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

"Little Dorritt (I defy anyone to find a book more boring"

Try "Far From the Madding Crowd" by Thomas Hardy. I'm probably biased as that was a set text for an exam, but it plumbed depth of dullness I hadn't believed possible. Drama that is not dramatic, comedy that isn't funny, mystery that's bleedin' obvious and a hero and heroine it's hard not to want to roast slowly over an open fire. Utter, utter bilge. But a work of rivetting entertaining genius compared to...

"The Pilgrim's Progress", by John Bunyan. Recommended to me by a teacher at my primary school. It is the most grindingly dull collection of words in the English language. A telephone book would be more educating, a foreign language dictionary more spiritually uplifting and the ingredients list on the side of a cornflake packet has it beaten for sheer thrills.

As I read it I just got more and more angry that anyone who had struggled through it could possibly be so vindictive as to recommend it to someone else. I have looked at it once since and almost immediately stopped because I found myself getting angry that I had wasted so many hours of my precious childhood on such worthless tripe.

You may wish to check out some of "Far From the Madding Crowd", just to see how deadly dull it is. I strongly recommend you don't waste a second of your life or pollute your mind by going anywhere near a copy of "The Pilgrim's Progress". If someone lends you a copy, do yourself and them a favour and burn it.

H.

I'll have a go at "Far From the Madding Crowd", can't imagine that it's worse than "Little Dorritt" (hey- at least you said it had a hero and a heroine and an attempt at drama, I never even found plot in the wasteland that was "Little Dorritt". grrrrr )

"Pilgrims Progress" sounds horrific - not even going to try and see if it is worse than "little Dorritt" - it seems to have scarred you for life! You win!

Seeing as we appear to talking about the deficiencies of books rather than their strengths, for a thoroughly enervating read try 'Understanding the Present' by Bryan Appleyard. This is a deeply pretentious load of Philistine claptrap by a muddled and confused thinker who thinks he has something very important to say, and who understands very little about science yet feels qualified to condemn it wholesale. And John Sessions thought it was really good, which is quite enough of a indicator of its quality. My particular response to this book was summed up by one of Dorothy Parker's comments: 'This is not a book which should be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.'

The Crow, its the graphic novel but amazing.

tess of the durbevilles
mill on the floss
catcher in the rye
cold mountain
sons and lovers
the scarlet letter
jane eyre
huckleberry finn
wuthering heights
atonement
the great gatsby
anna kerenina

Anything by William Gibson, How come he is not here already?

ok, ok, dont say it...

But he did 'invent' a genre, as well as inventing concepts that seem normal to us now, cyberspace, virtual reality.

When i pick up a gibson book i really cant put it down, and all his books are good, he has ones which aren't 'as' good, but they are still amazing...

Snow Crash is another amazing cyberpunk novel...

Iain (M.) Banks is an amazing writer in both styles. My favourite s.f. of his is either Consider Phlebas or Excession, probably consider Phlebas, i just dont get so much pleasure from it anymore as i have read it so many times.

The Crow Road is probably his best 'normal' book, I remember they made a TV serialisation of it, I dont suppose anyone has a video copy???

But I'd really like to write my own book, preferably cyberpunk, but the problem is(apart from time, effort, etc) I've read so much cyberpunk i cannot come up with an original plot!!!

For Crow Road, you could try: [Unsuitable link removed by Moderator]

Personally, though Crow Road is one of my favourites, Espedair Street is at the top of my list. Of the SF, I'm not too fond of Excession, but particularly like Player of Games and Inversions.

There is a new Iain Banks out in hardback and publishers paperback at the moment: Dead Air.

Looks like a years wait till I can get the paperback then...

I see no mention of Consider Phlebas in any of the Iain Banks posts. Clearly this is one of his best(as well as his first) s.f. books!!!

Consider Phlebas is actually mentioned in post 227!!

Yes it is!!!!


By me!!!!

Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner

Have you read Neal Stephenson? If you like Gibson, you'll love Stephenson. I think he's the better of the two, but that's just my opinion.

I think he's on a level,
Snow Crash was great, my favourite cyberpunk, but Gibson has produced more pure cyberpunk so I've read more of his...

Researcher 202101, are you a teacher? Hmmm? Own up!

I'd say that out of the ones that aren't posted that I've read recently would have to be Lightning by Dean Koontz or the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde (really amazing literary sci-fi fantasy books)..

My vote goes to Iain Banks' Complicity in case there's a count.

"Phantom of the Opera" by Gaston Leroux (yes it is a book, not just a play! Also Daniel Quinn's "Ishmael"

The Farseer Trilogy, the Liveship Traders Trilogy and the Tawny Man Trilogy, all by Robin Hobb

hi auralyra..I'll try to read those!