*** 'THE OFFICIAL BOOK THREAD' ***

[Tal]

Annoyed the hell out of me on Friday when I saw that list. I had a proper old man rant at work.

Tess only being 21st, no Roald Dahl in the top 20 books. It's a globulous mess of overhyped Victorian bilge and books that will never be in the top 20 in ten years' time.

How can you capture kids' imaginations with Jane Austen? Wolf Hall is one of the most challenging reads around but if you want to be royally tested, Joyce is an infinitely more dexterous writer than Mantel.

I asked Tikay for his Top 10 list...years ago. He's still working on it.    

What would be in your Top 10 (or even 20) Tal?

Tikay reads a lot of non fiction, IIRC, so that would be a lot harder. My main interest is in plays, particularly the Jacobean period (Shakespeare, Jonson, Marlowe, Webster being the main four), which is partly why I love Thomas Hardy so much, because his style was so similar to that.

Fiction books that I've really enjoyed and would recommend (in a Sunday lunchtime while I'm doing some work order, which will change any time you ask without fail):

1. Tess of the D'Urbevilles
2. Lord of the Flies
3. Great Expectations
4. Pilgrim's Progress
5. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
6. George's Marvellous Medicine
7. A Study In Scarlet
8. The Code of the Woosters
9. The Picture of Dorian Gray
10. Fantastic Mister Fox

Two Ronald Dahl novels. I know...

[Kev B]

To Kill a Mocking Bird, The Hobbit, Philip Pullman his Dark Materials trilogy among my fave fiction. James Patterson, Tony Parsons and Ben Elton I like too.

I like autobiographies too. Bob Geldof "Is that it" and John Peel's are a great read. Recently read The Railway man by Eric Lomax, a very humbling read indeed.

[simonnatur]

Hi Tal,   I've never read The fantastic Mr Fox, but loved the movie - have you seen it and how does it compare/live up to the original ?

[Tal]

Hi Tal,   I've never read The fantastic Mr Fox, but loved the movie - have you seen it and how does it compare/live up to the original ?

I haven't seen the film, but unless it has the "Some Cider Inside Her Inside" song in it, it can't be a patch on the book.

http://book.zi5.me/books/read/2576/17

[simonnatur]

I read mostly non-fiction these days and am just finishing Alan Sugar's autobiography which is a good read.

Read a lot more fiction when I was younger and The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass and Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five would make my top ten.

[DaveShoelace]

Don't do fiction at all, but my top ten non fiction might include:

1) The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
2) Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Steven Dubner
3) Drive by Daniel Pink
4) Have a Nice Day by Mick Foley (Whatever your views on wrestling this is a really enjoyable bio by a very likeable legend of the game)
5) The Dirt by Neil Strauss (Motley Crue biography)
6) Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
7) The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle
8 ) Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath
9) Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
10) Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink

[Redsgirl]

Hi Tal,   I've never read The fantastic Mr Fox, but loved the movie - have you seen it and how does it compare/live up to the original ?

I know this question was for Tal, But I have seen the movie, and I was mortified.
How they could turn such a wonderful story into that monotonous drivel I will never know.
And they always take the poems out, which are the best bit! They did it with the old Charlie and the chocolate factory movie, to my everlasting disgust.
I implore you, simonnatur, read the book, read all of them.
In fact I cant ever remember thinking a film was better than the book, if people are raving about a movie I avoid it till I've read it, then I can watch happy in the knowledge that I know the story as the author intended.
Unfortunately, 'film of's' are almost always a huge disappointment, usually due to the fact that they are made to cash in on somethings popularity rather than for any real love of the book.
I must say though, I was mightily impressed with the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Hobbit movies, It is exciting when they get it right and what you see on the screen is exactly what you saw in your mind.

I would be interested to hear if people think there any exceptions to this rule, for instance I have never seen the 'The colour purple' which I'm told is a great film, but the book left so little impression on me I never bothered.
God I ramble when something sets me off!

[Ant040689]

Statement of intent to read much more than I have done by posting here. Going to loosely use these lists people are putting up to eventually get around to reading them all.

Really ignored reading for entertainment and have been lazy to just be using TV or Film as my main source, but I know I am missing out on so much. So starts my journey into leaving maybe an hour before bed, maybe less, I don't know exactly, to get reading.

Where shall I start? I would like a great, gritty fiction piece that probably has a modern feel but is an epic of a read i guess. I must sound the complete muppet. But I really am under nurtured on the reading front and wouldn't mind an engaging, but a not so challenging read ie. something written in language a little too complex, to start. Imagine my breadth of vocabulary and sentence structure will improve much more as i read more obv, so I am not worrying.

