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Speaking of too good for children, Phillip Pullman deserves more than just a passing reference here. Although his Dark Materials trilogy centres around preadolescent characters, there's enough serious matter to keep a philosophy graduate student busy for a couple of terms. It's first rate...

Right now I'm thinking Orlando, by Virginia Woolf, but that could change :) buddi

I have a number of favourite poets. The short list is John Donne, Stephane Mallarme, Palblo Neruda, Allen Ginsberg, Anna Akhmatova, and Ossip Mandelstam. There doesn't seem to be many women on the list... I'm open to suggestions. Here's a taste of Mandelstam for those of you who might not be...

I just finished Rabbit Redux by John Updike. I'm working my way through the series (backwards for some reason) and with every book, I depise Rabbit Angstrom a little more. I'm not sure what I'm reading next.. but it's going to have some strong women characters in it! buddi

Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris seems like it might be something other than the usual Christmas tripe. I also came across a novel called Christmas past. For those of us who don't celebrate Christmas, perhaps we might consider something on a general winter theme? Snow Falling on Cedars by David...

Thank you all for the warm welcome... I'm sure we'll have a lot of fun together :D buddi

Neruda can write an ode to anything... everything he gazes at becomes beautiful and sensual and observed . Even in translation his poetry clutches at something deep inside of me and gives it a wrench... every time. buddi

Allen Ginsberg I met him, I really did! It was magic. I was living in Halifax, NS in the early Nineties and he was in town for a big meeting of Buddhists. It was an unadvertised event, but my brother happened to see him at a local nightclub and, knowing I was a big fan, called me to let me...

Music is very important in Proust. It's been awhile since I've read it, but I think in Swan's Way, music is associated with memory. On the lighter side, in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams, the music of Beethoven is all that remains after the heroes save all humanity...

I found it almost impossible to wade my way through the Idiot because I found Prince Myshkin to be such an idiot, hence the title, I guess. I had a similar problem with Ignatius J. Reilly from Confederacy of Dunces, I found him such a revolting and pathetic character that I scarcely wanted to...

Hi, I'm a newcomer to these pages. I recently returned to reading for pleasure after a long academic stint and I'm interested in sharing ideas with other people who like to read. I read, or have been into at some point in my life, just about every genre, though I tend to prefer the kind of...