Catch
22 - Joesph Heller
This
is probably the second most black book I've read. It's very funny in places
and definatly a classic, but it has a very dark side. At times it's almost
like those episodes of M*A*S*H where sometimes there were no jokes, just
the realities of war and the black humour of people trying to get on with
it. This is one of those books you can't not read.
Something
Happened - Joesph Heller
This
book is somehow darker even though it is only about an office worker to
whom nothing seems to really happen. The book is difficult to describe
without it seeming boring (it is mostly a description of the main character's
life) but for some reason I think it is better than Catch 22 (although
Jim disagrees).
Illusions
- Richard Bach
I'd
heard of this book somewhere before I spotted it in a bookstore and so
I expected it to be quite good, but it was disappointing. It's full of
snippets from a supposed messiah's handbook in the form of proverbs. These
proverbs at first glance seem to be in a similar form to the Tao Te Ching,
but when you think about them you realise they are pretty meaningless.
This isn't worth reading.
The
Portrait of Dorian Grey - Oscar Wilde
This
is worth reading. I got hold of this when I was going through a phase of
picking up books by authors I'd heard of but knew nothing about. It's a
good way to get into books as long as you are careful to check that you
are at least vaguly interested in the subject of the book you are buying;
if you are into science fiction, buy Well's War of The Worlds, not Ann
Veronica (unless you have an interest in sufferage). Anyway... Dorian Grey
is about a man who has his picture painted and then as he grow older and
meaner, the portrait takes on the aging process and he stays the same as
he looked when it was painted; its interesting to watch the fall of a character
and his eventual come-uppance.
The
Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux
It
was the title of this book that got me rather than the author's name. I
have no wish to sit through an Andrew Lloyd-Webber musical and so I got
the book instead and I was surprised to find that it is very good. The
story line would have worked well as a basis for a 'Sherlock Holmes mystery,
but this book is written better than Conan Doyle.
Basically
there is said to be a ghost in the opera house but the new owners ignore
the instructions left to them on how to placate it and things start happening
until the prima donna disappears in the middle of a performance.
A
Moveable Feast - Hemmingway
I
got around to reading this after a quote from one of Hemmingway's books
was used in a film and I decided to follow it up. I've actually read two
of his books, and this was by far the best, describing his time as a struggling
writer in Paris. I'd recommend this as a classic, but I'm not sure about
his other work, I think I need to read more of it.
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