CD Vicarage (Kerry) tries to get organised for 2012

My reading has, of late, become rather aimless; not that I have ever (consciously) followed a programme or a theme – apart from reading through a series, say. I’ve had a Kindle for a year now and that has enabled me to read more than when I was restricted to print only. I carry it around with me all the time and use even the smallest gaps to read. I have taken advantage of the many free out of copyright classics (and not so classic) available as ebooks to catch up on the many books I always meant to read. Having such easy access to so many books has meant that I have taken to flitting between books even more than I did. I have always had several books on the go at any one time but using a Kindle has meant the number in my Currently Reading collection has more than doubled this year. I used to keep about ten books on the go – some long-term, some fast reads – but now there is often up to 25 books on my list.

For most of my reading life I have held the view that, once started, a book must be finished. I have modified this view and now allow myself to stop reading if I’m not enjoying a book – I have a Started and Abandoned collection – but with a Kindle it’s easy to leave a book half-read and not make a conscious decision that I will finish it or to abandon it. With print books the piles of part-read books would eventually get too inconvenient and have to be cleared away…

This is my current Currently Reading collection:
An Island in a Green Sea
Jo to the Rescue
Dimsie among the Prefects
Richmal Crompton: the Woman Behind William
Choices in the Great Circle an ER book, abandoned 22nd January
Great Expectations audio and visual versions (finished 11th January)
The Birth of Venus
Small-Town Boy, Small-Town Girl: Growing Up in South Dakota, 1920-1950 an ER book
South Riding
At the Back of the North Wind
Trilby (finished 20th January)
The Real Mrs Miniver: the life of Jan Struther
Clarissa Harlowe or the History of a Young Lady
The Heiress Companion an ER book, finished 23rd January
The Pantomime Life of Joseph Grimaldi: Laughter, Madness and the Story of Britain's Greatest Comedian an ER book
The Little Stranger
The Wide Wide World
The Whole Wide Beauty an ER book
Tom’s Midnight Garden finished 15th January

So far this year I have finished:

Regency Pleasures - a pair of regency novels (a Kindle bargain) suitably lightwight for the post-Christmas period.
The Scarlet Letter - an interesting read but I found the last few chapters too drawn-out.
Gay from China at the Chalet School - part of my favourite Chalet School series. I always have one of these on-the-go.
I Want it Now! A Memoir of Life on the Set of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - I don't usually read showbiz memoirs but I loved this film (and the book was free for Kindle).

ETA: Scarlet Letter touchstone won't stick but it's the Nathaniel Hawthorne one.

Welcome! Looks like a good set of books to start the year.

Hi Kerry, great to see you here! I have starred you and look forward to following your reading. I'll be particularly interested to hear your thoughts on the Richmal Crompton and Jan Struther biogs.

I used to love the Chalet school books but sold my collection at a car boot sale at sixteen and have never re-read any. I did recently re-read an Abbey girls book though!

I finished Great Expectations both the audio and print versions. I've done this before - print and audio together - I started because there were times when listening to an audiobook wasn't convenient but I was so engrossed I wanted to go on so I changed to print. Dickens can be quite dense - as in there's lots of it, not that he's stupid - so reading it this way meant that I was able to absorb it all. When I read print I have a tendency to read so quickly that I'm almost skim-reading, particularly a new story where I need to find out what happens, and then again for re-reads where I go very quickly over the bits I find less interesting or enjoyable. You can't skip bits in an audiobook or make it go faster!

I've read very little Dickens up till now - some at school (now many years ago) and A Christmas Carol every Christmas but he's an author that seeps into general consciousness and I was sure I knew this one. However it didn't take many pages before I realised I had never read the book. Well I must know it from seeing a film or TV adaptation, then. No, all I really knew was the convict scene at the beginning and the existence of Estella and Miss Havisham, and although that slight knowledge enabled me to find things quite familiar for a good way through the book - up to Pip's meeting with Herbert in London - I didn't know how it ended. Fortunately for me I was able to listen to the end of the audio version this afternoon at work (while doing something else at my computer, or waiting for the students to return their laptops). Laughing at the funny bits - Wemmick's wedding for instance - wasn't a problem but crying over the death of Magwitch was a bit awkward.

I'm definitely going to read more Dickens. From my earlier attempts all I could remember was the longwinded-ness and the old-fashioned, hard to follow language and how boring it was, now I'm older I suppose I have a better vocabulary and more general background knowledge so that I can follow the story more easily. I hadn't realised how funny Dickens can be - laugh out loud in some places - and I loved his turns of phrase:

"I soon fell asleep before Wemmick's fire, and the Aged and I enjoyed one another's society by falling asleep before it more or less all day."

"I judged him to be a bachelor from the frayed condition of his linen"

"I was always treated as if I had insisted on being born, in opposition to the dictates of reason, religion, and morality, and against the dissuading arguments of my best friends."

So, what next? I think I'll go on to The Old Curiosity Shop. Is my heart sufficiently stoney for me not to laugh at the death of Little Nell (which is all I know of the plot of this one)? I think I'm much more likely to cry whatever Oscar Wilde might think.

I finished The Real Me Is Thin by Arabella Weir yesterday. I had bought it from the Kindle Christmas sale for 99p, although it felt like a free book as I had an Amazon token for Christmas. I doubt I would have been tempted by this in a real bookshop but I'm pleased to have read it. I've read this sort of thing in magazines and newspapers before and really felt that I knew it already. The writing was good and easy to read but I felt that there was a lot of 'book' to develop a point that I grasped very soon. Having said that every time I got to the point of thinking I would just skim the rest the author did bring up another idea that made me want to read on.

#5 Interesting to hear of your experience with reading Great Expectations. I have also not read much Dickens, but feel I know the story and characters of many of them thanks to film and TV. Even A Christmas Carol, when I listened to an audiobook version in 2010, I realised I had never actually read before. But Great Expectations is one of the few I did read, quite young, and didn't much like at the time (maybe that put me off reading more). I saw the recent TV version - did you? It made me want to go back and re-read the book, as I think I may appreciate it more now.

Hello to a fellow multiple-books-at-a-time reader! I read Tom's Midnight Garden last year and loved it - I'll be looking forward to what you have to say about it.

#7 I've finished the TV Great Expectations now and although it is beautifully done (after the first episode my daughter, who is now 23, commented that 'grown up Pip is distractingly beautiful I may have trouble concentrating on the next episode') to someone familiar with the book (like me, she adds smugly!) there is so much lacking. I know that film and TV adaptations must be different from books, mainly because of length - my audiobook is over 19 hours long so for it be squeezed into three hours something has to go - but I was disappointed to find that the main thing that was left out was the humour. Pip, although beautiful, was a bit dull. Herbert seemed much better company.

I've just started Great Expectations on the Kindle - I haven't read much Dickens either, but I've enjoyed the English classics I've read in the last year so am going to give him a go.

I loved the Just William books as a kid and am looking forward to seeing what you think lof her biography.

I finished Tom's Midnight Garden and revised my star rating from 4½ to 5. It was one of the books in our small classroom library when I was in Year 3 (7/8 years old) so I'm sure I read it then, although the details have faded from my memory. This is my second time of reading as an adult - I thought I'd read it quite recently but, on checking my records, it was 2003 - and it is a book I shall read again and again. It is one of the books that reinforces the view that I was a child in the golden age of children's literature.

I'm reading Clarissa along with the group read. I'm taking it at the rate the letters are dated and this is working better for me than just reading it as I would normally. I have a tendency to read too quickly (as mentioned above) and being forced to take my time means that I absorb and retain what I read better. Reading along with other people and getting their comments also improves the experience.

I finished Trilby today. I've been reading it for quite a while, since before Christmas, I think. I found I read it in fits and starts. When I started it I found the first few chapters quite hard work - all that scene-setting character-introducing - but then it took off for me - for a while. I can't remember what made me stop each time but there were gaps and then I'd pick it up again for a few chapters and then stop, and so on. It was originally published in serial form so that may be part of the reason. The language seems to vary between Victorian flowery, over-the-top and longwinded, and pointed, straight to the reader, sarcasm. The plot seems melodramatic with rambling asides inserted here and there - perhaps that what made me break off my reading. But I'm glad to have read it.

Hi, Kerry - got you starred.

There is a saying (with some truth in it, I think) that people who like Dickens don't like Great Expectations, and vice-versa; it's certainly an anomalous work in many ways, and not the best book on which to judge how you might feel about Dickens overall. For the record, I'm of the school that considers Herbert the real hero of GE - if it isn't Joe. :)

I'm following the Clarissa read with interest, although not participating. Also interested in your comments on Trilby, which I haven't read yet - though of course it's on The List!

Liz, I did like the book - it was the TV adaptation that I was disappointed with. I'm reading The Old Curiosity Shop now and I'm not liking that as much.

I'm enjoying so much reading about your Dickens adventures, in all the different mediums!

#16 Thanks, I'm definitely going to work my way through as many titles as I can. I've got six more audiobooks to read after The Old Curiosity Shop so that should take me to the summer and beyond, I think.

I finished Answer me this. At my daughter's suggestion I started listening to this podcast and found it (mostly) amusing. I bought this book for my daughter as a Christmas present for Christmas 2010 however she'd already bought it for herself so it stayed in the emergency Christmas presents box for a year. Recently I decided that it was unlikely that I'd give it to anyone else so entered it on LibraryThing and started to read it myself. It's a light, amusing read that you can pick up, read a few questions and answers, and put down again easily. And there aren't many authors in my catalogue in the Z section.

Aforementioned daughter is in the doghouse. I thought I'd further enlarge my Great Expectations experience and watch the David Lean film. We have the DVD, I bought it when daughter - Clare - I may as well introduce her properly I forsee that she will be mentioned often - was studying Great Expectations in pre-GCSE English. I searched every cupboard and box that contains DVDs but drew a blank. I just know it's in Manchester, in Clare's flat, where it went temporarily, when she was a student five years ago...

BTW, Kerry, I'm curious - as far as I'm aware there hasn't yet been an adaptation of Great Expectations that didn't tamper with the ending to make it "happy" (?). I haven't see the latest TV version, though - how do they handle that? (Trying to avoid spoilers here!)

#20 The TV adaptation stuck to Dickens's revised (i.e. happier) ending but made it all happen much more quickly. It seemed as though Pip's problems (debts and lovelife) were resolved within weeks rather than the years it takes in the book.

I've finished The Other Guy's Bride. It was a jolly romp set in early 20th century Egypt. An adventurous, upper class heroine encounters a rough American. They dislike each other, they fall in love, there are misunderstandings but all is resolved. And our hero turns out to be an English Duke! (Technically spoilers but you will have guessed all this by the end of chapter 2).

I also finished, or, more precisely, abandoned, Choices in the Great Circle an ER book.

A belated 'Welcome to the group!' from me, Kerry!

And another finished book - The Heiress Companion, an ER book.

This was a pleasant easy read. The set-up is standard Regency romance - one can pair off the characters as soon as they are introduced. The dialogue is not standard Regency but doesn't jar too much. The heroine is beautiful and competent; the hero is handsome; there are secondary characters needing help with their love-lives, and there are villains (not at all evil) who get their comeuppance. There - what more could you want?

#21 Having watched the latest TV adaptation I might well have to re-read the book, because I could not remember anything about how it ended apart from the fate of Miss Havisham - it must be over 30 years since I read it. I didn't much like it when I read it then - but I haven't read much else of Dickens so I'm not sure if the theory works for me that those who like GE don't like rest of Dickens and vice versa. Anyway, I've dowloaded the free Kindle text onto my phone, so I may give it another try. I'd also like to try something else of his this year, maybe Pickwick Papers since that is one of the few that I've not seen film/TV adaptation of.

#11 I loved Tom's Midnight Garden as a child - haven't re-read it as an adult, but I'm sure I'd still love it too. I know what you mean about growing up in a golden age of children's literature!

The Virago group is having a read through of Elizabeth Taylor's novels to mark her centenary. For January we have been reading At Mrs Lippincote's, which I finished yesterday. Although I was sure I had read this before it turned out to be not the case and it was completely new to me. I liked it very much. I found I could empathise with Julia's point of view - she seemed detached from her life, looking on rather than joining in. The whole novel seemed very visual - I could have been standing in the corner watching it happen.

I have read Consequences by E. M. Delafield. Apart from Diary of a Provincial Lady I've only read one other of her novels (Thank Heaven, Fasting) so it really wasn't what I expected. The restrictions in the life of a Victorian upper-class girl are clearly demonstrated and the problems it causes for someone who doesn't fit the expected 'slot' in life. I felt both great sympathy and irritated exasperation for the heroine, Alex Clare. She doesn't seem to understand the way her life is organised, or her own feelings. Each new stage in her life leaves her more mentally battered and less able to cope. My first reaction was that her parents, her siblings and the nursery staff were unfeeling and unkind in their treatment of her, but then I began to feel a bit more sympathy for them after all those attitudes and methods seemed to work for everyone else and they were doing what they thought was the right thing but without the sensitivity to realise that it wasn't right for Alex.

