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

Ooooh box of delights who said that...I loved that book when I was little - could never figure out what was going on but it was cool.

Of mice and men was a great school book (especially when studied alongside the mayor of ****ing caster- ***ing bridge, ****ing thomas hardy *grumble grumble*).

schoolbook wise I also loved Good Night Mr Tom (not the treacly tv version though) very disturbing at times and although it all ends ok it isnt too sickly.

I don't think I've ever read a life changing book (well apart from when I was 5 and decided I *was* cinderella from the ladybird book ). The only book that has made me cry recently was the 4th harry potter book. And the only books I've been excited by recently are the Iain Banks books (I read the crow rd yrs ago after seeing it on tv but I've only just got round to the rest...looking forward to the wasp factory, its on my christmas list).

The most recent book that I devoured from cover to cover was the Little Book of Management B*****ks.

PQ (currently re-reading Pratchetts only to discover I've lost my copy of Men at Arms )

Not a good book to lose - one of the best of the bunch, that.

And it contains the best ever coining of an adverb:

"Captain Vimes leant against the wall of the Opera House and threw up /allegro ma non troppo/"

B

I agree with The Pencil Queen.

F***ing Thomas Hardy.

Far from the f***ing Madding f***ing Crowd.

Although it did have illegitmate sex in it, and dead babies...

WHY MAKE 15 YEAR OLDS READ IT???

*grumble mumble*

Just occurred to me that although people have mentioned Of Mice And Men, no one has mentioned East of Eden (which is huge-r and better than the film) or The Grapes of Wrath...both AMAZING books by John Steinbeck. Thoroughly recommend.

The Mayor of Casterbridge ought to be banned from schools. I *liked* English, and I couldn't stand it. Boring boring BORING. Enough to put students off books for life.
The only plus side about studying it was listening to extremely dodgy audio version, which made it sound like Farfrae and the other Mayor (his name escapes me) were having an affair

I was top English student, and I want to resurrect Thomas Hardy just to skewer him with a stick for Far From The Madding Crowd...

AAARGHH!

Bathsheba.

A life changing book? Hmm.... havent read all the posts but heres a couple that make you think

A day in the life of ivan desenoivich (sic) cant remeber who wrote it but is about an inmates typical day in a soviet work camp in Siberia.

Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut will stay with you for life.

or how about the communist maifesto by Marx and Engels may not change your life but it is an important historical document with much to say, which still applies today.

Absolutely in agreement with everyone here about Thomas ****ing Hardy - who the heck decided he was even a moderately good writer, let alone one worth inflicting on generations of schoolchildren??

Another book I'd recommend is the one I am about to finish - 'The Chronicles of Amber' by Roger Zelazny. It won't change your life, but it's a really good read!

"The complete robot" by Issac Asimov is a damn fine read!

Thomas Whody? (joke)

Well in our superior education system in scotland we didnt have to read Messer Hardy, nay luck.

Oh, how about to klill a mocking bird? top quality book (if you got it at school and didnt like it, try reading it again, now that its not uncool to read).

you are made to read some strange things at school ... neville shute's 'no highway' anyone? ... a book (from the little i managed to get through) about metal fatigue in rivetted plate joints of areoplanes!

i'd recommend Alan Blissett's Boyracers - it even says on the back:

"A contemporary classic that should be on the required reading lists of all higher english students" ... Stirling Observer!

Maybe someone REALLY didn't like Thomas F***king Hardy (as he is now rechristened) and decided the best way to make everyone else hate him, would be to inflict 4 months of study of him onto 15 year olds. Get 'em while they're young!

4 simulposts!

I'd just like to point out that Thomas F**king Hardy does still have his admirers...

Not me.

And not any of my friends, either.

But my mate Steven's sister Ann actually voluntarily read - and enjoyed!!! - the Mayor of Casterbridge.

I on the other hand avoid them like the plague.

Great Lies Told By Teachers To Pupils, Number 37:
"The rustics are the comedy characters in Far From the Madding Crowd. They get all the funny lines."

Now, I'm sorry. I can laugh at well played comedy lines in Shakespeare. But there is not ONE, SINGLE intentionally funny line in FFTMC. There are TWO funny things about the book. One is the chapter title "The Gurgoyle: its doings", which to those with a scatological sense of humour (i.e. me and my best mate when we were 14...) is hysterical, and the other is one of the chapter openings (possibly even that chapter, I can't remember) which just goes off on one for about two paragraphs about the spires in Nijny Novgorod and has absolutely NOTHING to do with the story - it's like Hardy was on drugs the morning he wrote it.

Other than that it is doom-laden cak romanticising the relationship between a rustic dolt and the unconscionable whore he venerates for no apparent reason at all beyond a passing physical attractiveness apparently rare in the godforsaken pit of a county he lives in, and who makes sure she works that attractiveness for every advantage she can manage while she can with no thought for the feelings of others. It is an act of enormous literary dishonesty that she survives the book physically unharmed. Any other author would have had her suicided or killed or at the very least horribly maimed before the hapless Gabriel finally saves her from herself (and saves the rest of the male population of Wessex from her while he's at it) by marrying her.

Ooh, I *really* didn't like that book.

Does it show?

H.

I always wanted Gabriel Oak to go on a killing spree.

Oh! I remember being the only one in the class having a laughing fit over the dead sheep...

I drew the scene on the blackboard too...

And just laughed and laughed and laughed...

*Baaaaaaaaa!!!!*

I like Hardy - but not hugely, and not for comedy value!

The only books I read in school and emerged still loving were The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood, and The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald. The latter set me off to read Tender is the Night, which I possible enjoyed more.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! NOT THE BL**DY MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE?
Oh I can't bear to think of those lessons where I had to try and stay awake while we read around the class.Even the passing of 35 years have failed to dim the memory of the awfulness of those lessons.I had no trouble with the other 30 odd books we had to read for CSE as I read them all plus the GCE literature choice of Pride and Prejudice with great pleasure.Ring of Bright Water,Eagle of the Ninth,My Family and Other Animals to name just three.Even the Shakespeare we read was great.I remember The Merchant of Venice with pleasure.

Thomas Hardy!! I spit on him.

However after that tirade I can only say that the book that has recently had an effect on me was Perdido Street Station by China Meiville.Dickens meets Ghormemgast on speed.Great stuff!

Incog.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. That'll be Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. He won a Nobel for literature. One Day in the Life is mostly based on his own experiences. It's a fine book, but on *no account* should you attempt to read anything else by him...

OMG what have I started....

My mum even made us visit Thomas ing Hardy's cottage...dull dull dull.

My GCSE mock paper on the mayor of ing casterbridge, 7 pages long and I only got halfway through chapter 1!!!! Does anyone know how many chapters that book was, I've got vague memories of one paragraph chapters running into the hundreds

We didn't even get the audio version in comparison even bizarre plays like unman wittering and zigo (don't ask) where good.

There's a very fine film version of Unman, Wittering and Zigo. With James Mason and Sterling Hayden, if I remember correctly.

Though that has nothing to do with recommending good books...