Well when you do ever finish Scher, you better post your likes and dislikes for us all to see!
Or rather...read....
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Well when you do ever finish Scher, you better post your likes and dislikes for us all to see!
Or rather...read....
Aye.Quote:
Originally Posted by kelby_lake
I have been cluttering the Book Reviews section up with my reviews! :pQuote:
Originally Posted by Niamh
Ah!!!! It all makes sense!:p
Still. Could always copy the original list here and just do a 1-10 kitkat rating beside it for a general idea.;) :D
That's a great idea!!!!! :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Niamh
Yeah I know. I'm just saying popularity contests are pointless. If you go in WHSmith, look at the top ten, thats what people like to read. Pointless ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by kelby_lake
Not if the point is finding out what people would like to read at a given time.
Yes but popularity contests only take into consideration the people who actually bothered to vote...Quote:
Originally Posted by Scheherazade
Sure and probably people who are interested in reading would take part in such a poll?
obviously yes. but you are not getting everybody's opinion. that is why popularity contests are (in my opinion) pointless...
however i agree they should be taken in the spirit intended - as a bit of fun...
i enjoyed reading this poll anyway (even if it is pointless) ;)
I read about 20 from the first list and 10 or so from the second list. I read a lot more books than that, in my life time, but most of my favorite books and authors are not listed, or if they are there is only one or two novels by them.
I did find it curious, that so many of the novels listed here, have been made into movies. Now if we looked at the list as a film list I would probably have seen a lot more. I wonder how many people, even youth in England saw the films first. Even some of the classics have film versions they probably would have been exposed to. I think mass media and the film industry has truly influenced this list of popular reading.
I found the second and third books much better. The first book is really just setting the story up for the next three books.
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Originally Posted by Scheherazade
I've read 38 of those on the list...
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Originally Posted by Hank Stamper
Actually Im pretty sure the big read is/was just one in the series of thngs the BBc has been doing in order to increase the intrest in reading and the literacy levels in the Uk, its to do wiuth their mandate of entertain inform and educate. At the moment they are 2 years into an 3 year campaign thing called RAW ( read and write) but since I just wrote 2,000 words on the subject last week for my examIll shut up now before I duplicate it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scheherazade
But the pioint of the big read wasnt just to see what people were intrested in readin, which it did measure. It was supposedly a snapshot of britians reading tastes at the time.
Anyway they made such a fuss about it ther actually was a measurable increase in people buying books to read , it recaptured intrest and so forth.
The thing about The Big Read was that people were asked to vote for the book they had enjoyed the most - they were not asked to evaluate it or consider its merit as Literature, which might well have daunted a lot of people. The weekly programmes kept the survey to the front of viewers' minds and a lot of promotion was done in schools and libraries, hence the large number of children's titles in the list. Also it explains the high rating for books that were newly published and so in evidence in bookshops/supermarkets/railway station bookstalls. I suspect a survey made now would find a lot of titles have disappeared and been replaced with equally ephemeral titles.
What did I nominate? Ummm - I can't remember....
Reading promotion in UK has come from an unlikely source at the moment - Richard and Judy, the hosts of an afternoon chat show, have a list of (mostly newly-published) books each year, invite people on to the show to talk about them, go to groups for vox pop opinions and at the end of the year nominate a Book of the Year. They also have a Summer Read list. I can't stand R & J but their choice of books is not bad, not Literary, but good middle of the road titles (though I can't believe it is their personal choice....) and my goodness, do they boost the sale of books - even if only a proportion of people who buy the books read them, many more people are reading newish books than would otherwise do so.
Dont get me started on the Richard and Judy Bookclub. We have a special section dedicated to each section, Summer one is coming up. Drives me bonkers.
this list make me look moderately well read :) I count 47 in the top 100 that I've read (or am reading). There are certainly a whole bunch of books listed that I enjoyed very much - If I remember rightly I voted for Dune at the time.
I think its a good representation of what British people read, though as has been commented there are some that are perhaps only on the list because they were out at the time.
I'm British and I'd not even heard of Faulkner until I started frequenting this site... Its no surprise at all, most American authors are simply off the radar for British readers.Quote:
Originally Posted by Basil
Thia is now 63 out of 200. Surprised no Gaskell.:(Quote:
Originally Posted by Niamh
possibly because the kind of people who read Gaskell watch very little telly and therefore probably didn't know anything about this poll.. which would explain the myriad mainstream titles/children's booksQuote:
Originally Posted by Niamh
which is why I suggested popularity contests are not usually worth paying any attention to because they only take into consideration those who actually bothered to vote...
Incidentally I live in the UK and I had never heard about this BBC Big Read show...
As for Richard and Judy :crash:
Isn't this what statistics about?Quote:
Originally Posted by Hank Stamper
The assumption that a sample group would be representative of the larger population?
Why is everyone against R&J? I don't watch their show, didn't even know that they had a book club but why are you against them?
Good question.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scheherazade
I can seee why Niamh might have a grudge , I do sort of. Because suddenly everyione wants the same book now and we only have a limited number of one book so people can get quite irrated.
But then again I want to know why a mobile and choclate companies are concidered experts in jududging what is a good book too.
Does anyone else except me think that movies have influenced this list? I see many of the books listed, are also very popular films nowdays. Many young people see the film and then might be inclined to read the novel or the opposite way around. I would say Austen films have actually become a British tradition, by now.
Actually I was going to say that, a lot of people thought that the lord of the rings came out #1 because of the films rather than people actually reading them.
and I have the Big read book of books ( got given it for my birthday) and actually most of the books have a notation beside them telling you about the adaptions of it.
