the book you always meant to read ...

i bought some russian short stories from oxfam today *looks smug*

I never get books out of the library which will give me a hernia carrying home. That's why Ulysses is so wonderful. I've been renewing it since January and I'm not even half way through. Great value. Except had to read a huge biography of Parnell because didn't understand the politics. Windham's nice and short

the bible the koran mein kampf one of those long things by one of those chinese writers patience strong's collection of uplifting verses

I reckon the only bit of Moby Dick worth reading is the passage where the protagonist is sharing a room with a cannibal called Quequeg. I found the plight of this poor guy, lying in bed with this man/woman eater, filling his trousers while he waited to be next one on the menu, to be truly hilarious. The rest of the book though - do yourself a favour -forget it.

"War and Peace." I'm waiting 'till I'm lying in a hospital bed with both legs in plaster and the TV's bust.

Am still meaning to read Moby Dick, IFB. *feels very guilty*. In my defence, was given an abridged version as a child, so always assumed it was a Boys-Own ripping yarn. I was quite shocked to learn it was widely ranked as The Great American novel. I do intend to read it, perhaps very soon. Also is very shocking that I have never read anything by John Steinbeck. I get exempted from most of the classic books that I have never read, because I already know I don't like 95% of nineteenth century fiction. If I could purge the dread memory of the Dickens that I HAVE read, I would be a happier man. 'Marley was dead.Yes, Marley was dead,if there was one thing Scrooge could be sure of, it was that Marley was dead. Marley was dead and he no longer lived, oh he was dead alright, dead as dead could be...ad infinitum'

mine, one of them, is midnight's children. i’ve an interest in india, especially its 20th c. social/political history, independence, the nehru/gandhi dynasty, *stops abruptly - remembers this is supposed to be interesting* so, as people often remind me, midnight’s children represents a big gap in my reading…but i have this notion that salman rushdie is a “difficult” writer to read…all that sumptuous prose really isn’t my thing…and whenever i want to indulge my interest i end up choosing another mark tully or v s naipaul… [a week ago, after another “you really ought to read midnight’s childen” conversation, i decided to join hinckley library (being no longer welcome at brum following my mislaying of “zoroastrians - their history & beliefs” – talk about picky…). sadly i was refused membership by a wretch who insisted on my producing “the required i.d” (she wanted something with my signature, something with my address, something with my photo, a DNA sample…) so I had to replace the book on the shelf…]

get required ID! better still BUY IT - the book that is ... worth reading ...not easy but worth it ...

I wouldn't bother with 'Midnight's Children', Robert. I had to read it at Uni, and I spent the whole time wishing the damn thing would end... but that probably had something to do with the knowledge that I had to write an essay on it after.... I've always meant to read 'The Day of the Triffids', which my brother insists is a classic. I've started it about ten times, but always started something else which captured my attention more, leaving 'Triffids' lying lonely and forlorn on my bedside table...

wyndham fits in really well with the cold war era sci fi novels- edgy, foreshadowing and really unfair to russians! i wouldnt call "triffids" a classic, but midwich cuckoos is my favourite and the *most* classic short that wyndham wrote.

*settling down for the night with bill bryson (so to speak)* ivy, did you HAVE to use the words "not easy"? when i was 18 i would have taken that as a challenge, like when someone said "hey, read the castle, it's not finished and there are arguments about which order the chapters are supposed to be read in...but it's worth it"...(no dis to kafka intended, but if i was going to read anything again i'd spend 15 mins with metamorphosis - loved that) curea, can i borrow that essay?

The Day of the Triffids is FANTASTIC - although the Midwich Cuckoos is better - even more nightmarishly scary I've always meant to read War and Peace but somehow have never been able to face it, so it sits looking all impressive on the bookshelf and I smile in an embarrassed way when people notice it and either ask what it's like or try to enter into intelligent discussion about it

Years ago, l dated an incredibly gorgeous, incredibly well read man.....On date number I had deliberately arranged my bedside table alluringly with candles and a copy of Anna Karenina, and was horrified when he attempted to involve me in up til that point blissful post coital discussion about the book. Eventually, we drifted apart (the beano pages that cover the walls in my loo finally becoming too much for his literary ethics) and Anna still remains, unread on my bookshelf. One day........

hahahahahahhaa ...

There are books I intend to 'reread' All of Sydney Sheldon's books Thorn Birds To Kill a Mockingbird The Face of the Waters

Ulysses, I'm ashamed to say. Never got further than the first five pages before something urgent happened that caused me to stop. But one day...

there are so many books i feel i "ought" to read ...*sighs* i had an alain de botton phase a couple of years ago and read "how proust can change your life" and it made me want to read A La Recherche du Temps Perdu and i galloped into the bookshop and bought vol. 1 errrm ... it's still on the bedside table ... i've read the first 8 pages about 19 times ...

IFB - it doesn't get any better after page 8. Midwich Cuckoos was indeed brilliant. I fear that many will have been put off Wyndham by the risible Chocky tv series. Emily - I read War and Peace at impressionable age and it is dreadful. You need a notebook beside you to keep track of characters. Is literature as endurance. Carly - I thought for one dreadful second you were claiming not to have read To Kill a Mockingbird, but am now calm again. Maybe this thread can absolve some guilt, and as excommunicated ex-Catholic, I could do with that, but do not suspect anyone is going to tell me Moby Dick isn't worth reading.

Moby Dick - interesting passages (mostly involving Captain Ahab) spoiled by reams and reams of (sometimes inaccurate) descriptions of nature's wonders. War and Peace is the same (only with politics, Christian theology and freemasonry replacing the whales) I've tried reading Uylsses three times. First time I managed 10 pages. Second time a wordy, academic introduction had me exhausted before I even got to the Joyce. Third time I managed 60 pages (first time I've ever proud of reading such a small amount - didn't last though). I now scowl at it, hoping that it will turn into the wonderful Dubliners somehow (best stories Joyce or anyone ever wrote).

I love Ulysses, though I would have to say that the whole Oxen in the Sun bit (where he suddenly starts writing as if it were Beowulf, then Chaucer) is blindingly unreadable. You have to admire anyone that can spend an entire day on one sentence, and not the words, but the order that those words should be in. Persevere. Don't worry about following plot, the plot is fairly unimportant. The point of the book is the language. At least get to the bit where Blazes Boylan says to the pretty shopgirl, "May I have a word into your telephone, missy?"

Maybe I should read it one sentence a day?

try and read lestrygonians and proteus from ulysses, if you have the annotated version. as andrew said, concentrate on the words more than the plot, then you will breeze throught it. i've always meant to read bleak house by dickens, once at school i bluffed reading it in an essay comparing it to the trial and the castle by kafka. oh yeah, and on that note, if anyone wasn't discouraged by what robert said about the castle, i would recommend it with all my heart.

The Trial is also unleafed on my bookshelf *shame*

Portrait of an Artist as a young man - joyce - i started studying it for a level, the whole class hated it and we forced the teacher to pick another book, which I can no longer remember (a levels were in 1983) I keep meaning to go back to Joyce - i never have.