1984. It's really good.

[Oricolt]

I'd never read it and picked it up at a charity store. Started it because I thought it was one of those books I 'ought' to read - if only to be able to nod meaningfully when people make current geopolitical comparisons. But - actually - it's really good. Not a hard read at all. Am enjoying it.

I found it absolutely fascinating, and I felt like we are living so much of it already, so much of what he wrote is reflected now (Truth Social, AI, fake news) [I had asked chatgpt the other day about the Venezuela issue and it literally told me it hadn't happened, and when I said I just saw Maduro captured on the BBC, it said I was mistaken!] I did feel like the interior lives of the female characters was not fully embodied though. Just downloaded Julia fingers crossed for that one

Trump's "Board of Peace" would have beautifully have fitted into nineteen eighty four. So Orwellian.
Its amazing how many phrases we use from the book (room 101, double think, thought police etc).
I read it on a plane to poland nineteen eighty five and my mum made me leave it on the plane. I was only 11 and didn't understand the danger it could have put us in.

My ds has chosen it for his prose piece for his LAMDA exam. He’s 17 and even he was able to immediately see the parallels with what is happening in the world now, I’ve been enjoying discussing it with him. I studied it for O level in the 80s!

It’s my absolute favourite book, which is still relevant today.

I wouldn’t be able to be part of a book group that didn’t appreciate it, they wouldn’t be my type of people.

I read it recently too as I hadn’t before. It is good, very good, but I felt absolutely crushed after finishing it.

It's a great book. I do not exactly enjoy reading it. But it is the only one of the books that we were told to read at school that I have come back to more than once.

Evidently.

It’s the book that got me into reading, at 17 (and subsequently applying to do an English degree) so it holds a special place for me. I re-read it every few years and collect editions of it : )

👍 There’s a reason they’re called ‘classics’ 👍

@boombangabong I wouldn't call it a favourite book but I use terms like that for books I can read or re-read and the world is good (e.g. Jane Austen).

I might enjoy reading something light because it is undemanding.
A book like 1984 opens your mind and isn't a comforting or humorous read.

If the whole book group didn’t like it, I’d think its members a bit low brow/dim.

Including our own.

It was a very unnerving read during Covid .

Thank you! Just downloaded, cheapest weekend entertainment ever.

You sound like an English literature teacher and an insufferable literary snob. I didn't say that the whole book group didn't like it, but I'm disappointed at the snobbery on this thread.

I found it fascinating, and it was actually my suggestion that we read the book, but I find it disppointing that the posters on this thread can't understand why some people don't like the book.

I will repeat - we don't all like the same things.

If you want harrowing dystopian read The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist. It is bleak! But also makes you think, ‘maybe that could happen?’ ‘Maybe there are elements of that in our society today’. I read it about 4 years ago it still whenever I think of the book I feel troubled. I wish I had never read it but also believe it is, along with 1984, one of the best books I have ever read.

I find it disppointing that the posters on this thread can't understand why some people don't like the book.
You didn't say "some people". You said "it got the thumbs down from most members."
It is perfectly possible to find 1984 disturbing without merely writing it off as a "didn't like". Did they offer any more criticism / insight than that?

Yes, sorry, most of the book group didn't enjoy the book.

I don't remember all the comments. It was a couple of years ago. One comment was "it's a horrible book, so I didn't finish it"

I'm still struggling to understand why the posters on this thread are horrified that other people didn't like the book.

For example, I don't like Terry Pratchett, but I get that lots of people do.

Does everyone on this thread only read "highbrow" literature, or the classics? Book groups aren't just for readers of serious literature.

We read a wide genre of literature ranging from classics to lighter reading. The book that absolutely everyone enjoyed was Where the Crawdads Sing.

Does everyone on this thread only read "highbrow" literature, or the classics?
I don't waste my time on ChickLit if I can help it, if that's your question. I've just been instructed by bookgroup to read one such and it didn't improve my life in any way. It didn't make me think or reflect or learn. It didn't entertain, although I managed to finish it (it was very easy reading). It was just "this happened, that happened. Then something else that was blindingly obvious happened. The End" It didn't even have any great prose as a redeeming feature.
I believe that it was probably chosen purely because the library had enough copies to go round.

I'm not a fan of chicklit either. I love a good detective novel.

Our local library book groups all work like this. They have a set list of books with multiple copies. It's why I always end up giving up on book groups. Just because you've got 12 dusty copies of a book no-one has read for 30 years doesn't mean it's a good choice.

I read it so long ago (1970s) I can't remember much about it, though of Orwell's books Down and Out in Paris and London made biggest impression on teenage me.

I'd love to be so intellectual that I only read to improve my life, think or reflect or learn. I'm not though. I only read for entertainment and if forced to read something improving I tend to just not read. Reading for me and I suspect most people is for pleasure and l don't care whether it's a classic or chic lit as long as I enjoy the process.

Reading for me and I suspect most people is for pleasure and l don't care whether it's a classic or chic lit as long as I enjoy the process.
I want to enjoy the process, too! I can enjoy interesting ChickLit (e.g. Jane Austen) but not the brain-dead stuff.

I agree, I read different things at different times depending on my mood. Similar to TV, sometimes I fancy a documentary and learning something, sometimes I just want to watch rubbish to relax. Likewise with books, I like reading non-fiction or more serious books but I also enjoy some easy ones that are just fun page turners.

I can see for people who have busy or stressful lives or lots of horrible
things going on that a book like 1984 might feel too bleak, it’s not exactly light reading or escapism and that’s okay.

@senua , Jane Austen isn't 'chick lit'.

What's the / your definition of Chick Lit?

Yeah is kind of the opposite of escapism as a read isn’t it? Entering a world of malevolent authoritarian control and absolute restriction on personal liberty even to the point of excluding autonomous thought life. Winston’s world is, as I see it, like the deathly embrace of a boa constrictor. He cannot openly move and react with normal human emotion to the wrongness he observes all around him, the evil, which the mechanics of authoritarian state rule call good.