A statue of Ireland’s James Joyce, author of Ulysses, at Zurich’s Fluntern Cemetery, where he is buried. Photograph: Sebastian Derungs/REUTERS
What literary classic is worth the arduous task of reading it?
Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past, for the simple reason that it turns literature into an unforgettable experience.
R De Braganza, Kilifi, Kenya
• Shakespeare’s Macbeth, for what we can learn about power, ambition and human nature.
Ursula Nixon, Bodalla, NSW, Australia
• If you watch the film The Jane Austen Book Club, you will want to read her classic books: Persuasion, Emma, Pride and Prejudice etc. There’s nothing quite like a good book, and hers are the best.
Wendy O’Brien, Alvhem, Sweden
• Have a whale of a time reading Melville’s classic Moby-Dick.
David Tucker, Halle, Germany
• For me there’s only one possible answer: James Joyce’s Ulysses. I’d tried several times with limited success, until it came up as a set text in my degree course. Since then I’ve re-read it several times, each time finding something new but always challenging, even in the parts I thought I understood. My unchanging choice for that desert island.
Noel Bird, Boreen Point, Queensland, Australia
We really don’t have a clue
What is man’s biggest deficiency?
That in spite of his many trials, he keeps making the same errors.
Richard Orlando, Westmount, Quebec, Canada
• The rationalisation of dishonesty.
Art Campbell, Ottawa, Canada
• The idealisation of efficiency.
Andrew Baker, Bakersfield, California, US
• Some men, women and children are not deficient at all, or don’t appear to be. That is at least in the eyes of their lovers, friends, admirers and doting parents.
Lawrie Bradly, Surrey Hills, Victoria, Australia
• Not having three hands.
David King, Dundas, Ontario, Canada
• A second X chromosome.
Sunil Bajaria, Bromley, UK
• He has none. No bones about it – as long as a woman is involved he is complete.
Jennifer Rathbone, Toronto, Canada
• At a global scale, our inability to predict the consequences of our decisions, and the fact that we don’t have a clue where we’re heading.
Stuart Williams, Kampala, Uganda
• Humanity.
Adrian Cooper, Queens Park, NSW, Australia
• Common sense.
Philip Stigger, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
Two mouths, but one mind
What are the chief attributes of a soulmate?
Endurance: 50 years of pulling the yoke (of marriage) together. Like Darby and Joan, personalities merge with time: you finish each other’s sentences, know what each other are thinking (from the eternal repetition of patterns). Like it or not, you become soulmates.
“They laugh alike, they walk alike, at times they even talk alike: what a crazy pair!”
RM Fransson, Wheat Ridge, Colorado, US
• Been there, done that! So, in hindsight I would say it takes two, and they both require a large capacity for delusion.
Nicholas Halpin, Gabriola Island, British Columbia, Canada
• Being the sole mate would be one factor, for a start.
Brian Lentle, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Any answers?
When does a tablet become a pill?
Nicholas Martin, Auckland, New Zealand
What do drivers with ‘Baby on board’ signs expect other drivers to do?
John Benseman, Auckland, New Zealand
Send answers to weekly.nandq@theguardian.com
