Hi Terry,

In my case it is certainly mock shame, because, like you, I gave up long ago ploughing through books because I thought I should. The thought of all those writers of the great classics looking over your shoulder can be very intimidating and some of them are indeed excruciatingly boring. Although all the basic plot archetypes may already be out there, I firmly believe that they need to be revisited and re-cast by each generation.

This epiphany occurred for me about thirty years ago when I was walking past a train line in South Wales and was knocked unconscious by a John Fowles tome. Apparently, some lout had carelessly thrown it out of a train window in frustration...

smudger

I shouldn't laugh...

I wonder how many people struggle, year after year, with these classics. I wonder how many feel they need to read them in order to seem intelligent at dinner parties? Next time I'm confronted with these pompous twits, I'm going to start discussing my comic book colelctions with the same lofty reverence and see what they make of that. (Not that I get invited to any posh dinner parties, you understand, but just in case...)

JB

Smudger,

Not many people know this but British Rail actually hired Melvyn Bragg as consultant when designing their new trains back in the 1980s. There had been so many cases like yours of injury by UFOC (Unidentified Flying Owner-unknown Classic) from trains that something had to be done. Melvyn brilliantly came up with the idea of putting double-glazed windows in the carriages, thereby protecting the countryside from being bombarded by airborne pomposity. To show their gratitude BR had Melvyn's eyes double-glazed which is why he always looks as if he's asleep in his own head.

JB,

Don't you know that comics are the new classics? Sorry – graphic novels are the new classics? Or is that Manga is the new Da-Da? Or do I mean Stan Lee's the new Dickens? Jack Kirby's the new Damien Hirst? Spider-Man's the new Tony Blair?

I sold my comics collection in two hits. The first time, I was going through my non-materialistic period, so flogged the Fantastic Four issues 1-80 something, X-Men and others similar to a comic shop for £4. Bought 'The Soft Parade' by the Doors with the proceeds which turned out to be their crappiest album. The second lot I flogged more intelligently, but only just in time. It seems as if old was not necessarily always worth more – depends on the artist/writer, e.g. apparently Frank Miller's Daredevils go for a lot more than earlier issues. I also gave my copy of Spider-Man 1 to a friend back in the 60s, as a token of my feeling; needless to say, the bastard lost it.

... Um, I'll just get me anorak.

Terry

Terry,

No anorak required. Anoraks are for train spotters, not for avid comic fans. Basically, you're telling me that if you'd held onto your originals, you'd be a very rich man by now.

In 2003, somebody offered a million dollars for a first edition first issue of The Amazing Spiderman. That probably doesn't make you feel any better.

I sodl my complete Sandman series three years ago for £700. They were all mint conditions and I now have all the graphic novels instead. Still, I wish I'd kept them.

JB

Oh, my God - a million dollars ... This is why I haven't kept up with comic prices. I told myself that the first Spider-Man might go for a few thousand. Damn those hippy ideals. Mind you, it wasn't mint so that would probably knock about 999,000 dollars off the price, wouldn't it? Please say it would, JB. Then again, people didn't really collect back in those days, so a mint edition's unlikely. Excuse me, I'm just off some therapy, and I don't mean retail.

No, it was in mint condition. A non mint condition would have only netted about agrand, so you're all right. (Sorry, didn't want to inflict a cardiac arrest or anything).

JB

Hello,

If you like On the Road, you would also probably quite like 'Visions of Cody' or 'Big Sur' which tell of the same people. Also, the work of Walt Whitman, in its sentnece structure and rhythm shows where Kerouac found a lot of his ideas,

Many thanks,

Tigger 23

Well, I've hardly read any of the books you're talking about. In fact, I've hardly read anything (apart from comic books and sci-fi) that was written in English.

It's very liberating. It hopefully means my writing is probably free of most of the influences of other writers who write in English. It means I don't have to bother to get involved in any conversations about Joyce, Amis, Austen et al.

And it's a window onto a whole 'nother way of thinking.

If you want to read something NOT on these lists but totally different and fabulous, try Italo Calvino, Haruki Murakami, Mario Vargas Llosa, Camilo Cela.

And if you've done a degree in Eng Lit well then, hey, haven't you suffered enough? ;-)

Life's too short to feel guilty about not reading books.

"Life's too short to feel guilty about not reading books." Quite right - just ask Mrs Beckham!

I meet more and more people (mostly men) who are not ashamed to NEVER reading books (but I presume they have had to in the past).

Elspeth

Anyway, even if we did 'read' or were force fed all these 'classics', how much we remember 20+ years on?!

Just about every writer, when asked about how to improve as a writer and get published, says Read, Read, Read! This used to drive me nuts, since I thought that reading a lot of books could just as easily put you off every trying to come up with an original idea. However, I now believe there's another level to this, which is if you intend to be a writer - and most of us probably did from an early age - then reading hundreds of published books inevitably programmes the mind in how to structure a story. This doesn't mean the first time we write a book, it's going to be perfect. But I think it does allow us to quickly assimilate technique when it's then shown to us - because our subconscious is already primed.

Terry

Absolutely!

My love of fantasy and horror as a child, the constant parental complaints that I spent all my time with my nose in a book, living in a 'make believe' world, definitely taught me how to write.

One shouldn't be too hard on Victoria though. Learning to Fly is an incredible book - sharply written, humourous and heart wrenching. It revealed a master at the top of her art, and pointed literature in a whole new direction. It is a modern timeless classic, and Victoria Beckham most certainly missed her calling as a singer, when her writing is so damn good.

JB

She also, of course, performed the supernatural task of writing a book without actually ever reading it.

Like I said - talented!



JB

I remember a time at junior school when I was constantly in trouble during reading lessons. The system was that we would take turns to laboriously read a few paragraphs aloud from the chosen novel. As my surname began with L, I was in the middle of the class (do they still do that? Arrange kids in alphabetical order? Or was it just a Northumbrian thing?) Inevitable, by the time it got to my turn, I had raced several pages ahead. Depending on how I reacted to the blackboard rubber hitting my head, I would be reprimanded either for ‘showing off’ or for being too stupid to keep up… ah, the good old days… but at least I can spell…

Dee

So, 'writers need to read' - instinctively I would agree, although I assume people tend to mean 'read novels'.

And with that last statement, I'm sure you could make a case that you don't need to read much in the way of novels. Dan Brown, one of the best-selling authors of all time, admits that he reads little fiction.

What fiction writers need is to understand STORY. And that can be done through movies and TV.

If you want to write literary fiction, then, sure you should read as much as you can.

And this is why I long for writers who haven't absorbed the canon of English literature, whose reading is eclectic enough to give them entirely refreshing subjects, characters and voice.

Hasn't the world seen enough novels that conceive the world via Joyce, Woolf and friends?

But the bottom line is, there are so many books to read, why be guilty about not reading some Approved List? To quote Stephen King ('Hearts in Atlantis', a movie I watched the other day) - give a writer an hour or two to hook you, if not then move on.