[Love in the time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez]

this author is incredible at narrative writing, perhaps even peerless

[Which TV programme are you waiting for?]

Tomorrow 9pm

kerrang channel

'guitar gods'

[What do you stubbornly refuse to read, and why?]

jane austen

what a cliche that would be

[Harry Potter - why such a phenomenon?]

i've never quite understood why they were such a phenomenon

rowling produced nothing new for the fantasy genre

[Jeffery Archer]

not a penny more, not a penny less

read this book a few years back, competent story and very fluently written

[Your favorite book]

one book that i forgot to mention:

 

the fountainhead - ayn rand

[Franz Kafka]

i dread reading the trial again

such was the affect it had upon me

[Franz Kafka]

oh, kafka certainly deserves a lot of time to ponder

part of his skill is what he says by not saying it

[Franz Kafka]

Any fans?

[Northern Lights - If read What daemon would you have?]

an eagle

[hello there]

Hello, and welcome to our little corner.

Classical as in Plato or the greek tragedies ? Or Jane Austen? Literary like Chaucer...Milton?

Hope you enjoy. We are a very friendly bunch

Pp

 

this is a very loose definition but for me classical is anything pre - 1900 that takes my fancy

not really a fan of jane austen, to be fair

examples would be madame bovary, dangerous liaisons, russian novelists like dostoevsky, tolstoy etc

 

Welcome to the forum. Which philosophers do you like?

 

mainly the germans, nietzsche and schopenhauer

[What constitutes a good read?]

I also prefer books with a distinct and continuous style

kafka, for example, can only write like kafka and that's part of the appeal of his books

[hello there]

apart from the philosophy volumes i have to consume

i take a keen interest in classical and early modern literature

[Jackie Collins]

i lost interest in jackie collins once i had passed puberty

[What constitutes a good read?]

i do ofcourse

the book is there for my entertainment and i take whichever character i like as the hero

[What constitutes a good read?]

no, it makes sense, there's no need to revise it

i always find that to me a hero can be anyone that excels against the odds in a given situation, the overbearing conditions of the situation are not as important as the choice of the 'hero'

but then, we are all welcome to our own tastes of course

[Where Are Your Books Kept?]

as a general rule they are kept everywhere

[What constitutes a good read?]

well, that's the purpose of this thread, to see what tastes we have here

 

i find your 'pre-gunpowder' comment interesting, and although it's a bit of a tangent

i'd like to know why you think gunpowder killed off heroes

[Have you ever read a book that changed your life?]

on the road by jack kerouac

 

it changed me before it changed my life though

[What constitutes a good read?]

There are, to a certain degree, some de facto elements such as a competent style, an original story and an attempt at entertainment throughout.

 

However, what really makes you sit up and think 'this was a good read' after a book?

 

for me, a good read is one that totally captures my attention both during and after the book for a considerable time. I must still be imitating the characters that i have fallen in love with in the book atleast a fortnight after i've finished it to consider it a good read.

[Your favorite book]

like some of you, i think it's impossible to name one book above others

even to name a collection would be difficult as it changes with the more books i read

 

for now, some of my favorites:-

 

the brothers karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky

dangerous liaisons - Choderlos De Laclos

on the road - Jack Kerouac

the fountainhead - Ayn Rand

[hello there]

just signed up and glad to be here (etc etc)

 

i'm a philosophy student in england

and i read and write out of habit

 

looking forward to browsing the forums and interacting with you all, it's looking impressive so far

 

cheers