# Books I haven't read



## rachel (Oct 27, 2001)

Inspired by Shimmer's discussion on Ayn Rand I would like to start a new thread. Whose books haven't you read that you really think you should have?
for example: I've only read one Salman Rushdie book; it was 'Haroun and the Sea of Dreams' his childrens book. I've not read any of his 'meatier' books like the Satanic Verses or Midnight's Children.
I'd never even heard of Ayn Rand before today (except for the Simon and Garfunkel song, and even then only because my parents had the album!).
i started Joyces 'Ulysess' four times and never finished it - IT WAS TOO BORING!!!!!. . .What other literary embarassments do people haveand how much are you willing to admit??


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## jock (Dec 4, 2001)

Hi Rachel. You mean people actually write about things other than food? Amazing!
But realy, I don't read biographies. I'm not quite sure why people write them. Do they think their lives are so much more interesting than those of the rest of us in the annonymous masses? It always seems to me to be a bit arrogant. But there are exceptions to the rule. If Julia Child's biography were written, I would be first in line at the book store.
I agree about James Joyce. I've tried but it's too much like work. Herman Melvil (did I spell that properly?) is another one I couldn't read. You want to know about Moby Dick? Watch the Gregory Peck movie

Jock


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## kimmie (Mar 13, 2001)

Oh, too funny Jock!

It has been written!

Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child

My husband got it for me for Christmas when it came out!


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## risa (May 11, 2001)

I've never read Moby Dick. I just wasn't interested for some reason and it wasn't one we had to read in school in Canada. Some books/authors on my continually growing reading list include:

The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje (haven't seen movie)
Anything Salman Rushdie
Kingsley Amis
Beloved -Toni Morrison (it's under my bed somewhere)
100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood (also under my bed)
Sister Carrie - Theodore Dreiser
Remembrance of Things Past - Marcel Proust (a must read so I can find out what the big deal is about madeleines)
Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Invisible Man - Ellison
Updike's Rabbit books
etc...
It's so hard to keep up. Although I suppose if I made a point to actually read books on my list and not pick up newer, less cerebral books or stopped with the cookbooks, I may actually finish the classics before I'm 60.


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## thebighat (Feb 21, 2001)

I'm already resigned to the fact that I will never have the time to read all the books I once thought I couldn't live without reading. I picked up Proust in the bookstore once. Too big. Saw Les Miserables (the movie) and went to the bookshelf where I had a copy of the book tucked away for a rainy day. Naw, can't do that one either. Once upon a time I was an English major in college planning to be a teacher. I still get a ton of books out of the library, but they mostly seem to be things like science stuff, adventure stuff like mountain climbing or diving, or cookbooks. My house is bursting at the seams with books. I have books I have moved with over a dozen times since I was a teenager. I collect sets of things, like a complete paperback set of Ian Fleming, or Grahame Greene,or Mark Twain, or books on WWII, or different editions of the Ring trilogy, I still have my original 1966 copy of The Two Towers, or books about people who sail around the world, lately can't put Chichester and Manry down and I gave Joshua Slocum away. 
You all want a fabulous book to read? One that will change your life?
A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole. Look for it at your local bookseller.


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## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

Great thread! Jock, I've read _Appetite for Life_ and enjoyed it very much.

Books I haven't read yet- some to my great shame:
Mansfield Park
Sense and Sensibility
Nicholas Nickleby
The Joys of Yiddish
The Silmarillion (only got partway through)
Moby Dick
The Brothers Karamazov
The Iliad; The Odyssey
Beowulf
The Sound and the Fury
Anything by Hemingway
On the Road 
Anna Karenina
Native Son

Next book I'm going to read: a literary equivalent of a Twinkie on the beach in Florida later this month! Title to be determined. Any suggestions?


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## olive branch (Oct 2, 2001)

I've never got through Dante Alighierie's Divine Comedy, despite having started it about twenty times. My brother-in-law insists I just haven't found the "right" translation!

Mezzaluna, what are some twinkie books you've enjoyed? Then we can think about what you might like! I like mysteries, so I loved "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco. Anything by Carl Hiassen, he cracks me up. Michael Connelly, great reads. But what do YOU like?

Love ~ Debbie


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## rachel (Oct 27, 2001)

The Name of the Rose is way to complicated for a beach. The best most mindless candy floss I've ever read is anthing by Jilly Cooper. It doesn't matter which one - they're all the same:lol: 
I've also discovered that I've neer read Iris Murdoch. Well, I always knew that i hadn't, but i've now discovered that Ive missed something in not. . .
Mybe if i spent less time on cheftalk, I'd have more time to read


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## athenaeus (Jul 24, 2001)

I think that if you consider yourself an avid book reader you must read some books for sure, even if you don't like them.
Or you dont? I mean why torture ourselves?

I managed to read Joyce's Ulysse the day I realised that it was a crap of the greatest size...
Do not faint !!! I am very serious
I was having serious thoughts once to indict Joyce on Homer's behalf because he used the name of Homer's masterpiece to ridicule the readers...

The same for Mobby Dick.Greatest of craps too.
I have to get paid to read something by Rushdi or Marcel Proust...

I laughted about reading "The name of the Rose" on the beach. 

When he was in fashion all the Greek fashion victims , in order to show off that they were reading Umberto Eco, they were carrying on the beach this book.

Only if you could see their face as they were reading the endless chapter about the Poverty of Jesus under the hot Greek sun :lol:


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## risa (May 11, 2001)

Anyone remember A Suitable Boy? Another very long book that people would carry around to make themselves appear more literate. It's actually a decent read if I recall correctly.

Queen of the Twinkie authors that I can't help myself from reading, Nora Roberts. I am always ashamed of myself whenever I borrow her books from the library.

