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!)