Britain's favourite 21 Books

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-10-21 06:26pm

InnerBrat wrote:*hides edit button behind back*

what?

Cheeky.

I still think this ist could be better, maybe it's because I've not read most of the top 21.

Post by **haas mark** » 2003-10-21 06:28pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote:
SyntaxVorlon wrote:Bah King is silly and monosyllabic, one must read REAL books like those of Adams or Banks to know true literary genius. I was quite annoyed when I saw NO books by Banks on the list.
Ditto!

InnerBrat: Iain M.

I'm still curious as to who exactly you're talking about..

~ver

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2003-10-21 07:21pm

verilon wrote:
Admiral Valdemar wrote:
SyntaxVorlon wrote:Bah King is silly and monosyllabic, one must read REAL books like those of Adams or Banks to know true literary genius. I was quite annoyed when I saw NO books by Banks on the list.
Ditto!

InnerBrat: Iain M.
I'm still curious as to who exactly you're talking about..

~ver

Iain M Banks...he wrote the Culture books as well as other pieces of Sci-Fi.

A little hard to find but very good...and he wasn't?

That sucks.

Straha · Post by **Straha** » 2003-10-21 07:28pm

verilon wrote:It would be a difficult decision for me (from what I've read out of that list) between 1984 and Rebecca, but ultimately, 1984 comes out on top.

~ver

You liked REBECCA?!?!

UGH! I hated that book, way too slow and boring, it was like tale of two cities after taking a sedative...

Kinda upset that Atlas Shrugged didn't make it though...

Post by **haas mark** » 2003-10-21 07:36pm

Straha wrote:
verilon wrote:It would be a difficult decision for me (from what I've read out of that list) between 1984 and Rebecca, but ultimately, 1984 comes out on top.

~ver
You liked REBECCA?!?!

UGH! I hated that book, way too slow and boring, it was like tale of two cities after taking a sedative...

Kinda upset that Atlas Shrugged didn't make it though...

[shrugs] I can't help it. And yes.. at least *something* by Ayn Rand should have been there.. Granted, I have only read about 1/3 of the way into Atlas Shrugged en totale, it's a damned awesome book.

~ver

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2003-10-21 08:07pm

Ghost Rider wrote:
verilon wrote:
Admiral Valdemar wrote: Ditto!

InnerBrat: Iain M.
I'm still curious as to who exactly you're talking about..

~ver
Iain M Banks...he wrote the Culture books as well as other pieces of Sci-Fi.

A little hard to find but very good...and he wasn't?

That sucks.

Very easy to find in the UK. Every Waterstones will have all his fiction and sci-fi.

And he's actually more recognisable here as just plain Iain Banks (well, he's not even mildly recognisable at all, but still), as one of his ordinary fiction books, The Crow Road, was made into a TV series.

(Everyone should read some Iain Banks. Start with The Wasp Factory.)

Considering that GoF made it onto the top 21 (despite, in my opinion, being the worst of five HP books) and the rest were probably only out because they only allowed one book per author in, Banks should definitely have been on there. But then I can say that about a hundred or so other authors.

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2003-10-21 08:10pm

InnerBrat wrote:
Ghost Rider wrote:Still I do agree...all FOUR Potter books?! Sorry a a couple are good but they are hardly uniformly good...it's essentially putting up all of Herbert's Dune Series.
What pissed me off was that they clearly had series and trilogies up there (His Dark Materials, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy; Lord of the Rings) - why couldn't thay treat the Harry Potter saga as one? I understand not treating the Discworld books as a series, but Harry Potter is a defined story with a definite beginning a foreseen end.

-edit-- saw your edit.

Because the only one that's actually a single work on there is His Dark Materials?

Lord of the Rings is a single novel that was published in three volumes. Every edition of the book tells you that in the Foreword, and Hitchhiker is in there as the first book alone, not the series.

The reason all the Potter books are in is because it's a popular vote. Mob Rule, and all that.

Post by **fgalkin** » 2003-10-21 08:16pm

verilon wrote:
InnerBrat wrote:
verilon wrote:Who is that?

~ver
of the Ian M variety I assume.
Ok now I'm really confused...

