Jay Landsman

I haven't got to reading any of the novels yet, but his literary criticism is top notch.

I do agree that the desire to read is in your from a very young age, but I do think that circumstance can do a lot to suppress that desire for quite a while. I pushed that desire into the subconscious for the majority of my teenage years as I wasn't strong-minded enough not to go along with the crowd. But luckily for me, I realised that what the majority consider 'fun' wasn't satisfying me; so I've been trying my best to catch-up with people who accepted this fact at a younger age

I have to retract the points made by me in this thread a few months back I will always choose a great novel over great poetry, but my general ignorance of it has subsided recently. Despite that, I don't have a great knowledge of poetry, so I would much appreciate it if somebody could recommend some lesser known poets for me to get acquainted with (I don't need to be told about Whitman, Byron, Baudelaire and so on ...)

- Writers who litter their work with obscure foreign words and phrases to flex their intellectual muscles - Writers who remorselessly abuse adjectives - Writers who seemingly don't want anybody to actually understand what they're trying to convey - Writers who clog their work up with mundane, pointless dialogue - Writers who clog their work up with 'in' jokes that only twenty-five people on the planet understand - Writers who reference random historical figures in every other paragraph (I'm looking at you, Mencken) - The surrealist movement -- which may have worked well in films -- but the literature seems to be random for the sake of being random. I'm sure that Tristan Tzara once proposed putting a bunch of words into a bag and then creating a poem out of the random ones picked out. Now, I feel that a bit more thought and care should go into the creation of art, but that's just me. - People who dismiss any work that isn't written within the conventional grammatical standards taught by teachers who wouldn't know beautiful writing if it was written by their own hand! I include the works of a certain Joseph Conrad in this category -- surely a writer of some of the most beautiful prose ever seen in the English language. --- I could add more, but I'm pretty tired right now

I'll be tuning in to see Manny Pacroid mysteriously become even stronger than he was in his last fight. He's managed to increase his punch resistance, power, hand speed, head size, hand size ... I've read and witnessed more than enough evidence to be as sure as I could be without actually knowing.

Catch-22 is the funniest book I've read; it really isn't structured that confusingly, but I can understand that the constant introduction of new characters can overload the brain momentarily.

Her novels are supposed to be turgid, and her philosophy is something I worked out for myself when I was fourteen. I don't think that any of us need to read a 1,000 page novel to be told that the sole purpose of our lives is to pursue happiness If you've read existential philosophy and have a basic knowledge of libertarianism, you don't need to waste your time with this. It just seems to me that a lot of time and energy has been wasted -- by far too many people -- on a philosopher whose work doesn't merit the attention. She's derided almost as much as Sartre -- and I know that you're not the biggest fan of his work.

I've always loved Superfluous, because it's a word that I take a strange enjoyment out of saying. Verisimilitude is another cracker!

South Wales: Land of the Gods

In The Loop nominated for an oscar It's nice to see the best comedy of the last decade getting a bit of recognition.

I'm not too concerned with how the average moron perceives me, but even I would feel a tad awkward if I was reading something as explicit as Tropic of Cancer on a bus or train I wouldn't even dream of taking my copy of Naked Lunch on public transport either.

I do find Self to be a pretty interesting character; his appearances on Grumpy Old Men were pretty amusing, and he does seem to have a decent ideas about politics. Amis, on the other hand, seems like an unsavoury character, if his comments about Muslims are anything to go by.

Sounds exactly like Martin Amis ...

"You can't fight in here. This is the war room!" Hard to find many better film quotes Sorry if I jumped the gun; I thought this was just a thread to post our favourite quotes ...

The Rolling Stones The Velvet Underground Sonic Youth Public Enemy The Replacements Not a definitive list by any means.

Anyone ever read Chris Morris' article ripping into Amis? http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/nov/25/bookscomment.religion Funny read, as you'd expect from Morris.

Muhammad Ali isn't even the greatest heavyweight of all time (Joe Louis has a safe grip on that mantle for the foreseeable future) Ali may have grown up to be a great man, but the way he treated Joe Frazier was despicable, deplorable, detestable . . . I don't get how Ali is continually exempt from abuse -- while Malcolm X is chastised for doing the same thing. He turned Black America against Joe Frazier at a time when racial tension was at an extremely high level. His kids were bullied in school, because 'The Greatest' thought it would be a good idea to bring race into a boxing fight between two black men. I don't blame Frazier for still being bitter about it all; he did so much for Ali, yet got nothing at all in return.

1. Sugar Ray Robinson 2. Diego Maradona 3. Joe Louis 4. Jesse Owens 5. Muhammad Ali No knowledge of American sports, so there's obviously some glaring omissions.

I don't want to read The Da Vinci Code, because I've heard that it's terribly written. The plot didn't really interest me either.

I'm a teenager who reads books The thing with our generation, is that we have so many different activities to keep us occupied in our own homes: Television, DVDs, the internet, video games, unlimited access to music . . . You can't blame us teenagers for not reading the same amount of books that the previous generations might have. I spend my spare time trying to absorb as much quality television, films, music, and literature as possible -- but sadly, there aren't enough hours in the day for me to fit all it all in I am somebody who hates to be ignorant on any subject that I have a remote interest in, so I'm a bit of a culture sponge.

The Velvet Underground - Sister Ray Anyone who listens to this until the end is a friend of mine.

The film is a pretty faithful adaption to the book, so maybe you should give it a miss. The book is a thoroughly entertaining read for anybody who has a penchant for the crazy

I never read more than one novel at a time, but I will usually read a collection of articles by a journalist when I can't be bothered with following a plot (Hunter Thompson, Lester Bangs, H. L. Mencken, A. J. Liebling . . .)

I'm yet to see anybody reading a book outside of libraries or the classroom during my nineteen years on this planet I'd be inclined to give a nod to anybody reading Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 -- but on the other hand, I'd probably be quite unimpressed by somebody reading Ulysses on a train. If I was ever reading on a train or bus, I would probably make sure that it was a book that was pretty light -- because I get pretty flustered if I don't know the meaning of a particular word or phrase. I am the type who has to look it up straight away for piece of mind.

Been reading some Hunter Thompson articles on his best friend: Richard Nixon. You would have to be a stinking fascist not to gain some enjoyment from reading the opinions of Thompson when it comes to one of the most corrupt, treacherous, deceitful, and selfish men ever to lead a supposedly 'democratic' state. There's nothing like politics to stir up the emotions.