email password remember me forgotten your password? Home | About Us | Join | Gallery | Resources | Help | Browse Members Topic: Be honest Posted : 12/09/05 / Views : 1412 / Replies : User anon Professor Morinarty here, what are your favourite books, I mean the ones that you have read at least twice and could do again: As a child? Down wiv skool / Back in the jug agane by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle any fule kno that As an adolescent? Carrying The Fire by Michael Collins ( Apollo 11 Command Module Pilot ) and A Liar's Autobiography by Graham Chapman of Monty Python fame In adulthood? ( if you can call it that ) Kenneth William's Diaries and Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens Books everyone else raved about but which you thought were incomprehensible rubbish? Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig(???) and Orlando by Virginia Woolf Best textbook you wished you understood but you enjoyed the pictures in it? Gas Turbine Aero-Thermo Dynamics by Sir Frank Whittle ( honest ) I really should get out more You got that right [add your comments | all topics] 123Next Reply #1: Re: Be honest Posted : 06/09/05 anonymous I read the telephone directory once which is a good value read for it size, but too many characters in it and not enough plot. Reply #2: Re: Be honest Posted : 06/09/05 anonymous Answer the bleedin' questions young man. Reply #3: Re: Be honest Posted : 06/09/05 anonymous Those of you who are a bit busy can just answer the question about crap books if you like. Reply #4: Re: Be honest Posted : 06/09/05 anonymous Ok I'll give it a go. As a child? The Magician's Nephew. Any Roald Dahl, favourites being Danny the Champion of the World and George's Marvellous Medicine. And I can't remember the author, but I loved a book called I am David about a boy who escapes a concentration camp, I'd love to read that again. As an adolescent? Blubber by Judy Blume. The Flowers in the Attic trilogy by Virginia Andrews. In adulthood? ( if you can call it that ) For a time I would only read Stephen King, I was so obsessed, perhaps with the odd Dean Koontz. I replaced this with my Bill Bryson and biography fixation. Am now reading adult Roald Dahls and thinking of re-reading some Stephen Kings, inbetween finishing A year in Provence, and starting Bryson's Made in America. I am terrible for not sticking to one book. I also dabble with the classics, as I feel guilty if I don't. Like old black and white films I believe you can't appreciate new stuff without experiencing their inspirations. But I stupidly bought the complete works of Jane Austen and Oscar Wilde. Stupidly because the books are too damn big to read comfortably. I have disovered I like Charles Dickens and Edgar Allen Poe, who obviously inspired Dahl. Early days with my classic education I'm afraid, being a non-uni person. Books everyone else raved about but which you thought were incomprehensible rubbish? It would be ridiculous to say they are rubbish, but I just can't read Shakespeare, as much as I wish I could. The popular Kathy Lette. Just not funny. Instead of having to wade through the tedius stuff to get to the fantastic stuff in Captain Corelli, why didn't he write the first bit to be as gripping? American Psycho. How anyone would want to read that is beyond me. Just too sick even for me. Bonjour Tristesse by Francois Segan. Bored me to tears. Best textbook you wished you understood but you enjoyed the pictures in it? Textbook? hahahahahahahahaha Sorry that would involve going to school. I suppose my equivalent would be something like Earth Story, which I buy planning to read but instead look at the pictures and stick on the shelf for 5 years. I think you should have added books that you know you will never read, and those you are dying too but haven't got around to yet. I will never read A Clockwork Orange. I don't care how rape is apparently not the central theme of the book/film, I just can't do it. Would love to read David Niven's autobiographies and quite a few books that have seen the films of first (One flew over the cuckoo's nest is sat on the shelf). Job done. Reply #5: Re: Be honest Posted : 06/09/05 anonymous I agree with you about the classics - I too did not go to uni and sometimes wish I had. I went to school in the days when comprehensive took over from Grammar and Secondary schools and a lot of stuff was simply passed over in favour of a more modern approach to literature which bored the arse off me. I can't read poetry anymore as I was bored so rigid by being force-fed Ted Hughes etc. Dickens was almost ignored in my education, a crime in my view as he towers over almost everybody else.Shakespeare's a difficult one, I love the historical plays like Henry the Fourth, but they are mostly all lies, so as not to offend the regime of the time, but I find the romantic plays quite revolting, particularly when performed in that smug,self-satisfied way beloved of the British Theatre. David Niven's auto-biographies are wonderful, pinch of salt required though. I love biographies and will leave you with a quote from one about John Le Mesurier written by his wife Joan. On the set of 'The Italian Job' Noel Coward asks John Le Mesurier how many fags a day he smokes: John Le Mesurier: "About 90 or so." Noel Coward: "Not nearly enough." Reply #6: Re: Be honest Posted : 08/09/05 anonymous As a Child - The Lion, the witch and the Wardrobe. Liked this alot and reread a couple of times.. only having my interest wane somewhere into book 4/5... Adolescent - think I gave up proer reading by now unless you count the Hobbit and geeky single player role playing books. The problem was taking books on holiday for a boring trip that lasted 4 weeks to 'enjoy' with the family. No electricity, TV, running water and so needed books that I could reread day in day out... so that meant learning the ins and outs of take the left corridor (turn to page 42) or take the stairway leading down ( turn to page 82). Adult - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as recommended by my Nuclear and Particle Physics teacher. Geez now I am embarassed... no hiding my whitecoatness no matter how much I want to rebel. It almost takes me bac up to gutter level saying I am in IT now. Anyway I am not sure I read this book twice. The first time I gave up 1/2 the way in. I had a kind of blood vessel in my brain bursting and could feel a clot begin to form as the heavy ideas took their toll on my. The second time around I resolved to read it as fast as possible to not have the same problem as having to reread something 6 chapters back due o some retarded obscure reference. So I finally understood the train of thought and thought WAAAY COOL man. Emma... I know you may be reading this. Am I still invited to the party. I promise to leave the labcoat, spec and pack lunch box at home. Reply #7: Re: Be honest Posted : 08/09/05 anonymous Well done that man, although I disagree entirely about Zen and the......there wasn't nearly enough motorcycle maintenance for me. Reply #8: Re: Be honest Posted : 08/09/05 anonymous I am indeed reading, and invites are not revoked. You must of course wear labcoat and come as chemistry teacher. Re Lion Witch and Wardrobe......I do hope you read Magician's Nephew as personally I think it is better. Can't wait for the film though, neither can gingerkid. Reply #9: Re: Be honest Posted : 08/09/05 anonymous Does anyone remember when "The Young Ones" did a episode loosely based on The Lion the Witch and the wardrobe? My friend Teddy has 3 small kids who all love The Young Ones and when they saw this episode they were astonished that their favourite book and favourite show had come together in what we call 'fusion' nowadays. Reply #10: Re: Be honest Posted : 08/09/05 anonymous Didn't see that one. But I do believe they are making a new reality show where a woman lies and schemes her way to being the top madam for a prostitute amphibian. The lying bitch and her whoretoad Oh nuts, wrong thread. [add your comments | all topics] 123Next Just some of the most recent users to be using Snog London switch gender