Summarise a Novel in 25 Words

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The Maltese Falcon

Lone wolf detective is turned on by scheming woman, helps her outwit queer, fatso and goon, then sends her to the chair anyway. Falcon worthless.

Schwarz, Thursday, 18 March 2004 11:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Keep The Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell

I don't want to work in advertising. I want to be a poet. No wait, actually I want pussy more. Okay, I'll work in advertising.

Schwarz, Thursday, 18 March 2004 12:00 (twenty-two years ago)

The Wasp Factory

Do you sit or stand to piss, Beer, Burning Sheep

Chappo, Thursday, 18 March 2004 12:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Hi, John Lennon's killer.

Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 18 March 2004 12:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Preacher (Garth Ennis):

Vicar gains divine power, uncovers massive cover-up/conspiracy. Dies. Comes back. Discovers best mate is evil. Beats him up. Gets shot. Loses power. Finally happy.

The Lord of the Rings:

Loads of malarkey over a bit of bling.

The Black Dahlia (James Ellroy):

Cop is obsessed with dead girl. Alienates everyone, ruins life. Discovers gardener did it. No, boss did it! No, daughter did it!! Everyone did it!!!

Dead Air (Iain Banks):

9-11. Shock Jock annoys everyone on air. Sleeps with gangsters wife. Gets beaten up. The end.

Andy Macc, Thursday, 18 March 2004 14:28 (twenty-two years ago)

LOLITA: LOlifedrama, meLodrama, pilLOwdrama, pyjamarama

Simon Lane, Thursday, 18 March 2004 18:12 (twenty-two years ago)

ILB Summarise a Novel in 25 Words in London Evening Standard!

..., Thursday, 18 March 2004 22:06 (twenty-two years ago)

La Ronde

Man: Hello. Come in to my small Parisian apartment overlooking the river.
Woman: I can't stay but a minute.
Man: Come closer...take off your corset.
Woman: You're pretty fresh, you are.
Man: A kiss!
Woman: Somebody might see!
Man: We can go somewhere private.
Woman: It's too far...my sister...
Man: Cognac?
Woman: I'm not thirsty.
Man: Stupid thing! My treasure!
Woman: You're tearing my chemise...oooh...
Man: I love you! Let's screw!
Woman: No! Oh, okay.

Later -
Man: (weeping)
Woman: What's your name again?

writingstatic (writingstatic), Friday, 19 March 2004 00:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution

Meat. Meat. Eggs. Meat. Cheese. Meat. Meat. Fry-Up. Meat. Meat. Cheese. Cheese. Meat. Meat. Meat. Lard. Meat. Egg. Meat. Meat. Cheese. Meat. Meat. Meat. Meat.

I know it's not a novel, but I coudn't resist.

Alan Sircom, Friday, 19 March 2004 00:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Less Than Zero – Bret Easton Ellis

I had so much sex and drugs last night that now I’m depressed. Let’s go drive someplace. Whatever. Superficial is, like, SO my middle name.

Alan Sircom, Friday, 19 March 2004 00:48 (twenty-two years ago)

I just posted this elsewhere, but:

Jeffrey Eugenides - The Virgin Suicides Men spend their lives obsessing about women they didn't bang.

I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Friday, 19 March 2004 02:43 (twenty-two years ago)

ILB Summarise a Novel in 25 Words in London Evening Standard!

Link, please? Or cut-and-paste the text? Or something like that?

I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Friday, 19 March 2004 02:47 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/entertainment/books/articles/9721692?source=Evening%20Standard

the surface noise (electricsound), Friday, 19 March 2004 08:01 (twenty-two years ago)

And also just recommended on Terry Wogan's Radio 2 Breakfast Show.

ailsa (ailsa), Friday, 19 March 2004 08:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Portnoy's Complaint - Philip Roth

"Not the chopped liver, you schmuck."

Malcolm Hamer, Friday, 19 March 2004 09:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Crash by JG Ballard

Own a Prizm? Onanism!

weather1ngda1eson (Brian), Friday, 19 March 2004 09:53 (twenty-two years ago)

really awful Independent article:

http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/features/story.jsp?story=502722

chris (chris), Friday, 19 March 2004 10:29 (twenty-two years ago)

AKA-

Bourgeois 80s fad limps towards death. Runs low on cash, sacks journalists and ends up being written by anonymising webcrawler. Andreas Whittam Smith Ha ha

Dave B (daveb), Friday, 19 March 2004 10:40 (twenty-two years ago)

The Story of O

Nameless French girl surrenders in taxi, chateau, Paris Apartment. Loses clothes but gains a piercing. The pleasures of a simple life...

