egafd.com

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

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

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'.

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"Let's do it..."

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

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........

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...........