[Fee]

I haven't, Paul might have done, will be sending him here tonight

[Fee]

I think you're right, I might have to have a re-read when I've finished Dear Fatty.

[resistance is fertile]

I had to do my English Lit O level in a cupboard at Chulmleigh school as I found the list of 'approved' authors had lots that I was more keen on than J B bloody Priestly!so was excluded from the class.

Thats where I read my first Steinbeck and James Baldwin

(only good grade I got!)

[Green Rosie]

... Edward Rutherford - I was going to suggest that - but only if you like very long (as in 1400 pages) historical novels. I loved it, lent my copy to a friend and lost contact with the friend.

[alice]

Dickens. Trollope. Thackeray.

[Bebo]

Read that recently. Thought it was total carp to be honest.

[bagpuss]

I can read one of those in a couple of days, great stuff though

[mochyn]

Have I said before that I fear we may have been separated at birth?

A worrying thought.

[Silas]

Ulysses - bloody hell, what a book. It's great once you have managed to get into the writing style where there is almost no punctuation - but I have to admit, its the only thing of his I have read, you need to have a touch of the masochist about you

[Fee]

I am, I've been laughing out loud too, very funny.

I went through some of our novels last night and sorted out some that one or both of us haven't read, but should, so we've got a start on the book pile to choose from:

One Hundred Years of Solitude
A Passage to India
On the Road - Jack Kerouac
The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins (maybe, for me)
Far from the Madding Crowd
Republic - Plato
Maus - art spiegelman
Rob Roy

Ulysses might need to be bought, by the sounds of it

[Fee]

We're both big fans of His Dark Materials, great books.

[Silas]

YES yes yes!!!!!


John Stienbeck. OK, its unfinished, but it is brilliant.

[bagpuss]

Arthur and the Seeing Stone is the start of a 3 book kids series which sets a young man called arthur who is the adopted son of a aristocratic family in the 1200's against the arthurian legends. Merlin tells him about them to put into context his own problems growing up

They are very easy to read and the legends are relatively detailed

[Silas]

Arthur and the Seeing Stone is the start of a 3 book kids series which sets a young man called arthur who is the adopted son of a aristocratic family in the 1200's against the arthurian legends. Merlin tells him about them to put into context his own problems growing up

They are very easy to read and the legends are relatively detailed

[bagpuss]

Arthur and the Seeing Stone is the start of a 3 book kids series which sets a young man called arthur who is the adopted son of a aristocratic family in the 1200's against the arthurian legends. Merlin tells him about them to put into context his own problems growing up

They are very easy to read and the legends are relatively detailed

[alice]

T.H. White. The complete edition is 'The Once and Future King'

[bagpuss]

There are indeed snips about a leader named Arthur all the way back to the 6th century but its Mallory who brought it together and inspired culture with it and lead to many copies

I was guessing from how Mocyhn phrased her question that she had already read things like Le Morte d'Arthur or the One and Future King and found them unappealing

[Bebo]

T.H. White. The complete edition is 'The Once and Future King'

[bagpuss]

T.H. White. The complete edition is 'The Once and Future King'

[Silas]

T.H. White. The complete edition is 'The Once and Future King'

[Stacey]

The Mary Stewart Merlin trilogy is an easy read. And Mists of Avalon too.

[Barefoot Andrew]

Doesn't the Arthurian Legend largely stem from the 11th century Geoffrey of Monmouth's "History of the Kings of Britain"? Wikipedia link.
A.

[Silas]

Doesn't the Arthurian Legend largely stem from the 11th century Geoffrey of Monmouth's "History of the Kings of Britain"? Wikipedia link.
A.

[Stacey]

That will make a good Christmas present for someone - thanks

[Chez]

There are three mentions of Arthur in vaguely contemporary literature. Gildas, writing in the 6th century, says that someone fought well, 'although he was no Arthur'. There's mention of Arthur winning a battle at Badon. And there's one I can't remember - maybe Nennius as you say, but I haven't read him lately.

Even Gildas was writing a generation afterwards and it's all very muddled. The later legends are probably bastardisations or embroidery of oral tradition. It's interesting stuff.

[lettucewoman]

... Edward Rutherford - I was going to suggest that - but only if you like very long (as in 1400 pages) historical novels. I loved it, lent my copy to a friend and lost contact with the friend.