LOTR wins the Big Read.....

[jj]

.....both, AND an incurable optimist.

[Pervert]

How nice that a discussion about literature (popular, populist and what people consider worthwhile) should be hijacked by a debate on shagging Penelope Keith. If only Felicity Kendall had been in the TV adaptation of Pride And Prejudice---her arse might have just swung the vote away from LOTR

[The Last Word]

True, but PR stunts like the Big Read were never needed before, so why now? I agree there should be a way in which those who have yet to discover the joys of literature get acquainted - especially if they've been put off by school, but is this it? The annoyingly assumed, cod 'authorative' status could easily bamboozle, and could even be seen as patronizing. A whole one hundred books everyone has read apart from me - why bother? Killingly, the Big Read, because of its comfy armchair trappings and questionable celeb-endorsements, utterly failed to put across perhaps the single great appeal of books: the excitement of discovery - which is what it should've been about for the great 'unread'.

--
"Let's do it..."

[Pervert]

Discovery is what books are about. You can lose yourself in a great, well-written novel as it engages the brain and imagination in a way no film can manage. Having said that, I'd lobotmise myself with a penknife rather than read cheery Uncle Tommy Hardy again

[jj]

Utterly pointless and not a little patronising- and it didn't help having either vapid 'celeb' endorsements or the incoherent ramblings of the likes of Bonnie (Don't They Mean Germaine?) Greer........

[jj]

Hey, if the girlies can swoon over Mr Darcy's shirtlessness, why can't the boys get in on Great Literature too?
Roll on the topless version of Anna Karenina...........