The UK Babe Channels Forum

Peter Jackson is producing it. He was originally in line to direct as well but there was a slight hiccup when he sued New Line for what he saw as them stiffing him on DVD profits. Don't know if that ever got sorted or not, but at least the film's going ahead now. Should be interesting to see what De Toro does with it.

Read Tolkien, inc The Silmarillion, not a big fan. If I want something of that genre I normally delve back to the real classics with interpretations of Beowulf and The Odyssey (still yet to get round to The Iliad and The Aeneid). If you're looking a bit more contemporary, but still old, personally I'd go with Ivanhoe

As for Harry Potter...
Well it's good that it has children and adults alike reading but it is a children's book and not really an engaging read. Bedtime reading maybe, but I don't expect it to stand the test of time merely on the quality of writing. Not quite the Mills and Boon that some critics would probably like you to believe, but not a masterpiece series either

The thing about children's stories is that they're the ones that tend to last. From the old fairy tales, through late Victorian and Edwardian times to the pre-war era (the Oz stories, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Wind in the Willows) and throughout the latter half of the twentieth century. Those are the ones that imprint themselves into the public conciousness. I've got no way of collecting my winnings or I would cheerfully bet that Harry Potter will outlast many of todays award winning "serious" novels and in one hundred years time, parents will be reading them to their children and discovering them for themselves into the bargain, just as they do today with Treasure Island, The Jungle Books or Swallows and Amazons.

I would gladly wager that more people have read Beowulf, The Odyssey and The Iliad for fun, than The Canterbury Tales, Faust, Tristram and Isolde or The Divine Comedy. While the first three are by no means children's stories per se they are exactly the stories that children who love Harry Potter, The Hobbit or Eragon will hunt out.

Stories such as Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl et al, are important not just for firing young imaginations, but also slightly older ones who may well have had a love of reading knocked out of them by the education system, a youthful fear of being seen as "nerdy" or just the pressures and demands of adult life grinding them down.

While not up to the standards of Dianna Wynne-Jones' or Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's child oriented offerings it still deals with a lot of themes and emotional conflicts in a mature and well balanced manner. I've read all seven of them and I can safely say I won't read through them a second time, but I feel that a lot of the criticism levelled at the populist and accessible writing style is unjust.

Well got to admit I got turned off the classics such as Chaucer and Shakespeare through the education system and rediscovered them later once I'd got a wider perspective on life to draw from to appreciate them better.

Whilst the Harry Potter books have assured themselves a place in history, at least for now, I don't think that position is on the quality of the writing but on how it has inspired a generation to rediscover reading (no mean feat and worthy of praise).

The question from what the series has done though is how many people will continue to widen their reading and perhaps try something a little more challenging? That I think is going to be the true test. Is it going to become a gateway into reading for children or a series of books that people read and then don't feel inspired to go further? I have no idea. Everybody I know who read the books was reading already, most of who liked the series, personally I just think they are okay but nothing special. Perhaps people who have read them as a reintroduction to books would like to comment on if they have gone on to read further?

omg this is gay but ages ago...........i used to read the Wicca books by sum woman i forget her name.............but they weer funny lol and quite good...

I used to read "The Famous Five" books when I was tiny...
But I would say that "Lords And Ladies" from Terry Pratchett's discworld series is my favourite ever book.
LOTR is second, or maybe "Magician" by Raymond E. Faust.

I'm not into all that fantasy lord of the ringpiece shiit. Other than the captain red,blue,black beard pirate books at school i'd not read a book fully untill about 8 years ago, now i love reading all the books by Andy Mcnab as he knows what he's talking about & he also has a sense of humour, i also like Graham Johnson's books. Here's all the books i've read so far.
Andy Mcnab
Nick Stone series.
Crisis Four, Fire Wall, Last Light, Liberation Day, Dark Winter, Aggressor, Recoil, Crossfire, Brute Force, Exit Wound.
I'd say Last Light & Liberation Day are the best.
Boy Soldier series.
Boy Soldier, Payback, Avenger, Meltdown.
None fiction.
Immediate Action, Seven Troop.

Chris Ryan
Stand by Stand by, Zero Option, The Watchman, Land of fire, Greed. Greed is my fave.

Graham Johnson
The Devil (Stephen French), Powder Wars.

Other books.
Deaths Head-David Gunn (Not what i thought it would be).
Cut-Throat (Rod McLean)- Wayne Thallon (Very far fetched).
The Naked Soldier-Tony Sloane (A none exaggeration of life in the Foreign Legion).
Deniable Agent-Colin Berry.
The Rides Back On-Dave Courtney (A bit silly).
Black Water USA-Jeremy Scahill.
Cocky The Rise And Fall Of Curtis Warren-Tony Barnes (Very good).
Sun Tzu The Art Of War (Not yet read).
No Mean Soldier-Peter McAleese.
The Real Bravo Two Zero-Michael Asher.
The 48 Laws Of Power-Robert Greene (No not that Rob Green, if your into psycology get this book!!!).

BOOKS? It's 2010 why read when you can join a gang and get stabbed or snort some legal madness dust from the market and go insane or even download an audio book and let someone else read it to you
I'm not much of a reader these days but I used to read a little,I did like SURVIVOR by CHUCK PALAHNIUK it was much better than FIGHT CLUB, and ages before the stupid film I read THE MEN THAT STARE AT GOATS by JON RONSON which was interesting and funny and makes you wonder what madness Americans are up to these days,I've also read a few books by CLIVE BARKER my favorite being WEAVEWORLD,I read a collection of short stories by CHEKHOV which were all pretty good if a bit odd,but ON THE ROAD by JACK KEROUAC is the only book I've gone back to more than once so you could say that was my favorite book.