BS: What books would you NOT reread?

Subject: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: AliUK
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 08:32 AM

OK we´ve had books you reread and movies you watch ad nauseum...which books would you never, ever touch again with a ten foot fiddling stick? My personal un-faves are:
Anything by Thomas Hardy ( I was forced to read them at school and felt they sucked sooooo much...give me Dickens anyday)
American Psycho ( what a waste)
Booker Proze winners ( mostly pretentious claptrap)

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 09:03 AM

Hemingway..awful the first time round. I don't read murder mysteries twice for obvious reasonsand I seldom read best sellers more than once. And some things I can't even read once.

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: jacqui.c
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 09:15 AM

Hemingway (I'm glad I'm not alone there!). I also agree with Booker Prize winners. Things I won't read even once - Mills & Boone type.

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 09:17 AM

I have read most of the recent booker prize winners and have re read several and for the most part I found them to be very good books. Which ones did you not like I wonder .
   I never have re read dickens, found them tedious and overdone the first time. Hardy however, I re read quite often and read Return of the Native many times.

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: nickp
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 09:18 AM

The only one I've never finished having started was an Arthurian one by Tolstoy - the younger relative not the classic one. Can't remember the name but it was such hard work I gave up about half way in.

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 09:45 AM

The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. It was "the big book" for the quarter in a Humanities class in college. Thomas Mann is celebrated, they say, for his wonderful style. I found this book tedious and depressing. For the three months of the class I kept turning aside from it, dawdling, and finally, at 2:00 a.m. the morning on which the quarter final test was to be given, I decided, "Hell, I'm not going to be able to finish this anyway. I'd do better to get some sleep."

Came the test, it turned out to be an "open book" test, and for The Magic Mountain one had one's choice of about five questions. With sinking heart, I looked them over. Aha! One of them was, "Write on whether Settembrini can be called Mann's voice in this novel", or something to that effect. I chose that one to write about, and I'll tell you why.

Now, get this: On the very last page I had read, at 2:00 a.m., there was a direct quote from Settembrini which disposed neatly of that question. With an "open book test" I was able to turn directly to it, and disposed of the question quickly. I got an A in the test--entirely undeserved as far as the Mann novel was concerned, but them's the breaks.   

But I would never, never, never re-read (or finish reading) The Magic Mountain, nor anything else by Thomas Mann.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: Amos
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 10:06 AM

Dave:

You do him a great disservice. I have reread Maguster Ludi and the one about the great musician (name escapes me...) and found them as convoluted but intriguing and well-buiiolt as ever. Mann has something to say.


A

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: Bill D
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 10:13 AM

The worst Sci-Fi book ever written: "Exiles in Time" by Nelson Bond.

Stupid, tedious plot, stereotyped characters (old archeologist and his lovely daughter, good-looking but dumb suitor for daughter, conniving little Jewish man named "Hymie", and a HOST of tall, golden-skinned people from Atlantis, whom they found by entering a Egyptian tomb and falling thru a time warp!)

The usual confrontations and tepid intrigue and inane dialogue.....wait, I take it back..this IS worth reading for the laughs.

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 10:32 AM

Ayn Rand. I put down The Fountainhead after I'd gotten about 2/3 of the way through because it was just too loaded with dogma and apparent nonsense as far as the relationships were concerned.

I'm not likely to reread Beckett's Waiting for Godot again any time soon, either. I was very young when I first read it, but something tells me that even with my postmodern leanings, that one is still gibberish.

I like the Hemingway I've read--The Sun Also Rises is a particularly fine book.

Some books are so dramatic or wrenching or striking that I won't reread them because I got the message so completely the first time through that once was enough. I thought that might be the case with Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, but on perspective of a few years, I think I'll go ahead and reread that one.

Mostly, the books I refuse to read because they're just too stupid for words are books by Danielle Steele and that ilk. Gag me with a spoon.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: Peter T.
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 10:45 AM

Lord of the Rings. Thank god for the movie version. I would certainly reread The Hobbit though.

I keep trying to reread Tom Jones, but always get to about chapter 2, and something intervenes.

I can't imagine rereading D.H. Lawrence novels. They are great when you are 18, but after that, who could take them seriously?

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: Burke
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 06:03 PM

Anne Rice - I thought she was not for me, but it was highly recommended. I just can't take the demons & vampired.

All those books about east coast high school aged boys that were popular at Harvard but meant nothing to a midwestern girl. Catcher in the Rye. There's another one who's title I've forgotten.

