Pandas
I just started reading a book today called Eats Shoots and Leaves. It's by a british author (Lynne Truss) and it's pretty funny. It's a book for school, and I can't say that I was all that happy to get another book added on to my considerable workload. But when I opened it and started reading, I was captivated right away. I suppose I just like having an excuse to break the monotony and write something after a year and a half of not really writing anything, but I've decided that I really like British authors. They are witty without overdoing it, not (apparently) surprised by much, and they unashamedly state whatever it is that they are trying to say without a lot of beating around the bush to try and be politically correct. I haven't read a whole lot of british writing, but I have read stuff by Douglas Adams, J. R. R. Tolkien, Susanna Clarke (i'm hoping I didn't spell her name wrong), WIlliam Strunk (in his The Elements of Style, he's a bit dry, but there is some humour in it), C. S. Lewis, and of course I'm now reading Lynne Truss, and enjoying myself immensely.
If anyone's got any suggestions for me, just lemme know.
If anyone's got any suggestions for me, just lemme know.
posted by Nina at 7:33 PM
2 Comments:
You're forgetting some other British authors I know you have read.
Michael Scott Rohan's "Anvil of Ice" trilogy, Raold Dahl, J. K. Rowling - you've read John Wyndham's "Day of the Triffids", did you read "Village of the Damned?" Haven't you read William Golding's "Lord of the Flies?" I know you've read some Dickens. Hey, you forgot all those Mary Stewart books!
You're getting old (and wise) enough to start reading some more difficult material, the third leg of the Tolkien / Lewis triad is Somerset Maugham- "The Moon and Sixpence" is a good place to start with him.
Also, you've read Lewis' juvenile books (Narnia), time to crack "The Screwtape Letters", and maybe even his "Space Trilogy" (one of the earliest works of 'modern' science fiction. H.G. Wells is another author that wrote from the speculative fiction angle, but headed straight into the metaphysical.
You've read Keats and some Yeats, time to check out Tenyson and Marvell. There are the old english tales, too - "Beowulf", and "Grendel" which figure very well into today's writing. Geofrey Chaucer's morality tales (Canterbury), and Friedrich Pohl, not to ever forget Arthur C. Clarke, Joan Aiken (I love her sappy book), and Aphra Behn.
OK, there, your plate is overfull again - have a lovely day my daughter.
-b
lol
I'll remember that next time. I have not read Lord of the Flies, but I plan to, I also have read War of the Worlds most of the way through, and I've read H. G. Wells' Time Machine, which was a great book. Also, the guy who wrote The Phantom Tollbooth, isn't he british? Oh well, anyyyyway
thx dad
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