I Read Therefore I Am discussion

Start a new thread about anything to do with books and reading here- it could be how many books you've dropped in the bath over the years (one for me- gave up bath reading after that), your favourite authors/genres etc,etc,etc

Hope I don't drop my current read in the bath - it's on Kindle!

That would not be good!

I have just seen the link to the Boxall list and started to look through it. What has surprised me is the books on it that I've read and thought were unexceptional. I suppose it just goes to show how subjective it always is. Really looking forward to some of them though.

I know what you mean - most of the books on the list that I've read I really enjoyed though.
You're right about the subjectiveness of it all - how can anyone decide on which book is the "best"?
A list that quite disappointed me was the BBC 100 best books of all time :
1.The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

Best 100 books of all time!? I mean 4 whole places taken up by Harry Potter! and what's Jeffrey Archer doing there??????

I have to agree although I have to say I did love Kane and Abel although it is many years since I read it. Another guilty pleasure is Terry Pratchett whose books I simply adore but he has several books on this list, one representative of his style would surely be enough. Or perhaps that principle fits best with a list of best authors. Science Fiction and Fantasy is certainly well represented as are children's books. Arguable that The Thorn Birds is in the same league as Crime and Punishment! But great that Dune is there - one of my all time favourites that I have read many, many times.

I've copied your first comment (or tried to - it's come up with my picture!) to a new- what do you think of the 1001 list? I think we might all have some interesting views.

Hilary wrote: "I have to agree although I have to say I did love Kane and Abel although it is many years since I read it. Another guilty pleasure is Terry Pratchett whose books I simply adore but he has several ..."

Exactly - I think when you're limited to 100 books one entry by each author is enough - even if your talking about the Tolstoy and Dickenses

I said much the same about the BBC list - how can 4 Harry Potter books be justified? There are far better books IMO, though as you say, it's all subjective (I believe there are some people who think Katie 'Jordan' Price is an author......)

Yes, I wonder if it would be better not to read at all than to subject yourself to the ramblings of Ms Price

I get the Telegraph on a Saturday because I like the Review pull out. This week had a very interesting review of Lawrence's Sons and Lovers which I thought might be interesting for other members of the group as it is a Boxall book. I'm not sure how this could be accessed online but perhaps someone more knowledgeable about the workings of the Internet might know.

I'll have a quick look - watch this space!

Sorry Hilary - I tried and failed :0(

What do you think of D H Lawrence, Hilary? I've only read Women In Love - I got to the end of it, but it didn't leave me wanting to read anything else by him.

I've never read Women in Love. Everybody of my age read Lady Chatterley's Lover on principle but for me Sons and Lovers is a book I re-read every couple of years. After reading the review I have downloaded all his work on the Kindle as I intend to read through them. I didn't realise he had written so much to be honest especially short stories which I never associate with him. I love his poetry as well, the Piano always makes me very emotional and might be OK for your poem of the day. The Snake is also a favourite but a bit too long for here perhaps.

I haven't really answered your question! Speaking of sons and lovers, I find the relationship between the son, mother and father so interesting. The setting is also one I'm very familiar with, a mining community, so I suppose I can visualise their environment very easily. I always find it quite difficult to analyse why I enjoy something - I just do!

Sounds good Hilary - I haven't read anything by him but he is on my 'Author's to get round to' list!

I studied Sons and Lovers at university in the 70s but at the time I didn't enjoy it much. I haven't read it since but my memory is of a very claustrophobic atmosphere and self-centred characters. I read The Rainbow around the same time, but again can't remember a lot - only that I liked it better than Sons and Lovers.

@Joy - yes I think it was the self centredness of the characters that put me off Women in Love - that and the long diatribes (not to mention the bizarre wrestling scene) - I also got the impression that Mr Lawrence didn't really like women much .......but

@Hilary - you've convinced me to give him another try.
Have you read Zennor In Darkness by Helen Dunmore, a book which features D H Lawrence as a character. It's set during WW1 when Lawrence and his German wife moved to a remote part of cornwall to try and escape from the anti German feeling (and threats) of the time. I really enjoyed it.

Haven't read that, this TBR list is becoming ridiculous!

It's never-ending isn't it Hilary? Then again, there's very rarely anything good on the telly....

Do any of you have the odd author where you like one particular book of theirs , but not their work generally?
For example Possession has got to be one of my all time favourites but I'm not nearly so keen on AS Byatt's other novels.
Similarly I love Keats' The Eve of St Agnes, but again haven't enjoyed other poems by him as much.

I'm a bit that way about Dickens, love Hard Times and A Tale of Two Cities but have really struggled with some of his other books and been desperate to get them over with. Breathed a huge sigh of relief when I finished Nicholas Nickleby and several I've just given up on completely.

Hilary - I have a different peculiarity regarding Dickens - I enjoy hearing them read (radio 4 have done some good ones over the years) and have liked TV adaptations, but just can't get on with reading them!

Oooooh that's an interesting question Joy - I love A Month In The Country by J L Carr - but have never managed to get more than a chapter into his other books, The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West is another of my favourites but I don't really get on with the rest of her writings and I like Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood far more than her other books.

@ Hilary - have you ever tried Great Expectations ? It tends to be the Dickens book that people who don't like Dickens really like.

If you like war poets, this looks like a good deal on the Kindle daily. http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/re...

Thanks Tracey - had to get the Wilfred Owen one too - even though I already have it in paper form!

I'm like you Lee, I already have it in hard back, but thanks for mentioning it Tracey

Don't know if anyone's aware of this yet but Doris Lessing has died. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013...

It seems that the BBC news haven't announced it yet.

No I hadn't heard that! - I've never read anything by her - has anyone here?

I've read the golden notebook when I was a teenager. I thought that it might be in the Boxhall list?

Just checked and yes it's in there. Perhaps she could be one of the authors considered for inclusion in your monthly reads.

I don't think I've read anything by her. I thought she was very intellectual and difficult to read but I could be totally wrong. How did you enjoy her Tracey.

Hi Hilary, I have to admit it was 35 years ago so I don't remember it at all. However, it obviously didn't leave a lasting impression on me!

I haven't read anything by her but would like to try. I know Lee gets the monthly authors from the Bloomsbury Good Reading Guide but I'm sure she will probably be in their somewhere so maybe we could have her as a monthly author? Or if not, perhaps a readalong of one of her books??

Yes she's in there- we could have her as Jans monthly author - unless folk would prefer something a bit lighter in that depressing post Christmas month?

I'm not sure she's an easy read!

Ok I'm thinking Feb for Ms Lessing as monthly author - we'll let the randomizer choose for Jan
She apparently wrote memoirs and sci fi as well as the feminist works so there should be alot to choose from.

I'll announce the January monthly author shortly.