best book you've read

[Robert]

Hi Dave

Well, I can see that watching the play first might be helpful. What I'm saying is, for me the reading would be essential at some point, unless I were to watch the play, say, six or seven times, preferably on video so that I can rewind it to get the bits that passed me by. You know how quickly they speak sometimes.

The interesting thing is that a man with a mega-huge vocabulary got ordinary people to turn up and watch his stuff.

[Cogidubnus]

Hi Robert

Yes, meant to be watched but in my case I have to read them before watching. Otherwise the unfamiliarity of the language, and sometimes the sheer speed of the line delivery, leaves me gradually losing touch with the play because I literally cannot understand it.

Isn't it curious how different human minds work?

In my case, (and I stress it's purely personal), I've found that truly understanding the plays is far more linked to watching them on stage rather than reading them...it was often the on-stage activity and body language that ameliorated the unfamiliarity of language...

Those I watched prior to reading, I tended to understand better...

All the best

Dave

[Richard Dewar]

Favorite Books

"Metamorphosis" Kafka
"Crime and Punishment" Fydor Dostoyevsky
"Hunger" Knut Hamsun

[Robert]

Yes, meant to be watched but in my case I have to read them before watching. Otherwise the unfamiliarity of the language, and sometimes the sheer speed of the line delivery, leaves me gradually losing touch with the play because I literally cannot understand it.

[GUT]

Shakespeare's plays are not meant to be read by a bunch of bored, spotty teenagers. They're meant to be watched as a performance. My drama profs used to regularly curse the high school system for ruining Shakespeare for virtually everyone.

That wisdom explains why they are professors. I never appreciated Shakespeare till way after school.

[Magpie]

Shakespeare's plays are not meant to be read by a bunch of bored, spotty teenagers. They're meant to be watched as a performance. My drama profs used to regularly curse the high school system for ruining Shakespeare for virtually everyone.

[Robert]

Saint-Exupery's stuff....Nietzsche....complete MR James ghost stories.

[Robert]

'Wuthering Heights' is tough to beat.

[PaulB]

I much enjoyed
Augustus Carp, Esq. By Himself Being The Autobiography Of A Really Good Man
Diary of a Nobody
Anything by P.G. WOdehouse, but obviously the Jeeves and Blandings Castle books. And Ukridge.

Day of the Triffids has already been mentioned, but is classic science fiction (The Walking Dead is pretty much the same story, both begin in with the main character in hospital; in both the characters live in a fenced compound; and so on. The only difference is that one group are fighting killer plants, the other is fighting zombies).

As far as science fiction is concerned, at one time I liked pretty much all of Robert Sheckley's early work.

[Amanda]

Travel & Customs..

Some of my favourite books are novels about travel & customs, especially those which are well-researched & have a factual base. Here are a few:

Burial Rites - Hannah Kent

Water Touching Stone - Eliot Pattison

God's Fool - Mark Slouka

Sky Burial - Xinran

Burnt Shadows - Kamila Shamsie

Amanda

[GUT]

I don't think any non-aussies will have heard/read any John O'Grady who wrote a series of books looking at the Australian way of life, about the 60's.

Their a Weird mob
Cop This Lot
Aussie English

being just three, they were a good lighthearted read basically written from the point of view of an Italian immigrate coming to grips with the customs and language of a strange land.

[Mayerling]

Been considering my original list a little. And noting some titles mentioned I did not mention

Any book by Alexander McGee. Ever since I read his account of the loss of the Royal Charter in the 1859 storm in "The Golden Wreck" I have enjoyed his books on the sea.

Prebble's "The High Girders" (thanks for reminding me Cogidubnus). The fall of the Tay Bridge and what the enquiry discovered. A steel bridge whose safety was checked by a man whose specialty was brick walls! The use of a concoction called "Beaumont's Egg" to fill in all those nasty little holes in the improperly made girders. The cocky nitwit who ran the construction forge and (on his own) decided if the girders should be larger or smaller. I'm surprised Bouch's bridge survived for a year.

But Prebble's other books on Scottish history (especially about the Highlanders, and the 1745 revolt are wonderful. In particular his book on "The Highland Clearances" about how the Lairds betrayed their duty to their clans to rebuild their fortunes in the 19th Century.

Any book (essay or total account) by Rupert "the Star-Gazer" Gould. In that television movie with Michael Gambon as John Harrison, who figured out how to measure longitude, Jeremy Irons portrayed Commander Gould, who spent years saving Harrison's valuable instruments. I first came across his work at Drew University when I was lucky enough to find "Enigmas" and "Oddities". Loved the world of the arcane unknown or forgotten that he brought forward. Since then I was lucky enough to get his book on Sea Serpents. He did invite the reader to pause and wonder. I wonder if any of his radio broadcasts for the BBC survive.

Among humorists, naturally Twain and Bierce lead the list. But James Thurber's sallies are welcomed as are Stephen Leacock's small masterpieces (read his comic essay about "The Great Detective" and try to think of Sherlock Holmes with a straight face again). Beware of "Blue Edwards".

Jeff

[MrBarnett]

Has Three Men in a Boat had a mention?

[Cogidubnus]

I find it interesting that so many of us love Dostoevsky.

It's especially good with boiled new potatoes and salad

All the best

Dave

[Archaic]

I'm not a cultured person but I do enjoy Shakespeare's limericks.

Let me guess; the smutty ones?

Actually, Shakespeare is chock-full of smut. Most of it's "disguised" in 1600's sexual slang, but it sure wasn't disguised for his original audience! They must have been a raucous bunch, especially down in the pit.

Some of Shakespeare is so smutty it would turn your ears pink, moon.

That's one of the things I love most about Shakespeare: his works contain layer after layer of meaning, and no matter how many layers you explore there's always more just waiting to be discovered.

Cheers,
Archaic

PS: I find it interesting that so many of us love Dostoevsky.