Edit: PS 'Catch 22' was already on the list

[Huevos y Bacon]

well done on ruining many books for me!

[nightcrawler13]

Mate, you need a thread on an internet forum for advice on how to get a crate, how on earth do you think you'll manage to read a book?

[Huevos y Bacon]

as i've read Time Travellers Wife, Vernon God Little, Buddha Of Suburbia and the Philosophical Dilema of the Existence of Evil in two weeks i think i'm managing just fine