tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post7014324599474186015..comments2024-02-26T00:59:26.907-08:00Comments on Ana the Imp: Twenty-ones, under and overAnastasia F-Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-85602325911727631322010-10-04T15:33:17.947-07:002010-10-04T15:33:17.947-07:00Brendano, we obviously have the same tastes! I we...Brendano, we obviously have the same tastes! I went through an 'existential' phase when I read a lot of Sartre's fiction, including the <i>Roads to Freedom</i> and <i>Nausea</i>. He's wrong: there are perfect moments. :-)Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-47057991903163323652010-10-04T15:30:30.065-07:002010-10-04T15:30:30.065-07:00Retarius, I haven't read any of those though I...Retarius, I haven't read any of those though I have see the movies based on the <i>Caine Mutiny</i> and <i>The Cruel Sea.</i>Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-32346293066610876322010-10-04T09:12:57.699-07:002010-10-04T09:12:57.699-07:00I read a lot of books before I was 21 ... perhaps ...I read a lot of books before I was 21 ... perhaps more than in the subsequent 29 years.<br /><br />I read some soon after I moved away from home, aged 17, that influenced me a lot ... in particular, Herman Hesse's <i>Steppenwolf</i>, and Jean-Paul Sartre's <i>Roads to Freedom</i> trilogy. Also <i>The Grapes of Wrath</i> a bit later.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-28305189722309828042010-10-04T04:45:30.333-07:002010-10-04T04:45:30.333-07:00I'd include some favourite war novels:
1. Her...I'd include some favourite war novels:<br /><br />1. Herman Wouk's Caine Mutiny, Winds of War and War and Remembrance.<br /><br />2. Norman Mailer's The Naked and The Dead<br /><br />and<br /><br />3. Nicholas Monsarrat's The Cruel SeaRetariushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09165689727557860449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-87376072415721345632010-10-04T01:21:59.518-07:002010-10-04T01:21:59.518-07:00Levent, I like Batman, he appeals to my Gothic tas...Levent, I like Batman, he appeals to my Gothic taste. :-)Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-47553238121421894472010-10-04T01:01:14.433-07:002010-10-04T01:01:14.433-07:00Oh, Mark, people like us will sustain culture and ...Oh, Mark, people like us will sustain culture and civilization, no matter if the masses can't draw themselves away from <i>Britain's got Talent</i> and the <i>X Factor</i>. Bread and circuses, pizza and telly; what's changed? :-))Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-40046458247734276732010-10-04T00:56:49.385-07:002010-10-04T00:56:49.385-07:00Calvin, some super choices there. I love Gulliver...Calvin, some super choices there. I love <i>Gulliver's Travels</i>, just about anything, really, by Swift, one of my all-time favourite writers, the best satirist in the English language. I've also read the Tennyson, the Kipling, though <i>Plain Tales from the Hills</i> is my favourite, H. P Lovecraft, a bit too florid for my taste, Ransome, Durell, Chandler and lots of Wodehouse. I've dipped in to <i>The Origin of Species</i>, though really just as casual reference. I simply <i>adore</i> the stories of M. R. James, <i>Count Magnus</i> being a creepy favourite. You've now inspired me to write something on the delights of childhood terrors!Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-31797565900213183662010-10-04T00:52:59.720-07:002010-10-04T00:52:59.720-07:00My top ten:
1) Batman
2) Spiderman
3) Zagor
Err ...My top ten:<br /><br />1) Batman<br />2) Spiderman<br />3) Zagor<br /><br />Err that made top three. More than enough for me. :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-51268001731342137372010-10-03T22:35:30.559-07:002010-10-03T22:35:30.559-07:00Thirty was my twenty-one (a slow developer). I had...Thirty was my twenty-one (a slow developer). I had a goal to have read a whole lot of English and French stuff by then (translations were not allowed and I didn't know any other languages). I was genuinely impressed by a Lithuanian university French teacher mainly because she moved like a leopard (and had a giant picture of a big cat pinned on her office wall) and because she wore red and black to lecture on Stendahl's novel, but also - curiously as I see it now - because she had read all of Balzac's novels. I've come to feel the notion of being well-read is increasingly unsustainable. Sad because knowing the same stories is what holds societies together and bridges generations.Mark Englishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03506844097173520312noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-54477770391621718112010-10-03T18:11:59.020-07:002010-10-03T18:11:59.020-07:00Together with a recommendation that the classics a...Together with a recommendation that the classics are still worth reading, here are a few lowbrow choices.<br /><br />Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift<br />Idylls of the King - Tennyson<br />Dune - Frank Herbert<br />Kim, & The Jungle Books - Rudyard Kipling<br />At the Mountains of Madness - H. P. Lovecraft<br />Collected Ghost Stories of M. R. James<br />The Snow Goose, & Jennie - Paul Gallico<br />Swallows & Amazons (series) - Arthur Ransome<br />Conan the Barbarian - Robert Howard<br />King Solomon's Ring - Konrad Lorenz<br />My Family & Other Animals - Gerald Durrell<br />On the Origin of Species - Charles Darwin<br />Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage - Alfred Lansing<br />The King Must Die - Mary Renault<br />The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler.<br />. . . anything by P. G. Wodehouse.Calvinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10640148105202971907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-2629910396298232162010-10-03T16:28:14.137-07:002010-10-03T16:28:14.137-07:00not sure if a play counts I should say.not sure if a play counts I should say.Fletch's Bloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16402507296202065300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-85448934725928033412010-10-03T16:23:38.928-07:002010-10-03T16:23:38.928-07:00Yes, indeed. Oh and we can't forget Gordon Bro...Yes, indeed. Oh and we can't forget Gordon Brown's <i>The Labour Party and Political Change in Scotland 1918–29</i>Fletch's Bloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16402507296202065300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-85218416447136457952010-10-03T16:19:42.078-07:002010-10-03T16:19:42.078-07:00Good choices. Well, since Hamlet and the Collecte...Good choices. Well, since <i>Hamlet</i> and the <i>Collected Shorter Poems</i> of Auden were among the choices, they clearly do. :-)Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-77398740605907366632010-10-03T16:07:18.679-07:002010-10-03T16:07:18.679-07:00Too bad I'm so 'old'--it prohibits me ...Too bad I'm so 'old'--it prohibits me from putting <i> A Journey</i> on this list. What a remarkable work of fiction--better than Dickens!Fletch's Bloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16402507296202065300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-2494513049257855492010-10-03T16:05:37.357-07:002010-10-03T16:05:37.357-07:00How interesting. I don't much care for Nigell...How interesting. I don't much care for Nigella either, but I suppose she's earned some of her...well, she's earned something anyway. <br />If I had to pick a few books that truly inspired me before I was 21 it would have to be<br />1. <i>Götzen-Dämmerung</i><br />2. <i> From Peel to Major: The History of The Conservative Party</i><br />3. <i> Just So Stories</i><br />4. <i> Julius Caesar</i>(not sure if a place counts)<br />5. <i> Songs of Innocence and Experience</i>--not sure if poetry counts?Fletch's Bloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16402507296202065300noreply@blogger.com