Off Topic What Is Your Favourite Book And Who Is Your Favourite Author?

Chapter 1:

riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend
of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to
Howth Castle and Environs.
Sir Tristram, violer d'amores, fr'over the short sea, had passen-
core rearrived from North Armorica on this side the scraggy
isthmus of Europe Minor to wielderfight his penisolate war: nor
had topsawyer's rocks by the stream Oconee exaggerated themselse
to Laurens County's gorgios while they went doublin their mumper
all the time: nor avoice from afire bellowsed mishe mishe to
tauftauf thuartpeatrick: not yet, though venissoon after, had a
kidscad buttended a bland old isaac: not yet, though all's fair in
vanessy, were sosie sesthers wroth with twone nathandjoe. Rot a
peck of pa's malt had Jhem or Shen brewed by arclight and rory
end to the regginbrow was to be seen ringsome on the aquaface.
The fall (bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonner-
ronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthur-
nuk!) of a once wallstrait oldparr is retaled early in bed and later
on life down through all christian minstrelsy. The great fall of the
offwall entailed at such short notice the pftjschute of Finnegan,
erse solid man, that the humptyhillhead of humself prumptly sends
an unquiring one well to the west in quest of his tumptytumtoes:
and their upturnpikepointandplace is at the knock out in the park
where oranges have been laid to rust upon the green since dev-
linsfirst loved livvy.

 

There are some fantastic quotes, mate:-

"Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it!"

"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

 

American classic fiction, Wait Until Spring Bandini is my favourite ever book.

 

What did you make of Ted Hughes?

 

Not a fan of Hemingway but The Old Man and The Sea is amazing. You mentioned beatnik earlier, On The Road has to be the most over rated novel of all time. You should give Fante a go after reading your list.

 

Never read any of his work.

 

Cormack Mcarthy is also one of my favs The Border Trilogy is amazing.

 

Read Fiesta. It's basically about a group of young people getting pissed while they travel to the running of the bulls in Pamplona. Disillusioned hedonism at its finest.

 

I may give some others a go but you'd have to go a long way to beat the book I mentioned by him.

 

It's worth giving Crow a try.

I got the imagery immediately, and loved it. Some of my circle, at that time, didn't get it and hated it.

Sylvia Plath, on the other hand, I couldn't grasp, at all.

 

Just not my thing. As much as I loved my degree, I did have to study a fair amount of stuff that just didn't appeal to Stan. As a result I'm pretty certain about what I will and won't enjoy.

I do like tutoring Stan Jr though, even if the text he's having to study is crap. Stan comes alive when he's analysing literature!

 

I'm also a massive fan of the classic English ghost short story, and I have collected many volumes, some written by (now) exceedingly obscure authors.

M R James is, of course, prince among them all, but it's worth checking out the works of E F Benson, Charles Dickins, Le Fanu, Charlotte Riddell, Algenon Blackwood, and Arthur Machen.

 

^^^^^** This

 

Have you ever read any Vonnegut. Mind bending. Sirens of Titan just blew my mind. I wandered around saying wow for days.

 

Quite varied in my tastes, English was always a favourite subject and studied it to degree level.

Enjoyed Shakespeare... studied Hamlet, Lear, Henry V, Winters Tale

Fantasy - loved Tolkein, George R R Martin, Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, Robert E Howard and Julian May

Horror. - Peter Straub - Ghost Story ... still the scariest story I've ever read (and not about ghosts!)

Comedy - Catch 22 still the funniest book I've ever read but would also put a shout out for Tom Sharpe's books, Riotous Assembly and Indecent Exposure which were hilarious

Conn Iggulden writes some great historical based fiction

Find myself reading a lot of factual history as I get older - read just about everything ever written on the Native American resistance to white expansion ... particularly the tribes of the great plains..

 

Forgot about Sharpe. Haven't read him for 25 yrs or so. Loved Wilt on high, and the ones you mentioned

 

Could never get into that "swords and sorcery" stuff ( a la Fritz Leiber and Ursula Le Guin); and as much as I adore Robert E Howard's stuff, it's the sword and sorcery element that I could do without. I love him best when he did full-on horror.

Are you a big fan of the horror and fantasy genre, Fosse?

 

Yes HIAG ... more fantasy than horror although I have read and enjoyed almost everything Straub has written plus Stephen King, Anne Rice and Poppy Z Brite ...

Had a great English teacher when I was 11 - she would read extracts from books to spark our interest and she read the riddle scene from The Hobbit... which led to most of the class queuing to get it from the school library and then moving on to The Lord Of The Rings ...

 

I'm also happy to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed the Harry Potter books and also The Hunger Games ... both series I arrived at reluctantly having had my claims to an 'open mind' challenged by my daughters ...

 

How many books are you planning on reading very soon like?