Tess W, Friday, 19 March 2004 10:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Wogan mentions I Love Books site. People with comfortable sweaters add their penny's worth. David Gray plays in the background.

Mikey G (Mikey G), Friday, 19 March 2004 10:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Consider Phelbas - Iain M Banks

God is bad, Science is good as are superintelligent ships and giant ring worlds. Pirates and agent seek sentient computer on dead world. Unhappy ending.

Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Friday, 19 March 2004 11:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Man cheats on woman. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" Woman takes revenge on lover, killing children. Chorus of Corinthian Women chant relentlessly throughout.

Evil Edna, Friday, 19 March 2004 12:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Zen & the art of motorcycle maintenance:

Guy rides motorcycle while gazing at own navel (wouldn't he crash?)

Mark Edwards, Friday, 19 March 2004 13:39 (twenty-two years ago)

The Shipping News, Annie Proulx.

Pussy whipped cuckold cries a lot on the way to Newfoundland. Takes some photos of car wrecks and drags house across island, thus redeeming himself. Aaaah.

Julian Beach, Friday, 19 March 2004 14:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Running Windows NT

"Shift happens!"

Murdo Mistry, Friday, 19 March 2004 14:29 (twenty-two years ago)

The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas:

Impossibly angelic sailor gets shafted. Gets rich, alienated and bitter. Gets revenge. Realises it's all just fate. Movie directors unamimously ignore irrelevant sojourn in Rome.

Julian Beach, Friday, 19 March 2004 14:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Lost Nation by Jeffrey Lent:

Adulterous whore-loving widower walks north with girl-child to pimp in tow. He thought he raped his daughter. Not so. Still he gets slaughtered.

Maria D., Friday, 19 March 2004 14:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Jim Thomson- The Killer Inside Me

I used to be crazy and I killed someone, but this is Texas so I am sheriff. You know, I’m feeling a bit crazy again.

earlnash, Friday, 19 March 2004 15:20 (twenty-two years ago)

A Rebours (Against Nature) by J K Huysmans

Decadent aesthete thinks that if he creates the ultimate escapist fantasy he can fight "against Nature". He's wrong.

Joseph Gurney, Friday, 19 March 2004 15:34 (twenty-two years ago)

100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

People made no effort to remember their history, now no-one's sure whether any of it happened.

Joseph Gurney, Friday, 19 March 2004 15:40 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/03/19/nbooks19.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/03/19/ixhome.

Daily Telegraph coverage of this thread

Mikey G (Mikey G), Friday, 19 March 2004 15:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell

Man declares war on money. Man gets neurotic about money. Man gives up, gets a proper job and settles down. The end.

Joseph Gurney, Friday, 19 March 2004 15:54 (twenty-two years ago)

the telegraph one is easily better than the independant. whoever wrote the independant one is trying to be clever when in actual fact hes not getting the jist of the story across just "clever" wordplay, whereas the telegraph one says all that needs to be said then quotes some of the better ones. just my 2 cents.

james pearson, Friday, 19 March 2004 17:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Dante The Divine Comedy.

Dynamics duo's three steps to heaven

Judy Wardle (agingercat), Friday, 19 March 2004 18:51 (twenty-two years ago)

" Black Beauty " by Anna Sewell.

A horse tells everything a field of horses does , but is too polite and victorian to mention they shit,piss and fuck.

Laurie Ridyard, Saturday, 20 March 2004 01:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Al Q'oran by Mohamedd

An epileptic nut case Hasheesheen dreams about blowing up/ exterminating Jews and Christians, then leaving his four wives and having 77 virgins.


Notes. "hasheesheen" is arabic for a Hashish eater or taker, whence derives (via French) the English word " Assassin ". Hashish was/is used to alleviate epilepsy and eliminate fear in warriors of the Jihad.

Geronimo ! Go Get 'em George !, Saturday, 20 March 2004 01:58 (twenty-two years ago)

" The Harbringer of the Storm " by Alexei Maximovich Gorky

How to take the piss out of Lenin , Stalin and communism/ fascism/ socialism and get away with it, having a City named after you, too !


