Active Users:697 Time:24/11/2024 08:13:25 PM
Books instead of sports! Camilla Send a noteboard - 12/02/2010 07:58:48 PM
Inspired by an article I came across I compiled this list of books (with my mother and some of my friends in mind) as an alternative to the horror of watching the Olympics day in and day out. Sweaty athletes in snow and suchlike was never my cup of tea and in fact when I come to think of it I do not think it should be linked to tea in any way anyway because tea is good. But. The idea is that sports is mindless, but something that sucks you in when it is on television, and that the books to read instead therefore cannot be of the type that you have to put down to think. But I did not want to make it a list of books I didn't think were good, either. The fine balance made it rather tricky to find 10 books that would do. But here it is.

1. The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway.

2. The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt.

3. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien.

4. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.

5. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.

6. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.

7. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

8. If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino.

9. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

10. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark.


I am still torn on a couple of them. I tend to agonise over lists. More than usual over this one. Which books would you list? And don't you just hate it when the Olympics are the only thing the news seem able to write about? Is there any way we could get an anti-sports-and-especially-the-fucking-Olympics-bookclub as a bi-annual event?
*MySmiley*
structured procrastinator
Reply to message
Books instead of sports! - 12/02/2010 07:58:48 PM 804 Views
Re: Books instead of sports! - 12/02/2010 08:08:24 PM 512 Views
Re: Books instead of sports! - 12/02/2010 10:15:43 PM 496 Views
Oh Camilla. And your nationstate has the most Winter Olympic medals ever!!! - 12/02/2010 08:09:24 PM 569 Views
That is part of the problem. It makes the media very enthusiastic. - 12/02/2010 10:14:05 PM 570 Views
So cynical. I bet if whale hunting were a sport, you'd be on board - 12/02/2010 10:29:26 PM 537 Views
Only if you don't count East and West Germany's medals as German medals. *NM* - 13/02/2010 03:07:15 AM 204 Views
Can't do that. - 13/02/2010 04:18:28 PM 501 Views
What about disregarding the DDR, for example? - 14/02/2010 02:12:00 AM 577 Views
probably. - 14/02/2010 04:05:41 PM 559 Views
Yeah, but they don't beat Norway then. - 14/02/2010 04:12:53 PM 529 Views
Can't combine defunct nationstate(s) with their successor(s). - 13/02/2010 07:33:09 PM 598 Views
I have read half of those books. Including the first, you will be pleased to know. - 12/02/2010 10:54:18 PM 565 Views
The wonderful thing is they can all stand a reread. - 12/02/2010 11:16:55 PM 453 Views
Re: The wonderful thing is they can all stand a reread. - 13/02/2010 06:24:21 PM 432 Views
That's not what you said to me - 13/02/2010 08:17:44 PM 642 Views
Right. - 13/02/2010 08:22:42 PM 510 Views
LOL! - 13/02/2010 10:43:51 PM 437 Views
Re: The wonderful thing is they can all stand a reread. - 13/02/2010 09:52:44 PM 499 Views
Hm. - 14/02/2010 01:02:06 AM 521 Views
This just strengthens the stereotype that you have to be a nerdish bookworm to enjoy literature... - 13/02/2010 08:39:40 AM 510 Views
I like stereotypes - 13/02/2010 09:32:55 AM 467 Views
I'm watching rugby(!) and reading. - 13/02/2010 03:46:41 PM 553 Views
That is my plan for the second half of the day - 13/02/2010 03:48:08 PM 450 Views
Hmmmm - 13/02/2010 09:15:55 PM 546 Views
Re: Hmmmm - 13/02/2010 10:05:26 PM 460 Views
Re: Hmmmm - 13/02/2010 10:35:22 PM 727 Views
Re: Hmmmm - 13/02/2010 10:38:27 PM 497 Views
I finished Calvino a few weeks ago and I'm reading Harkaway now. *NM* - 14/02/2010 04:12:41 AM 219 Views
Excellent! *NM* - 14/02/2010 09:28:30 AM 225 Views
Re: I disapprove, a little, of lists. - 14/02/2010 05:44:53 PM 474 Views
I disapprove of them when they try to be definitive - 14/02/2010 10:47:27 PM 503 Views

Reply to Message