Ralph - Thanks, Now it makes sense...I think.

Steven - Nah, he wrote a book about men for men.

It's a man's book. Don't you think?

It's about men finding themselves. Isn’t it?

Where’s James Anthony ‘Freud’ when you need him?

Dawn,

I'm with Dawn on this one.
Interesting though. "A hump like a snowhill" huh?
Insurmountable frigidity?

I'm definitely going for that lie down now...

Dawn,

yes it's a man's book, because...well, you know, he was...a man who was...gay he wrote it for men and MEN. Yeah it's a 'man's' book but it's also a 'gay man's' book. Aren't gay men real men? It's Clive Barker's favourite book.

Steven

Steven – How about ‘Moby Dick - Man against the world, coming through the winner at the end. Hooray!’ (Whatever his sexual preference)

Dawn,

p.s. what is the Clive Baker reference, are you telling me something in code

Dawn,

Clive Barker is gay my dear He's also a damn fine writer too. I can't wait for him to direct his own film of 'The Midnight Meat Train', should be VERY scary.

Steven

So let me get this straight…. To Kill A Mockingbird is a young girl’s book (for young girls), The Lovely Bones is a young girl’s book (for older young girls), Catcher in the Rye is an adolescent boys book, Watership Down is for rabbits, Dr. Rat is for rats, Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep is for the use of AI units, Fluke is for dogs, and Skallagrig is for those suffering from cerebral palsy. Okay. Got it.

Noodles, are you saying Moby Dick is for whales then, or other mammals too?

Steven

... a bit like Liz Hurley's belief that people who are not actors/A list celebs are 'civilians' who don't experience the world in the same way. Any thoughts?

My only thought is that I can't think of anything bad to say about Liz Hurley.

Oooh, yeah...

Shame on you, IB, this irrational response has clearly robbed you of all sense. Back to my point- books about writers, writing, or having problems writing: yucky self indulgent twaddle or not?

Anna,
It's a trick question, right?
Steven

Anna,

I loved Charles Bukowski’s character - low-life writer Henry Chinaski - in ‘Women’ and the ‘Post Office’ – I didn’t find it yucky self indulgent twaddle, so for me it depends on the story and how it’s told.

Henry didn’t have trouble writing, he just got drunk!
(oh, perhaps a little self-indulgent).

Dawn,

I'm about to negate my own statement here in a way- I suppose I'm thinking more about writers like Julian Barnes, Martin Amis, Margaret Drabble etc- really middleclass, highbrow, elitist stuff removed from the ordinary world- I agree to some extent about Bukowski, and Stephen King is different because.... oh, because he's Stephen King. Now I will have to go and search out vile examples of what I mean from books I never want to look at again. Oh, damn. What do you guys do with books you know for sure you won't want to revisit? a trip to Oxfam, or do you foist them on a friend? or sell them?

I’m a member of a local writers’ group who meet once a month. We donate any unwanted books and sell them for £1 each, the money going to the club funds to pay for competition prizes, a Christmas party and a speaker each month. It works like a dream. The club has loads of money and we get to read plenty of books on the cheap. Some of the more popular books have been sold several times.

Dee.

K Anna. Here is an example. YELLOW DOG by Martin Amis, or information by Martin Amis. Both characters are Writers (note capital W) in information he writes Joycean epics about fish you enjoy making analogies about the microphysics of toat, or something).

though I would recommend ASK THE DUST by Joe Fante. That is a great book...

Shame on you, IB, this irrational response has clearly robbed you of all sense.

Have I been bad?

Must I be punished?