FUN FACT 2: He also coined the word 'Quarks' in the novel.

I get over a sad ending by realising it's a book.

Once I realise it's a book I get this thing called perspective.

Once I get perspective I know a book can't ruin my day, let alone my life.

The music reviews perform two functions in the book.

1. They normally come directly after a gruesome murder and they provide the reader with a breather and change in tone.

2. They're probably the only places in the novel where Patrick shows genuine emotion or excitement. He kills pitilessly and without feeling. Music is the only place where he shows some passion, or his approximation of passion.

Read it as a teenager. Remember bending over laughing as I read and realising that books could actually do that to you.

I would agree. They set out to overthrow a tyrannical hierarchy, replacing it with a more just society where all animals are equal. Soon, they become tyrannical themselves, and a new hierarchy develops where some animals are more equal than others.

People see it as pessimistic, but I see it as realistic.

I agree with you. Bias exists on both sides and it's bad for all of us when a right or left wing orthodoxy takes over.

This is the way it goes now. Anyone who even vaguely challenges the progressive orthodoxy must be down voted until their comment collapses.