BBC Believes You Only Read 6 of these Books

DaveMehmet

Cordoban Addick said:

My wife has just told me she has read 80!

The correct response to that is: "no wonder your cooking's so shit"

SaySomething

4 - and three of those were at school!!! I may have also read hamlet at school too but can't remember!
Not sure how the bible works in this respect - if you have read this like you would with other books then that means cover to cover - I have read parts of it, but not the whole thing...so I've not counted it in my 4!

Cordoban Addick

SheffieldRed said:

Cordoban Addick said:

My wife has just told me she has read 80!

Everyone thinks they have prettiest most well-read wife at home

You don't keep a clever women like that at home, she is out working her socks off keeping me in beer and curry.

That's out using her brain for all you cards out there.

Cordoban Addick

sadiejane1981 said:

Cordoban Addick said:

sadiejane1981 said:

Minkcafc said:

6 - rather embarrassingly accurate! I do actually read, im just too busy watching TV to do it so much. A lot on that list dont really interest me either. Although i will soon be starting Nineteen Eighty-Four when it arrives, so ill claim my 7th shortly

Excellent book, although quite eerie, and very inspirational in today's standards as room 101 and big brother both came from the book. It is a dystopian view on the future (future from when it was written) in contrast to aldous Huxley and brave new world which is quite the opposite.

Are you sure? I always thought that Brave New World was as dystopian as it gets. Have you been on the soma?

I read it 35 years ago though when I might have been going through a dark period!

It was supposed to be a utopian view of the future, everyone genetically modified to perfection for the alphas a little less perfect for the betas, the hard work no complaints and lower class of the Gammas and deltas the overall everyone being conditioned to be happy, no hassles of relationship sex is free to all and shared with all within a safe enclosed little world, the dystopian feel was because you are predominately normal and you and me and the rest of us would be classed as savages doing things such as manual work, marriage and even worse child birth. I suppose it's how you look at things 1984 was more accurate in comparison but was very negative intentionally whereas brave new world was meant to be painted colourful and cheery until you look at the whole picture, this is what I meant.

I always thought dystopian worlds were those that appeared or were projected as utopian but under the surface weren't. Like Facist or communist states where there is full employment and no crime and the only news is good news....

Salad

the list isn't selected as such, it comes from a public poll they did in 2003:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml

sadiejane1981

Cordoban Addick said:

sadiejane1981 said:

Cordoban Addick said:

sadiejane1981 said:

Minkcafc said:

6 - rather embarrassingly accurate! I do actually read, im just too busy watching TV to do it so much. A lot on that list dont really interest me either. Although i will soon be starting Nineteen Eighty-Four when it arrives, so ill claim my 7th shortly

Excellent book, although quite eerie, and very inspirational in today's standards as room 101 and big brother both came from the book. It is a dystopian view on the future (future from when it was written) in contrast to aldous Huxley and brave new world which is quite the opposite.

Are you sure? I always thought that Brave New World was as dystopian as it gets. Have you been on the soma?

I read it 35 years ago though when I might have been going through a dark period!

It was supposed to be a utopian view of the future, everyone genetically modified to perfection for the alphas a little less perfect for the betas, the hard work no complaints and lower class of the Gammas and deltas the overall everyone being conditioned to be happy, no hassles of relationship sex is free to all and shared with all within a safe enclosed little world, the dystopian feel was because you are predominately normal and you and me and the rest of us would be classed as savages doing things such as manual work, marriage and even worse child birth. I suppose it's how you look at things 1984 was more accurate in comparison but was very negative intentionally whereas brave new world was meant to be painted colourful and cheery until you look at the whole picture, this is what I meant.

I always thought dystopian worlds were those that appeared or were projected as utopian but under the surface weren't. Like Facist or communist states where there is full employment and no crime and the only news is good news....

A dystopia is a society that is very frightening and/or terrible to a high degree.

Cordoban Addick

A dystopia is a society that is very frightening and/or terrible to a high degree.



I have just googled it and you are right, but all the dictionary definitions used Brave New World as an example. So I offer you a 1-1 draw.

RedPanda

I'm with you here Cordoban. They were without true thought or choice, they had had their humanity taken away. It doesn't get much more dystopian. 1984 is generally considered the hard one, BNW the soft dystopia.

However, Brave New World is an interesting one and one I've argued about a lot. I genuinely think I would be happier living in ignorant bliss, bred for my particular job and getting messed up on Soma whenever needed. However that wouldn't allow for last minute Charlton winners...

Cordoban Addick

Last minute winners are soma/opium of the masses.

sadiejane1981

Cordoban Addick said:

A dystopia is a society that is very frightening and/or terrible to a high degree.

I have just googled it and you are right, but all the dictionary definitions used Brave New World as an example. So I offer you a 1-1 draw.

Ok, when I studied both at A level we were told that brave new world was a utopian view, funnily enough it was me that argued otherwise, I agree with you that it is very dark and as @RedPanda‌ said they lost their freedom and they were living in controlled paradise, however the utopian argument is that they are not trapped because they were conditioned not to know any different. It is a tough one because the book itself is up and down. 1984 is easier because it's gloomy throughout.

scidbox

14 and I read a book a week. A lot of bollox in there I'm proud not to have read. No Henry De Monfreid, Cervantes or Hemingway. What tosh.

RedPanda

sadiejane1981 said:

Ok, when I studied both at A level we were told that brave new world was a utopian view, funnily enough it was me that argued otherwise, I agree with you that it is very dark and as @RedPanda‌ said they lost their freedom and they were living in controlled paradise, however the utopian argument is that they are not trapped because they were conditioned not to know any different. It is a tough one because the book itself is up and down. 1984 is easier because it's gloomy throughout.

This is an interesting article, "Brave New World is either a perfect-world utopia or its nasty opposite, a dystopia, depending on your point of view": http://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/nov/17/classics.margaretatwood

I have debated this quite heatedly, the only thing I could agree on was that any potential utopia would have to be created through dystopian means. As such, any utopia would be a falsehood.

The author of the article, Margaret Atwood, wrote The Handmaid's Tail in this list as well: "Set in the near future, in a totalitarian Christian theocracy which has overthrown the United States government, The Handmaid's Tale explores themes of women in subjugation and the various means by which they gain agency."

That's on my to-read list.