That's Novel !!

[treeve]

Who is your favourite author?
Graham Greene - The delicious Our Man in Havana.
William Shakespeare? If all the world's a stage, where's the b.... changing room.
Ian Rankin? The Rebus stories ... Murders in darkest Scotland.
Emil Zola: Therese Raquin - an incredible story of desire, passion and scandal, a tale of murder and revenge. Sumptuously dark and macabre.
Another favourite of mine is Marcel Pagnol : Jean de Florette and Manon of the Springs. A story of strength in the face of all odds, not the least of which was his own disability - a bitter betrayal, but revenge follows from an unexpected source.

 

[CHILLYWILLY]

Inspector Rebus, yes very dark, the hours spent in his apartment in a typical Scottish tenement. Certainly not for the faint hearted. Dead Souls and The Black Book stand out for me. Very well portrayed by John Hannah on TV, the big question. Why has he never been depicted on the big screen?

Getting back though to favourite authors. I suppose one of my all time favourites has to be James Herbert. Magic Cottage and Once Upon a Time are ......well read them for yourself. 48 is up there too.

 

[treeve]

The delicious and macabre irony of Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle is not to be missed.
The best Science Fiction EVER written is Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement. He delves into the realities and details to an amazing point of acceptance, he explores a world of a disparity of life and makes an unlikely alliance so plausible, he writes a story of a complete history of a distant planet, the adventure is tangible and gripping, Barlennan of the Bree, assists Lackland on a dangerous crossing of methane seas on the planet Mesklin. For some inexplicable reason it has never been filmed, being far and away a brilliant story with characters that are endearing and real, with high drama, well above anything found in Indiana Jones; yet the world was 'designed' by slide rule calculations to be true to science ... imagine a world that spun at 18 minutes making a day, a gravity of 700 times our own and a Mesklinite with bravery and mastery to match the bravest of the Greek Giants. Hal Clement is a genius of a writer, and his books were written in the early 1950s. SF or not, this is a wonderful story of two characters who have met together and are locked in combat not with each other but with their environment.

 

[treeve]

Michael Moorcok

Another genre that appeals is the Fantasy, but there is a branch that take the reader to other worlds where Time and Space cross into the past alternative worlds, where Myth and Magic stride side by side.
The Books of Corum are majestic in concept; they are taken in spirit from the Cornish tales; he has written of other such heroes, but for me none stands taller than Prince Corum, as the reader passes through the pages, it is as if the tales have always been, and have come down spoken history from the Age, an Age barely now remembered; There are six books, in specific order ....
The Knight of The Swords.
The Queen of The Swords.
The King of The Swords.
The Bull and The Spear
The Oak and The Ram.
The Sword & the Stallion

Get to know Prince Corum Jhaelen Irsei.
He changed my world.

 

[sparky]

My books as a child were Enid Blyton books......full of mystery.... loved them all. ( well I say all, probably not got around to reading them all)

 

[treeve]

The poor lady got a slagging for her life and her promoted attitudes, but I thoroughly enjoyed The Famous Five and The Secret Seven, and that cockatoo Kiki. They far from hurt me. I still think they are brilliant.

 

[sparky]

do you know, I couldn't remember if it was the famous five or secret seven?......but now you have said it was both... wasn't it?
I must admit I do not read at all now.... well I do ..But not in a sense where I buy a book to read,
although I have purchased Richard Hammond's biography....I always watch Top Gear (not to be missed!!) it is not on long enough!!.....what I mean is they only show six episodes.....then thats it till next year!!....

Now I'm going off the subject of books....

I have read more then the Enid Blyton's books but will have to rember what ones....
so watch this space.....

thanks for reading my post/reply...

 

[treeve]

It is lovely now, watching DVDs when I want to, and being able to read again; with reading we are in control and our own imagination plays between the author's words. Soon I will get out the Anne McCaffrey books on The Land of Pern, where the Dragons are mastered by Man in the medieaeval future, in castles, and threatened by Thread fall .... a far from peaceful life awaits them all ...
start with Dragonsong and Dragonflight, they can be read a separate books, but better in sequence. Delightful world she paints.

 

[missp]

I love reading but dont seem to have the time lately, I like easy reading, Catherine Cookson, Virginia Andrews, Maureen Lee but have possibly read them all.
My childhood favourite was The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, it was shown on the Tv last week and have recorded it so hopefully can watch it at some point when there is nothing to do ???
Another favourite was The Elves and The Shoemaker, I remember it being a Ladybird book but not sure who the author was.
My grandchildren have all taken to books, which is great as I know my daughters read to them.

 

[tabtab13]

I tend to read factual books, but I must admit to not reading a good book (fact or fiction) for ages. One of my favourite reading places used to be in the tub having a long, good soak.

With regards to Michael Moorcock, I have read most of his work but preferred the darkness of Elric.

As a child, The Famous Five was a big favourite (like others I see), but in my mind, nothing beat the Narnia series. Saw a fascinating documentary about them and CS Lewis earlier this year. Apparently, someone had worked out the books have 3 'layers', not the assumed two.

