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Post by madwomanintheattic on Sept 26, 2007 11:43:17 GMT
Too, too many to mention but I will try; Herodotus, naturally but very very fond of 'The Rainbow' by the late great D.H. Lawrence better than Lady Chatterley and not nearly as smutty. 'Jane Eyre' of course, loving Great Expectations and ' The God of Small things' by Arundhati Roy pure joy...... Rosie xx
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Post by Dancin' Girl on Oct 7, 2007 20:10:51 GMT
"The Thorn Birds" Colleen McCullough & (from long long ago) "Rebecca" Daphne du Maurier
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Post by Den Tistry on Oct 8, 2007 23:39:59 GMT
Can I name one favourite book? Well I thought I could until I read this thread and .. ah oh yes.. err.. I'd forgotten that...etc.
Favourite books tend to change with the wind or whatever I'm reading now - as I have just have to read something before going to sleep.
It's a tough call, but it would have to be Lord Of The Rings - and what a wonderful job they did transferring it to film.
But apart from that, anything by Bill Bryson - he can make you laugh out loud on public transport.
As can Tom Sharpe.
JP Donleavy: The Gingerman has to be up there as well, I've bought so many copies - and given them away.
Gerry Durrell too - both his 'zoological trip' books and his anecdotes of his family.
Clive Cussler and Wilbur Smith both tell exceedingly good yarns.
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Post by jpblackbird on Oct 10, 2007 19:07:18 GMT
I loved Dickens "Hard Times" studied it with the OU as part of my degree.
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Post by Ian Flagrante on Oct 29, 2007 13:36:14 GMT
The Wrench - Primo Levi (almost anything he has written is worth reading)
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Post by Ruth Tile on Nov 7, 2007 6:43:52 GMT
A day in the life of Ivan Denisovitch by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. It's brief but not as bleak as you might think, being set in a gulag. I read it at fourteen for GCSE English Lit, and enjoyed it greatly because at the time it was a welcome break from the Shakespeare and Dickens we were having to read.
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Post by Pistachio Newt on Jan 9, 2008 20:42:33 GMT
I hope that someone will maybe suggest literature that wasn't originally written in the English language. Sinuhe the Egyptian by Mika Waltari is one of my favourites, but I'm biased through nationality. And I've only read it in Finnish... Don Quijote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra is pretty good, too. As far as my one all time favourite, it's an easy choice: Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. No, make that Dubliners by James Joyce... Or is it JP Donleavy's The Ginger Man? Yes. No, wait, Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson? The Constant Gardener by John le Carre?
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Post by Neil Beformee on Jan 10, 2008 22:29:50 GMT
A few people share my choice of favourite... To Kill A Mockingbird
The bit where Boo Radley steps out from behind the door and Scout simply says ,'Hey Boo' gives me goosebumps every time.
When I first read it my English teacher at the time was from Arkansas so he had a lot of fascinating insights into southern life.
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Post by Marie Da Sweatysock on Jun 24, 2008 20:17:29 GMT
Just to be awkward could I have a joint 1st favorite book? Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers - possibly one of the most romantic books ever written and Don't cry for Me Sergeant Majorby Robert McGowan and Jeremy Hands - the funniest and most poignant book I have ever read. This latter book was an eye witness account of the 1982 invasion of the Falklands by our side! The humour is devastatingly funny, and dark, and shows how human beings cope with the most appalling circumstances by using humour. Well worth a read.
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Post by tde on Jun 25, 2008 8:14:40 GMT
My Grandson has just finished Ulysses (Homer by the way not Joyce). That'd be the Odyssey, then!
