I tend to agree with Philip Hensher in The Independent that it's more important (and sadly becoming rarer) for kids to leave school having read *any* ten books all the way through than to specify which books they should be. But The Royal Society of Literature is getting its fellows to suggest titles, so I thought I'd join in:

1. Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome (indispensable, especially for urban kiddies)
2. Over Sea Under Stone by Susan Cooper (nail-biting intro to King Arthur/grail lore)
3. Elidor by Alan Garner (to freak them out)
4. Emma by Jane Austen (a gentle way in to a past era, and fun)
5. Junk by Melvin Burgess (possibly the only sensible AND brilliant book about drugs)
6. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller (difficult maybe but exhilarating and the best ever intro to black humour)
7. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (to expand their minds and make them thankful)
8. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (a ridiculous book but it'll warn them about the destructive possibilities of love)
9. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry (to make them nicer people)
10. The Princess Bride by William Goldman (to show them what really IS big and clever)

Tags: fiction education

14:16

. . .

Speaking of Google, I have a vague post in the pipeline about Google Book Search, which is interesting me greatly and seems to be raising almost as many issues as the China thing.

But in the meantime, I have been tagged with a tricky meme - I either had trouble coming up with four things, or with limiting myself to four. Here it is though:

Four jobs I’ve had:
Museum assistant; poetry competition assistant; student services assistant; resources assistant. One day I will not be bloody assisting anything or anyone.

Four movies I can watch over and over:
The Big Lebowski; Funny Face; The Princess Bride; Office Space.

Four places I have lived:
Brighton; York; Lewes; Streatham.

Four TV shows I like to watch:
This is tricky as I don't have a TV but: The West Wing; Peep Show; The Office; Star Trek.

Four foods that I like:
Pizza; risotto; curry; chocolate.

Four websites I visit daily:
ILX; Little Red Boat; Toothpaste for Dinner; Librarian Ire.

Four things I want to do before I die:
Have children; have a book of poems published; go to Italy; get a cat.

Four places I would rather be right now:
Curled up in the armchair in my front room; in the pub with Matt; watching the sun set over the sea at my parents' house; in bed with a book.

Four people I’m tagging:
Nobody.

Tags: memes

16:32

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