I have my books and my poetry to protect me

[j4]

Mememememememememe first seen on rysmiel's journal:

1. Name a book you love no matter what anyone says.
2. Name a book you loathe no matter what anyone says.
3. Name a book you think is undeservedly obscure.
4. Name a book you think is undeservedly famous.
5. Name a book you think you ought to read.
6. Name a book you think I ought to read.

Comments

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

1. Won't mean much to most people here, but I found What To Expect... While You're Expecting useful and readable. Most posters on pregnancy/parenting newsgroups hate it with a passion, but I found it very useful as a starting point. I guess they were treating it as a bible and therefore finding too much fault with it, but I found it (and the sequels, WTE... The First Year, and WTE... The Toddler Years) not very preachy and quite informative.
2. Middlesoddingmarch by George sodding Eliot. :)
3. The Eliza stories by Barry Pain. Or most of the non-Winnie the Pooh A.A. Milne stuff. Not his preachy anti-war stuff though.
4. Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance or The Dice Man. OK, but not all that as they say.
5. I really ought to try some different crime novelists, I've read all the available titles by the ones I know I like.
6. Have you read any of the Georgette Heyer Regency novels? Arabella is fun as a starting point.

[j4.livejournal.com]

Agree on The Dice Man (it was good, but...) but ZATAoMM completely blew me away. Overhyped, yes, but I think at least some of it's deserved.

Crime novelists: I'm assuming you've read Chandler, yes? I don't read much crime so probably don't have many useful recommendations here.

Heyer: yes, have read one or two, and indeed I did start with Arabella. :-) Not fussed about reading any more, though, to be honest; if they were lying around I'd read them, but I wouldn't seek them out. Sorry!

[oldbloke.livejournal.com]

And Dashiell Hammet, of course. He was, after all, a Pinkerton man and knew whereof he wrote