Top 25 Books of the Past 25 years, as voted for by Waterstone's customers: (1 Viewer)

[Lili Marlene]

The Northern Lights/His Dark Materials trilogy are the best books ever.

there, I said it.

 

[carbide]

The Northern Lights/His Dark Materials trilogy are the best books ever.

there, I said it.

they're pretty damn great, i agree.

but then, i liked a good few books on the list (including harry potter, but not so much that one). i don't think it's meaningless - all lists of books are opinion, unless you're going to do them by body count or weight - and of course it'll be biased towards now, but they're popular, much-loved books among people who read, who do actually count even if they're continually written out of it for being too low-brow.



libraries: judging by the audiobook selection, a massive proportion is crime/mystery and romance/chicklit.

i dunno, you like what you like, but i get the blindingest rage at the idea of dismissing a hugely varied selection of books as if they're all the same froth, and dismissing what other people read as being less worthy than whatever you're into.


and if anyone disagrees with me, i'll smack them over the head with six well-worn volumes of harry potter and a shelf-full of agatha.

 

[carbide]

oops, deep breath.

 

[Lili Marlene]

Looking forward to the new Harry Potter then? Won't be the same without old whatshisname but maybe we'll be in for a surprise

also, I remember getting Yukio Mishima's The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea and being more than a little bit pissed off after I read it when I realised that the blurb on the back of the book had given away absolutely everything right down to the last sentence.

 

[carbide]

Looking forward to the new Harry Potter then? Won't be the same without old whatshisname but maybe we'll be in for a surprise

also, I remember getting Yukio Mishima's The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea and being more than a little bit pissed off after I read it when I realised that the blurb on the back of the book had given away absolutely everything right down to the last sentence.

cannot wait. if anywhere opens at midnight to sell it, i'll be there and staying up all night to read it. and old whatshisname had to die, really.

why on earth do they do that? annoying.

 

[Lili Marlene]

cannot wait. if anywhere opens at midnight to sell it, i'll be there and staying up all night to read it. and old whatshisname had to die, really.

why on earth do they do that? annoying.

yeah. I always forget how much I enjoy harry potter books till i start reading them again


I think you're allowed do that sort of thing with real art because it's not about what happens it's about how it happens/is told/ etc.

ART

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

Birdsong is the only one of those i've read, it was really good. Dunno if i'd put it in my top list.

i work in a library and our clients have been killing each other lately trying to get their hands on a copy of "Modern Management: Theory and Practice for Irish Students" by Edel Foley, Michael Morley and Siobhan Tiernan.

 

[roxy]

A Prayer For Owen Meany should be at the top of that list.

FACT.

 

[ball*istic]

I think the lesson here is people should be reading better books. Notes from a Small Island? Gimme a break.

 

[Lili Marlene]

I think the lesson here is people should be reading better books.

There's some great books in that list.

There's also Angela's "the only thing worse than a miserable childhood is a miserable Irish Childhood" Ashes

 

[sarah]

I have not and will not read any of those books

shame on you, there're some great books there... handmaids tale, name of the rose and the curious incident, bit of snobbery to dismiss something purely because it's popular.

 

[Squiggle]

The Shadow of the Wind is a very interesting and enjoyable read.

Some of these books may be the classics of the future.

p.s. Anyone like a copy of The Da Vinci Code? Unopened? I just had no interest whatsoever. I was given it - free - with my mobile phone

 

[Mormon Nailer]

The Shadow of the Wind is a very interesting and enjoyable read.

Some of these books may be the classics of the future.

p.s. Anyone like a copy of The Da Vinci Code? Unopened? I just had no interest whatsoever. I was given it - free - with my mobile phone

If it's a first edition it's worth a couple of grand

 

[Squiggle]

If it's a first edition it's worth a couple of grand

Ah, pretty certain it's not a first edition. That would have been nice though

 

[Mormon Nailer]

The first time I read the fellowsip of the ring it was a frst edition - didnt realise it at the time - worth about 100K

 

[Squiggle]

The first time I read the fellowsip of the ring it was a frst edition - didnt realise it at the time - worth about 100K

Oooh, Nice!

I have a first edition of The Seven Seas by Rudyard Kipling. Don't know if it is worth anything. I love old books.

 

[Mormon Nailer]

Kipling - probably worth a bit allright.

I'm always too stingy to but hardbacks. I always figure they are bad value and a pain in the arse to try and read in bed as well.

Sometimes though it would be nice to have a nicer to have a little library of hardbacks rather than the mountains of paperbacks I accumulate now.

 

[david jatt]

A Prayer For Owen Meany should be at the top of that list.

FACT.

My sanctimonies exactly.

 

[MDR]

I'm always too stingy to but hardbacks. I always figure they are bad value and a pain in the arse to try and read in bed as well.

Sometimes though it would be nice to have a nicer to have a little library of hardbacks rather than the mountains of paperbacks I accumulate now.

If you go into Chapters, there's a shelf behind the erotic fiction (yeah, I know) which has hardbacks of pretty recent books - i.e. from the last two years - for under a tenner. It seems that once the paperback comes out, the hardback version becomes worthless. They're great ideas for expensive-looking but cheap presents.

 

[Mormon Nailer]

I have a kind of a phobia about second hand books - If I buy a book it absolutely has to be new. I can't stand the dusty smell of second hand books.