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| | | | | 21185.1 | |
1. If you were allowed to suggest no more than 5 to include in this book, which would you pick?
and/or
2. If you were allowed to suggest no more than 5 to include in a list of Books NOT to Read Before You Die, which would you pick?
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| | | | | 21185.2 in reply to 21185.1 | |
To REad
The Agony and The Ecstasy - Irving Stone
The Far Arena - that guy
Green Ice - Gerald Seymour
Polar Star - whassisname
Death of a Red Heroine - Qui Xialong
What NOT to read
The Da Vinci Code
Anything by Tom Clancy apart from 'The Cardinal of the Kremlin"
Trinity - Leon Uris. excrable propaganda for a terrorist organisation
James Joyce apart from 'Portrait of the Artist as a young scrounger'
Anything on the 'BestSeller, can be checked out for one week only, no renewals" shelf at the local Library.
(innit sickening - I heard them tell one lady that the waiting list for Dan Brownes new book is FIVE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY TWO names long!)
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| | | | | 21185.3 in reply to 21185.1 | |
The Five Essential Books:
1) Remembrance of Things Past - M. Proust.
2) Finnegans Wake - J. Joyce.
3) Life: a User's Manual - G. Perec.
4) Pale Fire - V. Nabokov.
5) The Third Policeman - F. O'Brien.
The Five Not to Touch with a Barge-Pole:
1) Lord of the Rings - J. Tolkien.
2) Atlas Shrugged - A. Rand.
3) Wuthering Heights - E. Brontė.
4) The Riddle of the Sands - E. Childers
5) Watership Down - R. Adams. |
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| | | | | 21185.4 in reply to 21185.3 | |
To Read At Least Once in Your Life
1. Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson
2. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
3. The Collector - John Fowles
4. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
5. Moonfleet - J. Meade Falkner
To Pitch to the Curb Without Opening
1. Victoria at Nine - Don Robertson
2. Icy Sparks - Gwyn Hyman Rubio
3. The Ruins - Scott Smith
4. West of Sunset - Dirk Bogarde
5. Cold Skin - Albert Sanchez Pinel |
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| | | | | 21185.5 in reply to 21185.3 | |
Ha! I've read none of your essentials and 3 out of 5 from your 'not to touch' list!
What is Nabakov's Pale Fire about?
 PH |
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| | | | | 21185.6 in reply to 21185.3 | |
btw - I got my copy of Wind in the Willows and am making steady progress. I'm currently in Chapter 5 - isn't that the chapter you don't like? Is it too sentimental and kind-hearted for you?
PH |
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| | | | | 21185.7 in reply to 21185.5 | |
| That's a hell of a question. It's not the best book in the world - but it's my favourite book in the world. There's nothing else it can be compared with. There's no other book that it's like. If I could choose one book in the world to have written myself, it would be Pale Fire. |
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| | | | | 21185.8 in reply to 21185.6 | |
| The Piper at the Gates of Dawn chapter is the one I don't think much of - is that Chapter Five? It's not so much that it's mushy and sentimental (although it certainly is that), but that it's a self-indulgent piece of writing. |
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| | | | | 21185.9 in reply to 21185.7 | |
Well, I'll have to look it up on Amazon or Wiki to get a straight answer, it seems. Typical.
PH |
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| | | | | 21185.10 in reply to 21185.8 | |
No, that's chapter seven. Five is Dulce Domum (whatever that means in Latin) - something to do with home, I suspect.
PH |
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| | | | | 21185.11 in reply to 21185.7 | |
Now here's coincidence for you - I just opened Amazon and the banner was advertising:
PH |
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| | | | | 21185.12 in reply to 21185.9 | |
| The Wikipedia article isn't bad, except for the amazing fact that it doesn't seem to mention that Pale Fire is one of the funniest books in the world! - among many other things. |
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| | | | | 21185.13 in reply to 21185.10 | |
| Dulce Domum is pretty innocuous, compared to Piper at the Gates of Dawn. |
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| | | | | 21185.14 in reply to 21185.11 | |
| Coincidence? You naļve young fool! It's the Illuminati at their fell work again - in cahoots with the Beiderburg Group, of course. |
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| | | | | 21185.15 in reply to 21185.12 | |
Ah! You previously failed to mention that it was funny!
PH |
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| | | | | 21185.16 in reply to 21185.13 | |
Hmm - I shall delve into it soon. But first I must wash my truck - it's got stuff growing on it.
PH |
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| | | | | 21185.20 in reply to 21185.19 | |
Ratty is such a good-hearted fellow. Reminds me of Wo... what am I thinking????
PH |
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