The best place to start with Wodehouse, imho, is "The Inimitable Jeeves" (1923), a collection of short stories, some set in London, some in New York, with an ongoing story-line about the love-life of Bingo Little.

The full-length Jeeves classics include "Right-Ho, Jeeves" and "The Code of the Woosters". The others are a mixed bag, with much recycling of old plots.

For the Blandings books, start with "Blandings Castle", also short stories (including "The Custody of the Pumpkin", a classic in its own right).

"Leave it to Psmith" is also great, but should not be approached without first reading either "Mike and Psmith" (a school story) or one of the Blandings books, preferably both.

Egon, if you delete butlers from PGW, you lose Beach from Blandings, but not Jeeves, who is a valet.

Haha, I'm juust trying to think of ones we read in English x'D
The Great Gatsby was one of them actually.

Maybe the poetry of Jone Dunne/ Doone (I can never remember his last name D; )

Some Shakespeare, perhaps?

Those Edward DeBono books have always completely captivated me too. Not quite as fictional or anything, but highly interesting reads.

How to Kill A Mockingbird too.

I stand corrected, Cordwangler. Thank you for the information!

PirateXxEsque, remember this rhyme for the spelling:

Donne
Is fonne,
But Chaucer
Is caucer.

I confess I have never read "To Kill a Mockingbird". In fact I missed out on quite a lot of the "books nearly everyone has had to read at school", partly through opting for the Nun's Priest's tale at 'O' level (one of Chaucer's less cauce efforts ;-)).

CR -- Annie Proulx's surname is pronounced "proo." I loved The Shipping News.

For classics, there's always Hardy. He would certainly fit Jasper's criteria. They're a bit slow going initially, but pick up steam a chapter or two into the book. Some of his novels were considered quite scandalous in their day.

On the American side, I found Jack London's Call of the Wild, and Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter enjoyable.

If it makes you feel better, I never did finish To Kill A Mockingbird.

Or The Great Gatsby either.

But I think it was the pain of having to read the in the first place, that made me dislike them D;

Oh, The Secret Garden! And that Princess one, about the girl who's treated like a princess in this boarding school, but her father dies and so she's made into a servant. The Little Princess or something..

Haha, Cord, I won't be able to remember that. Maybe I'll remember how it isn't spelt or something...

There are only two books I've started reading and didn't finish-

Finnegan's wake and some fantasy drivel that was so bad, even I, who forces herself to finish bad books, couldn't do it. can't recall the title though. I'll have to share it when I remember it!

Puckoon?


All the Noddy books, especially the porno ones where Noddy goes into the woods and feels a little queer. If not, be creative and rewrite the Noddy stories as porn.

The COunt of Monte Christo, on the basis of if you are not reading it you can use it for a footrest.


Philip Jose Farmer, esp. Riders of the Purple Sage. It is parodying Joyce.

If Thursday ever went international in her operations the what are the classics of the New World? I think 'The Last Of The Mohicans' for what became the Untied States, and something like 'Robbery Under Arms' for the great southern land of convicts and remittance men. (For the Term of his Natural Life' is about as enthralling as reading 'Governor Arthur's Convict System'. Good detail, but would you really want to read it twice?

I am ashamed to admit I don't know what the equivalent book would be for the Land of the Long White Cloud.

I haven't read The Count of Monte Christo, but I have read one of Dumas's lesser-known, shorter books: The Black Tulip. This one I can recommend for sure--a really excellent story with romance and political intrigue and horticulture, and a surprisingly fast read.

And I concur about the Wodehouse books--read some of the Jeeves & Wooster short stories, then any of the novels (recycled plots or not, they're so well-told that it's worth it). As for Blandings, Leave it to Psmith is my favorite, closely followed by Summer Lightning (if I recall correctly, that's the one with the flower pots, which may be my favorite scene in all of Wodehouse).

You know, somebody should do an index of characters referenced in Fforde's books-
no, not me just somebody with plenty of time, energy & motivation...

I'm hoping that one day Biff from LAMB will make an appearance!

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Was it just me, or did the Three Musketeers not really make sense?

In what sense does it not make sense? It's been a while since I read it but it didn't strike me as any more nonsensical than other books I've read. I'm not making fun; I'm really curious.

Were one of the books Alice in Wonderland? *evil grinne*

Am also curious. The story seems to make sense to me though....

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'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

The Australian classic HAS to be Poor Fellow My Country by Xavier Herbert.
I think it might be the longest Aussie novel too.

"The Darling Buds of May" and then all of the Darling books (if for nothing more than Dad's ideas of how to make a 'perfick' mixed drink - and he never stops making them).

I would never recommend Seven little Australians to Anyone.

How about Some Jules Verne?

'Gateway' by Frederik Pohl? It's proper sci-fi.

Seven Little Australians was awful.

Maybe you should skip the whole readin while commuting, and invest in a portable DVD played, and the entire season of Firefly.

That starts me on an idea. For years now, all Berlin subway carriages have been equipped with TV screens that are showing commercials. I should really look into hijacking them to get them to show a better programme...

That is why all opportunity shops have at least half a dozen copies of the book (seven little idiots), as nobody wants them.