liadnan

It's a grey day, in my head and outside it. London in the rain is beautifully depressing sometimes: today it's just depressing. Went out for japanese dumplings and coffee with K last night (I'm on the wagon, remember) and told her my various woes. None of which are too serious, but there you are.

Someone for whom I had a thing-which-went-nowhere last year re-emerged from the woodwork recently. She isn't with the man she ended up going out with any more, and was being very friendly. Helpfully, however, her academic year finishes on Friday: on Saturday she leaves for Africa to work for a charity for a bit, then she is off to see her parents (she's a DiploBrat, child of a Senior Figure), then she's off to save people on death row in another jurisdiction for the rest of the summer. So poo and phooey.

I'm tired, my work is going slowly, my attempts to write are going even more slowly and my learning of Greek isn't going at all. Ho hum, whatever. Anyway, since I have sooo much time to waste (well, I do actually, because a hearing I was supposed to be doing this morning went off when they went and agreed everything. I dunno, what is the world coming to?) I thought I would, for once, join in one of these 'ere meme thingies (I'm not convinced they are really memes, but there you are. Poor word only got a year or two of strict usage before it came to mean something else) and run through the BBC Big Read books ...

1984, George Orwell: Many times. A book that sometimes seems quite prescient at the moment.

The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho: Yes. Absolute drivel.

Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll: One of my favourite books of all time.

Animal Farm, George Orwell: Read it for GCSE, didn't like it as much as other Orwell. Not since.

Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy: Yes. Like most Russians, hard going but rewarding.

Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery: Yeees, a long tme ago. I don't remember a huge amount about it.

Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer: Not yet. Surprised it's here to be honest, didn't realise they were so popular.

The BFG, Roald Dahl: No. I fairly intensely dislike Dahl.

Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks: No. Was at an ICA talk on genre the other day when the Time Out books editor used it as the prime example of "Premium Middlebrow" (his point was that self-consciously literary fiction is as much a genre as anything else).

Black Beauty, Anna Sewell: Yes, a very long time ago. Not hugely inspired by it.

Bleak House, Charles Dickens: Yes, and it's the one Dickens I like. But then, my job is Bleak House, and the site of the then Court of Chancery where the Lord Chancellor sits in the fog at the start is about 100 yards from where I sit. Mostly Dickens bores me though.

Brave New World, Aldus Huxley: Yes. One of the two best dystopias yet (1984 is the other).

Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh: I love it. Oxford and Catholic angst. Fantastic. I like Waugh a lot actually.

Bridget Jones' Diary, Helen Fielding: Yes, and I like it so neer. Sorry, but the truth is it made oi laugh, and Bridget Jones is to my mind a genuinely good creation: she captured a certain current mood.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernières: Yes. Odd: I love Greece and know a bit about the historical situation in which it's set, but I think his Latin American trilogy is far better.

Catch 22, Joseph Heller: Oh yes, again and again. In my personal favourite top ten.

The Catcher In The Rye, JD Salinger: No. Probably should.

Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl: Yes. See previous comments on Dahl

A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens: Yes.

The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel: Yes. One of the worst-written bestsellers of the last hundred years, an accolade not easily won.

Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons: Yes. Hysterically funny, glad to see it in the list.

The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett: Hasn't everyone. Amusing, but very different from later Pratchett. Probably more-enjoyed by those who have read a lot of fantasy and can catch all the individual works he is gently parodying.

The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas: Yes. Not as much fun as Three Musketeers et al.

Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky: I started, so technically I'm still reading it, according to my rules...

David Copperfield, Charles Dickens: Yes.

Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson: Eh?

Dune, Frank Herbert: Yes. It's ok, but I do think it's wildly overrated, and the rest were awful.

Emma, Jane Austen: Yes. Hurrah for Jane

Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy: Yes. I love Hardy and don't care what anyone says.

Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson: Who the fuck is this woman?

The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy: Yes. I felt it was overrated.

The Godfather, Mario Puzo: Yes. OK.

Gone With The Wind, Margaret Mitchell: No.

Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman: Yes. Quite like.

Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian: Yes. Can't remember it.

Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake: Yes. I like it a lot.

The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck: At school. Bored now.

Great Expectations, Charles Dickens: Yes. Usual Dickens comment here.

The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald: Yes. Left me oddly depressed.

Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett: Yes. OK Pratchett.

Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, JK Rowling
Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
Yes. Um. Why do all four HPs go in separately whereas Pullman goes in as one? Anyway.. yes, they're enjoyable. But they're not that good, really. And they are hardly the signs of a Great Renaissance in children's books, children's lit. is fine and has been producing superlative stuff for years, far superior to this.

