Literature was a big part of both of my degrees so had to read a lot of books - hard to get back to reading for pleasure and not looking for comparisons, links, allegories, elegies etc. I read All The Pretty Horses [mentioned above] and had to do a presentation based on the symbolism of blood and water in the book - it certainly makes you read in a different way! Not read Dracula, read Frankenstein as part of Gothic module - but prefer American Gothic ... strangely enough Mockingbird is an example!
Faulkner's brilliant, I'm guessing you and I have similar tastes anyway judging by your examples and username - Fear and Loathing ....
On The Road's a roman à clef [novel with a key] a fancy name for a book about real life dressed up as fiction, so not always riveting - there's lots of examples that are worth a look, The Sun Also Rises - Hemingway, Tender is the Night - Fitzgerald.
Not read any Burgess. Do you like Norman Mailer - I did a study of his White Negro - fascinating man.
I haven't read a huge amount of yank stuff, but a lot of what I have has been very good. No Mailer, though.
Bloody crazy isn't it I loved Lego as a kid though. I had two round tubs almost like washing baskets, they stood about two foot high and were about a foot wide. One was full of Lego, the other had toy cars in. When stuck indoors, those two tubs were my life The only other thing I liked to do was draw or write stories but they were usually when stuck at a grandparents with no Lego or cars PS...fancy buying a Lego Anfield for £300? http://www.brickstand.co.uk/product/anfield (thought it would be more than that) Even google can't remember that far back!!
Not when you are 16 and the only reason you are studying English A level is because you fancy a blonde girl from "that there London" who had joined the sixth form and was studying English. Having said that I enjoyed Waiting For Godot which we also had to study.
i had old annuals of hotspur and victor book for boys as a kid great stuff... i confess to have collected the commando comics too.
I preferred Victor, Alf Tupper he'd show prem footballers a thing or two. He was never "too tired", often worked a full shift down pit, then rescued trapped miners, then won an Olympic medal, all in one day. That's the way it was done in the old days. Did Valiant feature Capt. Hurricane, were the German characters only ever said "Donner und Blitzen" as they were killed, or "ze war is over for you Tommy" again just before they were killed prior to an escape by said "Tommy"
When I was a kid my Nan tried to improve my education by ordering Look & Learn for me, she clearly thought that the education system in Toxteth was not up to the standard it should be. I ended up with hundreds of them, some of which were not to bad, but not a patch on the "war" comics around at the time or the Commando mini graphic novels. A couple of years ago James May , of Top Gear fame, brought out a compilation of Commando books and my kids bought me it for a laugh. Must admit I read them all and it brought back some fond memories.
alf tupper.. tough of the track.... classic. but he was a welder not a miner. he'd be down in a railway bridge lock up welding all day (f knows what) then off to beat some snob at the running club in his wolfs head signet. what was the other guy jon stark football mercenary and then some guy who played for england and scored every game... what was his name.... jimmy grant.... had to google