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: Rapparee
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 06:13 PM

Ah, Amos, I think that Herman Hesse wrote "Magister Ludi" (among others) and not Thomas Mann.

Porn. I've read some, found it boring in the extreme (same with porn websites -- all hair is perfect and nobody seems to be having fun).

All of Aristotle, except the "Poetics."

Sartre. Hegel. And all other authors who take themselves too seriously.

Danielle Steel and her ilk. Trees died for that!?

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: Cluin
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 07:31 PM

Frank McCourt's `Tis. I liked Angela's Ashes, but didn't care for the sequel at all.

And Anne Rice is pure crap. She badly needs an editor, except he would probably just throw the whole damn manuscript into the shredder.

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: Cluin
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 07:33 PM

... should be he or she in that last sentence above.

(showing my unconscious lazy bias there, I guess)

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: Amergin
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 08:07 PM

1984 it bored me to tears....especially when that couple were reading that book...

on the road....

a book of poetry i had the misfortune to read by bob dylan

another book of poetry i was stupid to read by jim morrison...

both filled with pure unadulterated drivel...

there are quite a few others....

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: Bill D
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 08:14 PM

other books I would not re-read..The later parts of the "Dune" series by Frank Herbert...he was struggling for themes and continuity.

"Giles Goat-Boy" by John Barth...


Rapaire.."Porn. I've read some, found it boring in the extreme (same with porn websites -- all hair is perfect and nobody seems to be having fun)."
I worked for almost 3 years in an 'adult' bookstore..amazingly there IS good porn, but it ain't common, nor is it a best seller *grin*. The name "Marco Vassi" comes to mind as one author.

as to porn websites...same deal, there IS well-done, tasteful erotica (written and pictoral) out there, where they ARE having fun, but it gets lost in the deluge of garbage.

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 08:25 PM

"Anything by Thomas Hardy" (AliUK)

I hazard you've not come across the Mellstock musicians in "Under the Greenwood Tree". Try this chapter anyway - GOING THE ROUNDS

Even if you don't like Hardy the writer, you have to enjoy today's Mellstock Band - featuring the music played by that first rate dance-band fiddler, Thomas Hardy, who also did some writing on the side.

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: GUEST,Grab
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 08:46 PM

From school, Cider with Rosie. Snore. And anything by Dickens. Dickens is just a pantomime in print form, or at best a soap opera - Lord knows how he got a good reputation, I'll take "Neighbours" or "Home and Away" any day. In fact, much pre-1900 fiction is unreadable by today's standards (Wilkie Collins, Frankenstein, Dracula, Fenimore Cooper) bcos the construction is dreadful. I guess they didn't have editors back then though.

Robert Heinlein and Wilbur Smith can go in the bin. Fine for adolescents, but when you get older you realise it's all either wish-fulfillment fantasising or political dogma. Tom Clancy stuff has gone that way too, particularly the various spin-off series.

Arthur C Clarke's Rama series is lousy too - Clarke is probably the only writer who could make exploring an alien spaceship boring. Other dulletantes are Colin Dexter (good TV series but the books suck), Kazuo Ishiguro and E M Forster. Terry Brooks started well with a nice rip-off of LotR, but after the second he lost it big-style, so if you've read one then you've read them all.

To sort of bring music into this, any of those books with pictures of painted-and-inlaid guitars. I always look at those and think "yeah, it's pretty, but how does it sound?" The attitude of the painters (and the guys commissioning these things) seems to be style over sound quality, and that's something I've never understood.

Graham.

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 09:04 PM

"In fact, much pre-1900 fiction is unreadable by today's standards" - well that could point to something defective about "today's standards", given some of the examples you give, Grab.

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: Rapparee
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 10:36 PM

Proves my point, Bill. I differentiate between pornography and erotica. Erotica can be very well written (or taped or filmed), porn ain't (although it might be flashy).

As for non-re-reads: how about Bret Harte's stories? And I find most of Jack London waaaay to hairy-chested (I make an exception for The Sea Wolf, but not for White Fang).

Conan Doyle's historical novels....

The "White Gold Wielder" fantasy series -- I'm sorry you have leprosy....

Ivanhoe -- talk about dumb folks!

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 10:47 PM

White Teeth

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: Amergin
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 10:51 PM

i love jack london...

i didnt much care for the thomas covenant books either...especially the second set....booring...

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: Sam L
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 11:17 PM

Hi Grab. I enjoy a good rant when I hear one. But Frankenstein isn't bad at all for a book written on a dare, the structure suits the theme passably well.

