which of this random selection of books on my shelf should I read?

[hatwoman]

Down and Out in Paris and London; The Grapes of Wrath; Brave New World; American Pastoral; Wolf Hall; some essays on guilt by Bernard Schlink; the Cruel Sea; the Damned United; Moby Dick

Georgette Heyer over Ullyses any day!

I think Bill Bryson's A Walk In The Woods would be a good counter to The Grapes Of Wrath.

Read Brave New World.

Ullyses is a drag.

the grapes of wrath isnt as good as east of eden.

american pastoral is love it or hate it.

read brave new world and come back and we can all discuss it :-)

BG - Or some David Sedaris - he can put a wry smile on anyone's face. Good for picking up and putting down, as well.

Googling him - have never heard of.

thanks for all the input. I'm obviously on a bit of a misery wave at the moment. last 2 books I read were Eichmann in Jerusalem and The Road. Then tonight just watched Waltz with Bashir about the Lebanon war (particularly Sabra and Shatila).I Have decided I need some light relief so have gone for The White Tiger (which wasn;t on my original list). After that it's Grapes of Wrath I think. Or possibly the Third Reich.

DP - interesting comment about them being blokey...they were all bought by DH. Other ones on my shelves that I forget to mention are the Bell Jar and the Lighthouse. Not blokey at all.

White Tiger is good.

Ulysses

Chortle

The Schlink, definitely- I loved "the reader"

I don't see them as blokey at all and am always surprised at how some people do seem to instinctuvely categorise books as male/female.

Agree Pointy. However, I always think of Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes as particularly 'blokey' poets - never thought it about novelists though.

I'm wondering whether all that was meant by 'blokey' was male author. Although, that doesn't make any difference to me either.