I've started (re) reading The Castle of Otranto along with SqueakyChu's tutored read and the questions she is asking are adding to my enjoyment.

I'm about, no, exactly 41% of the way through The Old Curiosity Shop. I'm not liking it as much as Great Expectations, it seems rather more rambling and I'm a bit more aware of the padding -amusing and effective as it is. Perhaps it's because I had more idea of the plot of GE before I read it whereas the only plot point I know in this is Little Nell's ultimate fate.

From memory, Dickens didn't have The Old Curiosity Shop planned out when he started writing it, so it does have that sense of "now what?" about it.

I read Delafield's Challenge To Clarissa last year, which is a sort of nasty comedy. Thank Heaven Fasting is the only other of her works I've read, though the rest are on The List, and I found it a very uncomfortable book. (That's not a criticism, merely an observation!)

Glad you're enjoying The Castle Of Otranto!

Finished the next Chalet School book Jo to the Rescue. These are all so familiar to me I could read them with my eyes shut (if you know what I mean!) but they are such comfortable reads... The Old Curiosity Shop is getting a bit creepy and sad - Nell and her grandfather are definitely on the downward slope so I need something lighter to intersperse with it and The Castle of Otranto.

It's a disgruntled sort of day - a cold, grey Monday - and nothing in my currently reading collection on my kindle seems suitable so I've gone back to an old favourite, The Little White Horse. I have several copies of this: an old Puffin paperback, now very fragile from being read so often, a very nice old hardback with an original dustwrapper that I'm almost afraid to spoil by reading, two audio versions - an abridged version, beautifully read by Juliet Stevenson but I miss the bits that aren't there, and a full version read by Miriam Margolyes - and I bought the kindle version in Amazon's Christmas sale. I'm glad I did as it's just what I need today.

Hi Kerry, finally tracked down and starred your thread.

#27 Consequences sounds interesting although very different to Provincial Lady. I think I've got it on my long Persephone wishlist (along with pretty much everything they've published).

#30 I have fond memories of the Chalet School series. It's only since being on LT that I've heard that the editions I read as a child might have been abridged. I wish I'd kept them now.

#31 I read that for the first time after buying it in the kindle sale - it's lovely isn't it? Just the thing for a cold, grey day (and it was cold).

Finished in January:

Regency Pleasures by Louise Allen
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (touchstone won't stick)
Gay from China at the Chalet School by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer
I want it now by Julie Dawn Cole
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (audio and print versions)
The Real Me is Thin by Arabella Weir
Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce
Trilby by George du Maurier
Answer me this by Helen Zaltzman & Olly Mann
The Other Guy's Bride by Connie Brockway
The Heiress Companion by Madeleine Robins
At Mrs Lippincote's by Elizabeth Taylor
Consequences by E. M. Delafield
Jo to the Rescue by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer

which I think is a good amount.
4 were print editions,
10 were on my kindle, although I do have a print version of one of them,
and one was an audio book.
3 were re-reads, the others were all new to me.
Of the 14 titles 10 had been acquired recently so it hasn't really reduced the TBR pile.

Now, February:

This is my current Currently Reading collection:

An Island in a Green Sea removed from list
Dimsie among the Prefects
Richmal Crompton: the Woman Behind William
The Birth of Venus removed from list
Small-Town Boy, Small-Town Girl: Growing Up in South Dakota, 1920-1950 an ER book
South Riding removed from list
At the Back of the North Wind
The Real Mrs Miniver: the life of Jan Struther
Clarissa Harlowe or the History of a Young Lady
The Pantomime Life of Joseph Grimaldi: Laughter, Madness and the Story of Britain's Greatest Comedian an ER book
The Little Stranger removed from list
The Wide Wide World
The Whole Wide Beauty an ER book
The Mystery at the Chalet school finished 2nd Feb
The Old Curiosity Shop print and audio versions, finished 8th & 9th Feb
Helen by Maria Edgeworth (no touchstone)
The Little White Horse finished 1st Feb
Palladian
The Castle of Otranto Finished 2nd Feb

Some of these are nearly finished and some have not moved on at all from the beginning of January. I don't often abandon books but listing them like this every month might make do that for some of the longstanding ones, I think.

4th Feb: I have removed some from the list - temporarily.

I love both of your lists! Yes, I do that too, persist in listing a book hoping that will help me -- I do drop them if it goes on for six months though......

It's not been a very good reading week; Monday's disgruntlement seemed to last all week. After I finished The Little White Horse and The Castle of Otranto nothing else in my Currently Reading list seemed attractive I whizzed through Carmen (the book) yesterday - it's very short - and polished off the next Chalet School book - Mystery at the Chalet School, another very short book. Last night I started Death comes to Pemberley - a kindle bargain - I've only read the prologue yet which is a resume of the plot of Pride and Prejudice from the point of view of the inhabitants of Meryton.

As anyone with more than three books knows, it is important to re-arrange them from time to time. It's something I often do when I don't know what to read - looking at the actual books can often make them look more interesting and remind you of the ones that you had forgotten about. Browsing my LT catalogue can have the same effect. I have now extended this practice to my kindle and spent some of yesterday evening re-arranging my kindle collections. I use Calibre to keep a complete record of my ebooks and I tagged each title according to the collection(s) it is in. As I went a bit overboard on downloading free ebooks when I first got my kindle I decided only to enter those I have actually read or paid for on LT, so I do need Calibre to remind what I've got.

Hi Kerry! I just rearranged my Nookbooks. :) I share an account with my father and mother (get more bang for the buck that way), so sometimes I find books in there and I'm like ??? and sometimes I'm like !!! Regardless, it's nice to have them nice and organized. :)

My cat, Kevin, has decided to take part in the 75 Books Challenge, too. I think he's being a bit ambitious and perhaps should have joined the 50 Books Challenge instead. Here he is choosing his next book.

Great picture!!!!!

Which book did Kevin settle on?

He's looking at part of my Chalet School collection, Genny, and there is one with a picture of a cat on the cover but it's in the middle of the series so not a good place to start. I encouraged him to continue with more cat-like behaviour i.e. find a cushion, curl up, sleep, so he's decided not to bother with books any more.

I finished Death comes to Pemberley on 7th February and shortly after wrote what I considered a thoughtful and well-balanced critique, however I turned my back (and possibly pressed the wrong button) and it disappeared before I could post it. I didn't have time to re-write it straight away (I was at work) and have now forgotten the details. It could have been a masterpiece and have drawn other LibrayThingers in droves to my humble thread...

Well, I'll have to be brief instead.

At the beginning there's a lot of explaining between characters. This, for instance, from Elizabeth to Jane, admittedly of a new character:

'Remind me how he became intimate with you. Did not Mr Bingley meet him at your lawyer’s office in London?'

It seemed caught between two stools; those familiar with Pride and Prejudice don't need the background and it seems obtrusive and clumsy and those coming to it cold (as it were) will need it but there's probably not quite enough. Once the scene had been set and the murder committed things did improve and I found the trial section to be better. The final chapters again had too much explanation. I thought the whole point of (even superior) fanfiction is that the characters and set-up are already familiar to the reader so removing the need for all the explanations. Although I didn't expect the same light-hearted, witty banter that we had in P&P, after all murder is serious, why bother, then, to use these characters. The novel would have been as good, possibly better, based on a new characters and settings.

I finished both versions of The Old Curiosity Shop. The audio version, read by Anton Lesser, was lovely. (I wonder if he has recorded a telephone directory - I haven't seen one on Audible). I doubt I would have easily got through the print version without Anton's reading to direct me. I really began to care less and less about Nell and Grandfather to the extent that I wished she would hurry up and die so we could hear more about Kit and Dick Swiveller. One of the things that really irritated me by the end was that Dickens hardly ever used her (Nell's) name but referred to her as The Child. At least she had a name quite a few of the characters didn't even get that - The School Master, The Single Gentleman, The Bachelor.

I also polished off another Chalet School title Tom Tackles the Chalet School - not one of the best ones but enjoyable still.

Somehow Amazon brought to my attention that I could have the Narnia series on my Kindle so I'm reading through that series now. I've finished The Magician's Nephew and Lucy is just about to go through the wardrobe in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I usually read these in publication order but Amazon cunningly lured me in this way by making The Magician's Nephew cheaper than the others.

The Daily Deal yesterday was The Diamond Queen and, as I had been watching the matching TV series, I bought that and started it. Although it's very interesting and easy to read it is written, despite Andrew Marr's protestations to the contrary, as if it is the commentary to a TV programme.

I'm also reading through Northanger Abbey along with SqueakyChu's tutored thread.

That's so annoying when posts get swallowed up before they are posted... Funny how it's always our most articulate and erudite thoughts that get lost this way - or at least, that's what happens to mine! For reviews, I've taken to typing them first in my wordprocessor and copying into the thread once done, as I've lost too many that way.

A friend has lent me Death Comes to Pemberley, but your review concurs with others I've read in being less than enthusiastic; I suppose I will still read it, but not with very high expectations.

I don't know the story of The Old Curiosity Shop at all, except that it contains Little Nell - it must be one of the few Dickens not to have been serialised on TV, or if it was, I missed it. I'm currently reading the Pickwick Papers - another one previously unfamiliar to me.

But I can't bring myself to think of reading Narnia in anything other than publication order. Part of the fun of The Magician's Nephew was discovering the origin of certain features of Narnia first encountered in The Lion etc - such as the lamp post and the wardrobe. I presume Lewis when he wrote TLTWATW didn't already have the plot of Magician's Nephew in mind; I imagine him also when he came to write the Magician's Nephew having fun thinking about the origins of the world he had created and inventing various details to explain the features that we know in later books.

#44 Yes I'm usually a Publication Order reader but I have (and do) re-read Narnia so often that I sometimes just read one book, almost at random, without reading the whole series, depending on my mood so I can cope with chronological order from time to time.

I finished The Diamond Queen by Andrew Marr. I've also watched some of the current TV series of the same name. At the beginning of the book Andrew Marr states that it is not 'the book of the series' and obviously it contains more text than the three hours of television, but it is written as if it should be read aloud and I think the programme commentary is contained within the book. This style made it quite awkward to read. It was also my first real non-fiction book read on my kindle and, having forgotten about indexes, notes, acknowledgements, bibliography etc, I was surprised when I got to the end of the text. These start at 73% of the book and I had been wondering how he could possibly pad out the text any more...

It was a busy Half-Term and, although I did a fair amount of reading, I only finished a few books - Diamond Queen, see comments above, and two more Chalet School stories: Rosalie at the Chalet School which is a short book added to the series out of order - a fill-in - and not a very good one, and Chalet school Headmistress which is a fill-in story written by Helen Barber, not EBD. Most of these non-EBD Chalet School fill-ins (but not all) have been very good. This one captures the writing and plot styles of EBD very well. Some of the plot points were rather heavy-handedly introduced but EBD could be guilty of that too!

Back at school now so lots of short, Kindle only, reading periods. Clarissa resumes today and I'm continuing with Northanger Abbey at SqueakyChu's pace so I get the tutoring at the right points.

Having decided that I should like to have the Narnia books on my kindle, as I do re-read them fairly often, I bought the first two (chronological order, that is) and read The Magician's Nephew. As I was working my way through The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe I noticed that they were printed with American English spellings. This was not something I had thought to check for: my kindle is registered to the UK Amazon site and the books were written with UK English spelling (at least, all my other copies use that spelling), but of course as soon as I noticed the first differently spelled words the differences became glaringly obvious and disturbed my reading. Amazon were helpful and returned my money for both books, even though I was past the 7-day deadline for one of them, and renoved them from my kindle (that's a bit spoooky!). However I would like to buy the books in UK English versions but can't see any way to get them. Has anyone else noticed this problem with the Narnia books, or with any others?

Hi Kerry,

As I'm so far behind on posts, and was still reading some of last year's most interesting threads, I only noticed a couple of days ago that you've joined us.

Shame about the Narnia books - I won't pay that much for books I already have in paper and especially for kids' books, as I'm not going to clear out paper books that my little boys might read in a few years time, so I've not come across this issue for myself. I have a friend who reviews crime fiction in Canada, sometimes she gets our editions but sometimes she gets American editions of novels where they've changed lots of words, sometimes to a bizarre extent. Yvonne's American herself originally, but language sort of goes with setting, so American language in a totally non-American setting with no characters from that country doesn't quite add up. I also have friends in the US who prefer to order British mysteries in the UK editions, so as to be sure that they're reading the real thing with the original slang, references to places, jokes etc.

Hi Kerry.

#43"I wished she would hurry up and die" - that I was how I felt about The Old Curiosity Shop too!

#47 How disappointing about the Narnia books. I think it's the publishers rather than Amazon so it might be worth emailing HarperCollins to express your disappointment. Some publishers seem to be quite lazy about ebooks.

Hello Luci and Heather.

