Really rather good books

[Kells]

Might try and give American Psycho another go. His Dark Materials (Phillip Pullman)are well worth a read, as is Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. Other than that, I can't stop reading autobiographies!

[flapjackdavey]

Last Orders by Graham Swift

the wasp factory by Ian Banks

white bicycles by Joe Boyd

dazzling stranger by Colin Harper

four unputdownables .

[bignumber5]

The Secret History - Donna Tartt

The Timetravellers Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

Atonement - Ian McEwan

[Moos]

.

[bignumber5]

You've got to be kidding, BN5. Sophomoric at best.

No kidding.

I was just a teenager when I first read it and I loved it then - to my 'burban 14 y.o self it was a world away. Now it is very comforting to re-read. It's never occurred to me that others might find it pants.

S'pose that raises the point that the right book at the right time can be great without really being a great book, if you see what I mean...

(But you can still bugger off cos i love it. It doesn't all have to be about the beauty of the writing and the wonder of the human spirit ;-) )

[Moos]

OK, I ditched that post in the hope that you wouldn't have read it because it was a bit rude and unpleasant. So well done for reading it in the spirit I did mean it in! Bless you, dear heart.

However, in re: "It doesn't all have to be about the beauty of the writing and the wonder of the human spirit"

YES IT BURBLYFUCKING DOES.

Merry Christmas. Mwah.

[bignumber5]

Anything that induces creative new swear-words should always be cultivated...

[Moos]

One has to get round Big Brotherstrator somehow.

[Brendan]

??the beauty of the writing and the wonder of the human spirit?

Did you embroider that on a throw cushion?

How about, the absurdity of existence and the slapstick nature of human endeavour.

(I?m so cool I scrawled that in Gauloise on the back of a dog eared copy of On the Road.)

Oh by the way, On the Road? Rubbish! As a student I tried to use it as a prop to pull ?interesting? girls and it failed every time.

Sorry wrong thread.

[Moos]

*throws cushion*

Yeah, I know, was kind of a pretentious thing to say - I was just thinking about the book and how amazing it is, and got carried away. I do think that good books should be about what it means to be human, and how we live, and obviously that can be squalid and dull and confusing and terrifying as much as it can be uplifting and inspiring.

[bignumber5]

If they are books that are good for that reason - but a funny book can be a good book whilst doing nothing of the sort, non?

[Moos]

Yes, definitely. Would be a bit weird (and too serious) if reading were all about the Big Themes, we'd all get fed up pretty quickly. I suppose I was thinking of great books - but this thread is for 'good' books, isn't it?

*goes off in search of sense of humour*

Ah, that's where I left it!

[Brendan]

Personally I like novels to be heavy on the rude jokes with a sprinkle of nonsense poetry. I realise that the immortal greats like Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy and Rowling do not employ these methods but Shakespeare did. The only reason he didn?t also write novels was because they hadn?t really been invented yet and most of his target audience probably couldn?t read.

[Moos]

Often really funny writing is also quite sad, is it not? Thinking of the excruciating scenes where Malvolio gets humiliated in 12th Night, for example (btw, apparently Derek Jacobi is currently searingly good in the part at the Wyndham's).

Besides, when did we excise having a sense of humour or being funny from being part of what it's like to be a person? BN5 just said that a book could be good and funny without being great. It can also be funny and great.

Edited for clarity and spellingk.

[mockney piers]

Aha, Catch 22 non?

[giggirl]

A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving

great book and lots of laughing out loud

[Moos]

Lucky Jim - fantastic book.

PG Wodehouse. Parts of Gerald Durrell's books. Decline and Fall (Waugh, not Gibbons - although for all I know that could be laugh a minute).

[Keef]

apparently Derek Jacobi is currently searingly good in the part at the Wyndham's

We're hoping to get to see him, rewatched I Claudius from start to finish recently, think he's great!

As for what makes a good book, writing is an art form, and like any art form, beauty is in the eye / ear of the beholder. For me, a book is special if it makes me smile, makes me shed a tear, or makes me really think about the world. I don't personally care about the grammar or word play, what works for me won't work for others though.

For people to dismiss any book is like the string quartet "Bond" being shunned by the classical Brits a few years ago for being a "pop act", simply because of snobbery, and the fact that they would have blown everyone else out of the water!

Note, I am not a Bond fan, but they were talented musicians.

[SimonM]

I suppose now is as good a time as ever to put in a word for the works of Sir Terry Pratchett, poignant as the new knighthood is. Funnier than Evelyn Waugh & Tom Sharpe combined...