~ver

*cough* Culture *cough*

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Post by **fgalkin** » 2003-10-21 08:21pm

Vendetta wrote:
Ghost Rider wrote:
verilon wrote: I'm still curious as to who exactly you're talking about..

~ver
Iain M Banks...he wrote the Culture books as well as other pieces of Sci-Fi.

A little hard to find but very good...and he wasn't?

That sucks.
Very easy to find in the UK. Every Waterstones will have all his fiction and sci-fi.

Grr.... In the US, only LtW is in print. Others, you have to hunt down. I considered myself lucky when I found Player of Games and Use of Weapons During my trip to Canada, because as far as I know, no bookstore in the US has them.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Post by **Kuja** » 2003-10-22 01:09am

Ghost Rider wrote:Ya do know...he's going to do a revision of Book 1(add extra) and pump out the last two...quick?

GR, he's already released the revision, plus the 2nd-4th (I've got them). The fifth is coming out in two weeks and the other two are coming out during next year. Considering that he's been working on this series since the 70s, that's not exactly rushing out the last two.

InnerBrat · Post by **InnerBrat** » 2003-10-22 03:59am

Vendetta wrote:Lord of the Rings is a single novel that was published in three volumes.

A trilogy, you mean?

Vendetta wrote: Hitchhiker is in there as the first book alone, not the series.

You can't prove that in the slightest. The Hithchiker trilogy was designed to be a trilogy from the beginning, Granted, he added on two books aftrewards, but if you'd heard the radio series or seen the TV version, you'd know that there's a complete story that's not told in just the one book.
The first book doens't even have a proper ending. Just because the first book has the same name as the triology, doens't mean that Restuarant and the others were excluded from the vote.

If you're claiming only His Dark Materials was treated like a trilogy, you need to explain why other trilogies would have been treated differently.

Post by **Dalton** » 2003-10-22 04:17am

InnerBrat wrote:
Vendetta wrote:Lord of the Rings is a single novel that was published in three volumes.
A trilogy, you mean?

I don't think that counts as a true trilogy...

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-10-22 07:20am

Dalton wrote:
InnerBrat wrote:
Vendetta wrote:Lord of the Rings is a single novel that was published in three volumes.
A trilogy, you mean?
I don't think that counts as a true trilogy...

Yeah, I always heard it was one book but three volumes. Like the Bible being one book, but with many sub-books in it, er, yeah.

Oh and The Wasp Factory is a standard reading text at A-level, at least at my old college. Fucked up book that, never did read it all.

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2003-10-22 09:56am

Kuja wrote:
Ghost Rider wrote:Ya do know...he's going to do a revision of Book 1(add extra) and pump out the last two...quick?
GR, he's already released the revision, plus the 2nd-4th (I've got them). The fifth is coming out in two weeks and the other two are coming out during next year. Considering that he's been working on this series since the 70s, that's not exactly rushing out the last two.

I know about 1 now...I think ver corrected that

Yeah I know about the 70's but just commenting more or less that he's actually coming out with them without some horrendous lag time(Wizard and Glass anyone?)

Post by **Kuja** » 2003-10-22 02:41pm

InnerBrat wrote:
Vendetta wrote:Lord of the Rings is a single novel that was published in three volumes.
A trilogy, you mean?

No. A trilogy would be three separate books.

*runs to get my copy of LOTR*

Yep, first sentence of the Introduction:

"The Lord of the Rings is often erroneously called a trilogy, when it is in fact a single novel, consisting of six books plus addendices, sometimes published in three volumes."

Yeah I know about the 70's but just commenting more or less that he's actually coming out with them without some horrendous lag time(Wizard and Glass anyone?)

Well, the afterword of WaG explains why it took him so long to write it. I hope the last two won't give him such trouble.

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2003-10-22 05:19pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote:
Oh and The Wasp Factory is a standard reading text at A-level, at least at my old college. Fucked up book that, never did read it all.

You should.

The real slap in the face happens on the very last couple of pages.

Rereading it gives a very different perspective.

(Banks probably would have been a set text at my school if he were on the exam board's list, as my english teacher was a massive fan of The Crow Road)