Reading immaterial  It's a damn stupid question in the first
place, "What's your favourite book?" When did anyone ever ask
that of anyone else, in the course of regular social
intercourse? It has no answer. There isn't a book so peerlessly
good that it dwarfs all other books, unless you're prepared to
say Ulysses and run the risk of getting glassed in the face.
So, really, it's not about books at all, it's about
distinguishing yourself through your distinctions, choosing a
work that gives the fullest picture of the person you'd like the
world to consider you to be. That's why everyone always says
Catch-22 - not because they think Heller to be easily as good as
Roth, Mailer, Updike and Vonnegut rolled into one. No one thinks
that. It's because of the myriad excellent messages enjoyment of
this book gives off - I have a fine sense of humour; I'm anti-
war and probably broadly leftwing; I have a healthy, questioning
disrespect for authority; I like a bit of nooky, but not in a
mean way, not like that Rabbit or t