Having read comments here and there about ebooks (and now I can't remember where) I had got the impression that it might just as likely be Amazon's fault that the Narnia books came with American rather than British spelling as the publisher. I don't need ebook copies as I have them in print and audio versions already, but I like to have as many of my favourite books with me in case I need somthing to read at short notice - and there might not be anything among the 500+ titles I have so far that suits at that moment. So I shan't bother to take it further at the moment but I'll keep it in the back of my mind.

Since my last reading update I have finished four books:

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman
Captain Wentworth's Diary by Amanda Grange
Peace comes to the Chalet School by Katherine Bruce
The Foundling by Georgette Heyer

All were good reads and apart from the Chalet school book all were new to me. However they were recently acquired so it hasn't made even a dent in the TBR pile.

The Foundling was an audiobook, read by Phyllida Nash. If I have read it before it was many years ago (I read through most of Georgette Heyer in my teens) so I didn't know how the story would unfold. Heyer's plots are so convoluted that, although one can usually be sure who will pair off with whom from early on in the story, the route to the happy ending is always unexpected. In this story there was false ending after false ending and the real ending, when it came, took me so much by surprise that I thought my ipod had run out of battery! I have no more audio versions of Georgette Heyer to read but I think I've listened to all of the Phyllida Nash readings and none of the other readers appeals as much so I might be spending my Audible credit on something else next month.

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ was an unexpected read. It was the daily Kindle bargain from Amazon so not something I was actively looking to buy. I'm not sure about it: it was well written and easy to read (I think you expect that from Philip Pullman), and plausible. Philip Pullman is an atheist (I think) and therefore presumably is not writing with a view to encourage any form of Christianity and yet I think many Christians could find it a sympathetic book. The title is just plain misleading.

Captain Wentworth's Diary was Persuasion and its prequel, written from another point of view. Amanda Grange's writing style, while not a match on Jane Austen's, keeps the atmosphere of the original. Given that it's Captain Wentworth's writing one would probably expect it to be in a more robust style. This was a free ebook (or it may have been very cheap) and as I started it I found myself thinking that it was better proof-read and formatted than many paid for ebooks I have read but then the mistakes started to appear. Several times the wrong names were used; I didn't keep a list but it was along the lines of Elliot instead of Clay etc. but the worse one was poor Edward Wentworth's wife, whose name was Eleanor when she was married but had consistently (not just once) turned into Harriet by the end of the book. Captain Harville's wife was named Harriet so I suppose that was where the error crept in. I wonder if the same mistakes were in the print version?

Peace comes to the Chalet school is a modern addition to the Chalet School series slotted in to a term not covered by EBD. The Peace in question is the end of the Second World War and the author conveys the feelings of the staff and students very movingly. Since the Chalet School was founded in Austria and attracted students from many countries of Europe the series had always shown sympathy and interest for what became (during the War) 'The Enemy' and EBD herself showed a determination that, while the Nazis must be defeated, the German and Austrian peoples were not enemies - an opinion that was not common in children's literature.

I'm continuing with Clarissa (the letters have just resumed after a three week break) and with Northanger Abbey at SqueakyChu's tutored read pace. I'm about to start Little Dorrit in audio and print (kindle) versions and I really must get started on Palladian if I'm to finish it in February!

I finished another Amanda Grange, Darcy's Diary. This was not as successful as Captain Wentworth's Diary as her version of Darcy was not really believable but it's enjoyable to see someone else's ideas of the scenes that Jane Austen didn't write.

I've started and abandoned a book - my first this year. On Another List I am following a loose challenge to read the books that are mentioned in the Chalet School series books. It is not my intention to read all of them but I aim to at least try most of them. This isn't the first from that list that I've abandoned, I got about a third of the way through The Story of a Soul and decided I couldn't take any more. Today's abandoned book was Lavengro by George Borrow. While not a particularly thrilling read, I was doing alright until I came to a chapter about snakes. That was enough. At least it was an unillustrated ebook, had it been print I wouldn't have been able even to touch the pages...

To cleanse my palate after the Lavengro disaster I'm listening to and reading The Thirty Nine Steps - a favourite Ripping Yarn.

#57 I'd heard of Captain Wentworth's Diary but I hadn't realised Amanda Grange had written so many other Austen themed books.

#59 I love The Thirty Nine Steps; in fact I don't think I've read a book by John Buchan that I didn't enjoy.

#60 I've read all the Richard Hannay stories and I've started on the Dickson MCunn series but Thirty Nine Steps is my favourite. The only Buchan that that I've disliked a bit (so far) is Prester John.

>53 CDVicarage: I've been thinking about reading that one. I have yet to figure out Pullman's theology. All I know is that he's against organized religion and that he's a "secular humanist," which I suppose means he's atheist. But he certainly seems quite interesting in theology for an atheist.

This is February’s reading, that is the books actually finished in February:

The Mystery at the Chalet school finished 2nd Feb
The Little White Horse finished 1st Feb
The Castle of Otranto Finished 2nd Feb
Carmen finished 3rd February
Death Comes to Pemberley finished 7th February
The Old Curiosity Shop, print and audio versions, finished 8th & 9th Feb
Tom Tackles the Chalet School finished 14th February
A Chalet school Headmistress finished 17th February
The Diamond Queen finished 17th February
The Chalet School and Rosalie finished 19th February
The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ finished 22nd February
Captain Wentworth’s Diary finished 24th February
Peace Comes to the Chalet school finished 25th February
Mr Darcy’s Diary finished 26th February
The Foundling, audiobook, finished 26th February

Of these two were audiobooks, nine were read on my kindle and five (all Chalet School titles) were print editions.
Eight were new to me (including two of The Old Curiosity Shop) and seven were re-reads, although one (The Castle of Otranto was so long ago it was as good as a new book). However all of the new books had been recently acquired so the TBR pile is as big as ever.

Murder on the Flying Scotsman, finished 5th March
Diary of a Provincial Lady, finished 4th March
The Thirty-Nine Steps, finished 1st March (audio) and 4th March (kindle)
Northanger Abbey, finished 2nd March
Three Go to the Chalet School
Richmal Crompton: The Woman Behind William
The Penguin Complete Father Brown
Little Dorrit
Helen by Maria Edgeworth (can't find touchstone)
A Civil Contract, finished 11th March
At the Back of the North Wind, finished 9th March
The Real Mrs Miniver: The Life of Jan Struther
Clarissa Harlowe or the History of a Young Lady
Palladian
The Wide Wide World
The Whole Wide Beauty
B-Berry and I look back

As at the beginning of March this is my current Currently Reading collection (minus the ones I know I’m not going to read just yet).

I know I’ve left it a bit late this month but I’m finding the end-of-month counting up interesting – seeing what I’ve read, in what format, whether it’s new etc.

A batch of comments on March's reading so far:

The Thirty Nine Steps was a re-read (and re-listen) and I enjoyed it as much as ever. I'm now old enough to agree with Richard Hannay that 37 years old is young, something I found hard to understand the first time I read it!

Northanger Abbey has never been a favourite Jane Austen - it was ruined for me by English lessons at the age of 12 - but listening to the audio version (read by Juliet Stevenson) last year made me realise how funny it was and what attractive heroes Catherine Morland and Henry Tilney are. It was a pleasure to read along with SqueakyChu's tutored read.

My umpteenth re-read of Diary of a Provincial Lady raised my spirits, as usual.

Murder on the Flying Scotsman is the fourth in the Daisy Dalrymple series. I think I could read these straight through they are so easy to read, and I do like the recurring characters. And I gessed whodunnit without looking at the end!

At the back of the North wind is part of my Chalet School Mentions challenge. It didn't grab me - I've been reading it on and off for well over a month. It was aimed at children but I doubt I would have finished it had I tried it as a child. It seemed similar in style and format to The Water Babies, which I read last year: the story is submerged by lots of unconnected digression and the moral is laid on pretty thick.

I finished listening to A Civil Contract. I think I need a break from Georgette Heyer now - the plots are beginning to seem too predictable, or perhaps it was just this one. I'm sure when I first read it (as a teenager) I would have identified with the 'sensibility' character, Julia, but this time I inclined to the 'sense' character, Jenny, straightaway.

I really have started reading & listening to Little Dorrit now. It's (they've) been in my Currently Reading collection for a week or two but it was really just an announcement of my intention to read them. I watched some of the recent BBC adaptation so I have a fairly good idea of the plot and the names of the characters.

#66 I really enjoyed the BBC adaptation of Little Dorrit when it was first screened - (mild spoilers) the failure of a bank in Little Dorrit seemed scarily prescient given what was happening economically when we watched it.

140 and counting was an ER ebook. It is a collection of short stories/poems/haiku in 140 characters or fewer. Some were lovely, some were clever, some were incomprehensible (to me), some were dreadful. Worth reading and made me think - I constructed an entire backstory before I had finished reading the 140 characters in some cases. My main criticism is the lack of punctuation in many of the works.

I've just added a new book to my library. I know that's not news but it was a second edition which differs from the first so I've added my first ever disambiguation notice to stop the two editions being combined - I feel like a Power User! Of course a disambiguation notice won't necessarily stop someone from combining the two, either carelessly or because someone else may consider the addition of a short story is not enough to make the two editions different anyway.

My next concern is: do I need to keep both editions on my shelves? Now I have a Kindle the physical shelf space I need, although it is still growing, is growing at a slower rate so I do have space. But it's only a paperback, but I have read and enjoyed it and it seems ungrateful not to keep it, but it's in very good condition so could be sold to another appreciative owner, but the new owner might not look after it as well as I have. No, of course not - it's a Chalet School book and all Chalet fans look after their books. There - decision made - I will pass it on to another reader. I'm sure I'll get round to listing it on ebay soon, meanwhile it can go in the box of other books waiting to go on ebay - if there's room...

#69 Amused at your inner dialogue with yourself about whether or not to keep the book! I'm beginning to have more of those conversations with myself too.

A few months back I acquired a copy of The Hiding Place from Bookmooch. It was one of those classic Christian inspiring paperbacks that everyone seemed to have read long ago and I never had, although being set in Holland where I spent my childhood it was an obvious book for me to read. Anyway, once I'd acquired and read this copy (and I really should have read it as a teen in Holland), I then discovered that I in fact had a copy on my study bookshelves which I'd had since 1990, unread. As the latter copy is in much better condition than my more recently mooched one, and moreover bears an inscription from the person who gave it to me, I shall hang on to that one and have put the scruffy mooched one back onto Bookmooch; but it may not shift very quickly being scruffy. Now, if I had got around to cataloguing all, or even any, of the books in my study, I should not have ended up with a duplicate copy in the first place!

I seem to have fallen behind rather. Although I've been reading as much as ever I don't seem to have finished anything for a while.

On 27th March I finished Charity begins at home, a regency novel. Amazon seems to be giving away a lot of these for kindle, or perhaps it's once you have downloaded one you are targeted with more. I love Georgette Heyer but very few of these match up to that quality and quite a few are rather more risqué than I expected. Not that I mind a risqué story, a bit of smut can brighten up life, but if I'm reading at school I have to choose something suitable, so that I can honestly answer any student who inquires "What are you reading, miss?" Charity was an attractive heroine but there were no real surprises in the story.

I also finished the next Chalet School story - Three go to the Chalet School. This is a pivotal story in the long series as it introduces Brent-Dyer's next main heroine, Mary-Lou Trelawney. The first main character, Joey Bettany (now Maynard) has long since left school, married, and started producing lots of children although EBD has managed to keep her well in the picture. However she needed a school-girl. Mary-Lou has divided Chalet School fans since her first appearance. Some see her as obnoxious, bossy and interfering while others like her helpful, competent and fun-loving attitude. I think she has good books and bad books.

Here is a round-up of books finished in March:

The Thirty Nine Steps, audio finished 1st March, kindle version finished 4th March
Northanger Abbey, finished 2nd March. Read along with SqueakyChu's tutored read
The Diary of a Provincial Lady, finished 4th March. It was just the first volume not the whole omnibus this time.
Murder on the Flying Scotsman, finished 5th March. The fourth Daisy Dalrymple mystery.
At the Back of The North Wind finished 9th March
A Civil Contract, finished 11th March, an audiobook
140 and counting, finished 18th March, an ER kindle book of poetry
Charity begins at home, finished 27th March
Three go to the Chalet School, finished 31st March

5 new titles, (1 audiobook and 4 kindle editions) and 4 re-reads. All the new titles were newly acquired; all but one were free so even if it didn't dent the TBR pile it hardly dented my bank account either. The re-reads were all titles that I have read many times. I think I'm in a reading rut.

