Summer on Radio 1

[Guest]

Do you read books? What's your favourite book? Do you have recommendations?

My favourite book of all time is The Catcher in the Rye, a book every teenager, everywhere, should read.

[Behelzebub]

Just finished reading Brokeback Mountain, hehe. It's wack, holler. :-p

[Serin]

Gah, I haven't read the novella! The film was good. It made my sister cry, but there wasn't a tear to be shed on my part.

[Jono]

The most recent book I read was one of Michael Moore's. Not really a book fan.

[Kelly]

I like the Harry Potter books. My sister would rather wait to see the film. I can't pin-point one favourite book, it would be either The Da Vinci Code or Digital Fortress, both by Dan Brown.

[Serin]

Who changed the title of the thread?

I also highly recommend Catch-22. Beautifully written and very compelling.

[DC]

It's wack

Dont like it then?

[Lucinda]

Just finished reading Brokeback Mountain, hehe. It's wack, holler. :-p

I read that before I saw the film, cos it came free with Time Out that my mum bought, and I found the book lying around and nicked it. The book made me cry, but the film didn't, because I already knew what was going to happen.

The last book I read was by Helen Fielding (writer of Bridget Jones' Diary) called Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination. Think of Bridget Jones crossed with James Bond, and that's it. Good bit of chick lit.

Seriously though, my favourite two authors are Douglas Coupland and Nick Hornby. Nick Hornby wrote About A Boy, High Fidelity and A Long Way Down, three of my favourite books. And the books Generation X, Microserfs, Life After God, Girlfriend In A Coma, Miss Wyoming, Shampoo Planet and Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland. I love his outlook on life.

Another author for teenagers is Aidan Chambers, particularly Postcards From No Man's Land, which I've read a few times and loved.

[Serin]

I'm not a massive chick lit fan, though I did rather enjoy Bridget Jones.

As for non-fiction, I did enjoy the Michael Moore offerings. Stupid White Men was somewhat superior to Dude, Where's My Country?, but on the whole they were both intriguing reads. Related to US foreign policy, Noam Chomsky is also worthy of reading (Hegemony or Survival), though be warned his rhetoric is highly complicated at times.

Another good read is A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. Though often prone to retrospective sentimentality, the final chapter is very thought-provoking and rather affecting.

Have any of you attempted to read older literature (by older I don't mean erotica), but books such as Jude the Obscure or Heart of Darkness (which inspired the anti-war movie Apocalypse Now)?

[Viv]

Nora Roberts' stuff is smashing , Serin. I am in the middle of the "plant series" @ the moment. They are quite deep and mysterious.

[Mr_Quincy]

wheres wally

[Jono]

The Qu'ran if you look at the pictures

[DC]

The Qu'ran if you look at the pictures

THATS RACIST!!111one

IS IT BECUASE I'M BLACK!?

[Jono]

I don't know Arabic!!

[Serin]

Please, if you have nothing constructive to add, leave my book club!

[DC]

biff and chip

[Lucinda]

Have any of you attempted to read older literature (by older I don't mean erotica),

Probably the most 'mature' book I've read and enjoyed is 1984 by George Orwell, I loved that book.

Your comment just reminded me of when in year 10 (aged 14) my friend told her English teacher that she'd read an "adult book", and was very proud of herself. I had to explain to her why it was funny...

[Serin]

Probably the most 'mature' book I've read and enjoyed is 1984 by George Orwell, I loved that book.

A brilliant book. To use an old cliche, I couldn't put it down

Have you also read Animal Farm by George Orwell?

[Jono]

Animal Farm is great. Read that in the middle of high school.

Currently reading Germany 1919-45

[Serin]

My next literary attempt will be the Second World War novel Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon, published in 1973.

It's supposed to be quite difficult to read, as most of the first part of the book (it has 4 parts in total) has no plot or character development and the characters often randomly 'detach' from the novel, bursting into musical numbers.

[Lucinda]

I studied Animal Farm in year 8 and then again in year 9, both times in detail (in 2 different schools). So it kinda ruined it for me. But maybe one day I might be able to read it without having to analyse it slowly and painfully in school.

[Kelly]

I really like Martina Cole's stuff. Especially Maura's Game and Two Women. At the minute I'm reading Danielle Steele's No Greater Love but I'm almost finished that. It's about a family on the Titanic. The eldest child's parents and fiance die and she's left to raise her five siblings. It's very good and I especially like as I have a lot in common with the main character. She is the eldest of six children and has a lot of responsibility on her hands. I am the eldest of six children and since my mum left my dad I've been doing much more work than I used to and I've had to grow up really quickly. It's all good...

[Guest]

Douglas Coupland is a modern novelist with whom I hold a deep respect. Generation X is a damn good read.

I'm currently engorged in Eleanor Rigby by said author (which has nothing to do with The Beatles, bar the theme of their 1966 song) and is very funny; one of those books that helps kill boredom on long, uneventful journeys.

[Lucinda]

As I said a couple of years ago on the previous page, Douglas Coupland is my favourite author. In his books he asks all the questions I never thought of asking about life. I've read nearly all his books.

I recently read The Gum Thief and All Families Are Psychotic. While a lot of his books have sad themes, they're all life-affirming in the end. Girlfriend In A Coma is one of his more surreal books. Microserfs and JPod are good books, particularly if you're interested in the Silicon Valley computer workers culture. Life After God is less of a novel and more a series of accounts by different people who are coping with loss and memories, it's one of my favourites though. Generation X is like a story with lots of little stories inside it that the characters tell each other.

Douglas Coupland's books are not all the easiest to get into but they are well worth persevering with.