[Which country are you from?]

Born near Wigan (England) & moved to Bradford to go to University 24 years ago and just stayed.

[John Wyndham]

I also did The Chrysalids at school & really enjoyed it. I've read most of his others over the years (except Chocky) & liked all of them, at the moment I'm half way through The Seeds of Time (collection of short stories).

 

*A Wydham Bender is not a form of cocktail, but more like a small glass of sherry to be taken before dinner. The after effects leave one with a disconcerting habit of greeting people by saying "Wotcher!" and calling everyone "Old Chap".

 

LOL love this Raven - I know what you mean!

[The Haunting of Toby Jugg by Dennis Wheatley]

I read this & a couple of other of Wheatleys 'satanic' books ooh must be 20/25 years ago (read a lot of horror when I was younger, but not much recently). I had them in my room in halls at university and had a friend that refused to come into my room once she realised they were there - can't remember why they frightened her so much.

[What are your top three classics?]

Top three at the moment

 

Bleak House

Woman in White

Vanity Fair

[Books within books...]

Farenheit 451 - set in the 24th century, the authorities consider books to be evil (because they inspire independant thought) so order all books to be burned. A few people fight against this and join a community of book lovers where each one of them has learned a book by heart & can recite it for others & to pass on to future generations. Sounds like my kind of hell - I'm sure it does say which books they have learnt but as I'm not at home can't check, exellent & scary book (did the nazis do something like this?). This could probably go in the Dystopian thread as well.

[How eclectic is your library]

Fairly eclectic - the usual mix of fiction (detective / historical/ thrillers / contemporary / classics) I find if I read too much of one thing (3 thrillers in a row) I feel like I've eaten too much junk food & need to eat more healthily for a bit ( a classic a biography)!

I also have a fair amont of non-fiction lots of auto/biographies, history,ecology/politics, football & lots of reference books - I can sit for hours browsing through a Brewers Reference book.

[The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe]

Finished this about a week ago - loved it. A chunky one (730 pages) but an easy read, the story just pulls you along with it.

For those who were/may be put off by the use of accents, a lot of the time they are explained - Sherman tends to translate what Maria is saying to himself.

A stange book in that I found no character/s to identify with, most of them have very few redeeming features, although Sherman McCoy seems to be a better person because of his ordeal - no longer a 'Master Of The Universe' more a 'man of the world'.

This 'felt like' a Dickens book I think mainly because of the way Wolfe names people/companies - the two law firms in the book are 'Dunnings + Sponget + Leaches' and 'Curry + Goad + Pesterall', they could have come straight out of Bleak House! I did look BOTV up in Wikipedia & Wolfe is influenced by Dickens & the story was originally a serialization of 27 parts in Rolling Stone magazine.

This is the first Tom Wolfe book I've read & I would definately read another, I thoroughly recommend it to anyone thinking of reading it.

[Hello from Bellatrix]

Thought I'd say hello here first, found this forum about a week ago & been reading threads since. I'll read anything that sounds interesting - I like classics / autobiography / thrillers / historical(esp. crime like Conan Doyle & Wilkie Collins) / contemporary & factual books. It's nice to find that I'm not alone in having a large 'to read pile'! I've already started writing down some of your recommendations for when I start buying books again.