I can't read or watch Merchant Ivory versions of E.M. Forster either. But who was the English writer--Brideshead revisited? Anyway, you might appreciate the horrible fate of the character held captive and forced to read Dickens to a blind man. Can't read Heinlein once, but I'm sure it all must be my fault somehow.

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 12:05 AM

Anything by Thomas Pynchon, except Vineland. Especially Gravity's Rainbow.

Anything by Ken Kesey except Cuckoo's Nest. Especially Sometimes a Great Notion.

Anything by Joseph Heller except Catch 22.

Anything by John Barth. Especially Giles Goat Boy.

Any of Terry Pratchett's Diskworld series, even the ones I've never read. Yeh, they're good for a chuckle, but I've read about ten of 'em and that's enough.

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: Cluin
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 12:14 AM

Iron John

Made no friggin' sense to me.
But then my Dad isn't an alcoholic and we always got along pretty well. I don't even like Bly's poetry.

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: LadyJean
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 12:19 AM

Kurt Vonnegut reads like a college sophomore who's way too full of himself. I wonder how he got to be the grand old man of American letters.
Heinlein reads like Vonnegut's roommate.
I read Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" in French. It made even less sense in the original.
But there's a lot to be said for reading "Madame Bovary" in the language of Flaubert. You miss most of the part where she dies of arsenic poisoning.
Reading a nineteenth century novel is a skill. You have to know when to skim, and when to focus. It requires practice, but the reward, reading something like "The Woman in White", or "Vanity Fair" is well worth it.
You don't read Dickens for the plots. You read for the characters, and his marvellous sense of humor.

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: alanabit
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 12:23 AM

I never intend to read any of Dickens turgid prose again. One summer, when the library was closed, I forced myself through "Mrs Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf. I think I would prefer toothache to reading anything quite as bad as that again. I don't like the pomposity of Herman Hesse's "Steppenwolf". Do you need lines like, "I drank from the cup of the fruit of her love..." Not even the bible puts it quite like that. I loved Siddhartta though, so I guess he could write. I found most of Lawrence hard work to read as well.

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 12:37 AM

Anything by Ayn Rand.

Anything by Jacqueline Susanne.

Agree with Peter T. regarding D.H.Lawrence.

Bomba the Jungle Boy (any episode) (it's a tremendously bad Tarzan imitation)

Edgar Rice Burroughs (loved 'em when I was in my teens, but couldn't be bothered reading stuff like that now. They are very good for what they are, though.)

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 04:32 AM

Try as I might I cannot get beyond the first few pages of Mervyn Peakes Gormanghast (sp? Ghormangast? anyway...) Not quite the same as no reread I know but similar:-) I did reread the whole Narnia series a few weeks ago and promised myself never again! Famous Five get religion or what?

Agree about Stephen Donaldson.

There are many pulp fiction fantasy works that are not worth the eye strain of. As there are crime, romance and horror novels. What else would we do on holiday though? ;-)

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: Nemesis
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 06:22 AM

The Tolstoy Arthurian book think - yup, I was bought that .. and threw it away half a chapter in - inpenetrable turgid drivel.

Dickens - struggle and give up with this .. mainly because he wrote serially for newspapers and .. oh! There's just not enough time in the day (shame!)

Gormenghast - there's a rhythm and resonance to this which is hard , but worthwhile, to crack - altho' by the 3rd title Peake had lost the plot (and had mental instability setting in) (He's buried up the road from here) so - love to, but wouldn't reread again but would recommend.

"The Pleidian" something or other ... about extra-terrestial saurians seeding the Earth and the planet travelling through, um, 26,000 year cycles or some such (inevitably we are on the brink of another dodgy era) ... worth it for one line "People are busy destroying themselves over religious supremacy ... ignoring the environmental catastrophe they are inflicting on the planet ... " (something like that)

"Outline of Astro-psychology" by Furze Morrish: got to the bit experimenting with breathing through the pore of one's skin while under water - managed that and suddenly got very scared.

Anne Rice - yuk .. yuk .. yuk ... very disturbing and sick person's charter to victimise small innocent children in one passage where I threw it aside in disgust.

Wilbur Smith - nothing of his what so ever: the same plots .. sick gratuitous violence perpetrated against defenceless, innocent victims with dubious voyeurism - thank you, having lived just across the border from rebels bayonetting women in maternity wards, setting fire to people tied to trees and women and children machine gunned in the market place (our side of the border - oops, did that Govt MiG helicopter take the wrong turning?) I don't want to read it for entertainment.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin - yawn (and I've read this before .. s'wierd .. like 30 years ago somewhere?) ... ditto Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean Auel) so many regurgitated passages - how many times do we need to know exactly how wossname digs a mean pit to roast a ptarmigan?