On to April. My current Currently Reading collection is:
The Chalet School and the Island, the next Chalet School title, finished 4th April
Richmal Crompton: the woman behind William
The Complete Father Brown
The Golden Acorn, finished 3rd April
Little Dorrit, Audio and kindle versions
Helen by Maria Edgeworth (can't get a touchstone)
Godless Morality
The Real Mrs Miniver
Guardian of the Vision, my latest ER book
Clarissa Harlowe, still plodding along with the group read, though I have fallen behind
A Town like Alice, a re-read, I whizzed through the first half and now I've come to a halt
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman I had hoped to read this along with keristars's tutored thread but I'm already behind so I think this will go by the wayside. I'll give it another week.
Palladian. This was the February book for the Elizabeth Taylor read...
The Wide Wide World, part of my Chalet School challenge - if the Chalet School girls read it so will I.
The Whole Wide Beauty, a previous ER book.
B-Berry and I Look Back The final volume in Yates's Berry series - I think he should have stopped before this.

Two main problems with this list: it's too big and some of the titles have been in it for too long. I think this month's aim should be to remove those titles that have been here too long, either by finishing the book or by positively deciding not to.

Finished The Golden Acorn. This was a free download from Amazon. It's a YA fantasy involving Druids, time travel, and shape shifting. There is an unlikely hero, i.e. not clever, handsome or brave, who learns valuable life lessons and gains more confidence in himself. The author is (was?) an English teacher and it is well written (i.e good grammar, spelling etc) but somehow the story didn't really enthral me and I doubt I'll bother with the sequels. Of course I'm not really the target audience!

Finished The Chalet School and the Island. This is one of my favourites; all the stories featuring St Briavel's (the island in question) are good and Annis is an attractive heroine. Also Joey is not in it too much (she doesn't live near the island - yet) even if she does, by an amazing series of coincidences, manage to wind up the story.

I haven't put the next Chalet book into Currently Reading yet, I really am going to trim the number of books I have on the go...

Two more books to add to this year's list:

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, finished 6th April. I have bought the kindle editions of these books and shall probably dispose of my hardback copies. This book is alright but later volumes are too big to read comfortably in print format. Anyway, this was a re-read and did not diminish my TBR pile.

Murder at Mansfield Park, finished 11th April. This is a very odd book. It's not a sequel but a re-writing of Mansfield Park. My first thought was that the author had randomly shuffled the names, relationships and characters of Jane Austen's originals so that, for instance, Edmund is Mrs. Norris's stepson, William is Sir Thomas's youngest son and Julia's favourite brother and Fanny is Lady Bertram's and Mrs. Norris's orphaned, wealthy niece and only pretending to be meek, just to see what direction a story would then take. As you might guess from the title it is a murder mystery and, from that point of view, a good read, however I found it took time to get into the story and start to be able to ponder whodunnit because all the characters seemed to be behaving out of character. While I could just about manage to see that the Fanny I knew might snap and fight back against her downtrodden position, I could not cope with having Mary Crawford as the noble heroine.

I've been clearing out some boxes of books. I've put some on ebay, mostly the extra copies of Chalet School books that I bought in search of the perfect copy and, while I shall get enough for them to make the listing, packaging and the trip to the post office worthwhile, I know it will not cover what I paid for them in the first place. However that price was paid a long time ago so it all feels like profit now...

The other books that I found were passed to us when my in-laws moved house 18 months ago. That's one of the disadvantages of having a large house, you can absorb a lot of stuff without having to make decisions about what to do with it. When my husband retires we shall be moving into a very much smaller house/flat and then what will I do?

Anyway, these books belonged originally to my husband's grandparents and date from the 1930s. There is a complete set of Dickens in matching dark blue boards and another set of General Classics in red boards. I think these sets may have been bought by installments (like encyclopaedias) and I at first thought that they had been displayed in bookcases but never actually read. However when I looked through them I found some book marks:

a cookery column from 'News of the World', not very interesting but the scrap of news on the back is more tantalising - a young window-cleaner was fined £3 3s with £3 4s 6d costs for causing bodily harm. It seems he was provoked by the indecision of his girlfriend (a shapely brunette), who agreed to marry him one day and on the next said "No".

there was a public information bookmark urging people to save fuel so that the military should have enough. Suggestions to save fuel include: Light a fire in one room only, use your boiler only once a week and, arrange to share firesides with your neighbours.

another one encouraged you to come to the Welfare Centre 'for your own & baby’s sake' – “Do what the Doctor tells you”.

there was also a postcard; it is a black and white photo of the lighthouse on St Mary’s Island, Whitley Bay. It cost 2 old pence to send in 1957! (Postage prices are about to rise in UK so if sent now it would cost 50p or 10 shillings in old money).

What neat finds!

I wasn't going to re-read the whole Harry Potter series just now but I found myself moving on to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which I finished on 15th April.

Then I took a break from Harry Potter and read the next Daisy Dalrymple story, Damsel in Distress. This was a print edition that I got from a bookswap site, so it doesn't really count as a new book, does it?

Next was Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I think this is my favourite of the series when you start to realise how serious things are.

On 23rd April I finished an audiobook, Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh. I read my way through all of Evelyn Waugh's novels in my teens and early 20s and, apart from Brideshead, haven't re-read any since. The narrator, Michael Maloney, was just right for this ridiculous book, and I did enjoy the break from Dickens - Little Dorrit was starting to drag despite marvellous Anton Lesser.

Despite my best intentions I found that I had finished Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on 24th April. (If I had been reading in print having to carry around a small brick would have stopped me finishing it so fast).

I've resumed Little Dorrit - most characters are now in Rome.

#78 "I wasn't going to re-read the whole Harry Potter series just now but I found myself moving on to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which I finished on 15th April." I always find myself sucked in to Harry Potter when I pick up the books :-) I'd thought about buying the ebooks when they were released but I like my HP hardbacks despite the chunkiness of the later editions and my husband has been making noises about the amount I've been spending on books lately...

#78 Yes, that is a familiar experience, not being able to stop re-reading through a favourite series once you've started. Only three more volumes of HP to go!

I have just this minute finished a book that has been in my Currently Reading collection for many months and I feel really pleased with myself! the book was B-Berry and I Look Back the last in the Berry series by Dornford Yates. It was only my completist streak that made me start it. The last two books in the series were collections of reminiscences of the main characters and they really had been scraping the barrel in this last book...

It's Friday evening here and my husband has just brought me a nice big G&T and announced that dinner will be in 20 minutes. It's been a hard week at work for me so this seems a good start to the weekend - at least for me. As Genny commented on her thread, for some people it's the start of the working week. My husband has Friday as his day off, too, Genny.

That's nice to have a G&T and dinner on its way! I hope you have a good weekend, Kerry. I don't have to feel too envious saying that this time, as I have a book group outing tomorrow night to look forward to - we are going to a local book festival in Hexham to hear Iain Banks speak about his latest novel.

Well done on completing the long-standing 'Current Read'. I've got a few of those too which need tackling...

Well, I polished off a couple of books yesterday evening, though it was really a lick and a promise rather than a thorough cleaning.

The first was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix which I didn't mean to read at all. In some ways I enjoyed it more than on previous reads. I think it's the least enjoyable of all the series, partly because it's so long and partly because, now I'm middle-aged and have dealt with teenagers of my own, I find teenage angst in fiction rather dull and exasperating even if it's justified. The episode in the Department of the Mysteries at the end just goes on and on and I skimmed through it. I suppose the first time I read it it was exciting but not any more.

The second was A Town Like Alice, again a re-read but after a gap of many years. I think the last time I read it was after the BBC adaptation in the early 80s (?). I found the first two-thirds of the book interesting but the final third where the rescue in the extreme weather takes place, which in some ways should be the most exciting part, I skimmed through.

It looks as though I just can't cope with excitement, doesn't it? That's true in a way - I'm a reader who tends to read the last pages when I'm a little way into a book so that I don't have to worry about how it ends, (although reading on a kindle has cured me of that a bit as it's a bit more of an effort to navigate a kindle than to flick through paper pages) but I think in these two cases the 'excitement' was just too dull.

I'll do my monthly round up next. May brings my Thingaversary - 5 years - and my birthday - so that I have a reason, and probably the means, to buy/acquire 6 new books.

Congratulations in advance for your birthday and Thingaversary! Which comes first?

Thank you, Genny. They're very close: birthday first (18th) and then Thingaversary (20th), so I've got a few weeks to wait. I'll just have to make do with some of the 600+ books in my TBR collection till then!

What I read last month:

The Golden Acorn, finished 3rd April, free ebook
The Chalet School and the Island, finished 4th April
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, finished 6th April
Murder at Mansfield Park, finished 11th April
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, finished 15th April
Damsel in Distress, finished 18th April
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, finished 19th April
Lyrics from the Chinese, finished 21st April
Decline and Fall, audiobook, finished 23rd April
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, finished 24th April
B-Berry and I Look Back, finished 27th April
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, finished 30th April
A Town Like Alice, finished 30th April

13 books finished in the month, of which 9 were ebooks, 3 were print and 1 was audio.
9 were re-reads (1 in a different format) and 4 were first-time (and probably last-time) reads. Of the new books only one was actually bought, and that was second-hand, and the other three were free or swaps.

May's current Currently Reading Collection:

Richmal Crompton: the woman behind William
Little Dorrit, Audio and kindle versions, finished 11th May
Helen by Maria Edgeworth
Godless Morality, finished 12th May
The Real Mrs Miniver
Guardian of the Vision, my latest ER book, finished 2nd May
Clarissa Harlowe, still plodding along with the group read, though I have fallen behind, vol 2 finished 22nd May
Palladian. This was the February book for the Elizabeth Taylor read...
The Wide Wide World, part of my Chalet School challenge - if the Chalet School girls read it so will I.
The Harper's Quine, finished 5th May
The Song of Achilles, finished 13th May

I've removed a few more books that I wasn't really reading so it's a more manageable length, I think.

Well those should keep you busy for a few days!

I've finished two books so far this month. The first was Guardian of the Vision, an ER book. Although this is the third in a series of five I don't feel that it would have increased my enjoyment or understanding to have read the previous two and I have no wish to read the next two. I probably didn't read the description carefully enough when I requested this book. I like historical fiction but I don't really care for fantasy and although there was plenty of history there was also too much fantasy for my taste. In fact there was really too much 'book'. The author had obviously done a lot of reasearch - the history seemed correct although I'm not knowledgeable enough about the fantasy elements to judge that aspect - but she seemed to have decided to use it all regardless. I would have enjoyed the book more if there had been less of it but I'm sure that fantasy fans will appreciate it much more than I have. And I will make my ER request more carefully in future.

The second I enjoyed much more: The Harper's Quine. This is the first in a series of eight (so far) set in late 15th century Glasgow. Our hero, Gil Cunningham, is a trainee lawyer and future priest (though things may change) and he investigates a murder committed on church grounds. As well as Gil the other main characters, whom I'm hoping we will continue to see in the next books, are people I would like to meet and spend time with (preferably not as part of a murder investigation, though), which is so refreshing.

I've started Persuasion to follow along with Liz and Ilana's tutored thread, not that I really need any excuse to read it again as it's usually my favourite Jane Austen book. I'm still plodding on with Little Dorrit - 18% left according to kindle - and I have The song of Achilles waiting to go. Tomorrow is a Bank Holiday so I could either get serious about some Spring Cleaning or I could spend the day doing some serious reading. Now, which sounds more attractive to you?

Now, which sounds more attractive to you? I think you know how most of us will answer that!

I've finally finished Little Dorrit - I noticed from as earlier post that I was about to start it on 26th February so it's taken me nearly eleven weeks. As I read and listened to it the time-scale was dictated by the audiobook and I tend to keep those for bedtime reading/listening. The book was about 35 hours long and, as I rarely listen to more than an hour a day, I've either not listened every day or an hour is an over-estimate.

I enjoyed the book, although there were some dull patches, but I think that is to be expected with such a long book. I was exasperated by yet another door-mat heroine (see Little Nell, earlier). Mr. Dorrit became more poisonous as the story went on. He started as a mildly incompetent man and father who needed to be protected from the harsh world and turned into a controlling bully. I was as shocked as John Chivery was at his behaviour when they met in the London hotel during the rich years, and he virtually ordered his brother, Frederick, to die when he did.

I also finished Godless morality, bought because it was an Amazon special offer. There were some interesting points but I suspect I liked best the bits that I agreed with already.

I've started (well I'm over half-way through) The Song of Achilles. I'm trying to make it last but I want to read it all at once.

Today's Amazon Daily Deal is Love, Sex, Death and Words, which I intend to read a day at a time. Today's tale is of De Quincey's first letter to Wordsworth.

I am continuing to read Persuasion along with Ilana's tutored thread, and I'm interested to see that there is a tutored thread planned for Wolf Hall, as that is a book I have ready to read. It's a long time since my History A-level so the tutoring would be useful to me, too. I have also started my next Dickens The mystery of Edwin Drood. I don't have an audio version of this but I do have the recent TV adaptation ready to watch.

Hi Kerry

#83 I completely agree with your comments about all the teenage angst in that particular Harry Potter book. It's definitely not something I want to be reminded of as an adult!

And I can see I'm just a bit late in wishing you a Happy Birthday and a Happy Thingaversary! Hope you had a nice weekend.

