has anyone here ever read George Orwell's "Coming Up For Air"?

it touches on everything, really, from the crushing of the Liberal Party through the urbanisation of the proletariat / suburbanisation of the countryside (only to be revived in the last decade partially through the erosion of the landowners' power and the major changes in rural demographics - I wonder how Orwell would view the Lib Dems' challenge to overtake the Tories and become the second party?), to the utter subjectivity of "golden age" yearnings. it is always good to realise that people have felt this way since time immemorial: "fears are always the same / only the details change"

i'd like to know what the pinefox's nine other favorite novels are.

What a fabulous question, and what a golden-age little thread (how old ilx nostalgia is ...). I could give you some kind of list but I think you would be very unimpressed and I would feel bad about it.

Maybe I'm being too negative.

i'm guessing "ulysses" would be number one, at least?

Oh, sure.

Otherwise, not supposed to be in order, let's say these ten could contend:

1 Joyce, Ulysses (nothing to see here)
2 Moore, Who Will Run The Frog Hospital? (magnifique)
3 Plath, The Bell Jar (sounds teeny but I always thought it brilliant)
4 Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 (well I'm not gonna name a longer one; have always adored this as I've often said)
5 Waterhouse, Billy Liar (slight, but important to a Smiths fan, and to English culture in a way)
6 Warner, The Sopranos (liked this a lot for its romanticism; but may be overrating it now)
7 Dyer, The Colour of Memory (ditto, but very English, London, 1980s - I'll stand by it)
8 Eliot, Middlemarch (OK, that's solid, no one's going to argue)
9 O’Brien, The Third Policeman (quirky enough choice to be interesting, mainstream enough that people will know and approve)
10 Lethem, Motherless Brooklyn (really? oh, why not; only read it c.7 months ago but found it at least as awesome as anyone had said)

Tell me yours if you like. This is some thread derailment though.

that's a good list! i'll need a day or two to mull mine over, i think. i should probably read "who will run the frog hospital," which i've owned for about three years.

I read that novel as a young & foolish teen. I recall not liking the ending b/c (SPOILER ALERT) it's one of Orwell's endings where he taunts you with the possibility that the protagonist will break out of his depressing rut, but instead the conclusion is that everything stays exactly the same for him. It struck me as not plot-y enough. A Clergyman's Daughter is another one that's like that. I probably should give it another chance, though.

Keep the Aspidistra Flying is my favorite of his; it's just as pessimistic but has a more surprising narrative arc. Also it's hilarious.

Ditto on Aspidistra being pessimisitic and hilarious--especially if you've ever worked in bookselling, about which it's extremely savage.