Not sure if that says much. There are many books which are not on the list but have great movies made based on them. Hollywood will never miss an opportunity to invest on great books.
I've never heard of them until this thread but I just checked their website and I find their pictures kinda annoying.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scheherazade
:nod:..... and sometimes books were just meant to be films and sometimes a film was really meant to be a book the makers just got confused.
I am not a fan of them either but how does it affect us that they might be running some kind of book club? More importantly how does the fact that they run a book club affect the books? (Yes, sales might be going up etc etc but all said and done, do books lose their value because they are endorsed by R&J Book Club?)Quote:
Originally Posted by papayahed
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scheherazade
I dunno. Ya'll know my views on book covers (I don't by books with any hint of book clubedness or tie in to movies. For example, if it says Oprah book club on the cover I'm not buying it even if it was the last one in the store and it was made of gold), I think it's the same principle I feel annoyed that otherwise nonreaders read because Oprah said so and I fear I will be mistaken for one of those types.
Yes. That is why statistics are always ambiguous and never truly representative. 99% of statistics are usually wrong. FACT ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Scheherazade
and re. Richard and Judy. Apart from being the most cringeworthy couple on TV, I just think if people need to watch Richard and Judy to be motivated to pick up a book, then we have real problems... But at least it is motivating people to read I suppose. Even if they need an irritating wotsit-tinged sock-puppet and his gormless wife to encourage them.
Does it affect our enjoyment of the books they choose - absolutely not. However, I bought Moondust from Amazon the other week and it has a Richard and Judy sticker on the front that you can't even remove. In other words, it's not a sticker - they've actually printed the cover with Richard and Judy's name on it! :crash:
It's because we are all existentialists and don't like people telling us what to read ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by papayahed
I think there is also some smugness involved as well - sometimes you feel good (superior :D ) because you've read a book that you know not many other people have read. If it has been popularised by Richard and Judy, and by association it is in the Top 10 in WHSmith's, then anybody who commutes by train will have read it
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Originally Posted by papayahed
So much for not judging a book by its cover, eh? ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Hank Stamper
I have to say I would have looked for another copy if I had bought it from a shop... I don't know if that makes me a massive pedant, but it spoils the cover more than anything
They are patronising, smug, self-satisfied, think they are so bright, intelligent and with it and ask questions that reveal appalling ignorance...will that do to be going on with?Quote:
Originally Posted by Scheherazade
No, I don't watch their show, I tune in when the book list is on and keep the sound off until they start on the books and turn off straight afterwards!
No intellectual snobbery on this site then. :D :D :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Hank Stamper
Yes, but we will overlook it ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Hank Stamper
Still, so much for not judging a book by its cover, eh?Quote:
but it spoils the cover more than anything
I rephrased my question somewhere above.Quote:
Originally Posted by kasie
I don't care about R&J... this way or that. However, I don't see why we should have an attitude against the books that they endorse... Or any other celebrity/presenter etc etc.
My name is Papayahed and I judge a book by it's cover.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scheherazade
It's partially about people telling me what to do, to me it's the same as those movie stars talking about world issues at awards shows. It drives me bonkers. And partially it's about someone coming into my world and telling me what I should read and worse yet what will make me a better person if I read it.
i'm influenced by who tells me to read something. i'm not taking the opinion of some middle-aged couple to tell me what i'd like. and i intend to read tess of the d'ubervilles but was put off it for ages by my annoying english teacher who loves
it and spent an entire lesson telling us most of the plot
I knew it!Quote:
Originally Posted by papayahed
:D
How about our Book Club??? :D
:nod: thats what annoys me about the book club too. Some books just suddenly become in demand and when we run out of stock and there is a delay in getting the orders in, people get cranky and start giving out. (this mainly happens in the high st. In the airport its different. They take up too much space and hardly budge, sitting there for a good while when other more in demand books or bigger sellers could have been stocked in its place. :( )Quote:
Originally Posted by Nightshade
But i must admit, they do sometimes have a gem on their list. A quiet Belief in Angels being one.
The book club is only annoying when my picks don't win and even moreso when my pick doesn't win and none of the winnings book voters read it. OH! or when new people think they need to pick the "intellectual" book.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scheherazade
Or when people decide to pick the cliché book, and then I don't feel like re-reading.Quote:
Originally Posted by papayahed
Thank God I don't watch television. That list shamelessly displays a large number of books enjoying the marketing campaigns by movie-makers and television 'crouch and cleavage' dramas. Year 2005 and the "LOTR" films recently released and the marketing campaign still raging on to promote DVD release etc, guess what would the sheeple vote for? Expect me to go to a list created by 'popular vote' to decide what books I invest my precious little leisure-time in? You must be having a laugh! BBC are one of the more decent broadcasters but still a popular vote is all that it is. I love Radio 4 whereas BBC television is gone down the pan trying to compete with privately owned 'commercial' channels.
About book clubs. I find them shallow and unpalatable, just my subjective opinions, nobody has to agree with them. My copy of The Shadow of the Wind has some sort of sticker on it about Richard and Judy, I thought it was something like Punch & Judy. Never seen them, have no desire to see them either.
Interesting. I do not consider myself a separate entity: I am part of the public and hence, my vote is part of the popular vote.
Oh, and Kafka's Crow, I do not agree with your opinion on book clubs... I could even say that I actually find your view shallow and unpalatable but I won't do that.
Guess everyone expectations are different. To me, the Book Club is nothing but fun and a way to enrich my reading regimen. I also enjoy the process of nominating/voting/campaigning.