#87 "Clarissa Harlowe, still plodding along with the group read, though I have fallen behind" Oh yes, me too! Think I'm about 9/10 days behind - I'm finding it slightly easier to read in concentrated bursts rather than reading it daily - perhaps because it gives the illusion that things in the novel are actually progressing?

I'll be interested in hearing your thoughts on the Maria Edgeworth book - she's an author I've been meaning to try for quite some time.

#89 The Harper's Quine sounds interesting (especially at only 85p for the kindle edition). I'm going to try very hard to wait at least until next month though as this month has already been quite extreme as far as book acquisitions are concerned!

I had a lovely birthday weekend. My daughter, Clare, and her boyfriend came to stay. It was a complete surprise for me as I didn't know they were coming until they appeared on the doorstep. My son, Andrew, couldn't come as he is a week away from the end of his degree course and so rather busy! He remembered to phone though, and was able to announce a very good mark for his latest piece of work. Presents included an Amazon token and a generous cheque so I shall be able to get my six new books for my Thingaversary.

Two books that I would like As good as God as clever as the devil and Trick of the light are due out in paperback soon. I would really prefer to have them in Kindle format but that is more expensive. Perhaps the Kindle price will fall when the paperbacks are available. There is a new Lucia novel - Lucia on holiday. I also have two fairly new series on the go - Daisy Dalrymple and Gil Cunningham.

#92 Clarissa is still an effort. I thought I might get the DVD of the TV adaptation from the 80s (?) to help me along. I had a look at the reviews. This one, for instance:

"I have to say, I was a bit disappointed with this after reading the original 9 novels, I suppose you can't expect 9 novels of approx million words to fit into 200 mins without losing huge amounts of story line.
The novels are totally riveting and over the course of these, the tension and unbelievable stress for Clarissa grows and grows, its draws the reader in and you feel the claustrophobia, fright of Clarissa, the unbelievable wickedness of Lovelace and despair of both Clarissa and Lovelace."

Now, my opinion is that you could usefully lose quite a lot of those million words, and the only tension involved for me is whether the battery of my kindle will last. I'd quite like to read a version written as a 'straight', i.e. non-epistolary, novel. Having said all that, I will not give up; I intend to make it through to the end of volume 9.

Helen by Maria Edgeworth started well - not as easy to read as Jane Austen but much better than Samuel Richardson - but I came to a sudden stop about half-way through and I haven't picked it up again. I've been doing this quite a lot lately so I think it's as likely to be me rather than the book and I certainly intend to go on with it. Half term is coming up soon, with a long train journey as well as a week off work for me, so I'm hoping to catch up on all the reading I've let slip then.

I've finished some more books:

Song of Achilles, 13th May. I loved it. I tried to make it last by only reading a chapter or two at one go, but no sooner did I put it down than I picked it straight up again. I'm familiar with the story of the Iliad, and I read lots of Greek myths and legends from childhood onwards, so I know how the story ends, but I found myself hoping that this time it might be all right.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood, 16th May. I had only the print version, no audio, of this so no reader to nudge me into what I should think. However I enjoyed it all on my own! When I've been reading other Dickens I haven't really been noticing how far along in his writing career the books come but I know this is his last one. By comparison with others it seems much less verbose, almost spare in style. Obviously it's shorter than most of his others because he didn't finish it but I think the whole was planned to be shorter. As usual there is plenty of humour:

‘Is there anything new down in the crypt, Durdles?’ asks John Jasper. ‘Anything old, I think you mean,’ growls Durdles. ‘It ain’t a spot for novelty.'

‘I have no objection to discuss it, Sept. I trust, my dear, I am always open to discussion.’ There was a vibration in the old lady’s cap, as though she internally added: ‘and I should like to see the discussion that would change my mind!

I watched the recent TV adaptation and liked the suggested ending but was, as usual, disappointed at the characters left out.

Good morning, Nantwich, 22nd May. Phill Jupitus is someone that I like to listen to on the radio and I enjoyed this self-deprecatory memoir about his time at BBC 6 Music.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 22nd May. The sixth book in the Harry potter re-read that I didn't mean to do. I used to think this one of the better books in the series but this time I found I skimmed over parts.

The finished books are coming thick and fast...

I finished listening to Friday's Child, a Georgette Heyer that I read in print not that long ago. Since I was still familiar with the story I didn't rewind the bits that I missed when I fell asleep so I got through this quite quickly. My current audiobook is King Solomon's Mines and, in some ways, it's quite different from what I had expected although elliepotten's recent review had inspired me.

I also finished The Library Book a collection of essays pertaining in some way to libraries (you'd possibly guessed that) published in aid of The Reading Agency.

I've finally started Wolf Hall. I'm up to page 40 of 690 and I'm already trying to eke it out. At least I can go straight on to Bring up the Bodies. I'm determined to finish some of the books in my Currently Reading collection before I start any more. I won't get down to one only as I have a daily book - Love, Sex, Death and Words which is going to take me a full year, and Clarissa, which feels as though it's going to take me forever, but I want to polish off those books that have been part read for too long. Or make a firm decision to abandon those that I'm not likely to finish.

Time for the monthly round-up; but it's also time for a brief holiday so the books will have to wait. It's half-term so I shall have a few days to catch up after my holiday and before I go back to school.

What a great run of finishing books - and some really good ones! Glad you are enjoying Wolf Hall - and you're right, you won't have to wait 3 years for the next episode. Am 100 pages into ButB and it is excellent too.

I loved Song of Achilles too. Just read a nice interview with her in the Telegraph about how she used to turn her nose up at adaptations of classics!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9302769/An-epic-conclusion-to-my-Homeri...

#94 "the tension and unbelievable stress for Clarissa grows and grows, its draws the reader in and you feel the claustrophobia, fright of Clarissa, the unbelievable wickedness of Lovelace and despair of both Clarissa and Lovelace" I think that's one of the reasons I'm finding Clarissa so hard to read; not so much that nothing happens but the sense of claustrophobia that goes with that. Not sure I'm feeling any tension but then I do know how it ends. At 500/600 pages through I'm certainly not giving up!

#95 Glad you enjoyed Achilles. I haven't read Edwin Drood yet but I will do when I finally work my way to the end of my current reread through Dickens' works (probably in several years time at this rate).

#97 Hope you have a lovely half term holiday. I'm looking forward to this long bank holiday weekend :-)

Hello again,
I do appreciate that you sent me a link to your thread in your message. I love the pictures of Kevin. I have 2 cats who will be 1 year old some time this month. They were rescued kittens so I don't know much about their history before I got them. One of these days I'll learn how to put pictures in my thread so that you can meet Cagney and Lacey. Have a great weekend.

Finally got round to the monthly round-up:

Guardian of the Vision, my latest ER book, finished 2nd May
The Harper's Quine, finished 5th May
Little Dorrit, Audio and kindle versions, finished 11th May
Godless Morality, finished 12th May
The Song of Achilles, finished 13th May
The Mystery of Edwin Drood, finished 16th May
Good Morning Nantwich, finished 22nd May
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, finished 22nd May
Clarissa Harlowe, still plodding along with the group read, though I have fallen behind, vol 2 finished 22nd May
Friday's Child, audio, finished 26th May
Persuasion, read along with a tutored thread, finished 26th May
The Library Book, finished 27th May

All of these were recently acquired so Mt TBR is as tall as ever. Harry Potter, Persuasion and Fiday's Child were re-reads but the others were all new to me. All were ebooks except two audios - Little Dorrit and Friday's Child. All were worth reading except Guardian of the Vision, which was an ER book; one was a 5-star read (The Song of Achilles). The Harper's Quine was book 1 of a series and I'm looking forward to the next 7. 12 books finished this month but Little Dorrit, HP7 and Clarissa were long. So was Guardian of the Vision but I did skim bits of that.

June's Current Reading collection:

King Solomon's Mines, print and audio versions
Wolf Hall, print and audio versions
No Name by Wilkie Collins
Helen by Maria Edgeworth
Clarissa Harlowe, up to vol 3 now
You, Fascinating You, an ER book, but supplied as a PDF so can't read it on my kindle
Love, Sex, Death and Words, a chapter-a-day book so this is going to last until next May
The Nicholas Feast by Pat McIntosh, number 2 in the series
The Lost Books of the Odyssey

Some of these are long-term reads and the last two have not yet been started but I intend to start (and possibly finish) them this month.

My parents came to visit yesterday and brought me a surprise.

When I was waiting to go into hospital for Clare's birth (24 years ago this month) I bought some books, thinking I would need to keep myself occupied throughout the long empty days, (it was my first child!). I don't think either of them were really suitable: The Story of an African Farm, not really light literature and Sarum, which was physically heavy (1344 pages in my paperback version). Although I did read them both it wasn't until well after I'd left hospital. My mother borrowed my copy of Sarum soon afterwards and it has spent the last 23 and a 1/2 years being read by various members of my family and their friends before making its way back to me. It is in astonishingly good condition for its age and the use it's had - the spine is creased and the pages are a bit yellowed but only one is loose. We were living in Salisbury when Clare was born and are planning to go back there for a brief holiday in the summer - I might re-read it then.

On another thread someone has posted that he does not like one of my favourite books. Well, that's not exactly what he said; he doesn't like the book, the fact that it's my favourite he neither knows nor (quite rightly) cares. I have now rushed to my nearest copy and started reading it again so that its feelings shall not be hurt by someone else's disdain.

I wonder if I, perhaps, anthropomorphise my books?

I have the same book beside me now. I'm not sure whether I'm planning to read it, pick it up and put it down again or just pat it reassuringly from time to time!

#104 & 105 :-) I loved that book too.

Finished a few more books:

King Solomon's Mines, audio and print versions, finished 7th June. Over the last year or so I have been reading a few Ripping Yarns and found, to my surprise, that I rather like them. The main problem with them is the old fashioned racism and sexism. I can, and do, make allowances as I read - for their time these were perfectly acceptable views and, had I been alive then, they would quite likely have been mine. I suspect that Allan Quatermain (our hero) was probably regarded as quite liberal in his views on 'natives'. He certainly isn't a stereotypical action hero as he describes himself as physically quite weedy and a coward. As well as the descriptions of the hunting (he and his two companions kill eight elephants en route to the mines) and the fighting (more than 12,000 men killed in the battle) he makes lyrical descriptions of the scenery, of sunrise and sunset, of the magnificent statues and engineering works at the mines and of the behaviour and appearance of the 'natives'. For a much better review see Elliepotten's thread - http://www.librarything.com/topic/135125#3377019 - it was she who inspired me to read it in the first place. My audio version was very well read by Toby Stephens. I see on Audible that he has read some Paul Temple books - a more modern Ripping yarn - that I might try.

At the weekend I lost interest in every book that I was reading and turned to some 'shorts' instead. The first was an Isabel Dalhousie novella - The Perils of Morning Coffee which passed a pleasant hour or so. It was what you would expect from that series and perfectly pleasant. The second was, I'm glad to say, free from Amazon. It was an extra chapter from what I would probably describe as a chicklit novel - The Black Sheep. The author had cut it from the full length novel, Getting Away With It, but was pleased enough with it to give it away as a short story. I'm glad that I didn't pay for it but it passed the time.

I'm listening to Wolf Hall. I had started a print edition but I'm waiting till my listening catches up before I go with it. I'm following Ilana/Suzanne's tutored thread and I don't want to get too far ahead of Ilana. And it's so good I want it to last.

#107 I like those sort of ripping yarns too. I think King Solomon's Mines was less racist than some of the other adventure stories from the late 19th century. Five Weeks in a Balloon was a lot worse.

It's time I reported on my reading - I have been doing some...

I finally finished No Name. It started well (although not as good as The Woman in White, one of my all-time favourites) but about half way through I just got bored and skimmed through to the end. It was enough to give me the gist of the story.

The Kindle Daily Deal has been tempting me lately. It seems to go for a week or so with nothing to interest me and then catch me for several days in a row. In the last week I have bought, and read, two Hamish Macbeth stories, Death of a Gentle Lady and Death of a Witch, and bought (to put on my TBR pile) An Atlas of Impossible Longing and Somewhere towards the end.

Oh, and there were a few books from the Virago Day Out in Oxford...

I have actually finished 75 books but I shan't count duplicates i.e. where I have read an audio and print version of the same book, so I'm really at 69.

We're off to Scotland at the crack of dawn tomorrow for a family wedding. I'm sure I'll enjoy when I'm there but the effort of getting there is putting me off, and I've got a rotten cold. However there are plus points: two long train journeys to read throughout; I shall see my children; we are being accommodated in the most luxurious hotel that I have ever stayed in; and a wedding is (usually) a joyful occasion. There might even be a SHBS in the town - the wedding's not till the afternoon - so I'll have to amuse myself somehow during the morning.

Resume diary after long and deplorable interlude...

