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I think Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre would make a great movie, but given that one of its big themes is the corrupted portrayal of life by the media, it might have a hard time getting made. :)

I think it is more difficult for films because you recognise the characters by sight but they refer to each other by name, so you're sunk if you don't make the link between appearance and name. That's why half the dialogue of a good murder mystery consists of people reminding each other of their...

Just to be pedantic, it's called "Goodbye, Lenin!" in Germany as well. Although a mixture of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and Goodbye Lenin would be fun ...

It's a great book. So great, in fact, that I enjoyed it even though I had to study it for GCSE English Literature.

I enjoyed it too, with reservations. First of all I loved the idea of the protagonist being a literature-hater. It's the perfect antidote to all those books about aspiring writers or has-been writers or writers writing books which turn out to actually be the book that you're reading, etc...

Good point. The solution, of course, is to start with Mort. ;)

I stand by my original recommendation. Wyrd Sisters is the first "proper" Witches book - Equal Rites doesn't feature Nanny Ogg or Magrat and Granny Weatherwax is a much less well-defined character. It's good, but maybe not the best place to start.

Real fiction writing involves research. If you make up names that don't exist in the real world, then they will very probably sound false to anyone who has experience of Asian cultures.

If you're looking for something a little lighter, The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy is a great page-turner (does the cold war count?). The film's better though, firstly because it plays down Clancy's hilariously simplistic portrayal of the Soviets, and secondly because it features Sean...

For Thailand, I recommend Jasmine Nights by S.P. Somtow. He's "the J.D. Salinger of Siam", according to the blurb. This is not an entirely helpful comparison, but it does have a similar child-assessing-the-adult-world theme, and it's an enjoyable read.

Does anyone else think that the dislike shown towards Gryffindor by Slytherin is entirely justified? First of all Gryffindor always win everything, often in dubious circumstances (witness Dumbledore rigging the points system in favour of Gryffindor at the end of the first book). Then there's...

I failed on several occasions to finish Sartre's "The Reprieve". It's the written equivalent of an MTV video, cutting frantically from scene to scene, often in mid-sentence. It's the second book in a trilogy, and Sartre cleverly snares you in by writing the first one in a more conventional...

Of those, Mort, Wyrd Sisters and Guards! Guards! are all good places to start.

I think you have a point. If you're writing a novel in a contemporary, realistic setting, you have no choice but to create compelling characters otherwise it will be a transparently bad novel. If you're writing genre fiction you can obscure bad characters with a clever plot or original...

They deal with many of the same issues, but I didn't like Brave New World so much as a story. I thought the characters weren't rounded enough for me to identify with them or even recognise them as human (but maybe that was the point).

A couple of people have mentioned Gattaca - I strongly second this. It's not just one of the best SF movies ever made, it's one of the best movies of any kind ever made. It's beautifully shot, it's got a well-crafted, thrillerish plot, it's full of ideas yet never forgets its characters, and it...

That's definitely not right - I distinctly remember reading Guards! Guards! (the first in the Watch series) about 15 years ago! The other books are in the right order though. Maybe these are the release dates for the US or some other country where they were published out of order? The Wikipedia...

I loved the Great Gatsby and went straight on to Tender is the Night (not a scientific selection, I was inspired by the Blur song of the same name). It has the same world-weary, "we're all doomed" feeling of Gatsby, but I found the story a bit flabby. The problem is that Gatsby manages to fit so...

Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" was written in three weeks, so it can be done. Then again, I hate "On the Road", so maybe that's not such a good example. I agree that Hoop should be wary about shoehorning in subplots. Subplots aren't just ornaments, they need to be essential to the story's...

Hi, I've just joined the forum. I like all kinds of books, the more varied the better. My favourite is Catch-22, closely followed by Catcher in the Rye. Basically I'm a sucker for any book with the word 'catch' in the title. Look forward to talking with you all!