Note. Only an ornithologist would understand this !In this short poem he does it better than Orwell's "Animal Farm"

" Puddenheaded Wilson " by Mark Twain

How to take the piss out of slavery, racism and being "sold down de ribber " then get called a racist for doing so!Best detective yarn ever !

Laurie Ridyard, Saturday, 20 March 2004 02:17 (twenty-two years ago)

"The Man Who Laughed" by Victor Hugo

Kidnapped child disfigured by gypsies, becomes ever-smiling carnival freak, Gwynplaine; saved by Ursus. Revealed to be English Lord. People laugh. Lover dies, he commits suicide.

nowyat, Saturday, 20 March 2004 04:32 (twenty-two years ago)

"Anne of Green Gables"

Absent-minded, hair-obsessed orphan disrupts life of old people.

I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Saturday, 20 March 2004 08:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

Hideous, self-obsessed yuppie can't get a man, because she thinks she's too good for everyone. Gets a man. He's hideous too.

Mark H, Saturday, 20 March 2004 08:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Girlfriend In A Coma by Douglas Coupland

Girl falls asleep for ages. Wakes up really thin, mysteriously causing everyone else to fall asleep.

Mark H, Saturday, 20 March 2004 08:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby

Boy goes to football with his Dad, then goes to football on his own, then thinks about football a lot, then Arsenal win the league.

Mark H, Saturday, 20 March 2004 09:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Jaws by Peter Benchley

Fin.

Rod, Saturday, 20 March 2004 09:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Ha ha. Maybe we should have a thread summarising books in one word.

Bunged Out (Jake Proudlock), Saturday, 20 March 2004 13:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

Long before the Open University, blue collar lad’s faith in upward mobility via education is brutally crushed by combined forces of religion and conventional morality.

Merial Ozone, Saturday, 20 March 2004 14:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Day of the Jackal - Frederick Forsythe

Sniper misses, eventually.

Richard Dace, Saturday, 20 March 2004 20:57 (twenty-two years ago)

" My Husband ; a Life." By
Ethelfreda Batthingthwaite-Winterbotham of Little Peover, Cheshire, as told to Peter Tatchell and Peter Hain , MP.

Quote from the Quarterly Magazine of the Preston Guild of Master and Journeymen Toothbrush Handle Hole Borers & Ancillary Trades :-
This is in three Volumes with an Appendix of 1,282,419 references. Almost half the pages in each volume are made up of references. Volume one is entitled:-
" Toothbrush Handle Hole Boring from the Iron Age to the 20th Century"
Chapter 1 " Iron Age Toothbrush Handle Hole Boring Sites and Artefacts" argues that the 2,180 sites where artefact such as discarded bow-drills and partly bored toothbrush handles made of ivory and walrus tusks shows Toothbrush Hole Boring was the major industry and trade of the British Isles in this period, and exported as far away as Gwalior where the Gwaikor of Gwalior had gold toothbrush handles sent to the British Isles to have their holes bored; the Chinese Wo-shan Wun ( Marsh lands of the Yiang ‘se Kiang) where the tooth brush handles were smuggled in exchange for Chia or Green Tea, pre-packed Chow Mien and Number 14 with Egg Noodles in a Pak Choi Sauce; and Easter Island, where most of the mysterious giant statues are meant to be holding toothbrushes.
Chapter 2. " Attila the Toothbrush Handle Hole Borer." This chapter discusses the derivation of the word " Hun" from a phrase in Germanic language , meaning United Tribes of Toothbrush Handle Hole Borers; and claims Attila the Toothbrush Handle Hole Borer was right to attack and sack Rome, because the Senate had imposed huge duties on imported toothbrush handles, to protect the failing toothbrush handle hole boring industry of Tuscany. The Praetorian Guard and other Roman Legions had been decimated because a shortage of toothbrushes had lead to an outbreak of toothache and gum diseases; an early example of a rich and despotic lifestyle without proper dental hygene resulting in catastrophe.
(to be continued )

Laurie Ridyard, Sunday, 21 March 2004 02:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Hamlet

There's much clever scheming, a lot of people die, quite a few go mad, and the basic storyline manages to become Shakespeare's longest play - wow!

James Tween, Sunday, 21 March 2004 15:31 (twenty-two years ago)

25 word

phil mckracken, Monday, 22 March 2004 02:52 (twenty-two years ago)

"The Man who Would be King" by Rudyard Kipling.

"You went to Afghanistan?!? F**k me! WHY???"

Andy Macc, Monday, 22 March 2004 13:22 (twenty-two years ago)


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