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

An Inspector Calls was written by J B Priestly, which weird because I've just mentioned him on the Closet Belief thread.

As for Tolkien being sexist, how could he appear to be anything else? The world he lived in was sexist, but I reckon he did quite well considering. Goldberry was a free spirit. Galadriel was the highest elf left in the third age of Middle Earth, Celeborn hardly gets a mention, and as for the Lady Eowyn, sheild maiden, kicking the Lord of the Nazgul's butt. What a load of glorious nonsense.

djs

john wyndam is one of the best scifi authors, imho

the midwich cuckoos has been variously reincarnated as terrible films starring dodgy b grade actors - but if you liked that try some of his other books:
- the chrysalids
- the kraken wakes
- day of the triffids (!!!!)

his short stories are fabulous too - he is a brilliant, tight writer - although he has interesting ideas about female characters - i have a theory that the main female characters somehow relate to his relationships with women at the time, irl - sometimes they are kickarse (eg the kraken wakes) and sometimes they are pretty weak and silly (day of the triffids)

on the LOTR sexism issue - i agree that rereading it earlier this year i did get annoyed at the lack of strong female characters - but i agree with someone who posted earlier that to some extent Tolkien must be considered a product of his times, and there were some great female characters too (i think someone already mentioned Galadriel?)

I agree about John Wyndam. The day of the Triffids is becoming especially relevant with genetic modification going on.

I am just about to start rereading Moby Dick. This is one of those books which I skip huge chunks, but each time I read a little bit more. Another book I must reread (when I can find my copy) is Two years before the mast, which has wonderful descriptions of life on a sailing ship, and also what California was like over 100 years ago.

I was pleasantly surprised by the female character in The Day of The Triffids. Many books and films at the time included women purely to do really stupid things, normally just after the hero says "whatever you do don't do..." and then run around screaming, getting hysterical and generally being a hindrence. I thought the female character was sensible and strong while retaining her femininity, an unusual characterisation even by todays standards.

Oh, and of course Shakespeare, although it is much better to watch a performance than to read the plays. An amazing production of Hamlet made me cry while A Midsummer Night's Dream is always guaranteed to make me laugh.

I liked The Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne. I read it in the 6th grade and could still understand it. I liked it very much. I also just read Romeo and Juliet and I loved it. I loved the language that Shakespeare wrote it in. I thought it was going to be really hard to understand, but it really wasn't.

just finished a ngaio marsh (the nursing home murder) - she was a classic detective writer, the bbc made several of her books into tv shows - although she's a nzer she's not that well known here - it was ace! had never read any of hers before but it was excellent, up there with agatha christie!

cheerio
span

A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth is one of my favourite books ever. I also finished Wuthering Heights a while ago and liked it a lot.

Other classics that were good:

Sense and Sensibility
The Three Musketeers
The Count of Monte Christo
The Tin Drum by Günter Grass (I hated reading it at 15, but it was worth it in the end)
The Enemies of Humankind by Mika Waltari
Sophie's Choice

Are the Harry Potters classics by now?

I found Jane Eyre surprising in more than one way... It actually wasn't bad, and I sort of almost enjoyed it.

I would add "Catch-22" to the list, if its considered old enough to be a classic (from the 1960's). Pretty long at almost 500 pages, but it contains some of the most memorable images and dialogue of any book I can think of. (Paraphrasing):

Yossarian (bombardier): I want out, the enemy is shooting at me.
Commander: They're shooting at everybody.
Yossarian: What difference does that make? They're shooting at ME!



I have to agree with this reviewer at Amazon:

"CATCH-22 is masterful in so many ways. It begins as comic farce, proceeds to the increasingly surreal, and then transforms into a nightmarish tragedy before ending triumphantly. No novel that I know so successfully blends all these disparate moods. I believe it was Hugh Walpole who wrote, 'Life is a comedy to those who think, and a tragedy to those who feel.' No book illustrates that better than this novel. This truly is one of the funniest books I have ever read. It is also one of the most tragic."

Don't know if they all qualify as classics but anything by Graham Greene,Brian Aldiss,John Wyndham and Oscar Wilde.
The one i keep abandoning but am determined to finish is Don Quixote

During the week of my wedding, amidst all the mayhem, I read Don Quixote. And recently, 17 years later, I've finished it a 3rd time. A good read, once you get in the "flow" of the writing style.

I'm about two thirds through but i've always given it up for something lighter in the past ~ or the latest from a fave writer.
Glad to know its worth finishing.If i can do it once the second read will probably be better.

As with reading Asimov's "Foundation Trilogy", I find new bits every reading that were somehow not seen before. That set of books has been read probably 8 or 9 times since I met them in the late 60s.

(No, I am NOT dating myself )

I only started on the Asimov a couple of years ago but have read most twice ~ it still amazes me how many times i've read some books ~ 8 or 9 times for the Dune novels or some of the CS lewis and Arthur C Clark

To be honest, I have never been able to get into the Dune books. But Clarke, Heinlein, Edgar Rice Burroughs? All of them that I've found get multiple readings.

Sorry for the delay, this thing called work.

Work
Thats what i'm supposed to be doing now.
But too bored so off to give Quixote another shot.

Everything by Daphne Du Maurier. She wrote the original story for "The Birds" (God, i'm so sad)

Got into her by trying to find a first edition of "Rebecca" for a workmate who was getting married and then had to get the lot. Not what you'd expect if you met me.