All the books you've never read

"No, you're a cunt" - Oscar Wilde

Im reading you all from asteroid B612. Little Prince is with me.
keep it up all contributors.
just @ Plurabelle, in Q.Crisps words (he knew a good turn of phrase)
"Books are for writing, not reading"
nice.

Ha! Thanks ever so.

Wasn't that Victoria Beckham?

:D

^It was only a matter of time before Dr Freakscene turned up.

Don't worry, I have no intention of lifting the mood.

dooks, there are a couple of non-English books I've read recently in translation that you might like. Not sure about "classics", though. You could try The Inspector Barlach Mysteries by Friedrich Dürrenmatt (Will reminded me, with his talk of whodunnits that aren't really - these are about nihilism and getting old) and Homo Faber by Max Frisch (about an autistic dude that works for the UN and sleeps with his daughter, as best as I can summarise).

Then there are lots of good Latin American authors. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Marquez is a good starting point... and Borges and Fuentes are both high on my "books I've never read" list.

Plurabelle: Congratulations! Is it fiction? Short stories? (Lengthy academic monographs?) Gissa clue...

Evelyn Waugh: Decline and Fall, Put Out More Flags, Sword of Dishonour, Vile Bodies, and, of course,* Scoop.*

Anthony Powell's* A Dance To The Music of Time.* All 20-odd novels...

Waugh would be my favourite author, does this mean I'll enjoy Powell?

dooks, there are a couple of non-English books I've read recently in translation that you might like. Not sure about "classics", though. You could try The Inspector Barlach Mysteries by Friedrich Dürrenmatt (Will reminded me, with his talk of whodunnits that aren't really - these are about nihilism and getting old) and Homo Faber by Max Frisch (about an autistic dude that works for the UN and sleeps with his daughter, as best as I can summarise).

Then there are lots of good Latin American authors. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Marquez is a good starting point... and Borges and Fuentes are both high on my "books I've never read" list.

Plurabelle: Congratulations! Is it fiction? Short stories? (Lengthy academic monographs?) Gissa clue...

Thanks. Sort of the latter – though not too lengthy, and not too obscure, hopefully.

http://riskbooks.com/Insurance/alternative-risk-strategies.php

Chapter 30.

A good bed time read.

I've only ever read one Harry Potter, the first one. I regretted starting it, I regretted carrying on reading it and really regretted finishing it. I would have loved it had I read it as a child but as adult literature goes it is risible. I can only say that once started I would have hated not finishing it. Subsequently I have never read any of the other books in the series. I did start watching the second movie but found it unwatchable in the face of there being something else on another channel.

Like tomasito, I've never laid into any of the classics with the exception of the occaisional Dickens. I can't get on with much poetry with the exception of short emotive works like that of Benjamin Zephania. I can appreciate what the great poets are trying to say and how they're saying it, I just don't find it enjoyable. I have read Lord of the Rings, twice alhough I've never stuck to it with the all of the poetry in The Two Towers. Part way through it just seemed so unnessecary and not that enjoyable.

Books that I have started but failed to finish include the Silmarillion, The History of Danis Dreams and The Sun Also Rises. I'll get back to the last two at some point because they are really good books that deserve more attention than I had at the time.

I have never read a Harry Potter book and saw the first film and swore never again. I have kept my promise.

Having said that, it is my firm view that Harry Potter books are wonderful. They get children to read. My own kids read them, devoured them and then went on to read other things.

Harry Potter is good but please don't make me read them.

Waugh would be my favourite author, does this mean I'll enjoy Powell?

I would say so...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHtjl8V483A

Not sure why I remember this but hey-ho.

A fellow schoolenger in my 14 yo period used to carry around a copy of 'Fluvial Processes of Geomorphology' around with him in order to lend himself a little 'je ne sais quoi'.

I still don't think he ever actually read it.

similarly^, James Mac did the same all the way through Leeds Uni days with aforementioned Kant 'Critique of Blah..'
he was couriering for a time in London so if hes reading this, did you ever read it?

@ Bobby D I think the film is generally regarded as having been an improvement on the book.

similarly^, James Mac did the same all the way through Leeds Uni days with aforementioned Kant 'Critique of Blah..'
he was couriering for a time in London so if hes reading this, did you ever read it?

There was a courier who was often referred to as Kant, or something similar, but I forget his name.

we will find this person, and my journey to the dark side will be complete.........

If I ever write a book about couriering - which even Plurabelle's tomb would outsell - then I have a good title for it. It's a Smiths title and not Heaven Knows....

or William it was really nothing

'tomb' being 'tome'? hmmm, let me mull that title over, I wrote a paper about 'Risk and biking' from 3months couriering I did in Sydney '98 if you want it? (if you want academic punishment that is? :-/)

I have never read a Harry Potter book. I figured they were the Cold Play equivalent of literature.

J.K Rowlinginit as the 'Eye' used to charmingly call her, good on her she has her market sussed, it isnt one that Im in either.

is the Bible by God? or J.K Rowling?.....

"tomb it may concern" is etched in to the run off on a Smiths single, I forget which. So to whom/tome/tomb is a bit of an uber-geeky morrissey reference. I am abashed and shall now retire for xmas; after having chosen a book to take with me. One I've never read, possibly

hmmmmmmmmm, etching in run off grooves, now we are getting 'Hi Fidelity'
worth a whole other thread. if I may, my favourites were all on the Z.T.T. stuff I collected, Art of Noise et al. eg; 'would you like to be strong and healthy? or would you like to be wrong and wealthy?'

similarly^, James Mac did the same all the way through Leeds Uni days with aforementioned Kant 'Critique of Blah..'
he was couriering for a time in London so if hes reading this, did you ever read it?

Someone at my school frequently referred to Kant until a teacher aho actually knew Kant gave him a total bollocking after exposing his ignorance on the subject. I wasn't in that course but the stories about it were pretty good.

I have never read a Harry Potter book. I figured they were the Cold Play equivalent of literature.

Well, they're just the sort of standard and unimaginative kiddie bumph that comes out every couple of years, except that in this case, the marketing was top-notch. I generally don't like children's books that are too freewheeling in their invention just because the protagonists go into another world/reality (where the author then thinks that anything goes) through some sort of portal, and I count among those Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, Narnia, and quite a few others.