(Anyone else? - I picked this up expecting to re-read a story of heroine and little sister being orphaned in an earthquake and saved by Neanderthals .... what story was that?)

The Arabian Nights : "of course this story isn't as exciting tomorrow night's my Sultan... " (Oh, just cut her head off!)

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: GUEST,Strollin' Johnny
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 07:52 AM

'On The Road' - Kerouac seemed a fantastic writer when I was a kid in the 60's but I just tried to re-read it and nearly fell off the bog with boredom.

All Dickens' stuff - he was a serial writer for (I think) the London Gazette and it shows, obviously got paid by the thousand words and never lost an opportunity to use a thousand meaningless ones where one good one would do.

Asimov's 'Foundation' Trilogy - sheer hard work.

But I WOULD re-read 'Birdsong' or 'Rebecca' (and have done).

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: GUEST,Shelley C at work
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 08:09 AM

'Magician' by Raymond Feast. It's cobbled together from every other fantasy book you have ever read. I was dismayed when it showed up on the BBC's recent 100 favourite books poll. No wonder sci fi/fantasy gets a bad name.

Also, I agree with the point that some books are well worth reading once, but if you find the subject matter challenging its difficult to go there again. I've found this with several books, including 'The Black Album' by Hanif Kureshi and 'Go Tell it on the Mountain'

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: Peter T.
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 08:10 AM

The first half of Birdsong is great, but the second half seems pretty formulaic to me.

Dickens is stupendous. I occasionally start with Pickwick, and work through all the novels. Takes a year, but is worth it. It is a universe: you don't ask for Turner to paint less, or Beethoven to write less music. His only flaw is that (except for Our Mutual Friend, where things get unsettled, due to the strains of his secret love affair), his portrayal of young women is cardboard.

Bomba the Jungle Boy -- I bet you can't even find them now -- Bomba was like those Beach movies, where, when things got slow, "surf's up!!". In his case, an anaconda would drop from the trees. "Anaconda's down!!!"

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: jacqui.c
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 08:36 AM

I'd forgotten about Lawrence - definitely a never read again!

I would agree that Gormenghast was a bit difficult but oh, so worth the effort. I have it at home to go for again in a few year's time.

Re Wilbur Smith - his ancient Egyptian series is worth looking at although I agree that the more modern stuff should be left behind with any degree of literary maturity. It's quite incredible that books I would have raved over a few years ago have no appeal whatsoever when I try to re-read. Suppose I must be growing up!

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: Bill D
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 09:08 AM

an anaconda? from the TREES? Oh, my....where was Bomba supposed to be from?...That might be worth reading for the laughs, like "Exiles of Time" (reminds me of Mark Twains essay on "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses", where he describes a bunch of Indians hiding in a tree above a narrow canal, planning to drop down on a canal boat...and, one by one, missing!)

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: alanabit
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 09:44 AM

That is what taste is about Peter, I guess. The main thing I found stupendous about Dickens was his bloody nerve. It is just too much like hard work to read more than a page of his horrible prose. I only read for pleasure!

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: JennyO
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 11:07 AM

I'm sure there are heaps of them, but they were so awful I don't remember them :-)

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: GUEST,eliza c
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 12:24 PM

"The Last English King" by Julian Rathbone. Awful awful pretentious self-centred slightly kinky twaddle. I'd been thinking about getting into some more historical novels, and the Harold period really interests me. Lone traveller meets up with rag-tag bunch of cod philosophers, cue Rathbone trying really hard to be clever by having a character that puts together Greek words and comes up with "psychotic" ("hey-if I put the Greek word for such-and-such with this word for so-and-so, I can perfectly describe this man's condition!"), that kind of thing. Smug is a good word too, and perfectly describes this book!
cheers,
ec

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 12:35 PM

Only thing I can say about Dickens is, I read Pickwick Papers 2 or 3 times and thought it was marvelous, so I think I'm in agreement with Peter T. on this one...

Bomba was located in the Amazon rain forest, wasn't he? There were at least 15,000 anacondas per square mile in Bomba's neck of the woods. He also had a hapless native sidekick of some kind whose name I have forgotten. The sidekick was there to get attacked by things and rescued, which used to happen, oh, about 50 times in every 120 pages of breathless prose! You could work up a good sweat reading Bomba and never even put the book down...

