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Confess your literary ignorance

I confess I skipped all the bits in Infinite Jest that had anything to do with sport. Actually I always skip those bits, whatever I'm reading.
 
Never read Hemingway, or To Kill a Mockingbird. Couldn't finish Naked Lunch (the only book ever to defeat me). Had to really fucking slog through Canetti's 'Auto da fe', because I hate not finishing books on the whole.

To Kill a Mockingbird is worth reading. At the very least; the film version is reliable.
 
I've never read any big fat Russian novel. Too hard to keep track when there are three times as many names as characters, I've heard.
Yeah, it is tricky. I skim over the long patronymics and kind of make up my own way of saying them. Find that helps. But switching from surnames to patronymics back to surnames and then the familiar diminutive is annoying.

I've never read Dickens. Reckon I never will.
 
(the only book ever to defeat me)
Really?

I reckon I abandon about 25% of the books that I start, usually the ones that have been recommended to me on subjects that I wouldn't normally read. I'm also quite chaotic in my reading so at any one time I'll have at least 3 books on the go and often drop the least interesting for something else, then return to it a year or more later.

Now is the first time for ages that I'm on 3 books that are all absorbing: A Fortunate Life/Paddy Ashdown; The Forgotten Soldier/Guy Sajer; Defending Jacob/William Landay.
 
:thumbs:
I only have one more tip from my literary ignorance:
I have this on the shelf but not tried it yet - from the 30s USA - Bukowski rates it very very highly as an early US classic written with the modern tightness and seeming simplicity, or something....I havent read it so dont know... I like Bukowskis attitude to writing and language so it appeals to me ... hard times in depression era LA....

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That's really good and a really easy read. It's part of a trilogy. I recommend diving in. If you like Bukowski, you'll like Fante.
 
Really?

I reckon I abandon about 25% of the books that I start, usually the ones that have been recommended to me on subjects that I wouldn't normally read. I'm also quite chaotic in my reading so at any one time I'll have at least 3 books on the go and often drop the least interesting for something else, then return to it a year or more later.

Now is the first time for ages that I'm on 3 books that are all absorbing: A Fortunate Life/Paddy Ashdown; The Forgotten Soldier/Guy Sajer; Defending Jacob/William Landay.
read 'the forgotten soldier' 26 years ago; found out later it was a great favourite of alan clark.
 
There have been certain authors I thought I should read. I have started four Celine novels, and not finished any of them. :oops:
 
Only Dickens I really enjoyed were Hard Times and The Signalman.
Jane Austen is beyond words for me, and yes I have tried her books.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte is perhaps one of the best ghost stories ever written.
Conan-Doyle is best read in short bursts as it was first published.
Eric Ambler is often overlooked as the creator of the modern spy novel.
Try The Mask of Dimitrios.

John Steinbeck, some incredible work, Cannery Row being a personal favourite.
 
Anna Karenina is one of the best novels I've ever read. Also enjoyed Middlemarch, but I should add that I only read them because I was studying the 19th century novel at the time. Glad I did though. Don't like Jane Austen, they're all so mimsy, wrapping themselves in shawls to go a walk round the garden. Wuthering Heights is great but that's as far as I've got with the Brontes. Dracula is good too.
 
I started reading all my Dad's books when I was about 8 - my mum's books were mostly properly literate classics which i did enough of at school, but my Dad bought film adaptations and exciting adventure books, and books with lots of swearing and sex :-p
Then I discovered Sci Fi and stayed there for about 20 years!
since then I've been ploughing my way through Dickens, I love biographical books, and modern history books, and topical subject matter books, but haven't really dealt with modern novel.
The novels i do read tend to be classics that i read after getting a recommendation or because i know that the author is enough of a heavy weight that I think the book will be worthwhile. so I've read a lot of classics, I still have many to read, but my knowledge of fiction post about 1985 is very poor.
Also I've read quite a few philosophy books because I did a philosphy A Level once and i read way more than the required reading. but I haven't read one since, they just sit on my shelves now and make me look clever. :p:hmm:
 
I have read a few adaptations of film and tv series, and count Auf Weidersehen Pet 2 as a highlight of the genre.
 
I confess I skipped all the bits in Infinite Jest that had anything to do with sport. Actually I always skip those bits, whatever I'm reading.
christ that was a bore, i think i gave up.

his journalism and shorter stuff is brilliant though.
 
I confess I skipped all the bits in Infinite Jest that had anything to do with sport. Actually I always skip those bits, whatever I'm reading.
wouldn't take you long to do "the loneliness of the long distance runner" or "this sporting life" - or "fever pitch" - then
 
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