h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My computer is determined not to allow me to post a lengthy song of praise to how much I love books. I will say, though, that much to my surprise, I've really appreciated reading my way through Russian Literature.

Except Anna Karrennina. Which was a bad translation anyway, but I must agree that it has a lot to say about Tolstoy and his attitude to women. Very irritating man in real life I suspect. Did like War and Peace, although Russians look at you suspiciously if you admit to actually reading (let alone enjoying) the war strand.

Am totally capable of weeding my book collection. Look - there's a pile of 30 which are waiting to go back to the second hand bookshop as I type. Unfortunately I still have too many books left all of which I know I can't bear to part with.

[p]

The books I couldn't let go of are:

anything by Primo Levi
anything by George Eliot
Catch22
Lord of the Rings
Pride and Prejudice

For bad moments I also keep a number of Terry Pratchetts (although many are out on loan to friends and family) and my Julian May collection.

I would bin the collected works of Henry James except that I've kept all my classic paperbacks, good or bad, to pass on to my nieces and nephews.

I would like to rewrite the ending of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall because its theme of alcohol undermining the fabric of society was important at the time (and still is). It started well but Anne Brontë bottled out half way through. If she'd kept her nerve it would have been a great book.


I have returned from the gym less knackered than usual. Perhaps I'm becoming a fitter ant .

Titania, I'm so glad you said you read Agatha Christie. I'm a closet Christie fan. And for the same reason. They're entertaining.

Books at home that I refuse to get rid of are ones that I will and do actually reread on occassion. I'm sure if my librarian friends saw my book shelves, they would be appaled. The classics are few and far between. When we moved back to Missouri from Texas I had over 2000 books - most of them just occupying space. So I got really ruthless and got rid of over half of them. Gave them to the Brandeis University book sale. Since then we have whittled more and more until we probably have 200-250 left. About half are mine.

I'll keep the Dune series; The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy; the Sherlock Holmes series; The Miss Marples and Hercule Poirots; the Tony Hillermans; the David Copperfield; the Raj Quartet by Paul Scott; To Kill a Mockingbird; the Marion Zimmer Bradleys; the Clifford Simeks because they're so hard to find; the Robert Heinleins. I forgot the gardening and cookbooks. I guess we still have more that I thought.

I have read all the Miss Marple and Tommy & Tuppence ones, but not many Hercule Peirrot. I got fed up with being able to spot whodunnit a quarter of the way through the book.

Joan Hickson was the definitive tv Miss Marple and I can't see David Suchet without seeing him as Peirrot.

I have read all the Miss Marple and Tommy & Tuppence ones, but not many Hercule Peirrot. I got fed up with being able to spot whodunnit a quarter of the way through the book.

Joan Hickson was the definitive tv Miss Marple and I can't see David Suchet without seeing him as Peirrot.

My apologies if this posts twice, hootoo isn't behaving this end.

I loved Margret Rutherford as Miss Marple, there were only four of them, and they were quite tongue-in-cheek.

I really Liked Death on the Nile, and you are right, David Suchet makes a better Poirot than Peter Ustinoff (sp?)

I couldn't part with my Pratchetts or Adams. I read both series at least once a year. Other than those, there really aren't set authors that I'd keep, and I can think of only five or six books that I'd like to keep around.

*grabs the tongs and saves Anna Karenina* This book broke my heart. Not for Anna but for the husband. I won't fault Tolstoy for having outmoded attitudes, and mark him high for keen pstchological observation.

It's a photo studio morning. I'll see you all later.

*grabs the tongs and passes Anna Karennina over to Lil*



I have two copies of most of the Pratchetts, (one hardback given to me by my ex the moment it came out, and one paperback for losing on trains and dropping in the bath).

B

I just found out about this list of the best books: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/A589575
I haven't read most of them.

I keep nearly everything I can. I can happily re-read just about anything and will wade through most books in a matter of weeks at best.

I especially need new copies of David Eddings books and Dune. They are all falling apart due to the number of times I have read them.

Margaret Rutherford is one of the greatest English actresses ever! I adore her expressive face, and Toccata, you're right--she was a grand Miss Marple.

The classics I have on my sheves currently are Pride and Prejudice (the best of Austen's books), John Steinbeck's Cannery Row and Travels With Charley, assorted Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler detective stories (okay, *I* think they're classic), collected works of Saki, Wodehouse and M.R. James, Pearl Buck's The Good Earth and Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird. I had a copy of Zola's Nana for a long while until it fell apart. It was one of my favorite books. I really should get another copy. I also enjoyed Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White and The Moonstone. As for Hemingway, of all the books I was assigned to read in high school, my far-and-away favorite was The Old Man and The Sea.

To the Bonfire of Bores I heartily nominate William Faulkner! Whoever said it was right--the man is completely overrated. He never met a run on sentence he didn't like. But the King of Bores has to be, IMHO, Henry James.

*Feeling like he would need to read constantly for the rest of his life to catch up *

I re-read Green Eggs and Ham the other day. I won't give up my Dr. Seuss! I wont I tell you.

[{Courtesy}]

Bonfire of Bores

A librarian condoning Burning of books!

I didn't much like Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple, Agatha Christie and Joan Hickson met when she (Hickson) was much younger and Agatha Christie herself said that she would make a good Miss Marple.

It was coincidence that she was cast as Miss Marple many years later and the series stands rewatching, just for the settings alone.

Found this, but there is an epilepsy inducing popup:

http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/PersonDetail/personid-64095

::immediately has a grand mal seizure::