best book you've read

[belinda]

Douglas Adams five part trilogy of The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy

[Mayerling]

Thinking back, I'm surprised at just how many bloody good books I was "forced" to read in school:

Moonfleet
Day Of The Triffids
The Chrysalids
1984
Brave New World
Wuthering Heights
The Great Gatsby
Fifth Business

Many of which I've reread, voluntarily, since.

Of course they made is read some absolute dross too, like The Stone Angel and Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, and of course the shameless gutting of anything by Shakespeare.

I had to read Wuthering Heights, 1984, and Brave New World too. The first two were excellent (almost anything by Orwell is great) but I really had problems with liking the Huxley book. He is not a great writer for the pleasure of reading.

Is "Moonfleet" the basis for a 1950s costume swashbuckler about smugglers which starred Stewart Granger and George Sanders?

There were some duds among the books I was assigned in school to read:

A Seperate Peace by John Knowles (it was praised to the skies in the early 1970s - I never understood why).

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Sallinger (Yes really!! - I found the biggest phony in this novel of an adolescent in revolt and revulsion towards phonies was Holden Caulfield himself. To make matters worse, I had to read the novel in 7th Grade and again in 11th Grade. Imagine education turned into a torture machine.

I like Shakespeare, but feel it should be read in bits, and only concentrated on in college courses.

Jeff

[Tom_Wescott]

So many masterpieces would be politically incorrect now.
Huysmans would be a mere woman hater.
Poe, a racist.
Jünger, a nazi.
Dostoïevski would be branded as a putinist.
Etc, etc.
They would all be censored.
Unfortunately, finner feelings and good literature are two different things.
Look at the reason (if I can call it so) why Borges didn't get the Nobel. What a shame.

By the by, talking of Borges, I'd like to add Bioy Casares' extraordinary "Invention of Morel" to my list.

Political correctness is a fleeting phase. It will eventually die out. But in the meantime, how perfectly annoying it is.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Bridewell]

In no particular order (except for the first two):

Penguins Stopped Play (Harry Thompson)

Cider With Rosie (Laurie Lee)

The Day of the Jackal (Frederick Forsyth)

The Day of the Triffids (John Wyndham aka John Beynon) - also most of his other work.

Nelson (Tom Pocock)

The Foundation Trilogy (Isaac Asimov)

The Flashman Novels (as previously referred to)

Animal Farm & 1984 (George Orwell)

Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)

The Virgin Soldiers (Leslie Thomas) - and most of his other works, including the autobiographical - This Time Next Week.

At My Mother's Knee and Other Low Joints (Paul O'Grady) - received the unheard of accolade of a positive review in Private Eye magazine.

(I'm sure there will be additions to the above but it will do for now).

[Tom_Wescott]

Wasn't Day of the Triffids a B-Movie? No idea it was a book.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Cogidubnus]

The Kraken Wakes

Hello Tom

Yes it was a very good book indeed and the first of the sci fi genre I ever (thanks to my father) read...at the age of about ten...It says something that despite all the book-culls down the years, I've still copies of all the John Wyndham books on my shelves...and I'm sadly down now to my last couple of thousand...

If you can spare the time you might find his work rewarding - it's almost early science faction...

The royalties from some of his works were gifted in perpetuity to his old school, Bedales, near Petersfield, which isn't that far from me.

Cheers

Dave

[pinkmoon]

Hello Tom

Yes it was a very good book indeed and the first of the sci fi genre I ever (thanks to my father) read...at the age of about ten...It says something that despite all the book-culls down the years, I've still copies of all the John Wyndham books on my shelves...and I'm sadly down now to my last couple of thousand...

If you can spare the time you might find his work rewarding - it's almost early science faction...

The royalties from some of his works were gifted in perpetuity to his old school, Bedales, near Petersfield, which isn't that far from me.

Cheers

Dave

I can recommend it myself as well.

[Chris]

Sorry, but you're all obviously wrong. The correct answer is clearly 'Moby Dick'.

"All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks ..."

[Wickerman]

Political correctness is a fleeting phase.

Lets hope so.....but then again we have always been warned that the meek shall inherit the Earth - heaven forbid!

[Wickerman]

Good taste in books especially papillon the exorcist is a very good horror book however I think the devil rides out by Dennis wheatley is the best horror book of all time

Never read The Exorcist, but I rate the movie as still the best horror flick ever made.

After looking through the thread I now realize just how many books I've read that I've totally forgotten about. Dennis Wheatley was a favourite of mine in my teens and yes, The Devil Rides Out was my favourite of his, then I think, Strange Conflict.

I liked The Alienist, (the last fiction book I read), but I thought the end was weak.
Moondust, by Arthur C Clark was my favourite of his, I'm surprised they never made it into a movie.
I mostly read ancient history/archaeology books so that likely doesn't really count for 'favourites'.
Stewart's "Ultimate" is so well used its in a sad and sorry state by now.
Antonia Frazer's - The Gunpowder Plot, was a real gem.
Robert Drews - The End of the Bronze Age, a great intro. to the subject.
Hoffmeier - Israel in Egypt & Ancient Israel in Sinai, are first class.

I find it a real struggle to get into fiction which I think this thread is more concerned with.

[Tom_Wescott]

The Alienist was like 15 years ago. You haven't read a fiction book sense? In any event, I was wondering why more non-fiction books aren't being listed since the title of the thread doesn't specify genre or type.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Wickerman]

The Alienist was like 15 years ago. You haven't read a fiction book sense? In any event, I was wondering why more non-fiction books aren't being listed since the title of the thread doesn't specify genre or type.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

Yes Tom, it might be about that long ago. I know I was working at Westinghouse in the Engineering Dept. until 2000 and I read it before then.

I have bookcases loaded with books, much to my wife's dismay (no room for her ornaments), but 90% of them are history/archaeology and concern Egypt, Israel & the Late Bronze Age/Iron Age in the Eastern Mediterranean. Nothing of which could be of interest in this thread.
The rest are Ripper related works and contemporary works on the state of society in the Victorian period.

The last book I bought was, London Labour and the London Poor, Mayhew, a condensed version of all four volumes.
To me, reading about real people and true events is far more engaging than a novel - but thats just me

[I'veBeenToMitreSquare]

Barnaby Rudge is my favourite book, for what it's worth.

[Beowulf]

I'm reading a book right now titled Ghosts of the Broads, by Charles Sampson.

This book is about ghost stories, presented as old old stories from this region collected and written down, supposedly true but at the very least historical. They are the sort that recall medieval castles in the area of what is called the broads, pirate ships, long ago battles and it is extremely well written.

Really fascinating stuff. Makes me want to take a plane and run over there. Great read.

[Steve S]

I have a copy....and I've been there!....Alright once you get used to the locals' webbed fingers........