Vote for one and then tell me where I've gone wrong.

Silas Marner.

Voted 1984.

Where you have gone wrong:- no Flann O'Brien
Where you have gone right:- no Jane Austen

Great book. :applaud:

Orwell for me. There's an edition that has a great intro by Thomas Pynchon.

Missing? Ulysses.

Greene? The Quiet American is one of the greats.

Good to see no Amis/McEwan/Barnes. :sick:

I also like Murphy, Watt and How It Is by Beckett.
Sorry JJ isn't on the list.

Pynchon's intro to 1984 can be read here, I think.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/100899/Pynchons-...to-Orwells-1984

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Brighton Rock
The Picture Of Dorian Grey
Till We Have Faces

:applaud:

Yes! It's time that got read again.

Clockwork Orange
Ecstasy
A Fatal Inversion
London Fields (sorry, Mr. M!)

and another vote for Ulysses.

:applaud: :applaud: :applaud:

Could have switched 2 Becketts for Tom Jones, Ulysses, nag nag.
T Shandy for me, for the silliness.

I got 1/3 through Watt. The next day I was reading the newspaper and couldn't understand anything. Except the advertisements.

Read the Trilogy in a single weekend. For a year after that I could read nothing but Hollywood biographies.

Tough on the old cranium, that guy.

At Swim-Two-Birds
The Third Policeman

:thumbsup:

Not his best, obviously, but his most accessible. Says more about modern Britain than any mentioned so far.

:lol:

Not this one?

Before I vote, can I just ask -- is Jackie Collins technically British or American?

The "work" she's had done counts as American, if that helps.

Thanks.

A Perfect Spy by John Le Carre in that case. (Seriously.)

Every so often I think about reading all of Le Carre's novels in sequence. Then I sober up.

But in principle, do you think this is a good idea?

Yes, but skip the first few and start with A Small Town In Germany. And make sure you get a modern edition. The one I have is ruined by JLC's pedantic obsession with semi-colons.

His most underrated ones, in my opinion, are The Night Manager and The Russia House. I haven't read his last 3 or 4 yet but I will.

I think Watt is Sam's funniest novel and should be read in that light. Watt was an obsessive and that needs to be taken into consideration. It's a real favorite of mine and Sam didn't spare the opportunity to settle some scores in England and Ireland.

If you read the trilogy over a weekend that just proves that they raise them tough in Canada. :lol:

Only read three of those on the list.

Voted 1984 - more valid now than at any other time.

Maybe I'll try again. Newspapers and being able to read them aren't that important to me now.

I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK.

I sleep all night and I work all day

Voted for Shandy, which I read last year, over 1984, which I read 20-some years ago. Wonder if a re-read would bump 1984 to the top (but doubt it -- TS really is one of a kind).

:thumbsup:

shandy

wild stuff

only read 1984 from this list

Molloy (note spelling :angry:). I think it took me a couple of attempts to get through The Unnameable. Still haven't finished Murphy or How It Is. Watt is a blast alright, as is Mercier & Camier.

Joyce & Flann O'Brien are indeed the glaring omissions here. A Cock & Bull Story made me want to read Tristram Shandy, hopefully I will at some point. Of the others, 1984 of course.

Great Expectations

No Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?

Vurt - Jeff Noon
Alice In Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams
:D

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Babbling-April-Grah...=item2c4e713a8c

Here's a Graham Greene book worth getting.
touch pricey. but the Aussie Dollar is strong at present...

WC - I think How It Is has to be read as a poem, almost like Ginsberg or Kerouac's jazz choruses with a long pause between paragraphs...at least I did it that way and got enjoyment of the writing.
I really like Murphy but just when you think you've got the rhythm of the novel, it lurches and throws you off your stride, sort of like Murphy himself on his wanderings....I really like the novel though.
The Unnameable: good luck is all I can say about that; I've had my troubles with it too

I don't know if I ever had any of these. What do they look like? I've tried google images and can't find a copy. Would the garage have given them to me when they sold me the car?

Thanks so much! :)

I didn't vote, as I've only read 1984 and Middlemarch (and I don't honestly recall much of the latter).

Hmm... 3 different Becketts & yet no Jeffrey Archer... :angry:

Has Orwell become unfashionable? The impression I get is that '1984' is no longer relevant in the post-cold war era? Not that I believe it personally - I quite agree that he is more relevant now than he was pre-1990. But I do think the author and his message has slipped out of the public consciousness in the last 20-odd years.

Really? Orwell/1984 is mentioned a lot these days, with regard to surveillance cameras and the like, to the extent that it's a bit of a cliche.

Something by JG Ballard.

Well, if the Orwellian message has indeed become a cliche then that suggests it has also lost some of it's prescience. It's over-use has deadened it's impact. It's almost like our political victory over communism has removed the 'Big Brother' we were most afraid of. :unsure: