Right.

I've got mental block about what books I should buy. Usually this is not a problem.

So, recommendations please...and it might be quite interesting too... what three books (any kind) would you say everyone should read?

And I promise to buy at least three of the recommendations.

Make a difference to my life!



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Do something pretty while you can...

Well I presume you've got Family Bites (30th best book ever written by woman *cough*) and The Wee Free Men, so ... 3 books everybody should read ... erm ...

Wuthering Heights; 1984; Catch-22.

Hm. I didn't think I was that conventional. How boring of me. (I've got a whole list of things everybody should read on my website, the url of which is in my profile).

If you mean *new* books, I dunno ... I can't keep up with them these days.



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I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

Yeah, I've got Family Bites, of course, and the Wee Frees are waiting for the paperback.

And I've read all the others....any more obscure ones???

(And I'm not a fan of Wuthering Heights, really, to be honest. But possibly because I had to study it - maybe I should re-read.)

My English teacher for Higher told all his classes that they MUST read Catch-22 before they turned 21. So I did.



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Do something pretty while you can...

you read Aberystwith Mon Amour?

Waterstones had an offer on 3 for £5 I think, that was my third cos it looked odd, my copy is now in America because they couldn't get hold of any, I'm not sure how many people have read it now

I haven't got wee free men yet (still have 2 to read first) and have ordered Family Bites because people keep talking about it

Andrea
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Sylvester says.... *plock*




actually he says peep, cheep, chirrup, squalk,muttermuttergrumblegrumble, oh and now he falls off his pirch whish is followed by a sheepish peek round to see if anyone was looking and a quick scramble back up

"Summer Lightning" by P.G. Wodehouse? I really enjoyed that one. It came in paperback form with 3 books together...blanking on the titles of the other two, but it's a Spring, Summer, Autumn theme...

Spring and Summer were both delightful haven't started on the Fall yet. Want to read some Terry Pratchett first to see what the hub-bub is all about!

What about Robert Rankin? He's been highly recommended to me lately, although it's hard to find his books here in the States.

Andrea, Hmm...I've seen the Aberystwyth one, it's got a nice cover, if i remember. I'll have a look... ooh, it looks good! Did you buy it on amazon? cos "customers who bought this also bought" TEA and LIAGB!

AAC, does this sounds like it?
Life at Blandings: Something Fresh / Summer Lightning / Heavy Weather /

I haven't read any Wodehouse, so that's a definite possibility. Have you read any others, would you recommend that over the Bertie Wooster ones?

I've read a bit of Robert Rankin, I don't mind the Brentford ones, but not too keen on the sprouts etc.

Ta for suggestions!



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Do something pretty while you can...

I found Aberystwyth a bit disappointing; it was quite funny in places but it basically only had one joke.

Wodehouse, now you're talking. (Just make sure you get ones written before c.1950). The Blandings series (as per the three mentioned) are almost as good as Jeeves, but then that is a high standard.

Ooh - what about the Flashman books, George Macdonald Fraser?

Or the Dortmunder series, Donald E Westlake? I got Magda and Dave onto those.

Garrison Keillor - the Lake Wobegon books especially.

Spike Milligan - Puckoon and his war memoirs.



- - -
I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

Another vote for Wodehouse from this quarter! Choosing three books everyone should read is just about impossible, so I leave it to you to pick your own three from this list:

"Three Men in a Boat" - Jerome K Jerome
"The Pickwick Papers" - Dickens
"Crime and Punishment" - Dostoyevsky (heavy stuff, but gripping)
"The Lord of the Rings" - Tolkien (just in _case_ you haven't read it!)
"Emma" - Jane Austen (my favourite of her books, but I love them all)
"Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" - T S Eliot

(I had to put the last one in because Minsky insisted... but it is worth its place on the list anyway.)



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

I agree with Jon - must reread Catch-22 soon.