Favourite recently read twinkie book - 
Jemima J: A Novel About Ugly Ducklings and Swans by Jane Green.
Definitely fluff and a bit disillusioned fluff at that but it had me laughing out loud. It's somewhat similar to Bridget Jones' Diary but Bridget Jones is better.

I just read James Patterson's When the Wind Blows last night. Also fluff but I couldn't put it down. I started it at 11:45 to help me fall asleep; I finished it just before 1:30. The book is rather flawed, but it maintains a good pace.


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## olive branch (Oct 2, 2001)

Okay, "The Name of the Rose" isn't a twinkie, but I DID read it on the beach! And it was such a page turner, nothing that I had to force myself to slog through...

Love ~ Debbie


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## anneke (Jan 5, 2001)

I've developed this nasty habit over the past two or three years: I get to about 3/4 of the book, and then I stop reading and put the book aside, never to be picked up again. I must have a dozen such books, waiting to be finished. Then there are a few that I managed to read the first 2-3 chapters and also put aside (including Julia Child's biography!!). What's wrong with me?!? I think it's a combo of no time and a lack of discipline. The last book that I read in full was the Oranges of Hieronymous Bosch by Henry Miller. And that was a a few months ago.

I agree with Athnaeus. A lot of classics are crap, depending of course on your point of view. I first realized this as a teen reading Madame Bovary. Madame Bovary made me doubly appreciative of Ayn Rand. As for Proust, he needs to learn to write efficient sentences. When one sentence goes on for several pages, you know you have a problem. That's not litterature, it's acrobatics!

Some books that I aim to read in full some day: the Bible, Escoffier (the two are similar, in a way), Les enfants terribles (I'm embarassed about that one), and MacBeth (I skipped 10th grade English so I never got around to it). I also need to finish the Black Company series (Glenn Cook) but to get back into it, I'd have to start over and that might take a while...


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## athenaeus (Jul 24, 2001)

Olive Branch, as they say in mathematics : " The exception just confirms the rule"

Right ?


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## jock (Dec 4, 2001)

Rachel, thank you for a really fun thread.
Happy reading!

Jock


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## rachel (Oct 27, 2001)

you're very welcome Jock, it's nice to see that people don't take themselves so seriously s to not admit what they haven't read!!


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## isa (Apr 4, 2000)

As a reader Anneke, you have rights. Who says you have to finish every book you start? Only you. I often put aside books, or read more than one at the same time. Books have to fit your mood.

I confess I love to read. I always did. I can even recall as a kid I felt so frustrated because I had to depend on others to read to me. I couldn’t wait till I could read.

Books were, and still are, important to my parents. My father took us to the bookstore every few weeks to get us books. My sister and I must have read all of Enid Blyton books. They were, of course, translated in French and adapted.

In the car, on the way back home, I couldn’t wait until I was home to start a book, so I read in the car. I always read very fast and it bothered me, because books wouldn’t last long. To make them last longer, I would invent ways to slow myself down, I would either learn a page by hard before turning to the next or read the book upside down.


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## athenaeus (Jul 24, 2001)

Isa, I have read all the books of Enid Blyton too. Between you and me and the rest of 2000 members of Chef Talk somedays when I return home exhausted I read a book of Enyd Blydon to come back to my senses...

My parents did the mistake to teach me to read before I went to school. This is something I will never to to my children if I ever have any. The reason is that when I finally went to school I was so bored with the others in the classroom who were trying to pronounce a+ r = ar that soon got sick of school.
I loved to go just for the other's children company.

As for what Rachel says. Oh I agree. Why take everything and books so seriously?
Anneke I do he same thing.
My days begins beautifully with Enid Blydon and end dreadfully with Cato


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## isa (Apr 4, 2000)

Athenaeus,


It's because of Enid Blyton I wanted to go to France as a kid. The books were adapted so everyone had French name and ate French food. I think it was in The Gang Of Seven that I first read about chocolate bread. For years I tried to imagine what was a chocolate bread. I dream of eating this mysterious food for years. I was completely mystify by it.


Many years later I went to France. The first thing I did was buying a chocolate bread. It was even better than I could imagined.


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## olive branch (Oct 2, 2001)

I never heard of Enid Blyton and if I never learned another thing from Chef Talk, thanks for the lead!!

Love ~ Debbie


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## rachel (Oct 27, 2001)

Debbie,
I think that Enid Blyton is now terribly old fashioned and reactionary, she was great in her time but you may discover her to be terribly clasist, racist and sexist. But she ws great for her time. but now there are much better children's books available!
rachel
P.S. I originally only wanted to wrote on this thread about books I haven't read!! Ooops :blush:


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## athenaeus (Jul 24, 2001)

OMG you Brits when you decide to open your mouths...

How should a child know about sexism my dear Rachel?


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## rachel (Oct 27, 2001)

I got Enid Blytonitis as a child, and you should have seen the prissy little madam that I became! Much to my Father's disgust!!
I like to think that I grew out of it though


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## athenaeus (Jul 24, 2001)

:lol:

And you call the Greeks melodramatic people!

I understand!


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## risa (May 11, 2001)

Enid Blyton was a favourite of mine also. I read as many of the Famous Five and Secret Seven books that I could get when I was around 8 or 10. Wasn't there a Famous Five tv show or movie?

I was, am and will always be a Lucy Maud Montgomery fan. I grew up overly sentimental and somewhat old-fashioned, but those books still make me laugh and cry. I just re-read two "Anne" books last week.


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## olive branch (Oct 2, 2001)

If you read to your children every day, they will be reading before they go to school. Go ahead! Reading is for education. School is for learning how to get along in the big bad world. They need both!

Love ~ Debbie


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