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100 Novels Everyone Should Read

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LindsD Jul 2019 3:29pm, 17 Jul 2019 28574 posts	0 LindsD I'm sure I've said this before, but I some of MA and HATE some others. In fact, I have said this before. London Fields is in my top ten books of all time, though, and I think I've read it at least four times.
Sharkie Jul 2019 3:37pm, 17 Jul 2019 14970 posts	0 Sharkie Hmm Linds perhaps I ought to give London Fields another chance? I didn't care for it at all. I read it in hardback at the time - borrowed from my local library.... practically on the edge of the real London Fields, very near where I lived then. Perhaps I was just disappointed the book was far more west than east London!
LindsD Jul 2019 3:38pm, 17 Jul 2019 28578 posts	0 LindsD I've got a copy if you want to borrow it. I might even have more than one copy (oops).
Sharkie Jul 2019 3:39pm, 17 Jul 2019 14972 posts	0 Sharkie Top ten books is a big claim!
Love Lettuce Jul 2019 3:41pm, 17 Jul 2019 101 posts	0 Love Lettuce LAUM sounds great Daz - will try to find a copy to take on holiday with me next week. I will also be taking Richard Askwith's Today We Die A Little (not on the list, but been looking forward to it for ages).
LindsD Jul 2019 4:01pm, 17 Jul 2019 28580 posts	0 LindsD I know, and I'm not sure, tbh, but I think it's that thing that stuff you did/read/saw/listened to whilst young burns more brightly in the memory. I think I first read it in my early 20s.
Sharkie Jul 2019 4:14pm, 17 Jul 2019 14973 posts	0 Sharkie Yeah, totally agree. Books, films, music - everything. I really need to edit 'my' lists forty years on.... I've been claiming Tender is the Night is practically my favourite book EVER for far too long. Might not even make top 20 these days.
DazTheSlug Jul 2019 4:23pm, 17 Jul 2019 2101 posts	0 DazTheSlug as an example of one of the (many) jaw-dropping things that go in in LAUM: chapter 51 contains a list of the aforementioned 179 mini-stories; each one is precis-ed down to a single sentence; they are a joy to read in themselves; I noticed that the font had changed to a non-proportional, and that each description was exactly 60 characters long, and that there were weird graphic "separators" breaking the list up into the first 60, 61-120 and 121-179; this meant that there were effectively three 60x60 squares of letters (alright the third one is one short, i.e. 60x59); I noticed that the last letter of the first sentence was the same as the second-to-last letter of the second sentence, and the same as the third-to-last letter of the third sentence... etc all the way down the first letter of the 60th sentence; this letter was "e" btw for the first set of 60 sentences; a similar pattern was repeated in the other two sets (using letters "g" and "o"); this is not referred to in the text, and I can't find any reference to it on t'internet (I found one guy's blog entry who had noticed it in one of the three sets); bear in mind that this is translated from French, so kudos is also due to the translator.
Northern Exile Jul 2019 4:45pm, 17 Jul 2019 5241 posts	0 Northern Exile LL - interested to hear your thoughts on "Today We Die a Little". Just finished it, will keep my opinons to myself until you've had chance to devour it
Cerrertonia Jul 2019 5:13pm, 17 Jul 2019 10781 posts	0 Cerrertonia Not sure who translated Life:a user's manual, but it was Scottish Poet Gilbert Adair who translated Perec's "A Void", which doesn't use the letter 'e' - either in the original French or in the English translation. Suspect his 1200 word palindrome hasn't been translated though...

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About This Thread

Maintained by Diogenes

Based on The Telegraph feature
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/4248401/100-novels-everyone...
Link to the article http://www.fetcheveryone.com/article-view.php?id=518

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