Monoethnic Social Club said:

couldn't agree more.

As for Wyndham... just nothing else to say.... apart from the fact that I think your library looks very similar to mine.....

read Gemmel's Troy and agree btw.. Ill hunt down any more of his work.

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Read most of John Wyndham's books when I was younger, "Day of the Triffids" my fave. When I was even younger, an author who may be out of print is Algernon Blackwood, "Tales of the Uncanny and Supernatural". In my twenties got into J. G. Ballard's dustopias as well as his autobiograpical novel "Empire of the Sun", and his memoir "The Comfort of Women". Later years I really liked Doris Lessing's "space fiction" especially "Shikasta".

Monoethnic Social Club said:

Hahahaha no mate, I refute that... NOTHING is pulp ficiton, ALL lit is worthy in my eyes... Matthew Riley is no better or worse than Jeffery Archer.... or even ... James Paterson (sorry did a little vom there) was just talking about GOAT stuff ... .forgot to mention Steinbeck too btw.. East of Eden ... just great

If you thought I was a little passionate about Hellas dont get me started on "a good book"

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Reading and Hellas in my reading life: "The Story of Greece" by Mary McGregor (available with illustrations online) a kid's history book of ancient Greece. That book filled my imagination. Introduced me not only to history, but to mythology, philosophy, democracy v oligarchy. My heroes were Sophocles, Demosthenes, Pericles and good old Diogenes In later years read "Last of the Summer Wine" by Mary Renault, set in Athens during the Peloponnesian War.
In my twenties read "The Magus" by John Fowles" - puzzling mystery set in the islands. And in my 40s read Louis de Berniere's "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" set in Cephalonia during the Italian occupation in WW2

booney52 said:

Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden are great reads.Hemingway's For Whom The Bell Tolls and Farewell to Arms also masterpieces.And Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokhov is a top Russian novel set in the time leading up to the Russian Revolution.

The 19th century Russian novelists( Tolstoy and Dostoevsky) produced two of the great novels of all time-War and Peace and Crime And Punishment though very long and weighty books.

If you like spy stories John Le Carre's novels are well written and plotted.

The Seven Pillars Of Wisdom by T E Lawrence ( the famous Lawrence of Arabia) has some brilliant descriptive passages about the Arabian desert.

Trent Dalton's Boy Swallows Universe is a top Australian novel as well as spawning a great miniseries on Netflix.He has also written Lola In The Mirror which is nearly as good a read .

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Yeah I loved Steinbeck. Someone I will re-read before you-know-what. But the weirdest thing just happened. I was reading posts on here having just discovered the books thread, and I'm also half-listening to Guardian Football Weekly talking about Group D and other WC matters, and seriously the football guy suddenly says I got an email from a football fan the other day he says he's reading "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck (and he quotes a passage) As I'm reading your post. How's that for synchronicity!

Monoethnic Social Club said:

We'll make a Socratic Greek out of you yet Decentric - "Νους υγιής εν σώματι υγιεί" - "Sound body makes for a sound mind"

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Studied Ancient History for HSC and loved Kitto's "The Greeks". Where I learned nhe word arete: arete (pronounced uh-RET-ay) is an ancient Greek concept that broadly translates to "excellence" or "virtue". In its truest sense, it means fulfilling one's utmost potential and living up to the highest quality of purpose or inherent function that a person or thing can reach

socceroosmad said:

Yeah I loved Steinbeck. Someone I will re-read before you-know-what. But the weirdest thing just happened. I was reading posts on here having just discovered the books thread, and I'm also half-listening to Guardian Football Weekly talking about Group D and other WC matters, and seriously the football guy suddenly says I got an email from a football fan the other day he says he's reading "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck (and he quotes a passage) As I'm reading your post. How's that for synchronicity!

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Life can be strange like that.

socceroosmad said:

Reading and Hellas in my reading life: "The Story of Greece" by Mary McGregor (available with illustrations online) a kid's history book of ancient Greece. That book filled my imagination. Introduced me not only to history, but to mythology, philosophy, democracy v oligarchy. My heroes were Sophocles, Demosthenes, Pericles and good old Diogenes In later years read "Last of the Summer Wine" by Mary Renault, set in Athens during the Peloponnesian War.
In my twenties read "The Magus" by John Fowles" - puzzling mystery set in the islands. And in my 40s read Louis de Berniere's "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" set in Cephalonia during the Italian occupation in WW2

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Loved "The Magus". Some say it is a bit juvenile, but I can quite happily read it again.

socceroosmad said:

Read most of John Wyndham's books when I was younger, "Day of the Triffids" my fave. When I was even younger, an author who may be out of print is Algernon Blackwood, "Tales of the Uncanny and Supernatural". In my twenties got into J. G. Ballard's dustopias as well as his autobiograpical novel "Empire of the Sun", and his memoir "The Comfort of Women". Later years I really liked Doris Lessing's "space fiction" especially "Shikasta".

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Syncronicity indeed!

I am 2 chapters from completing Day of the Triffids having just brought my Wyndham 'Penguin Classics' up from their plastic storage.

Felt it was time to revisit quality story construction in the old style having re-read The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and many of my more recent science fiction/fantasy books for the hundredth time. More recent meaning 80s and 90s in this case.

Next stop Web, The Trouble with Lichen, then probably Chokky.

The great thing about Wyndham and these classics is that they were written when the concepts were new and largely unexplored. We all know now what to do in a zombie apocalypse (the modern day equivalent of the triffid I think), and have picked out the safest place to go when it happens. But when these stories were written the authors were really putting themselves in the position of their characters and developing realistic actions and reactions from scratch.

I am loving how refreshing it is to revisit books without magic, the supernatural, or physics defying activities - delivered in a fast enough writing style to keep me engaged without getting too bogged down in fluffy descriptions of scenery and such except where the author deliberately wants me to imagine and place myself squarely in the circumstances unfolding.

The balance of right and wrong, conventional morals versus survival, is especially well handled and thought provoking.

The 'funniest' thing to me this time through is the concern over stealing following the breakdown of society. We are so well versed in post apocalyptic norms that the concept of looting in that world has passed from a moral conundrum to an automatic 'I know where I'd go first to stock up'.