. . . is that they always, always, always devolve into a Stephen King/Lord of the Rings/Hitchhiker's Guide special interest group.

Ever notice that?

I don't see that many threads on those subjects. They are all very popular so of course you're going to hear more about them than some other subjects. Feel free to post on some other subject though it'd be great to see more topics in here.

Then post something different instead of just 'noticing' it!

Oops! Wrong thread!

Have you guys noticed how in The Stand, there was that one part that was exactly like when Bilbo and Gandalf were...

oh.


Never mind.

and the problem with that is..?

(myself I'd substitute Stephen King with Terry Pratchett, but beyond that I could happily discuss LOTR and HGTTG till the cows came home

However, I'm equally willing to accept that there is far more to literature than the abovementioned authors, and that other topics of discussion would be most welcome.

Myself I'd happily discuss the relative merits of Jostein Gaarder's latest book "Maya" and his earlier (and highly popular works) such as "Sophies world" or "through the looking glass, darkly"..(or any number of other authors) but I could easily see such things evolving into a one sided discussion. By keeping to widely known topics one can be fairly certain that there are at least a couple of people out there who know what you're going on about. (MTCW)