@Frownland: Good to see George Orwell on your list of favourites: he should've been on mine too. His two big novels,
1984 and
Animal Farm both deserve their reputation, while the lesser known
Coming Up For Air is perhaps my personal favourite.
Virginia Woolf has always been a struggle for me, though I did once make it to the end of
The Waves. I enjoyed reading
The Hours by Michael Cunningham more than V Woolf in the original. Insider detail: For a year or so, I worked in an office right next door to where the Woolf's lived and opened the Hogarth Press: Hogarth House, 34 Paradise Road, Richmond. In this photo, the key details are in blue: a small round plaque, right of main entrance, that tells you that the house is famous, and the street sign on the far right that looks like it's touching the lower window of our office building:
Between the 2 buildings: the entrance to a barely-visible footpath by which I arrived at work from the local railway station. (Hence the blue arrow.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by adidasss
Goh! I forgot to put The right stuff for favorite non-fiction, that's a masterpiece!
Hope you enjoy The Bridge on the Drina.  |
Thanks!
Yes,
The Right Stuff is such a great insight into the early days of manned space flight. OH really liked it too.
Not by Tom Wolfe, but a book that gave me the same revelatory feeling of , "Aha! So that's how it all started" was
Hackers by Steven Levy. Many of us know about Steve Jobs and co starting out in a garage, but Hackers takes you behind the scenes of the earlier, pioneering nerds on whose shoulders Jobs was standing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Trollheart
"Inside every old person is a young person asking, what happened?"
(Shop! or, A Store is Born, Jasper Carrott)
|
Like a lot of Jasper Carrot, it's both funny and true.
Quote:
11. What is/are your favourite non-fiction book(s)? *
Either In Plain Sight: The Life and Lies of Jimmy Saville by Dan Davies or
Somebody's Husband, Somebody's Son by Gordon Burn (a biography of Peter Sutcliffe)
|
A curiosity about the dark side of human nature, I see, TH. I bet the Jimmy Saville one is interesting. I've read a few books of real-life horror too, notably
Myra Hindley by Jean Ritchie. Recommended!
Quote:
Originally Posted by adidasss
He definitely got better with age I think. Those first few novels (including The sun also rises) were a little awkward. Have you read A moveable feast? That one is lovely.
|
TBH, I wouldn't use the word "lovely" for a
A Moveable Feast. As I read it, I went from disappointed to bored to irritated. Sorry, adidasss - perhaps I should give it another go.