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I really liked Moby Dick. Even the whaling history bits. Jane Austen is very readable and has a lovely arch sense of humour.

:ROFLMAO: I think it's a Victorian thing. They loved the sound of their own voices. A lot of Moby Dick is more whaling manual than plot and I remember, when reading Les Miserables, being enthralled by the daring escape from the authorities by diving into the sewer, then turning the page to a new...

'Under Milk Wood' was, I think, originally a radio play, written to be heard. I picked up the CD a few years back. Richard Burton challenging John Arlott for the title of greatest radio voice ever. It's one of the most beautiful things ever made. I hadn't a clue what any of it was about until...

Strange piece to try to pick apart. It's comedy. He's deliberately saying the same thing in different ways to amuse through repetition. For me, it's the obvious inspiration for 'Red Dwarf's' 'He's dead Dave'. Dickens goes on to start wondering 'what's so dead about a doornail?' You're...

You didn't get to the worst bit. I'd say that the account of the trip to America hasn't aged well, but apparently nobody much liked it when it came out. Not one of his best. I had to read Hard Times as a youngster and that put me off for years. I was sucked back in by seeing some of the RSC'...

Linking up two current threads. I never got very far with Nick Cave's first novel. 'And The Ass Saw the Angel.' I did finish 'The Death of Bunny Munro', but felt like I needed a bath afterwards. (The same goes for Jonathan Meades' 'The Fowler Family Business', but then a lot of that is set...

Oi! Spoilers!

I've read quite a few Dickens and really enjoyed them. David Copperfield is my favourite and I loved the birth scene. Like Hugo, he was a bit of an old windbag though. If you think that was dull, don't ever read the beginning of Bleak House. That really is a slog. I didn't start reading them...

David Copperfield starts with his birth and his aunt Betsy Trotwood storming off because he's not a girl. Dombey and Son starts with the birth of Dombey's son and the fussing around of the doctor.

I finished Les Miserables, but it took me about five years, putting it down with a bookmark in, reading something else and picking it up again every year or two. I've never got to the end of the musical though. I read The Lord of The Rings in a similar way. An absolute chore. I'd seen Ralph...

Overambitious. Start with Ulysses, move on to Infinite Jest, A Brief History of Time, read Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time' collection in the original French, have a bash at Finnegan's Wake, then you might be ready for Barber.

Never! And one day I'm going to find out what happens to that caterpillar. He's certainly got some appetite.