Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Desert Island digressions

Funny the things you stumble across on the net when you're looking for something else (in my case, the jpeg of a particular Orwell book cover).

I've read nine ten of the listed books, but which nine ten?

15 comments:

robert said...

I'm guessing ...
both Orwells
Iain Banks
Kundera
Hornby
Bukowski
David Nobbs
Hamper

Now I'm getting stuck ...
D H Lawrence?
John Healy?
McEwan?
Greene?

I'll go for McEwan!

Rob

Imposs1904 said...

You got six. That's a pass. ;-)

Imposs1904 said...

Wait up; just realised I've read ten of the books listed.

robert said...

Ah well, not too bad!
I've read six of them -
both Orwells, Kundera, Healy (after the excellent BBC version of it), Bukowski, and the Patrick Hamilton one.

robert said...

It's a fix! Er, but congrats on hitting ten of 'em

Kara said...

Okay - My guesses:

Both Orwells
Hornby
Banks
Greene
Bukowski
Christopher
Hamper
Perec
Wyndham

Imposs1904 said...

The ten are:

- Ben Hamper's Rivethead (because of Roger and Me)
- Iain Banks's Espedair Street (didn't rate it at the time. maybe a re-read for 2011?)
- Orwell's 'Down and Out in Paris & London (for sheer readibility, my favourite Orwell book)
- Hornby's High Fidelity (I love Frears film adaptation but I wish they'd do the remake set in London.)
- Orwell's 'Keep The Aspidistra Flying' (re-reading now after a 20 year gap. Better than I remember.)
- John Healy's 'Grass Arena' (I also remember the BBC's adaptation but I'm sure I read the book first. Bought it in an excellent bookshop on Charing Cross Road which always had a nice line in remaindered Faber & Faber books. I prefer the book over the tv adaptation, tbh. Not because I read the book first but because Mark Rylance is one of those actors who annoy the hell out of me. File him alongside Hopkins and McKellern.)
- DH Lawrence's 'Sons and Lawrence' (read one Christmas inbetween stacking shelves at the Watford branch of Woolworths . For a short two weeks, Pick and Mix became Steal and Scoff.)
- Patrick Hamilton's 'Hangover Square' (Another one pencilled in for a re-read.)
- Solzhenitsyn's 'One Day' (Just so I could say I've read some Solzhenitsyn. Of course, I plumped for the short version of Solzhenitsyn.)
- Bukowski's 'Post Office' (I love Bukowski's misanthropy and I'm not embarrassed to admit it.)

I have read other books by Kundera, Greene, McEwan, Armitage and Nobbs but not the one's profiled in the pic..

I feel a book meme coming on.

robert said...

Glad you like the Hamilton book. (Unless you're planning a re-read to confirm your hatred for it!).
I'd never heard of him til I read a Guardian article on him, and then read 'Hangover Square'. Didn't think so much of his 'Slaves of Solitude' mind ...

Anonymous said...

I've only read two of them, Hangover Square and Post Office. And if my memory serves, I'm sure Robert must be wrong about Slaves of Solitude – I thought it was better than Hangover if anything...

Imposs1904 said...

Sorry Robert but I'm with Stuart on this one. I really liked Slaves of Solitude. West Pier's another great Hamilton novel.

robert said...

Oh well, the weight of peer pressure suggests I might have to re-read/re-consider 'Slaves of Solitude' ;>)

Imposs1904 said...

SPGB peer pressure wins out again. ;-)

Highlander said...

He shoots, he scores! I've read precisely none of them. Get in.

Imposs1904 said...

H,

I would have pegged you for a teenage Orwell fan. I thought all us sad sacks on the ultra left in our late thirties and early thirties were.

Highlander said...

Ye, I've read Orwell - just not that one - and I am a fan. Same with some of the other authors. Does that still make me a 'sad sack'? :)