Far from going to Scotland to see my family and stay in a luxurious hotel, I took to my bed at home and have been suffering from flu-y cold for over a week. Before he left my husband got me some ice cream - to soothe my sore throat - and, since he has been back from Scotland, has been looking after me very well. I shall be back at work tomorrow with just a hacking cough, sore throat and very little voice to put up with. I did a bit of reading during my enforced week of leisure but couldn't concentrate much.

I read the next two volumes of the Gil Cunningham series, The Merchant's Mark and St. Mungo's Robin. I just let them flow by me without quite managing to grasp exactly who all the characters were but managed enough to follow the story and to understand whodunnit.

I read some and skimmed the rest of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The print version has 1000 pages, including notes and index and, even for a woman who lived to be over 100, this was more than necessary. The chapters about her childhood and adolescence were mind-numbingly boring - so awful that I had to read them because I felt I must be missing something. However once she met the Duke of York and her public life began it became more interesting. Unfortunately once George VI died and she became Queen Mother it just became a list of public appearances - this was the bit I skimmed.

Two more biographies: The life of a provincial lady: a study of E.M. Delafield and her works - another book that ought to have been interesting but seemed to have been written with a view to making Delafield's life and work as dull as possible. As Good as God, as Clever as the Devil: The Impossible Life of Mary Benson: there is no way that this could have been made dull, in fact the quite matter-of-fact style made the astonishing Benson family and their associates even more amazing.

I'll write a monthly round-up later on - I need to get my sleep so that I'm ready for a full day's work tomorrow.

OK, now I am wondering what book it is?! (Am off to trawl through some threads.) And thanks for the warning on the biography of E M Delafield - I loved The Diary of a Provincial Lady. She can't have been boring because her books were so good!

Hope you're back to full health soon. Good husband though - mine wouldn't think of ice cream.

So sorry to hear about your flu - and what bad timing too! Hope the first few days back at work have gone ok.

I am sorry to hear that too, Kerry.

I hope you've been able to take things relatively easy at work. I know these things can leave you wiped out for a while afterwards.

Thanks, Cushla, Heather and Dee. Going back is hard because I don't feel 100% and there is a lot that didn't get done last week, waiting for me to do this week, now with added urgency! But only three weeks left now until the summer holidays.

June round-up:

I finished 14 books this month, which is rather more than I expected.

King Solomon's Mines, print and audio versions, finished 7th June
The Perils of Morning Coffee, a short addition to the Isabel Dalhousie series, finished 8th June
Nuptials for sale, a free kindle book, chick lit but it was all I could cope with, and better written and plotted than I expected, finished 9th June
The Nicholas Feast, number 2 in the Gil Cunningham series, finished 13th June
Death of a Gentle Lady, finished 14th June
Death of a Witch, finished 15th June. Two from the Hamish Macbeth series.
No Name, a long book that had been hanging on and I did skim the last third or so as it was obvious what was going to happen, finished 18th June
Diary of a Provincial Lady, yet another re-read of this, prompted by discussion on the Virago thread because someone didn't like it, finished 20th June.
The Merchant's Mark, 3rd Gil Cunningham story, finished 23rd June
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, a kindle bargain, finished 25th June
The Life of a Provincial Lady: a study of E. M. Delafield and her works, a bit disappointing, finished 26th June
St. Mungo's Robin, Gil Cunningham number 4, finished 27th June
As Good as God, as Clever as the Devil: The Impossible Life of Mary Benson, finished 30th June

One audio book, three print books and 10 ebooks.
One re-read, twelve new titles. Of the new titles four were free, four were very cheap and four were normal price, but they were all quite newly acquired so no real change in the TBR pile.

Currently Reading still has some long-term entries but there are some more recent additions:

Wolf Hall, print and audio versions, finished 7th July
Helen by Maria Edgeworth
Clarissa Harlowe
You, Fascinating You, an ER book, but supplied as a PDF so can't read it on my kindle
Love, Sex, Death and Words, a chapter-a-day book so this is going to last until next May
The Lost Books of the Odyssey, didn't start this last month
The Real Mrs. Miniver, picked up this again, finished 2nd July
The Four Feathers, another Ripping Yarn, finished 6th July
Mik Murdoch: Boy Superhero, an ER book
Our Mutual Friend this is my next Dickens - I have audio (but not read by Anton Lesser, alas) and kindle and I'm following the group read thread.

Can you point me to the group read of Our Mutual Friend? I am really enjoying Bleak House. I'm really glad that you did not go to Scotland. When I heard you were under the weather, I knew you should stay home no matter how much you wanted to go. Take Care

This is the link to the topic, Anita. (I must find out to turn links into something more informative):

http://www.librarything.com/topic/139161

For the main participants it's a re-read so you might encounter spoilers. As usual it's taking me longer to get started than I intended so I can't say I'm really taking part yet.

I finished The Real Mrs Miniver, a book that had been on my currently reading list for a long time. It was a gift from someone in the Virago Group and I'm ashamed to say I can't remember who but thank you again. Once I got going I enjoyed it very much but I was disappointed to find that I didn't really like Jan Struther. She suffered throughout her life from being expected to be Mrs. Miniver and that was probably what I expected too.

My next book was The Four Feathers - I like to have a Ripping Yarn on the go and there are plenty available free for kindle. This was a good read and, as with other similar books I've read recently, I was surprised at how little racist, classist and sexist it was. Obviously it is a product of its era and the late Victorian English gentleman knew he was superior in every way to 'the native', that women needed to be looked after and couldn't make sensible decisions without the help and guidance of a man and that the lower classes would be untrustworthy unless closely watched, but the main characters of this story showed more imagination and sensitivity than I would have expected. Their sense of honour, while an admirable trait, seemed overdone and led the two concerned to continue in a relationship that neither really wanted, instead of 'talking things through' and showing each other how they really felt.

I whizzed through a guide to the Chronicles of Narnia - The Magical Worlds of Narnia. It is published by Puffin Books so I think it is aimed at children but it raised some interesting points.

I finished both the audio and print versions of Wolf Hall and gave them 5 stars. I had been a bit apprehensive, having read reviews, about being able to tell who was 'he' so I thought that the audio version would help. Just at the right moment Audible put the full version on special offer. The reader, Simon Slater, was very good. His voices were easy to tell apart and seemed right for each character. I particularly liked his Cranmer. But I didn't need his help, really. There were a few parts when I wasn't entirely sure who was speaking but re-reading the page cleared up my confusion.

I'm fairly familiar with this time and place in history, having studied it for my A-level (although that was a long time ago) and having read a lot of historical novels, so I knew who the characters were and how they fitted together, but this book was unusual (in my experience) in having Thomas Cromwell as a sympathetic character and Sir Thomas More as almost a villain. I like very much Hilary Mantel's writing style and I'm going on to Bring up the bodies as soon as my copy arrives from Amazon. Strangely the hardback is the cheapest and the ebook the most expensive. I shall probably listen to the audio version as well but the reader is Simon Vance so it may end up more confusing this time if the voices all sound different.

I think I'd expect Jan Struther to be like Mrs Miniver too.

Happy that you loved Wolf Hall!! Me too. I'd done the reformation in 4th Form social studies and then Elizabethan England in 7th form history (plus various books in the last 25 years), and that definitely made the story easier to follow. Looking back I realise how "once over lightly" some of the treatment of Henry VIII must have been - at no stage did we get taught anything about adultery or issues with Katherine and Henry's brother! And I didn't have a good memory of either Thomas from school days.

#120 I enjoy ripping yarns too so I've downloaded The Four Feathers - that's not an author I'd come across before.

#121 I think we'd only briefly looked at The Tudors when I was 12/13 so I had a familiarity with the names but didn't know much about the period before reading WH. I went to a Catholic primary school called after Thomas More so his depiction in WH was very unlike the one I'd grown up with!

I seem to have settled down to weekly reports. It's nearly the end of term - one more week to go - so I might have more time during the holidays.

Two books finished this week:

The Camomile Lawn, an audio version read by Carole Boyd. This is a book I've read and enjoyed in print many times. I borrowed this audio version from the library as I didn't want to buy it because of the reader. As British people will (might) know this actress plays Linda Snell in The Archers and that is all I can hear when I hear her voice. She has done a lot of audio books but I have avoided them all so far. However I needn't have worried: the first few pages were read by Linda Snell but that impression soon faded and it was an excellent performance. Now I shall have to look out some other audiobooks read by Miss Boyd. As for the book itself I found my reaction a bit different from the last time I read it. When I first read the book, probably 25 years ago, I found the characters and the set-up quite glamorous, probably re-inforced by the TV adaptation a few years later. However this time I began to find the characters and their actions much less likeable. I suppose at the first reading I was a similar age to the younger characters and would have liked to be like them. Now I have children of their age and wouldn't want them (my children) to behave or be treated like that. I've noticed this change of viewpoint quite a lot lately.

The other was Allan Quatermain. Having enjoyed King Solomon's Mines I thought I'd go on to Quatermain's next adventure. Not nearly as good. Quatermain himself is still an attractive character but this adventure seemed more contrived. The prejudices of the era seemed more obvious and less excusable; there was much too much description - I could probably draw an accurate plan of the city of Milosis, complete with decorative detail; for a Ripping Yarn there was too much Romance and Haggard doesn't really do it very well. Still, it was a free kindle edition so I don't feel I've wasted anything by trying it.

My current audio book is Summer at Fairacre - a lovely cosy listen; I've started Our Mutual Friend on kindle and that will be my next audio; and I have my copy of Bring up the bodies. This is a big hardback book, as that was cheaper than the paperback or kindle versions from amazon. It's a lovely object but too big and heavy to carry to school and back every day.

Well, so much for more time now school is over. Of course I have got more time but I'm obviously filling it with activities other than LT. Since my last report I have had a week while still at school with Andrew at home and a week at home for me with Andrew away. He's not a particularly demanding boy (he's 21 so I know he's a man really but somehow still my little boy!) but having grown used to just two of us in the house one extra person seems to have a disproportionately large effect. During his week away Andrew was riding in the Olympic Torch Relay. He didn't carry the torch but was part of the publicity caravan that preceded it, riding his BMX bike and doing what he scornfully referred to as 'easy tricks'. We're now all glued to the TV watching the Olympics, which is astonishing since we are all very non-sporty.

I have been reading some books, too. In the last two weeks I have finished six books:
Drinking With Dead Women Writers, a free kindle books. This was an amusing idea and a quick, light read.
Summer at Fairacre, a lovely audio book, read by Prunella Scales. The Fairacre stories are lovely cosy reads that I come back to again and again.
P is for Princess: The Extraordinary Lives of 26 Real-Life Princesses, a free kindle book, aimed at children. Short biographies, one for each letter of the alphabet, which led to some odd choices of princess.
Mik Murdoch: Boy Superhero, an early review book, aimed at children. A nice idea but not sure of its direction.
A Trick of the Light, the latest Three Pines story and as good as all the others. I read it in one day. I kept trying to put it down and do something else but I found that I'd picked it up and started reading again.
The World's Greatest Idea, a kindle bargain. An easy, informative read. Fifty great ideas, chosen by a panel of experts, and described and explained in the book.

Of these only two were books that I had really chosen - Summer at Fairacre and A Trick of the Light. The others were free or very cheap kindle books that just came my way. This seems to be happening more and more and I musn't let my desire for a bargain stop me from reading the good books that are on my TBR pile and Wishlist.

The Four Feathers was the most successful work of A. E. W. Mason, but he also wrote an important early mystery series, featuring Inspector Hanaud - he was one of the first English novelists to write a series of mystery novels, as opposed to short stories.

My monthly summary is well overdue; being on holiday seems to take more time than going to work. Despite being non-sporty - I don't usually take part in or spectate at any sports - I have been enthralled by the Olympics and spend much of the day glued to the TV coverage to the extent that I now consider myself an armchair expert on many of the minor interest sports.

However I did get some books finished in July:

13 books finished, comprising:
2 print - both from my bookshelf
3 audio - all library copies
8 ebooks of which 4 were paid for and the other 4 were free. Three of the ones I bought were all the next in different series, the other was a Kindle Daily Deal.

According to my Currently Reading collection I have 17 books on the go, however I know that there are books that have been in there for a long time and that I'm not really reading but do intend to read. Similarly there are books that I am reading that have not yet gone into the collection and there are always some that go straight into my Read collections. So my real Currently Reading books are:

Clarissa Harlowe, though I am well behind and didn't read many pages last month.
The Lost Books of the Odyssey, this hasn't grabbed me yet so not very far in.
Love, Sex, Death and Words, a chapter a day book so a long way to go yet.
A Note in Music, started for Rosamond Lehmann week but continuing into AVAA.
Our Mutual Friend, print (well, ebook) only. I gave up on the audio version as it was faulty.
The Warden, print and I'm just about to start the audio.

I intend to add some more Viragos to this list and, as I'm attending a short literary conference next week (Twentieth Century Schoolgirls & their Books), I shall get myself into the right mindset by adding some 'Girlsown' books too. Having recently enjoyed the Olympic equestrian events I might re-read a few 'Jill' books.

