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As with any prize there are a lot of books on that list that have faded into oblivion, and just as many classics that didn't make it.

But that said, I'm still kind of embarrassed that I've read so...

Memoirs of Margaret Thatcher -- The Downing Street Years.

Why? It was on sale at the thrift shop for $1

Did you mean to say non-fiction? Cause everything you mention is fiction...

And of course everybody loves Jane Austen -- start with Pride & Prejudice. Wuthering Heights would also be good, or something by Dickens -- Great Expectations maybe.

If you want to focus on American lit, and books that aren't too long, try We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackon, Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain, Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird if...

Sanctuary

Translation is very important. Plato used a lot of technical Greek philosophical terms that have no exact equivalents in English. For example, The Republic is usually said to be about "justice", but...

A lot of famous gangster movies are based on pulp novels, especially in the 20's and 30's. Two I can think of off the top of my head are Scarface by Armitage Trail and Little Caesar by W.R. Burnett....

I got the Noel Coward Diaries and the latest volume of Richardson's Picasso biography for Christmas (needless to say, I asked for them)...

Over the years I've read a lot of non-fiction. I would actually prefer to read well-written, reliable, informative accounts intended for the general reader.

But unfortunately they're in short...

And several other of his books. Also some of LeCarré's spy novels, such as The Spy Who Came In From The Cold.

Could you guys do me a favor and split this thread up into a separate thread for each month? This is too confusing the way it is. Have the choices for July been put up yet?

And then, once the...

I have a problem with this topic, because I don't think it's fair to rate a book I haven't read. And if I don't like an author, I'm not going to read them. So there are very few where I feel...

Oh I love a good comedy, anything to lighten the load for a while. But I agree that they don't usually work on the printed page. The Importance of Being Earnest is an exception, I think it reads...

For a good comedy, try Noel Coward: Hay Fever, Blithe Spirit, Private Lives.

Or The Importance of Being Earnest.

I also thoroughly enjoyed The Norman Conquests by Alan Ayckbourn (although you...

Library, almost exclusively these days. I have two pretty good local libraries, and if they don't have what I want, I can go up to the University for the day.

Oh, except I also buy old bestsellers...

Well, I've completed three volumes, or about 1600 pages, of The Story of the Stone, but I still have 700 pages to go -- does that count?

The principal Beat authors from the 50's are Ginsberg, Kerouac, Burroughs, and Corso. Other interesting/important authors associated with them are Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka), Gary Snyder, Lawrence...

I recommend Berlin Diaries 1940-1945 by Marie Vassiltchikov. She was a Russian-German aristocrat who knew several of the key figures in the assassination plot against Hitler in 1944.

Also of...

Sentimentality is one of those critical terms that is, unfortunately, only used pejoratively. By the time you say something is sentimental you're saying it goes too far. Probably the best you can do...

The place where most translators get in wrong is not in comprehending the original work, but in rendering it in English. I frankly would rather read a translator who writes excellent English, but may...

Stlukesguild -- I tried hard to figure out a way to tell you that my last post was not directed at you personally. The fact that you chose to misinterpret me tips me off that you're one of those...

Whereas hypocrasiy was just fine?

I used to do the chibuku shake shake, but my chibuku isn't really up to it any more...

My post was a little garbled. I meant that when James wrote autobiographically, he didn't include anything about his own sex life (though people claim to have found encoded versions of it here and...