First layer being a children's fairy tale, second layer the Christian theme, and the secret layer - each of the 7 books represents one of the 7 planets as known in Medieval cosmology.

Lots of stuff about God, religion, creation and the universe too - I only wished I had taped it at the time as I've forgotten a lot of what was said.

My wife Nancy is a voracious reader and loves crime novels and always has to have one on the go. We've stacks of her books all over the place!

 

[treeve]

You have just listed my wife's favourites (as well as Rankin) @missp; Catherine Cookson writes stories from real life - powerful stories. I remember the last books I got her were the complete Maureen Lee works, and she read them all avidly. I would thoroughly recommend them.

You raise a very good point. Marlene always maintained that something that was missing from family life and therefore missing from the relationship between parent and child was talking and listening to the child. The start of that is reading books aloud and having 'conversations' about the story, the character and so on. She bitterly complained about parents that dumped their kids in front of the television or just let them out on the winds of the world, not taking an interest in their children; for us it was a matter of board games, quizzes, scrabble, card games, crossword puzzles .. a concerted search for information for school, etc ....
What does anyone else think?

 

[missp]

My grandson, Riley ~ 18 months ~ has just gone home. From 7.00am this morning we have had lots of fun. We have read Postman Pat, Fifi and the Flowertots and Chickens, Puppies and Kittens touch/feel books. We have built with bricks, played ball, raced cars, and sang songs, he`s tired, I`m tired, but I wouldnt have it any other way. We did watch Peppa Pig and In the Night Garden on Tv, that was while we had a drink and choccie biscuits. ::9:

 

[treeve]

That sounds good, it must be an incredible experience - for everyone.

 

[treeve]

Crime Novels? Did I hear of a crime somewhere?
I have finally managed to track down a copy of Enter the Lion; a Memoir of Mycroft Holmes; started reading it many years ago, but had to leave it. I have various of the Sherlock Holmes, including a reprint of The Strand; also the TV scripts 'Rivals of Sherlock Holmes'. Why do I do it? Elementary ... Conan Doyle was the absolute Master of the craft.

 

[treeve]

On the subject of War .. I can recommend one of the best historical novels I have ever read ... Rosemary Sutcliff took the fact of a Legion that marched well north of Caledonia and disappeared from existence forever . They were stationed 117AD at Eburacum .. she takes up the story of a found Roman Standard, the story of Marcus Flavius setting out to discover what had happened to them ... 'The Eagle of The Ninth'. It was uncovered at Silchester nearly 1800 years later in Calleva Atrebatum. A cast of that wingless eagle is now at Reading Museum; two completely different mysteries. A brilliant book. Wonderful story.

 

[treeve]

Antoine de Sainte Exupery

Every now and then comes along a writer with a very special talent to not only record his experiences, but to weave into it the paths of other peoples, and to offer an uplifting story that reaches to The Heavens, and literally at that. Antoine de Sainte Exupery was an adventurer, he worked for the French Airmail service from 1926 over the Sahara. His work was not so much exhilerating as downright dangerous; it will give you the experience of a lifetime in an open cockpit in a small plane. During World War II his story of survival continues he flew on into the mists, as he never returned from his last mission.
It was all written from his own diaries and notes, and translated. 'Wind Sand and Stars', 'Night Flight' and 'Flight to Arras' are all bundled together in 'Airman's Odyssey'; there is also Wartime Writings 1939-1944'.

 

[treeve]

As a change from eating bulbs ... a bit of light releif.
A good read and a good laugh can be found reading the works concerning young William Brown by Richmal Crompton.
I have all 38. They are quite brilliant.

 

[treeve]

Posts moved ...

Having had some good discussions on other texts and ideas, I have moved them to another thread 'Deep Writings' and wish to leave this thread for Novels only.

 

[treeve]

Accepting the inevitability of the approach of Christmas, I have selected my reading, which will include GK Chesterton's wild The Man Who was Thursday; I will also pull out one of the William stories; and PG Wodehouse as I have just about all of his barrage of humour. It is time I read those again.

 

[treeve]

Childhood fleets of fancy

I flick along the bookshelves in the 'modern bookshop' and, for me, I see none of the magic that I used to have. I see nothing that takes me to another world, to feel the warmth and love that I felt. I see nothing that helped me to gain a colourful view of things ...

Take for example Adventures of The Magic Wishing Chair (Enid Blyton) ....

I still have my childood sunday school prize here. There is all the PC stuff and the bias from 'proper' society that Enid Blyton had to face, but they were good stories, well written in 'proper English' and required imagination and participation from the reader.... I always Felt those wings beating air around my ankles and the chair Always lifted under me ....; I believe there are two other books after that now. Probably subjected to much nanny state work. For all the emotional turmoil she faced and her traumatic personal relationships, I have no recollection of that appearing in her writing.

Dick and Dora in the Mud .... they can stay there ... give me The Magic Wishing Chair. Like television, it now concentrates on pictures and special effects, never mind the plot or the characters. For me they were inside me, brought on by brilliant writing.