Ooh, that conference sounds fascinating.

If I am organised enough I shall report back here, Luci. It happens every two years and this will be the second I have attended. It's so relaxing being in the company of people who understand and enjoy the same books.

August is going to be a very quiet month as far as 'Books Read' goes. I am astonished at my enthusiasm for the Olympic Games, which lasted through to the closing ceremony (my enthusiasm, that is, of course the Games lasted until the closing ceremony), and I was watching and concentrating so I couldn't really read at the same time.

Having said that I did get through some fairly light fiction:

The Rough Collier, finished 2nd August, the 5th in the Gil Cunningham series.
Dead in the Water, finished 4th August and Styx and Stones, finished 10th August, the 6th and 7th in the Daisy Dalrymple series.
I'm still enjoying both these series - they make nice, light summer reading.
Village Diary, finished 8th August, and audio version, read by Gwen Watford. This is a much-read book in print but it took me a while to get used to the reading style, or for the reader to settle into it, or both but I was enjoying it very much by the end and will happily listen to more by this reader.
A Fatal Twist of Lemon, finished 13th August, an Early Review book so I must now review it.

I think many of us were surprised at how involved in the Olympics we got. I watched quite a bit more than I was expecting to during the first week, and have only got lots of reading done in August because I've been away from a TV for the past 12 days!

Being on holiday seems to have prevented me from keeping up to date with my reading log, although I have done quite a lot of reading, even if not the books I intended to read.

Finished since the last update:

London's Olympic Follies: The Madness and Mayhem of the 1908 London Games: A Cautionary Tale, finished 14th August. This was a Kindle Daily Deal bargain. The title says it all; generally, an interesting read but my interest faded towards the end.
The Warden, in audio and kindle versions, finished 18th August. This was a re-read along with Heather's tutored thread. I loved it just as much this time as before, if not more.
From Budd to Bolt: 50 Stunning Olympic Moments, finished 19th August. I had read some of these articles in the Guardian but decided to buy this when it was available for kindle. I read it cover to cover which was probably not the best way but most of the items were interesting.
Ballet Shoes, finished 21st August. At the literary conference I attended one of the talks was about Noel Streatfeild's treatment of the 'Middle Child', and since Petrova Fossil was one of the examples used it prompted my quick re-read of this title.
The Bell of the Four Evangelists, finished 26th August. I bought this book at the conference book sale. Violet Needham is a GO author that I had never read before and was resisting, in an attempt to maintain my TBR pile at a reasonable level (some hope!) but it was a bargain, and a stand-alone title so no risk of being sucked into another series. I enjoyed it very much and my interest was increased by the fact that it is set in the area in which I now live and so did Miss Needham for many years. I've now applied for membership of The Violet Needham Society and have started looking for the other 16 or so titles by the same author.
Head Girl at Vivians, finished 28th August. This is the second in another GO-type series. Vivians is a girls' boarding school on the Cumbrian coast, whose pupils have the usual adventures, problems and pleasures. Ther are four more stories to come.
Gone to Earth, finished 28th August. This has been my sole effort for AVAA and I think my time could have been better spent. Even Flora Poste would have had difficulty sorting out this lot.
Charlotte: Pride and Prejudice Continues, finished 31st August. I have liked some Jane Austen continuations and I like the character of Charlotte Lucas so this one seemed promising, and since it was free for Kindle I thought it worth a try. The author is American - I know this without reading any biographical details. For much, even most, of the book the language is suitable for the period and quite Austen-like but there are glaring Americanisms now and again, which seem to get more frequent as the story goes on. Although the characters are called Charlotte and William Collins I don't think Jane Austen would have recognised them; Charlotte has lost her clear-sighted view of love and marriage and turned into a romantic teenager; Mr Collins has a backstory as an unloved child, which explains his sycophantic behaviour towards Lady Catherine, and develops a sense of delicacy towards the Bennetts; Colonel Fitzwilliam has acquired a fortune and lost his common sense and none of the characters knows quite how to behave in early 19th century English society. The Hunsford Vicarage seems larger than it was in P&P and has more advanced plumbing than I would have expected.

I think I'll give Charlotte a miss! And I haven't tried any Mary Webb yet - my Virago for August was Rebecca, which I'd somehow never read before.

Although I am someone who likes to re-read, there are some books that I would love to have the thrill of reading for the first time again and Rebecca is definitely one. Lucky Genny! There is a wonderful audio version, read by Anna Massey.

It was strange, I knew the first line very well, and quite a bit about the atmosphere and the characters involved, but I've never read the book nor seen a film version - I must have just come across lots of references and quotations or seen film clips perhaps. But I had no idea how it was going to end, so I'm glad I'd manage to avoid 'spoilers' despite the basic scenario being so well known to me. I imagine Anna Massey would be very good.

August reading:

15 books, 14 titles, 3 in print, 10 on kindle and 2 audiobooks.

5 were recently purchased, 6 were free or swaps, and 4 were long-term TBR or re-reads.

Currently reading:

Our Mutual Friend, kindle. I had to give up on the audio version as it was faulty.
A note in music, mislaid so I may have to re-start when I find it.
Helen by Maria Edgeworth, about half-way through and needs jump-starting.
Bring up the bodies, ready to start but it's a hefty hardback so no good for daytime reading at school.
The Lost Books of the Odyssey, started but it hasn't grabbed me yet (I was hoping for something similar to The Song of Achilles).
Clarissa Harlowe, I will finish this.
Love, Sex, Death and Words, a chapter-a-day book.
The Soul of Kindness, this month's Elizabeth Taylor.
Barchester Towers, in print and audio. Compared with The Warden there are some rather long, slightly boring chapters but even these are enjoyable when Timothy West reads them and I can skip over them when I do the print version.
I also have a few Early Review books needing to be read (and reviewed). Unfortunately only one is a kindle book, and therefore suitable for school reading. One is a PDF, which doesn't fit well on the kindle and so needs a laptop, the others are print.

Going back to work has been more of an effort than I thought it would be - a reminder that I'm getting old. I had a very relaxing holiday (and we had six and a half weeks) so to come back to distributing laptops (amongst other tasks) for five days a week was quite an effort. I have to hand out and collect in up to 80 laptops five times a day - who needs a gym! - so when evening comes I'm ready to sit down and read something light, and often fall asleep over it. I hope I shall get fit again in a week or two and be able to cope with a little more brain activity in the evenings.

So far this month I have finished three books:

The Soul of Kindness, this month's Elizabeth Taylor. This was a slim volume and quite easy to read. As usual there were some lovely passages and interesting, if not particularly likeable, characters but somehow it felt insubstantial. Having read this month's book early on perhaps I shall take the opportunity of reading one of the earlier ones that I missed.

Next came Barchester Towers. This was a re-read; I had so enjoyed reading and listening to The Warden along with Heather's tutored thread that I couldn't wait for ther next one to start but read and listened on my own. The audio version was read by Timothy West who was wonderful. His oily Mr. Slope voice with not-quite-good-enough vowels made it worth it on its own and the other characters wers as good. I particularly enjoyed Trollope's conversational tone. This is a paragraph about Eleanor Bold and Mr. Arabin:

Had she given way and sobbed aloud, as in such cases a woman should do, he would have melted at once, implored her pardon, perhaps knelt at her feet and declared his love. Everything would have been explained, and Eleanor would have gone back to Barchester with a contented mind. How easily would she have forgiven and forgotten the archdeacon's suspicions had she but heard the whole truth from Mr. Arabin. But then where would have been my novel? She did not cry, and Mr. Arabin did not melt.

This morning I finished My Dear Charlotte which is an epistolary novel written in the style and circumstances similar to Jane Austen's. As a rule I do not like epistolary novels as they are often too contrived and unrealistic (I'm ploughing through Clarissa at the moment) but this one was delightful. The author did not force in too much information merely to move the plot along and the writing style was such that, while it would be awkward for modern day writers, I can believe that people would have written like this then, possibly because letters were their only form of communication over a distance. So, although enough important plot information was included, it didn't overload the letters and the almost throwaway domestic details were just as important and interesting. And it was a free-for-Kindle book. I think I might upgrade my rating to 5 stars.

I've gone back to the Chalet School series again and finished Peggy of the Chalet School on 15th Sptember. Although I like the books set in Armishire second only to the original Tirolean books, this is not one of my favourites. The resolution of the main plot thread - Peggy's trouble with Open Defiance from the lower forms - seems contrived and unlikely. The rest of the book, all the usual tricks, accidents, lessons etc are as well-written as ever, although this one must be unusual in that the Christmas entertainment is not a play but a concert and is disposed of in about two sentences.

On 19th september I finished Our Mutual Friend. I started by following the recent discussion thread but got left behind when I took a long-ish break. I also started listening to an audio version (not read by Anton Lesser, unfortunately) but it was faulty so I gave up on that. I enjoyed the story and even liked the 'testing' of Bella Wilfer, which some other readers had found awkward.

Back to the Chalet School again: I finished Carola Storms the Chalet School today. This is another Island-set story and I think it is one of the best. The idea of a girl running away to school is fairly unusual in school story literature and, although you have to suspend belief a bit, it is quite plausibly written. Carola is an attractive character and loves school. There are the usual set-pieces: a half-term outing with an adventure, a cookery mishap, a weather-affected walk, Con's sleepwalking and a final dramatic ending at the Sale. EBD has two characters getting engaged to doctors and paves the way for a long-term character to leave the story (although only temporarily, as it happens). This GGBP edition also includes an account of a present-day visit to Pembroke Castle and Bosherston Lily Ponds - the half-term trip - and an original (not EBD) short story about Biddy's time in Australia.

My current audio book is To Let, read by David Case. It's a story I know well and I know it will end in tears (mine). I'm also reading Parade's End before I watch the TV adaptation - it's quite bonkers, isn't it? Or am I missing something? My current Ripping Yarn is The Lost World, the Conan Doyle one, which, although I've seen the film version many times, I've never read before. Clarissa is still on the back-burner but I really must get back to it as I'm determined to finish it. I also have Bring up the bodies ready to go. I think I might leave that till half-term now as it's a hefty hardback that I can't read at work and I know once I start it I'll want to read it straight through.

I'm so jealous of your adventures with the Chalet School. It's just not readily available here. I may have to order it from abroad a bit later as a treat!

Good for you for reading - or attempting - Parade's End. I've seen one episode of the TV series, have the rest lined up on iPlayer. I don't know if the book is bonkers! I gather it is regarded as one of the important modernist novels, and that it jumps around a lot in terms of chronology. I think I will continue with the adaptation now I've started, but am interested to see what more you make of the book.

Enjoyed your quote from Barchester Towers - some dislike Trollope's talking to the reader and breaking the 'fourth wall', but I enjoy those passages too.

24th September: Finished To Let. I've read the whole Forsyte Saga many times in print and I'm working my way through the audio editions for the first time. The reader is David Case and I like his slightly sneering narrating tone and his character voices are excellent. The story itself is wonderful; I love how Galsworthy can make me feel real sympathy for both sides of the family feud, especially for Soames, whose attitudes I know are wrong. His death in a later book always makes me cry just as much as for old Jolyon's. The problem with this audiobook was the editing. It is quite an old recording and was originally released on audio-cassette - I know this because one of the cassette number announcements was left in. Every time there was a cassette change two or three sentences were repeated - useful, I'm sure, if you have to physically change your casette or even CD, to remind you where you are, but very annoying in the middle of one long MP3 file. I'm quite picky about this and if I rip a CD to listen on my ipod I will edit out the CD number announcement, but it's quite quick and easy to do so there's no excuse for selling such shoddy goods.

(Having made the above complaint I will admit to exceptions. We had a set of cassettes, when my children were young, for car journeys: Noggin the Nog and Ivor the Engine, read by their author Oliver Postgate. He has a lovely relaxed, conversational, reading voice and when, in the middle of one story (there were three stories on one tape) you have to turn over he says: " That isn't the end of the story, it's just the end of this side of the cassette. So, please, fast-forward to the end of this side, turn the cassette over and then play the other side. OK?" and it always felt as if he were really there with us, chatting, rather than reading a script.)

25th September: I finished The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle. It was a good, and interesting, Ripping Yarn but spoiled for modern readers by the racism, sexism, classism throughout. Of course, like so many of these type of stories, it's of its era and I wouldn't like to see it edited for greater political correctness. I enjoy Ripping Yarns, on the whole, but some have so much of these outdated opinions that it becomes too intrusive to read comfortably and this one was verging on that level but it was leavened somewhat by the humour and excitement of the story.

#141 Yes, I thinks it's the jumping around in time that makes Parade's End feel rather odd. When I read the first chapter it felt as though I was in the middle of the book - I even checked that I'd started with the right volume!

September's resumé:

Nine books finished this month:
2 Audiobooks, one with accompanying print (ebook) version
3 in print (paper)
4 ebooks.

4 were re-reads, 4 were new to me, and all were already owned or free for Kindle so no expense this month (well, apart from all that I bought but haven't read yet).

