I read it while in college where you do tend to read all sorts of stuff you would not normally go near. Perhaps I would read it with a different outlook today. I agree the film was a disappointment, more surreal than the book.If it had been filmed in the style of "Mash" then I believe it would certainly have been more entertaining. But thats just my thoughts.
Unreadable? Hard-going in parts, I'll grant you, but it must have summat about it to have achieved such high literary regard. I even ploughed through another Heller monster years later, 'Closing Time', ...did someone mention surreal?
So, the premise of Catch22 was that to get out of the war you had to be insane, but acting like you were was presumed to be just that - acting - therefore you must be sane (you must be sane to want to go home), therefore you had to stay. Catch22 has gone on to become an accepted phrase for a no-win situation. Can't recall the reason for '22' - was it the army rule number regarding mental/medical release?
I'm not a big book reader but the most unreadable book I ever attempted was James Joyce's Ulysses. I lasted a page and a half. I think Posh Spice autobiographies are about my level.
I hate sitting in doctors or hospital waiting rooms and being forced to read old copies of "You" magazine and its ilk out of sheer boredom. The daily life of nobodies ...gawd. My docs is more Country Life , House and Home , and 4x4 mags. Much like the conversation in the pubs.
A pub / doctors combined could be useful. They could dish out the headache and hangover pills as well as stitch any wounds from rucks or falling off bar stools. Concussion from the constant banging of heads on low beams would receive immediate attention and why not let them double up as a vet for the dog walkers.
I find that hard to believe Roger. Posh's autobigraphies? Plural? Pre & post America...?
I'm also not a big reader, and take ages to finish a book - I can't do any of that scan-reading nonsense, and don't quite see the point of missing out chunks of descriptive prose. However...
As with Catch22, when younger I had to read, of course, Kerouac's 'On the Road', but I think I'd struggle to persist with it now. I'm a bit of a glutton for punishment, ploughing on way beyond what should have been a book's point of abandonment, but I was defeated by 'Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance', maybe you have to be smoking summat to get through that stuff.
Currently Ian McEwan's 'Atonement' and recently summat the mrs got on the back of 'Walking Ollie' (same author-Stephen Foster), was 'She Stood There Laughing' - a quite enjoyable Stoke City version of Roger's favourite book 'Fever Pitch'.
btw rd, I'd highly recommend Walking Ollie to any dog owner, but very apt for you as he's a lurcher - lots of laughs in the book.
I do remember The Swan, Eardisland being used as a morning surgery for some reason but that was back in the 70's. I doubt it would be allowed today under Elf & Safety.Lets face it most pubs are not the cleanest of places.
At one time I read books by weight but dont have the concentration now. I like those books you can dip in and out of without straining the brain, the internet is ideal for that.