Any suggestions for just the one book to be concentrating on, just to start?

[Kev B]

Statement of intent to read much more than I have done by posting here. Going to loosely use these lists people are putting up to eventually get around to reading them all.

Really ignored reading for entertainment and have been lazy to just be using TV or Film as my main source, but I know I am missing out on so much. So starts my journey into leaving maybe an hour before bed, maybe less, I don't know exactly, to get reading.

Where shall I start? I would like a great, gritty fiction piece that probably has a modern feel but is an epic of a read i guess. I must sound the complete muppet. But I really am under nurtured on the reading front and wouldn't mind an engaging, but a not so challenging read ie. something written in language a little too complex, to start. Imagine my breadth of vocabulary and sentence structure will improve much more as i read more obv, so I am not worrying.

Any suggestions for just the one book to be concentrating on, just to start?

Life of PI, book and film excellent.

[Redsgirl]

The girl with the dragon tattoo is a good read, complex enough to hold interest but smoothly written,
don't know if I'd describe it as epic, but good enough for me to get the other two in the trilogy.
Of course, you may of already saw the film!

[bobAlike]

Serpico

EDIT: Sorry, it's non-fiction based on a true story

[redarmi]

Statement of intent to read much more than I have done by posting here. Going to loosely use these lists people are putting up to eventually get around to reading them all.

Really ignored reading for entertainment and have been lazy to just be using TV or Film as my main source, but I know I am missing out on so much. So starts my journey into leaving maybe an hour before bed, maybe less, I don't know exactly, to get reading.

Where shall I start? I would like a great, gritty fiction piece that probably has a modern feel but is an epic of a read i guess. I must sound the complete muppet. But I really am under nurtured on the reading front and wouldn't mind an engaging, but a not so challenging read ie. something written in language a little too complex, to start. Imagine my breadth of vocabulary and sentence structure will improve much more as i read more obv, so I am not worrying.

Any suggestions for just the one book to be concentrating on, just to start?

White Teeth or Trainspotting (although the Scottish dialect in Trainspotting isn't the easiest)

[Ant040689]

All great recoms and I will be looking into all of them and getting just the one to get a start with. Perhaps though I may not start with Trainspotting, Life of Pi, or The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo as I have seen the film versions and I wouldn't mind something fresh?

Or can you see the film and be unaffected reading into the book afterwards, as it is an art form so disassociated it will be much like reading into a different story such are the varied depictions you can draw for yourself?

I already am very excited by the prospect of reading more and nearly certain it will become infectious.

[Jon MW]

Hi Tal,   I've never read The fantastic Mr Fox, but loved the movie - have you seen it and how does it compare/live up to the original ?

I know this question was for Tal, But I have seen the movie, and I was mortified.
How they could turn such a wonderful story into that monotonous drivel I will never know.
And they always take the poems out, which are the best bit! They did it with the old Charlie and the chocolate factory movie, to my everlasting disgust.
I implore you, simonnatur, read the book, read all of them.
In fact I cant ever remember thinking a film was better than the book, if people are raving about a movie I avoid it till I've read it, then I can watch happy in the knowledge that I know the story as the author intended.
Unfortunately, 'film of's' are almost always a huge disappointment, usually due to the fact that they are made to cash in on somethings popularity rather than for any real love of the book.
I must say though, I was mightily impressed with the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Hobbit movies, It is exciting when they get it right and what you see on the screen is exactly what you saw in your mind.

I would be interested to hear if people think there any exceptions to this rule, for instance I have never seen the 'The colour purple' which I'm told is a great film, but the book left so little impression on me I never bothered.
God I ramble when something sets me off!

I think the main problem with 'film of's' isn't necessarily the commercialism, more the fact that by necessity to put a book onto screen you have to lose about 80% of the content.

I think the only film I've seen before the book was Trainspotting and that is one where the film does excel as much as the book; but in a different way to the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe film. Trainspotting didn't just take what was in the book and put it on the film - exactly like what was in your mind. Instead it was interpreted and presented in a form which was more appropriate to a film format rather than a book format.

The Hunger Games film went even further than that - they cut and altered some fairly significant parts of the book, but in a way which still kept the story intact. It made the finished product a good film - just as the book is a good book; but almost like they're two separate versions of the same story rather than one of them 'just' being a film of the other.

There are actually loads of films which are better than their original books - but that's only really because the original book was quite so mediocre; so probably not really worth bothering with.

[Cf]

73. Game of Thrones (series) George R.R. Martin

Lack of homework done here. The series is called A Song of Ice and Fire. Bad teachers.

Also, I know he's not everyone's cup of tea but I'd expect some mention of Pratchett in that list?