Starter for ten - David Nicholls

Advantages: entertaining, easy to read
Disadvantages: none!

Answer: Stupidity The year is 1985, and Brian Jackson is about to begin the first year of his English degree at university: as he says, it's not Oxford or Cambridge, but it'll do. University to Brian means one thing: a chance to fulfil his one ambition in life...to appear on his University Challenge team. But being on the team is more than Brian bargained for: being a sex-obsessed young male, he is immediately drawn to the beautiful and intelligent ...
...an eternity spent chasing her, he decides that there is only one foolproof way to make her his. He's going to win the quiz, at any cost: after all, what kind of girl wouldn't fall for a man who can prove his intelligence...? A simple-sounding storyline, maybe, but this is more than just a love story. Nicholls successfully combines side-splitting comedy with aspects of love, education, knowledge, class, and, of course, the trials of growing up. All ... Read review

Advantages: Entertaining and recognisable story
Disadvantages: The start of the friendship

Blockbusters. 15-1. Catchword with Paul Coia. All have been student staples in the past - before, after or instead of lectures and seminars and revision and awfulnesses like that, students have measured themselves against people on the gogglebox and at times have found themselves wanting. Of course, the curse of the modern age is that anything one may remember from one's youth, from sweets to television programmes and records, is now the subject ...
...wheels were larger back then, and wasn't Going for Gold crap? Should we shudder then, when one such meme from our past has become the subject of a 400 page lad-lit rom-com novel? (Meme = roughly, a memory of a past cultural creation that takes on a semi-life of its own through cultural memory. A silly word to drop in an op like this, but it's just to help you know what to expect from the mindset of the main character.) Brian Jackson (though mostly ... Read review

Advantages: You may be able to see yourself in the characters
Disadvantages: Often more cringeworthy than amusing

Going to university is often a life changing experience. For some it is a further step on the way to a chosen career that could last the rest of their lives. For others, it's a chance to expand their knowledge in a subject they may have enjoyed at school or never had the chance to study before. For even more, as it was for me, it's a lesson in life; a chance to live away from parents for the first time and to meet new people and new ideas. This ...
...away from his clingy widowed mother and their house in Southend. Feeling intelligent by the standards of his closest friends, it's also a chance for him to mix with people he can have a decent conversation with. But for Brian Jackson, university means one thing more than any other - the chance to make an appearance on "University Challenge". Sadly, whilst Brian may be intelligent enough for a televised general knowledge quiz, he's sadly lacking ... Read review

Advantages: humour will make you laugh-out-loud, fairly realistic most of the time, beautifully created characters
Disadvantages: a slightly slow start

"But it's too late to stop dancing now, because James Brown is asking me to shake my moneymaker, shake my moneymaker, and I have to think for a minute because I'm not sure what my moneymaker is specifically. My head? No, my ass, of course, so I shake it as best I can, anointing the crowd around me with sweat, like a wet dog, and then all of a sudden there's a jab of horns and the song is over and I. Am. Spent. " Now, if you've read my reviews, you ...
...occasionally I will go for a book written by a man, just for variety's sake! Originally I was quite eager to read "Starter for Ten" as the author David Nicholls wrote the "Cold Feet" television series, which I loved, so I was happy when I found a copy of the paperback in a second hand shop. But when I first began to read it, I just couldn't get into it. It started off a little bit slowly and I couldn't get past the first chapter. However, when I ... Read review

Advantages: funny, realistic, real journey down memory lane
Disadvantages: bit long winded, began to hate the main character

...David Nicholls. His debut novel Starter For 10 is a witty, insightful comedy about university life including that television institution University Challenge. The year is 1985. Do you remember it? I sort of do. Brian Jackson our narrator and “hero” of the book certainly does. This was the year that the working class lad left behind his widowed Woolie's employee of a mum with his best friends from school Tone and Spencer back in f Southend to seek ...
...ideal woman Alice Harbinson.ha Starter for Ten has a similar quality to the wonderful “The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets” in the fact that it is time specific and timeless at the same time. I say this as the period of the 1980s is very specific. Nicholl's evokes the era so well in his description of films, fashion, political issues and music. However as I have already mentioned if you have left home to go to university or college you will really warm ... Read review