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

My mother taught me to read when I was 3 (we were evacuated to Cornwall and without even a radio of our own)Even at two a week in the intervening 68 years, I've managed 7,000.The ability to read fast while still retaining the "plot" has proved very useful: I did one of the first linguistics degrees at Leeds and in those days anything on the literature syllabus of over 600 pages still appeared on the linguistics syllabus. Also, when I did my master's I was on my own with two young children and did most of my reading after they were in bed. The disadvantage is that books printed in English were/are? very expensive in non-Anglophone countries where I spent most of my working life. I admit that I read mostly rubbish these days: American detective novels with attached recipes and gaping holes in the plot.

" I admit that I read mostly rubbish these days: American detective novels with attached recipes and gaping holes in the plot. "Wand'ring star]

I read a couple books a week now, too. I would have read more when I was working for a living, but my work involved reading thousands of book reviews a year for a library. After so much reading on the job, my eyes were kind of tired. I rested them by going to movies after work. Sitting thirty or forty feet from a movie screen lets your eyes focus into the distance rather than at a page twelve or fifteen inches away.

I've probably read the same recipe-filled detective novels that you have . I don't want that to be the *only* type of book I read.

Got a problem here - all I can say is that, of the 200, I recognise the titles of about 180... and "more than recognise" rather fewer so I'll put my score at (but don't necessarily believe me...)

148

- -

Ah, Wand'rin star, you beat me by a year or so - US forces Rest Camp nearby, locals inviting (a few at a time!) home...

Sho - only the film, not the book - I don't think we even have a copy in the house.

Whereas we have four copies of LOTR , two of most of the HP books, two copies of Hitch-hiker's ... and I weeded out several more duplicates when I went through my children's book collection earlier this year.

I quite liked the Jacqueline Wilsons I read, and I also owe my children for The Great Gatsby (my equivalent text at school was The Go-Between). But my favourite of the books introduced to me by my children has to be the Hunger Games trilogy, which probably post-dates this list.

Mol

I love the film - it's just so... teenagery
We all (Gruesomes and I, somehow wasn't interested) read them all - in fact when the last one came out I used to sneak into #1s room at night to get it off her so I could read it first...

Maria - I think it was you who mentioned how anglophone the list is? well it is from the BBC

As for multiple copies, we have several copies of LOTR (also in German with lovely pull out maps). Mine has just about fallen apart so nobody is allowed to touch them, last time I read them it was on my Kindle but it wasn't the same so I won't be doing that again). We also have 2 sets of Harry potter because I have all but the first in Hardback and when #2 wanted to read them they were too heavy for her
Plus you really should have your own copies of books you love.

About 61 or 62 off the BBC 200 list... helped I think by the amount of childrends books on the list Mind, I refused to read LOTR after wading through the durge that was the hobbit when I was a kid which is probably a certified crime thesedays and have tried avoid the harry potter stuff like the plague too, on TV and book with success thus far My reading varys so much, over time though, a few eyars back I just read through every thing by Hardy, yet now I seem to be getting through a couple of trashy novels, chrime or thirller a week, instead...

At some point I will do a journal listing the books I read in 2014. I haven't counted the number I've read so far, but my goal is about 100.

58 of the 200, but I can't say that many of my personal favourites are on the list. I spent about half my life reading almost exclusively science fiction although lately I have started to read whatever is to hand when I find the spare time. This has resulted in my reading several of my childrens' books that appear on the list of 200, either childrens' fiction or school set texts.

One of our duplicate LOTRs is because when *my* copy fell apart, I bought myself a new set. It was shiny and lovely ...

... and then Osh took *my new copy of* the Two Towers to be his school reading book and it got totally trashed banging around in his backpack for two months

He now has his own copy. DH has a one-volume copy he picked up in a charity shop because he wanted to read it for the first time after seeing FOTR in the cinema, and I was mid-read. And then he ended up getting a copy for his kindle.

We started out with paperback HPs but got Halfblood Prince in hardback when it was published (and subsequently Deathly Hallows), and then because we were *all* reading and re-reading the first five, and they were starting to fall apart, I picked up hardback copies second-hand. It's quite handy because there's often more than one of us reading through them (my turn next )

2Legs, HP is definitely worth reading. The Hobbit put me off LOTR as well, but then at the age of 10 I found myself stranded in Spain with only The Two Towers as an available book for me to read ...

Mol

Mol; I did start reading the twin towers I think when I was about 11 or 12, and nah... I dinny get on with it! dunno why, really... just... nah, dunno why! HP... nah, I've pretty much ruled that out, having 'read' various things about it, as it were... err, hence for the same reason 50 shades isn't ever likely to ... be read

"I spent about half my life reading almost exclusively science fiction" [Silicon Dioxide]

That's good to know.

There are two prestigious awards for science fiction: The Hugo Awards and the Nebula Awards. One is chosen by critics, the other by popular vote. Interestingly, some titles have won *both* awards. here is a link to a list of the double winners:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_joint_winners_of_the_Hugo_and_Nebula_awards

I would be interested in hearing your take on the list.

Oh 2legs ... *those* things about HP ... fair enough.

I've never had the slightest inclination to read 50 shades of grey.

Off to check those sci-fi awards ...

Mol

Oh. Ok. I don't read much science fiction, then. I've seen a fair few of the films though (yay! Galaxy Quest!).

Mol

I used to read loads of sci fi/fantasty stuff, oo. . a couple decades ago, no idea why I don't often seem to anymore... maybe I need to go reinvestigate as something differnt, for a change....

When "Game of Thrones" was on TV, I decided to read the original book that the mini-series was based on. I got about ten pages into it.

I like sci-fi films, and I've enjoyed the books I've read, but there aren't that many of them.

Currently we're working our way through films based on the works of Philip K Dick. Afterwards I think I'll read the source material.

Dos that list include "Next" and "Through a scanner darkly"?

yes. both. Next was... meh. Through A Scanner Darkly was great.

I've read 46 of the top 100, with a few to read when I've cleared my 'Not Read' list. I've only read 24 of the next 100 books, so a total of 70 out of 200 so far. Again, there are some I intend to read at some stage. At the most I'd get my total up to 100, largely because a lot of the books on those lists don't interest me.

Nor me. Besides, I have dozens of lists to choose from.

I Once read a book in which one of the characters annually read at least one book by each of the Nobel literary prize winners. This approach would at last guarantee that you weren't choosing from an Anglo-centric [or anything-centric] pool of authors. If 70+% of the world's people don't speak English as their first language, you're going to miss some great stuff by going with lists compiled by people from English-speaking countries.

On the other hand, there was a Chinese Nobel prize-winner whose book "Heart Mountain" I tried to read, and I was not able to get very far into it.

And I'm not criticizing the use of foreign works translated into English. Obviously, there are hundreds of languages in the world, so a good translation is unavoidable.

‘1Q84,’ by Haruki Murakami, was not hard to read in English, but I'm sure I missed a lot of the cultural context. I've read other Japanese writers, and sometimes have a lot fun with them, but it can be a hard slog if you run across things that would only be meaningful to a Japanese reader.

India has some great English-language writers. I love Jhumppa Lahiri, Manil Suri ["Death of Vishnu"], Vickram Seth, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and others.

There, I've made an effort to get more familiar with half the world's people ....