Has anybody read the Mike Hammer novelettes? Now there's highbrow, classic fiction!

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: Amergin
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 01:21 PM

nemesis reminded me of something....

another i would not re read chariots of the gods...

or anything by hans holzer

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: Grab
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 02:35 PM

Hey, this is about books you can't stand. What else is the thread for except ranting? ;-) I agree, McGrath, modern books ain't necessarily better than older ones, but old books ain't necessarily better just bcos they're old. Thing is that the English language hasn't changed that much, given that Conan Doyle and Dickens are both reasonably readable today (even if Dickens couldn't write a character or plot to save his life ;), so we can probably say that they weren't really readable even then, it's just that people back then didn't expect readability.

I forgot Gormenghast. That's an odd book. It's got great style, but about halfway through you realise there's absolutely no substance there. It's like gothic popcorn. Magician I thought wasn't totally bad, but it for sure wasn't a top-100.

Oh yes, another pet peeve is Alastair Maclean. He wrote HMS Ulysses, Guns of Navarone, and Last Frontier, which are all amazing. Then he spent the rest of his life turning out dross. Wierd.

Graham.

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 03:20 PM

They used to read differently. Typically with Dickens and co it would have been reading out loud, which is a competely different experience.

With audio-books we're getting back into that.

And I'm entirely with Peter T and Little Hawk about D.H.Lawrence. Except I'm not sure about him being "great when you are 18". I can't remember any enthusiasm for him then - but it's a long time ago.

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: AliUK
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 03:46 PM

I must confess to a weakness for ERB and also the Doc Savage Pulps. Go to www.blackmask.com and download your favourite pulps in zipfiles...excellent stuff and they also have all the Oz books.

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: kendall
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 03:52 PM

So,Johnie, I guess you have to be American to appreciate the sanity of Charles Kuralt. By the way, not that it would change your mind, but I'm in that book. Too bad he chose one of my least favorite stories.

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: Thomas the Rhymer
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 04:07 PM

"...When I consider how exceedingly our Illustrious moderns have eclipsed the weak glimmering lights of the antients, and turned them out of the road of all fashionable Commerce, to a degree that our choice 'Town-Wits' of most refined accomplishments, are in grave Dispute, whether there have been ever any antients or no..."

A Tale of a Tub... Swift

I agree SRS, the sexuallity in "The Fountainhead" is disgusting... but I still find the book otherwise to be of much value...

Dickens is fine by me... as is Hardy... Mann? well...

Laurence... Maybe someday...

ttr

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: GUEST,Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 04:30 PM

Some of these books are much better out loud. Lawrence, Hardy, and Hemingway on Books on Tape are wonderful. (I prefer unabridged, but perhaps what some of you as discontented readers need are the abridged or Reader's Digest versions.) Books like Thoreau's Walden don't come across so well on tape, but Faulkner is a dream out loud, with a good reader. Same with others like Sinclair Lewis, whose books are big and seem intimidating but who move right along on tape. And I loved Moby Dick on tape.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: Peter T.
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 04:58 PM

The best book on tape I ever heard was John Le Carre reading The Spy Who Came In From the Cold. The perfect reader.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: Cluin
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 05:21 PM

Best book on tape I heard: Brad Pitt reading Cormac MacCarthy's "The Crossing".

Funniest book on tape: a toss-up between Burt Reynolds reading "Moby Dick" and Barry Corbin reading Max Brand.

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 06:58 PM

Ever come across those machines for reading print they've developed primarily for blind people? They have one in our library and I had a go at it one time.

They have a set of voices to choose from to do the reading, and it can be a gas to pick something totally imappropriate. You can have some utra-refined voice reading a tough thriller, or a deep gravelly voice reading about fluffy bunny rabbits...

Subject: RE: BS: What books would you NOT reread?
From: Burke
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 07:45 PM

I agree about Nikolai Tolstoy, I usually love Arthurian stories & it did not work. C.J. Cherryh hit me the same way with her Russian tale: Rusalka.

I could not go beyond the 1st book of the first of Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series. I gathered I'd missed something so I re-read it years later & still could not stand it.

I recentley read The Hours & at the same time re-read Mrs. Dalloway. Woolf's is much better. It was not an easy read, but I quite enjoyed it.

Also disliked Watership Down.

Brideshead Revisited is by Evelyn Waugh. I read almost everything he wrote 25 years ago.