Also, I'd add some David Lodge ("How Far Can You Go ?" is his
best in my opinion. "Small World" and "Changing Places" are
great satires on academia),
"Scoop" - Evelyn Waugh

For more modern stuff,
Nick Hornby's quite fun, the new Margaret Atwood is getting good reviews and I intend to get 'Autograph Man' Zadie Smith soon.

Non-fiction, I like Bill Bryson - "Mother Tongue" is a good look at the English language - humourous and educational.

I'll post more as I think of them...

Brideshead Revisited

is one of my all time faves

now new stuff:

Cutting Room by Louise Welsh
Personality by Andrew O'Hagan
Boudicca by Manda Scott

3 very different books: crime, literary fiction and historical fiction... so take your pick... both cutting room and personality are actually set in scotland

'only forward' by michael marshall smith. cyberpunk detective-noir with a (dark) sense of humour. 'Spares' is a good alternative.

'against a dark background' by iain m banks. Again, dark. Superbly well written

'Round Ireland with a Fridge' by Tony Hawks. Tale of one man's adventures in ireland, with a fridge. Surprisingly. Funny, and part of the reason Rob and myself ended up cycling from Dublin to Cork and back a year or three (four?) ago. Without a fridge though. Cos that would have been silly.


erm. Lots of others. But those three should keep you going.

Four I'm afraid mate. We're getting old...

some older than others, hmm? :-)

I'm reading Elizabeth Peters at the moment. But there's a heck of a lot of them. I'm one from the end (as it stands) of the Amelia Peabody series, then I'm starting on the others.

The Anthony Horowitz books are good for a bit of light reading. I'm into the fourth of the Alex Rider set at the moment.

Oh, and some guy called Jasper Fforde. Anyone heard of him?



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There's a hole in my creativity bucket and it's all leaked out.

I read Aberystwith Mon Amour too....and didn't find it particularly wonderful either. In fact I can hardly remember what happened at all....which i guess is never a good thing for a book ;-)

One recent novel I really did enjoy was Happiness TM by Will Ferguson. A very funny take on what would happen if a self-help book was published which actually worked....and that's the creation of utter and pure chaos ;-)

The characters are brilliant, the dialogue's funny and it's actually got a plot full of wonderful twists and turns that'll keep you page turning...which is odd for such a surrealist piece...but then again I guess we're used to that with the work of good old Jasper.

-Nick.

Happiness TM is quite good, I read it when it first came out in trade paperback.



Post Edited (05-15-03 12:34)

Dante, yes it was Life at Blandings. It's difficult to hang on to, considering its size, but well worth it so far!

YAY another fan of Happiness TM!!!

I've been recommending it to others, it's amazing how he could handle a subject that's actually serious in such a brilliant way :D

Ta muchly to everyone!

Out of the recommendations, I've already read:

Wuthering Heights; 1984; Catch-22
"The Pickwick Papers" - Dickens
"The Lord of the Rings" - Tolkien (just in _case_ you haven't read it!)
"Emma" - Jane Austen (my favourite of her books, but I love them all)
"Scoop" - Evelyn Waugh
Nick Hornby
Bill Bryson - "Mother Tongue

I own, but haven't read yet:

"Three Men in a Boat" - Jerome K Jerome
"Crime and Punishment" - Dostoyevsky (heavy stuff, but gripping)
"Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" - T S Eliot
Brideshead Revisited
'against a dark background' by iain m banks
'Round Ireland with a Fridge'

(why am i buying more books?)

and I've currently ordered:

'only forward' by michael marshall smith
Happiness TM.
(also WOLP, Cerulean Sins, A Child Garden by Geoff Ryman, and the Lemony Snicket adult one)

Tomorrow I'm going to go to the secondhand shops and search for PG Wodehouse, cos I'm sure i can get them quite @#$%&.

The other recommendations are saved to my computer!



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Do something pretty while you can...

I just picked up Three Men in a Boat from Oxfam. It's for my orange bookshelf (I've mentioned before) - about time I read it again; especially as I've got a canal boat weekend next Bank Holiday.