posted
I'm sure we've done this before (maybe only with film though), top books that you would expect to be great, but have never got around to.
Right now, I'd guess Sanctuary for a few reasons, but probably something a bit more classic would suit my style, so i'll say Don Quixote.
Posts: 6506 | From: I hear New Zealand is nice | Registered: Jun 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Both your first two choices are indeed excellent, Andy. And you could probably read the first in a couple of hours.
I echo your third choice though. As I wrote on another thread, I shockingly haven't read a book written pre-20th century since I left school.
Posts: 7403 | From: the Horizon of the Aten | Registered: May 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
You could try A Rebours by J.K. Huysmans if you're after a thoroughly mental, way-ahead-of-its-time 19th century novel. It's absolutely brilliant.
I've got reader's block at the moment, so I can't think of anything I wish I'd read.
Posts: 4303 | From: The Ministry of the New New Super Heavy Funk | Registered: May 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Seconded. It's forty years since I read it but the image of the jewel encrusted tortoise still lingers. I also blame the book for an orange and green affectation which lasted a decade or so.
Posts: 7138 | From: here you can't get there | Registered: May 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Don Quixote, Crime and Punishment, Anna Karenina, War and Peace, anything by Flaubert...
Posts: 16877 | From: Gobias Industries | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
The Dice Man is pretty disappointingly dull actually. Despite a great concept.
Posts: 7403 | From: the Horizon of the Aten | Registered: May 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I've had a copy of Primo Levi's If This is a Man sneering at me from my shelf for a few years now. I really ought to pluck up courage to read it.
On the shelf above it is Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct which probably deservwes more hours of my time than I have to spare for the foreseeable future, too.
Posts: 7499 | From: A Gun | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Don't bring forth the firing squad now, but I've never read anything by Leo Tolstoy.
Posts: 19677 | From: San Siro | Registered: Nov 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Fat Andy's recommendation seconded, Purves. If This Is A Man is as mind-blowing as everyone says.
I've never read The Brothers Karamazov. I have a strong feeling that when I do - at some point over the next couple of years - I'm going to love it.
Also, shamefully, for someone whose family background is the messy point where the British Empire and the Indian subcontinent cross over, I've never read Midnight's Children. I do own a copy and plan to remedy the situation soon.
I didn't like The Brothers Karamazov nearly as much as I liked Crime and Punishment, but then I was only, like, twenty when I read the former and, like, forty when I read the latter.
Posts: 19927 | From: the Cryptic Cabal | Registered: May 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Anyone read Pilgrim's Progress? Apparently it still sells in shedloads but I don't think I've ever met anyone who's actually cracked it's covers.
Posts: 7138 | From: here you can't get there | Registered: May 2002
| IP: Logged |
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
