All I've learned from this is that the internet is almost exclusively inhabited by people like me: SF-reading literature lecturers. I'm sad enough to have read a lot of them, and don't want to read the ones I haven't (Lonesome Dove, Life of Pi, The Curious Incident…, The Foutainhead, The Kite Runner, The Glass Bead Game). Persuade me I should?
Click to enlarge
8 comments:
You should give 'The Curious Incident...' a go, although it's probably not high brow enough for you.
I liked it as it was very easy to whizz through, it made me feel sad in parts but made me laugh in others.
Atlas Shrugged? Who let the Objectivists have a vote?
Maybe I will then Ewar.
As to the Objectivists (or fascist individualists as the rest of us call them): I think they breed on the internet, though only in America. Everybody: if someone with a gleam in their eye says you should read Ayn Rand, don't just run away. Maim them very badly before you do.
Yes, I went to college in the US, where an overly friendly freshman handed me a copy of Atlas Shrugged with the words "this will change your life..." It was a heavy book with a thick spine, so he got 17 stitches in a gaping head wound, and I got 6 months. So, he was right in a way...
I would give Curious Incident a go. It is by no means perfect but it is trying to do something interesting which in itself is a reason to read it.
The Life of Pi made me more angry than any other book I have ever read. Weirdly, I 'recommend' it on that basis as I would be interested to see what you thought of it.
Thanks Ben. I'll definitely put them both on my list.
Anonymous - genuinely witty. That made me laugh a lot.
Looking at the small print titles, I really enjoyed the 'Curious Incident' and 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay'. 'Twilight' should be avoided at all costs. Do not even read it as an intellectual exercise. Excretia in literary form. I have tried to read 'Do Androids Dream...' but find PKD fairly impenetrable.
My favourite book of all time is, of course, nowhere on this list. The Bible. I'm joking. Haruki Murikami's 'Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World'. Highly recommended. By me. For what it's worth...
I keep thinking about picking up Kavalier and Clay but am never quite persuaded enough. On PKD: some are brilliant but most are pulp junk written by the yard, and it's difficult to find the good ones amongst the rubbish.
I love Murakami's work. Norwegian Wood's just been filmed, so I'll try to find somewhere showing it in this hole.
Post a Comment