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

"A Farewell to Arms" - supposedly one of the great novels of the 20th Century. Note the supposedly.

I'm 9 chapters in, and the awful style that Hemingway writes in makes me want to put the book down, travel back in time, find Hemingway and kick him.

If I have to go through one more block of dialogue trying to work out who's saying what, I'll scream.

I'm not a fan of Hemingway at all. I had to read "A Farewell to Arms" in high school, and "The Sun Also Rises" for my first year in college, and didn't care much for either.

The worst bits are when he's describing the main character having drunken conversations, thusly:

I hate war, don't you? Yes I do. We drank. I hate war lots. I'm Italian. Italians hate war? Most of us. Oh. What about you Americans? Most of us. Pass the wine.

How the hell do you decipher that?

I've found Hemingway's legendary status almost unfathomable. I've tried to read both the above and failed. I quite liked 'For Whom The Bell Tolls', but only because it was about the Spanish Civil War. Even the best bits of that were dramatisations of real events.

I was put off Hemingway forever when my sister read 'The old Man and the Sea' at school and told me about it. Watched the film for a few minutes, and never tried to read a Hemingway. Doesn't sound as if I've missed much.

We appear to have a collection of his stuff downstairs, allm untouched.

I must say I'm disappointed - I'm reading through the so called "great" novels that I've always wished I'd read and never got round to. Voltaire's Candide was brilliant, Watership Down was better, and Hemingway appears to be dross.

Any suggestions for what to look at next?

Keep the Aspidistra flying? Road to Wigan Pier? Burmese Days?

Road to Wigan Pier's on my list.

Gulliver's Travels - the complete thing, not just the children's edition.

Forsythe Saga.
Don't you think it would be easier if you told me what's on your bookshelf (that you haven't yet read), and I'll suggest those I know and liked?

Ooh, "Keep the Aspidistra Flying" is a personal favorite. As are "Candide" and "Watership Down".

I think I'll also agree that maybe if you say what's on the shelf, I can better just pipe up with "hey, I liked that" or "I didn't like it". Otherwise I may just rattle off stuff you've already read, or stuff that isn't considered "great".

I loved 'Wathership Down'. Never read Candid, although I think I have the book somewhere.

There's not much on my shelf - I nicked the Hemingway off my dad, and most of his books are horror novels. Candide was a present from L, part of a Voltaire collection as I love that period of French history - his short story "Micromegas" is a personal favourite.

Will look out for "Keep the Apidestra Flying" when I next go to the library.

Hmmm, difficult then to suggest books. I mean, what defines 'great' in the UK?

Golding's 'Lord of the Flies' is a 'must read' in schools here - and I loved it, despite having read it in school.
I'm just trying to remember what I did at uni: I did a Golding course, an Orwell course, American short stories and I forgot what else.

I liked the Golding books we read, and the Orwell ones, too.

Ah, I loved "Lord of the Flies". Read that at school too.

Now that I'm at home, I can peek into my bookshelves and see what "greats" I still own... odds are if I kept it, I quite enjoyed it.

Do you enjoy medieval historical novels? If so, I like Boccaccio's "Decameron".

I have no qualms about recommending "Johnny Got His Gun", "All Quiet on the Western Front", "Lolita", "Native Son", "The Tin Drum", pretty much anything by Vonnegut, "I, Claudius", and Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle".

I don't know if it meets your 'great novel' qualification, but I've never known anyone to regret reading a John Steinbeck novel.

"Johnny Got His Gun" - Read some of that. It's very good, but distressing at the same time.

Just ordered one of my old favourites from Amazon. Great books that I lost last time I moved:

A leather bound, gilt-edged compilation of all five of Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" novels.

I got a leather-bound, gilt-edged one several years ago. I'm dying to re-read, but hate to take it out on the train. I keep meaning to buy a second copy for reading while out and about. How silly is that?

Steinbeck's good- I've liked "Of Mice and Men", "Cannery Row" and "East of Eden", in particular.

I don't know if these qualify as "greats", either, but I love "Love in the Time of Cholera", "One Hundred Years of Solitude", and "Midnight's Children".

I'm currently reading Johnny Got His Gun in school - I'm a fan. As for Steinbeck, East of Eden is completely awesome.

A month or so ago, I went through this ginormous Beat Generation phase - try some Kerouac or Ginsberg.