Do you read every book doggedly to the end? The Times this week published a list of the top 10 Fiction and Non-fiction books that people could not wait to put down and forget about finishing. For your interest the Fiction list is, in order of dismerit: 1 Vernon God Little 2. Harry Potter and the Goblets of fire 3. Ulysses by James Joyce 4.Captain Corelli's Mandolin 5.Cloud Atlas 6.The Satanic Verses 7.The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho 8.War and Peace 9.The God of small things by Arundhati Roy 10 Crime and Punishment. The Non-Fiction list is:1. The Blunkett Tapes 2.My Life by B. Clinton 3.My Side by DBeckham 4.Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynn Truss 5.Wild Swans by Jung Chang. 6.Easy Way to Stop Smoking by Allan Carr .7. The Downing Street Years by M Thatcher. 8.I can make you thin by Paul Mckenna 9. Jade, My Autobiography by Jade Goody 10.Why don't penguins feet freeze?
Do any of these strike a chord? Of the fiction list I have read only Captain Corelli and actually enjoyed the first seven-eighths, when the main action takes place during 3 years in the second world war. then it is totally and utterly ruined by the last eighth which covers the next 30 years or so. I am biased because I like happy endings and that is what that needed. A perfectly happy ending ocurring at the close of the war, and none of this modern stuff which the author must have felt was necessary to make sure that life is not always happy endings. Of the Non-fiction list I have read only Lynn Truss which I enjoyed tremendously because as the dúnadan will tell you I am always being peadantice about words and parts of speech.
Another book which I would definitely put on the list is Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum" which I bought expecting it to be as good as his "Name of the Rose" and found it to be totally incomprehensible. I did persevere with it to the end, though I'm not sure how but could tell you nothing about it now. Definitely a putdownassoonas you like book.
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3 comments:
There aren't many books that I have not finished. Of the ten fictional works mentioned, I have read 2, 3 & 4. I finished Ulysses just so that I could say that I had. Of the non fiction, the only one I have read is, admittedly, one of the few books I failed to finish - Wild Swans. Another book that I haven't read all of Herodotus' Histories which, considering I enjoyed the rest of it is a bit funny.
There are two books that I struggled with greatly to begin with but eventually got through - The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje and The Silmarillion by you know who. The former I disliked to the end the latter, well, you know the answer there!
I managed to finish War and Peace in Senegal and Wild Swans too. Dont know why Harry Potter was on the list, i read that on the train to Avignon.
Whilst i finish practically every book i start as a matter of principle, one i almost didnt get past the first page of was amazingly....
Anne of Green Gables!
Lord of the Rings almost went the same way, what a sadder life i would lead if i hadnt perservered!
Hevs! You didn't finish AoGG!!! Shocking! I have not finished Vernon God Little and Ulysses (actually, I don't suppose I've really started Ulysses!) I have finished all the Harry Potter books so far, and I've also read and enjoyed The Alchemist and The God of Small Things. On the non-fiction side, I haven't finished Lynne Truss ... and Wild Swans is on my bedside table at the moment. It will be finished, but since it's too big to put in my handbag on the tube I've not made my way through it yet. Eventually though. The rest I haven't started yet ... I loved the Name of the Rose, but haven't started Foucault's Pendulum yet. Maybe I won't!
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