His Dark Materials trilogy, Philip Pullman: I really really liked them. Pullman trying to counter Lewis by channelling Blake channelling Milton, as a children's book: how could it be bad? Well, easily, but it isn't. Thought it lost it a bit in the third though.

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, Douglas Adams: Yeah, again and again.

The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien: Of course, many times.

Holes, Louis Sachar: Nevererdovit

I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith: Hurrah for a fantastic book. Want to see what the big screen makes of it, despite my usual rants on the obsession with filming books.

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë: Yees. Not a great Brontë fan, to be honest, but I've read them all. Even the juvenilia.

Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer: You what? Odd choice. No I haven't read it. To be fair on Archer, I did think Not a Penny More... was a quite entertaining thriller, but never bothered with any others.

Katherine, Anya Seton: No.

The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis: Several times. I have mixed feelings about them. I don't really like allegories, particularly not (Protestant) Christianity For Beginners allegories.

Little Women, Louisa May Alcott: Yes. Bored now.

Lord Of The Flies, William Golding: Yes, though not for years. Very disturbing.

The Lord Of The Rings, JRR Tolkien: Yes, again and again. I don't make extravagant claims for its "literary quality": I think there are some great bits and some serious longeurs. But I really do enjoy re-reading it. Sorry...

Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez: Not yet. The only Márquez I haven't read.

The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton: Yes, I vaguely remember it being the only Blyton I ever really liked.

Magician, Raymond E Feist: Yes. Pretty good, as fantasy-by-numbers goes. Not exactly taxing or original, but fun.

The Magus, John Fowles: Yes. In my personal top twenty.

Matilda, Roald Dahl: Yes. But see before on Dahl.

Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden: Not yet.

Middlemarch, George Eliot: Yes. I love it.

Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie: Yes. It's ok. I think Rushdie is far too overrated though.

Mort, Terry Pratchett: Yes. Not very good, really.

Night Watch, Terry Pratchett: Yes. Much better than many of his others.

Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman: Who?

cite>Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck: Yes, at school. V. depressing.

On The Road, Jack Kerouac: Yes. Bored now...

One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez: Yes. Fantastic book, in all senses.

cite>Perfume, Patrick Süskind: Yes... whatever.

Persuasion, Jane Austen: Yes. Not her best, but still better than most things.

The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett: No.

A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving: Yes. Got very bored though. Nowhere near as good as other stuff of his.

Pride And Prejudice, Jane Austen: Yes. Now that is her at her best.

The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot: No. Who?

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell: Yes. It's not that good.

Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier: Yes. V. good. Better Bronté than the Brontés.
The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett: Yes. Re-read recently in fact.

The Secret History, Donna Tartt: Yes. Still not sure about it.

The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher: No.

The Stand, Stephen King: No. Really don't like King.

The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson: This woman again. Am I being left out of some big secret or something?

A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth: Yes. I like it. (And Vikram Seth likes my friend but that's another story...)

Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome: Yes. Due for a re-read actually. Great stuff.

A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens: Yes.

Tess Of The D'urbervilles, Thomas Hardy: Yes. Love it.

The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough: Yes.

To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee: Yes, once, years ago. Nothing hugely bad about it, just never felt the urge to revisit.

A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute: No.

Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson: Yes. Not his best I think. Maybe I should re-read.

The Twits, Roald Dahl: No.

Ulysses, James Joyce: Yes, I have indeed made it through Ulysses. For my next trick I will actually read all the words in Finnegan's Wake and pretend they make sense... But I quite like and certainly admire Ulysses.

Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson: I smell a cabal.

War And Peace, Leo Tolstoy: Never finished.

Watership Down, Richard Adams: Yees. I don't really like it very much.

The Wind In The Willows, Kenneth Grahame: Yes, but not for years. I loved it as a child though.

Winnie-the-Pooh, A.A. Milne: Yes, many times. Including, um, last night.

The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins: Yes. Glad to see Collins re-emerging as "someone to read".

Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë: Yes. It's ok, if you like that kind of thing... Nah, sorry, I admit it, it is really very good. But Rebecca is better.

I think the list is very idiosyncratic, and I'm not sure what exactly it accomplishes, save as something to talk about on the internet. Only about half of my personal top twenty favourite books are in the list, and some of those I really think belong on any list of Great Books. No Eco, no Kazantzakis. But fair enough, this is "A Good Read" rather than self-consciously "Great Books". No Banks, surprisingly. Lots of things I would have put in as a "Good Read", if I had been bothered in time: Sherlock Holmes novels for a start. Ho hum.