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

Hey Munchkin I'm glad someone agrees with me on Lovecraft

"Beyond the scary mountains are the unmentionable mountains inhabited by even less mentionable terrifying creatures beyond description, yet beyond even these mountains are the horrifyingly even even less mentionable mountains in which are creatures so scary that the ones in the previous mountain range daren't mention them"

What *is* he on about?

You need a degree in weirdness to have a clue as to what's going on in the last two Dune books. Agreed though, Dune itself - the 1st one - is brilliant.

The Silmarillion - recently gave up on my 4th attempt, think I made it to page fifty-something

Everything Kafka ever wrote

Gone with the Wind -

I found Janet and John on the second reading a trifle simplistic but I don`t suppose this is helpful.

I dunno - I like some Lovecraft (the oozing ichorous horror stuff) although I agree most of it isn't particularly scary. On the other hand, I can't stand the fantasy tripping-off-into-fairy-land stories, and gave up on most of them after page two or so.

And the fifth Dune book was good! Rather different setting sure, but a load of nifty ideas. Admittedly, book six does get rather wiggy.

To be fair, Chapter House was the *really* weird one right enough.

I said my piece a while ago and should have been content but seeing 'The White Goddess' listed here I must now at least put in a good word for it. And 'The Golden Bough'. Yes, you have to be interested in our past and where we came from...

On another tack - two books I never 'bothered' to read in my youth which pleasantly surprised me recently when I finally did:
Stranger In A Strange Land
The Island of Doctor Moreau
I finally saw what all the fuss was about. And I regret dismissing them for so long. If ever 'hollywood' failed to do a book justice 'the island' has been done wrong, every time and far too often.

I find it hard to beleive that any actually read 5 Dune books, let alone 6 of the damn things!

agcB

And the Dune Encyclopaedia (not end to end in one session though)...

Could link to the room 101 thread but

Any book written in the present tense

Any book that doesn't say in big letters on the front "Part X in ta series of z" where X >1, you get 10 pages in a realise you need to read the first y books, which you can bet the library doesn't have thereby forcing you to pay a fee to get.

Oh and earlier someone mentioned The Sword of Shannara - This wasn't just similar to TLOTR but a complete rip off, every bit of the story line from page 1 was ripped off, an amazing achiement

ChawkE

I still cannot get through Lord of the Rings. I also cannot finnish The Stand by Stephen King, a horrible author.

Wow, and here I've read both of those, twice. I could bairly put The Stand down.
I tend to agree with the Stephen King thing though, how ever he has some great and creepy ideas.

King is simply unable to wrap up a book over 100 pages long. His short stories are great, novels terrible.

Finnegan's Wake - James Joyce
Great concept, I never get beyond the first paragraph however hard I try. Maybe I'd find Ulysses a doddle by comparison.

The Idiot - Dostoevsky
I loved other books of his but this one never worked for me

The Iliad - Homer
This one I'm ashamed of and must rememdy asap

Never managed the Iliad, but loved the Odessey - it sends shivers up my spine to think that the guy who wrote it was not completely certain that the world did not in fact contain sorceresses who could turn you into pigs, one eyed giants, and sirens whose songs were so compelling they caused men to steer their ships into the rocks.

The reason I cannot manage Joyce is that I cannot "hear" the dublin voice in my head, I would love to have it read to me by an Irishman...

Agree about Eddings, blandly compelling at first, but increasingly boring as the formula went on and on. Anne McCaffrey is the same, loved the first two Pern books, cant be bothered to buy the current ones.

Can't stand Dickens, his women are *so* two dimensional.

Never managed Hardy, because I like a happy ending, or failing that a cheerful middle, or at least a bright start.

a philistine called Ben

There are 'spoken word' recordings of some of Joyce's works. But the dialect is as thick, as the stream-of-consciousness, is syrupy. It will either leave you feeling like the only one in a room who doesn't speak the language or it will spin you off into your own little eddies of introspection every time you reach 'enlightenment'.
The latter, I've always suspected, was the authour's intention. It is so rich in that regard that reading, or listening to, more than a page at a time - without drifting away - is impossible. Or missing the point.

Catch 22
Haven't had enough of a run at it and really can't be bothered after my last attempt.

The Outsider - Albert Camus
Got it for christmas, got past the first chapter got no further.

There are plenty of books I've struggled through only to find them completely unsatisfactory. Captain Correlli's Mandolin and The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco spring immediately to mind.

White Teeth by Zadie Smith. Another flash Johnny-come-lately posing as a serious writer.

The Complete Works of Shakespeare. This was very difficult to fling properly, but it was well worth the effort. (I say this as an English graduate.)

The Bible - 'nuff said.

Oh yeah, and a book called Lord of the Rings...

Oh *now* I'm upset *stamps feet petulantly*

Not only is LOTR getting grief but now Catch 22! My 2nd fave book.

Tsk.

Read it twice, first time hilarious, second time shocking, not a more powerful anit-war book can imagine. Simply because of its huge irony.

How can you not like this book?!!!!

Well, s'pose if you don't..

Dickens - all through school I was told his books were classics, but I can't see it - they set my teeth on edge, as do the constant dramatisations that the TV companies are so proud of. I don't think it's just his women that are two dimensional - all his characters seem to be - particularly his heroes who are toothachingly sweet at times. I always back the bad guys. And they've all got such silly names (said Captain Kebab )

I struggle with Shakespeare, but feel guilty.

I read and reread LOTR, but it's beginning to wear thin.