There's one passage in one of those books (Teatime or Gently, I can't remember) that describes some large object (a couch? a piano?) being stuck in the hallway stairs, and I swear it breaks me every single time I read it. It's not a major plot point, nothing all that important, and yet his description of it is one of my all-time favorite comic passages.

It's a couch. One of my teachers at CTY read that to us the summer I was taking geometry, and that's what got me hooked on those books.

I get giddy with laughter with those books.

Have you read The Salmon of Doubt, which contains the first couple chapters of the next, never-to-be-fucking-finished Dirk Gently novel? It was good stuff, dammit.

Oh, and based on the conversation here, I got Watership Down at the library today. I'm a few chapters in now, and loving it. Why did no one tell me about this book when I was 11?

Yay! Better late than never. Join the rabbit cult! And actually, I had the opportunity to snag Tales from Watership Down, but I've heard it's disappointing.

Why did no one tell me about this book when I was 11?

It was a conspiracy. Me, I wouldn't have made head nor tail of it at 11, because I was a clueless lump at that time. High school junior, though, it worked. I'm almost afraid to read it again, because I know which sections are just lurking around waiting to make my grown-up mind hurt.

Though Bigwig's Last Stand is worth a re-visit.

My elementary school teacher caught me reading WD and recommended LeGuin to me. I've never looked back.

Hazel-rah! I love the Prince With a Thousand Enemies.

And did you know there's a political blog out there called Silflay Hraka? Heee!

Yes, but those of use whose parents got the WD animated movie thinking it was a gentle kids' comedy and left it for us to watch alone at the tender age of seven have never gotten over the trauma to actually read the book.

Obviously I need to. It's just...bloody rabbits. Seven. It left a mark.

Yes, but those of use whose parents got the WD animated movie thinking it was a gentle kids' comedy and left it for us to watch alone at the tender age of seven have never gotten over the trauma to actually read the book.

Oh, but it's such a wonderfully done movie. Such a perfect adaptation. And theme song by Art Garfunkel!

DH is with you, though, Kristin -- the sky full of blood traumautized him as a small child (I don't think he's ever seen it past that scene).

Re Dirk Gently, I used the quote "There is no such word as 'impossible' in my dictionary. In fact,' he said, brandishing the abused book, 'everything between 'herring' and 'marmelade' appears to be missing," for my senior page in my high school yearbook.

I want to go back and re-read WD & I've just realized that I can't because my younger brother stole my copy, damn him.

The Richard Adams novel that scarred me as a child was Plague Dogs. It's possible that it wouldn't be as terrifying now, but I wouldn't know since I'll never be able to make myself read it again.

Yeah, reading Watership Down in fifth grade and then launching off on the rest of his oevure was... um. Interesting. I was not really ready for some of the sex in Maia at that age, as it turns out.

Yeah, reading Watership Down in fifth grade and then launching off on the rest of his oevure was... um. Interesting

Glad I wasn't the only one. Shardik was fairly impenetrable as well.

Branagh's Much Ado was great- except for Keanu. "Like, dude, I'm full on evil, and I'm gonna totally pull some non-non-heinous prank on these totally lame-ass people..." Shudder. I feel sorry for people who saw him in Hamlet in Winnipeg a few years ago. Or, actually I don't... they didn't have to be there, there were plenty of willing teenage girls who would've bought the tickets.

I remember being really into Christopher Pike in Jr. High, so it's cool that his stuff's still around. I think I still have most of his books packed away. My faves include Master of Murder , the Final Friends trilogy, and The Weekend. Hmmm. Maybe I'll try and dig those up and give them another read.