Comments on: The Great Unread

By: PJ

PJ — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 18:14:39 +0000

Dale: that must be the best way to get an A in English Lit

Capt: You’ve read some interesting books, we’ll see about Wuthering. I’d like to read one Dickens book at least, just to know what all the fuss is about.

By: Captain Incredible

Captain Incredible — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 22:45:26 +0000

And I’ve never read Dickens (and don’t care to)…

By: Captain Incredible

Captain Incredible — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 22:42:42 +0000

You have to read Wuthering Heights – we had it in school around the time Kate Bush’s song was in the charts – it made it a little easier to read (I went to an all-male rugby-playing school).

We also had to read Persuasion, 18th Century chick-lit.

Personally, I preferred Dumas, Tennyson and Cervantes, but they weren’t on the curriculum (dammit).

At the moment, I’m halfway through ‘The Once and Future King’ by T.H. White – excellent, tragic stuff…

By: Dale

Dale — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:43:20 +0000

I used to make up book titles and book reports in school just to get away with it and I once had to present with a group, a seminar on, I think it was Oliver Twist. I never did finish reading it but went on and on about it until everyone fell asleep.

By: PJ

PJ — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:18:59 +0000

Tim: I’ve enjoyed some of the classic fiction that I’ve read, and realised why they are so admired. Some have been hell to read. Once I start reading a book I am normally compelled to finish it, so I feel that it’s important that I choose wisely.

I’ll look in the comment issue, I assume you’re using Explorer.

Nicholas: I started to read The Hobbit when I was a kid. It was my brother’s copy, and there was a squished fly near the front, which put me off. I can’t remember if I finished the book, or if I lost interest.

That kinky book sounds interesting, I always love reading sexual memoirs.

By: Nicholas

Nicholas — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:35:41 +0000

There are a great many literary classics I haven’t read — most of them in fact — and I don’t feel a fraud at all. I read what I enjoy. It’s a very eclectic mix. Right now I’m reading a novel about an earthquake in NYC, and also a supposedly factual book about the kinky spanking underworld in London which a very special friend sent me. After that, I’ll probably read a biography or a history book. There are enough books about without having to worry about reading stuff you don’t enjoy.

If I have to name a book I’m “ashamed” I have never read, it would be Lord of the Rings. I have tried but it is so appallingly dull!

By: tim maguire

tim maguire — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:34:29 +0000

I try to mix it up–1 book I feel I should read, then 1 book I want to read. It isn’t a waste to time, some of those “shoulds” turn out to be great reads and all of them do something to increase my understanding of my culture. But it’s important to mix in some beach-reading page-turner crap for fun.

OT: I don’t know if others are having this problem, but since you revamped the site, the formatting on the comments has been all off and often are unreadable.