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Post by ivy noidea on Jun 25, 2008 8:29:03 GMT
My Grandson has just finished Ulysses (Homer by the way not Joyce). That'd be the Odyssey, then! Surely that would depend on whether he read it in Greek or Latin? ;D
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Post by sewcharming on Jun 25, 2008 9:27:08 GMT
Mine is "Lady of Hay", set mainly in the 'now', but bounces back to the 11th/12th Century when the main female character is regressed to the time when Prince John was a young teen. Set in Wales for the historical part and London for the modern, all the men in her life in London where also the men in her life back in Wales wow I also read this book and was sorry to finish it ,but as I remember (fifteen years ago) I felt slightly disappointed how it ended. The next time i found another of her books , I expected more or the same but sadly it returned to the libaray unfinished
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Post by slinkychic on Jun 25, 2008 10:26:15 GMT
Nostradamus Ate My HamsterI love this guy.. His wit is unending.. He can take you to the silliest of place's and wring your heart out with laughter.. It doesn't matter how low you are. He can pick you straight back up and dump ya soggy carcuss somewhere else... Check out his new website...[a href=" www.sproutlore.com/ - 15k "] www.sproutlore.com/ - 15k [/a] The man is a god.. i have read just about everything that he has writen but this one get's me everytime.. He is'ant just a comic writer. He is a social commentator with the ability to make you belly laugh while traveling on the sharabang of life...
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Post by stanislav on Jun 29, 2008 14:45:57 GMT
I am presently reading "With Edged Tools" by H.S. Merriman, but my favourite book is Pillars of the Earth.
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Post by Frankleapold on Aug 7, 2008 11:59:25 GMT
I have always liked reading, if I was to choose one of my many favourites it would have to be - The Clowns of God by Morris West.
It concerns a Pope - Gregory XVII - who has a vision of the end times. The movers and shapers in the Vatican do not like this and he is removed from power. In the outside world he asks a friend for help in understanding the vision and this soon leads them both into danger. World politics is also in turmoil as the threat of Nuclear Meltdown builds up in the background.....
The book was published in 1981 and may be out of print, I got my copy in a Charity Shop. If you are interested perhaps your local library might help you get it.
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Post by paul Zernikazof on Aug 7, 2008 18:33:36 GMT
Nostradamus Ate My HamsterI love this guy.. His wit is unending.. He can take you to the silliest of place's and wring your heart out with laughter.. It doesn't matter how low you are. He can pick you straight back up and dump ya soggy carcuss somewhere else... Check out his new website...[a href=" www.sproutlore.com/ - 15k "] www.sproutlore.com/ - 15k [/a] The man is a god.. i have read just about everything that he has writen but this one get's me everytime.. He is'ant just a comic writer. He is a social commentator with the ability to make you belly laugh while traveling on the sharabang of life... [/quote] If you like Rankin then try Tom Holt I first read 'Expecting someone taller' some years ago and have read most of his others since then
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Post by Denise R Creaky on Apr 1, 2009 20:05:07 GMT
'To Kill a Mockingbird' I read this book every year without fail. Every time I read it I find something new in it and I still find it entertaining, and informative. It's a great story of childhood innocence touched by the prejudice of adulthood. This book has the capacity to make me smile, laugh, cry and reminisce about growing up and the wonderful escapism of childhood.
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Post by rosemarytheherb on Apr 17, 2009 23:15:16 GMT
Fellowship of the ring. 1st book of ther lord of the rings trilogy. Readit 40 years ago after english tutor said it was "brilliant". Took 3 attempts but eventually I got into it and haver loved it and reread it ever since. Rose xcx
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Post by bsmirched on Apr 17, 2009 23:31:44 GMT
The book I've come back to, time and again, is To Serve Them All My Days by R.F.Delderfield. I actually first came to it via the early 80s TV series, starring John Duttine and Frank Middlemass. I've read it many times since then, and each time I take something new from it.
As for the most memorable reading experience, it has to be when I was 12 years old, on a residential school visit to Cornwall. We were taken on a 12 mile walk around the coast to Mevagissy. Every time we stopped, we had Jamaica Inn, by Daphne du Maurier read to us. Very atmospheric!
B xx
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Post by Egbert Nochips on May 1, 2009 14:55:44 GMT
I'm currently working my way through Nelson Demille's books - they're a great read, not too taxing on the old marbles. They all have a male lead that you wish you could be like, and are totally unputdownable.
Having said that, favourite has to be The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. A fascinating Victorian mystery, suspense, whodunnit. Characters you'll find it hard to forget. They don't write 'em like that any more.
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