Currently reading:

On Kindle:
Clarissa Harlowe
Love, sex, death and words
The Monk, following a tutored thread
Parade's End
A Tale of Two Cities, with audiobook, too

On paper
The Wrong Chalet School, finished 1st October
Guard your daughters, finished 3rd October
The woman in black, only in daylight hours
The Woods of Windri
The Wedding Group, this month's Elizabeth Taylor

I also have some ER books that I ought to be reading. Some I will have a concerted effort to finish but I think there are two that I will abandon, but I will explain why in my review.

I finished Guard your daughters and, although I enjoyed it and found it easy to read, I don't rate it as highly as I capture the castle. I've been suffering from a heavy cold which must be affecting my opinions. I thought all the daughters were wonderful but the parents made me so cross. The atmosphere felt very dark and I was expecting a real disaster - mass murder or the family all burned to death - though that may have been my cold affecting my thought processes. Perhaps I'll try it again when my health is better.

I've read the next story in the Chalet School series: Shocks for the Chalet school. This book introduces Emerence Hope, one of the few Chalet School bad girls, who livens things up a bit. Another plus point is the lack of Joey Maynard - she is in Canada (although she does manage to add to the Shocks by giving birth to twins, her seventh and eighth children). And the school gets on perfectly well without her. In other news, the Welsen branch, in Switzerland, has opened and their story is going on at the same time in The Chalet School in the Oberland, which I shall read next.

Also because of my cold, I've had to swap my current audio book, A Tale of Two Cities for a Georgette Heyer, Bath Tangle. It's cheering me up no end, but I will go back to the Dickens (and Anton Lesser).

I've finished two books today - I'm taking life easy until my cold is really gone! The first was The Woman in Black. Although this is a slim volume I've been taking my time over it, only reading in daylight hours when there is someone else in the house. I don't often read ghost stories as I don't like being scared but I was so well prepared for this one that I didn't find it scary at all, though perhaps I did skim over the scary scenes...

Today's second book was The Chalet School in the Oberland. While this is not one of the better Chalet School books I have a sneaking affection for it. It is lovely to get back to Abroad again, as the Finishing Branch opens in Switzerland. All the girls are at least sixteen and some are eighteen and so nearly grown-up! While boarding school stories are about wealthy families, when the characters are young girls they behave as schoolgirls of that age do everywhere, wealthy or not, so that is not the most important aspect. However only a certain class of girl goes to Finishing School so there's much less of an everyman (everywoman?) feel to this story. It also makes it much more dated. There are definite differences between this and a similar story published today. The first thing that strikes the modern-day reader is the amount of smoking that goes on - by staff and students. When some girls are found smoking they are not reprimanded for that, as the teacher who finds them has not been told whether they may smoke or not, but they are all severely rebuked for playing cards on a Sunday. One of the girls - not an ex-Chalet School student - receives letters from a boy and comes close to being asked to leave for this - that sort of thing isn't done in a decent boarding school. Apart from these differences it is the usual Chalet School story except that, although it is the Christmas term there is no nativity play but a pantomime instead which, as usual, is described in too much detail. Although the finishing branch remains part of the series this is the only book in which it plays such a prominent part and EBD goes back to the age-group she writes about best.

Sorry to hear about your cold Kerry - I hope you feel better soon. I've found it really interesting to read about your books read recently and I'm now feeling nostalgic for the Chalet School books.

I've never read The Forsyte Saga and it feels like one of those books/series I ought to read but when to fit it in?

#148 Thanks, Heather. I'm definitely on the mend but I'm rather wallowing in comfort reads at the moment! I would certainly recommend The Forsyte Saga. I've read it many times in print and I'm enjoying the audio version. I've also got a copy of the BBC radio series, broadcast about 10 years ago. It was dramatised, so a full cast, and had Dirk Bogarde as narrator.

I finished two books this week - both Girlsown types. The first was The Bartle Bequest by Dorita Fairlie Bruce. She is most well known for her school series featuring Dimsie but this book is the last in a series set in Colmskirk (Largs), a coastal town to the south-west of Glasgow. The first five books are historical, and I haven't read them, but the last four are set in modern times (that is, the 1950's when they were written) and deal with girls who have left school and need careers. the heroine of this one, Primula Mary Beton, gets a job as curator of the new museum in Colmskirk and she employs Bethia Fairgreave, who has had to leave school early and suddenly at sixteen, as her companion-housekeeper. Although the idea of women having careers other than marriage and motherhood is no longer unusual it still seem to be expected that the preferred outcome is for marriage and domesticity after a few years of paid employment. Primula Mary doesn't even last a year as curator in Colmskirk before marrying her rival for the job. Of course she then has to give up her job and stay at home but fortunately she can hand it over to her new husband!

The second book was the next in the Chalet School series - Bride Leads the Chalet School. This is one of the better island-set stories. Bride is promoted to Head Girl when the current girl leaves to go to The Argentine to claim an inheritance (I do wonder if EBD opened her atlas and stuck in a pin!). As usual she asks for time to think it over - I'm sure it comes as a bolt from the blue to every girl who is ever appointed Head Girl, but at least Bride had a good reason to be surprised - but a chat with her sister, Peggy (also an ex-Head Girl), as they prepare the tea is enough to persuade her that she should accept the post. Back at school there are more surprises: another Chalet School has closed down and many of those pupils have moved to our Chalet School but, alas, they have strange notions and take some time to settle into our Chalet School ways.
Bride has the Head Girl's usual problems, magnified by the new girls' lack of discipline and earns the enmity of one girl in particular, whose shocking behaviour gives Miss Annersley the chance to temper her justice with mercy. As usual EBD evades the exact method as "No one ever knew what passed ... for neither of the two ever spoke of it to anyone."
Other drama: Julie Lucy ignores 'tummy pains' and then has to be rushed to hospital for an emergency operation. She pulls through but Miss Annersley has another opportunity to demonstrate her ability to handle girls when breaking the news to Julie's sisters.
The other main event is The Sale and it's one of the better ones, I think. The prefects choose to base it on The Crown of Success by A.L.O.E. and the précis that Bride gives and the description of the stalls made me want to read the book. (I did and was disappointed as EBD hadn't mentioned the heavy-handed and long-winded Victorian moralising.)

I did and was disappointed as EBD hadn't mentioned the heavy-handed and long-winded Victorian moralising.

HA! I gather you hadn't encountered the lady before? :)

Charlotte Tucker was a passionate Evangelical who used writing for young people as her main emotional outlet until her hard-line Victorian father died, at which point she became a missionary and went off to India, which is what she'd really wanted all along.

She was a pretty good writer and her stories are quite entertaining if you can work around the lectures.

#150 I might have expected it, really, and the story bits were entertaining. I skimmed the moralising!

I've finished my latest audiobook Bath tangle by Georgette Heyer and, although it raised my spirits when I was feeling down because of my cold, I was a bit disappointed both in the book and in the narration. I've listened to several Georgette Heyer audiobooks and this is the third different narrator so far. Sian Phillips has a mature voice (she is of mature years) and the two heroines were in their early or mid-twenties but I kept envisaging them as much older. The rest of the characters were fine but I think it's more important for the main characters to be right. She also over-performed the reading. Georgette Heyer's plots verge on the absurd, even ridiculous, and often a calmer, matter-of-fact tone counterpoints the absurdity better. Having said that the primary hero and heroine always argued when they met so it would be difficult to convey that in a calm voice. The plot was as convoluted as ever but all was properly sorted by the end. I think I liked the secondary characters more than the four main ones.

I'm getting on well with Parade's End (three-quarters through) although I'm still finding the jumping about in time a bit hard to follow. I'm keeping to pace of the tutored thread for The Monk, and whizzing through some more Chalet School stories - I'm on the last of the stories set in Wales and then we'll be off to the Oberland. I shall be going back to A Tale of Two Cities for my audiobook now.

I've finished Changes for the Chalet School. This is the last of the stories set in England and Wales and it is a mixture of looking back - lots of footnotes referring to previous books - and looking ahead - the school is moving to Switzerland next term - but not much present. There are accounts of two expeditions, one of which actually goes off without incident! but the book mainly consists of everyday school life and discussion the new school of what is needs to be done with school equipment etc. This doesn't mean it's a dull read, sometimes you just need to hear about such details, but it will be good to get back to the glamour and excitement of Abroad.

I whizzed through Joey Goes to the Oberland, finished 20th October. This is not one of the better stories. There is very little school involved; it is an account of Joey's move from Armishire to the Oberland. The first few chapters detail her preparations for the move and, just as packing is boring to do, reading about someone else's packing is just as dull. Of course it doesn't go smoothly and Jo does have Daisy's wedding to organise as well. The journey goes remarkably well as Jo meets several friends en route, including two of her best friends - Simone and Frieda - who have both moved house without telling her. Fortunately they are both living in generously sized accommodation - Simone has a chateau - so they can put up Jo and her entourage - eight children and Primula. Jack finally turns up in Basle to drive Jo and the children the last lap to the new house, which Jo has not yet seen. The moving-in takes two days, which unsettles Con enough to make her sleep-walk, followed by a house-warming party.

For devotees of the series the minutiae of everyday life is always interesting and for me, as a child, the glamour of Abroad made every story worth reading, but as a stand-alone book it is not a good one. I compared this original with the abridged version published by Armada in the 90's and remarkably little was removed or changed. There was a lot of smoking in the originals and I was surprised that it was left in. In fact the only change that I noticed was Jo's description of Frieda's new baby. The baby has dark hair and an olive complexion, which surprises Jo as Frieda is fair, although her husband is dark, and she describes her as a nigger-baby. That has gone!

I'm clearing the decks ready for Bring up the bodies.

Today I finished The Chalet School and Barbara. This is the first school-set story after the move to Switzerland ansd EBD introduces a new pupil to justify all the description. All the usual occurrences are there: the new girl suffers unfair-treatment, the girls nearly get lost in a snowstorm, wintersporting, a half-term trip to Berne (straight from a guide book) and the nativity play. The Swiss set stories rather tail-off in quality - the same events get re-cycled - partly because EBD had never been to Switzerland and gets her local colour from guide books and partly because we are now at book number 30 out of a total of 58. The glamour and novelty of Abroad helps for the first few books but it's the start of a long tail to the end.

I also finished Parade's End, this has taken me over a month and that's reading some every day, but it was definitely worth it. It took me a while to get used to the style and work out what was happening. There is really no beginning, middle or end: the story just starts, goes along, not necessarily in chronological order, and stops. I wanted to read the book before I watched the TV adaptation but now I'm not sure if I want to see someone else's view of the book. The story is advanced by the characters' thoughts rather than by their conversation or actions and thoughts don't really make very good television.

This is going to sound really pathetic, but Bring up the bodies is really difficult to read as I have a brand new hardback edition and it's hard work to hold open the pages, and it's very heavy. I've been doing more and more of my reading on kindle (I've just bought a new one) and the physical effort of reading a paper book is detracting from the reading more and more - a real First World problem!

This week is half-term and I had expected to get down to some uninterrupted reading, particularly BUTB, but I haven't had as much time as I hoped or the inclination to concentrate for any length of time. I have been reading some shorter, lighter books instead:

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists, finished 30th October. I saw the film version of this earlier this year and was impressed. The book was as good, even without an evil Queen Victoria or a dodo.

The Queen's Margarine, finished 31st October. A collection of short stories - not one of my favourite literary forms - but most were enjoyable. I think the theme was people discovering their real selves (or, in one case, their non-being). The stories got bleaker as the book went on so that I skimmed through the last two or three.

October's round-up:

14 books completed, 10 in print, 3 on kindle and 1 audio. That's quite a different balance from previous months. Seven of the books were re-reads from the Chalet School series, which I find very easy to read, and the other seven were new to me. Only two new books -Guard your daughters and The Bartle Bequest - were bought recently the others were either free, bought long ago or from the library, so quite a cheap month.

November's currently reading list:

A Tale of Two Cities, print and audio
The Monk
Bring up the bodies
Rattle his bones, the next Daisy Dalrymple mystery
Plus I have got some new Girlsown titles, I shall be following the Barchester Towers tutored thread even though I re-read the book in September, I'm still wading (slowly) through Clarissa Harlowe and, although not a science fiction fan, I want to read A Princess of Mars - I regard it as a Ripping Yarn.

A Tale of Two Cities, finished 1st November. This is the first Dickens that I haven't really liked. I read it in audio and in print and I don't think I would have got through it in print without Anton Lesser's marvellous reading. I lay awake till one o'clock this morning to finish the audio and then just skimmed the last few chapters in print this afternoon. Why didn't I like it? I can't put my finger on it: it's sentimental, but so is a lot of Dickens; there was as much humour as in any other story; the characters were as interesting as ever; the language was as readable. Perhaps there was too much description.

I had a long car journey today and was able to get on with Bring up the bodies - I'm about half way through. Unfortunately the return journey was in the dark and, as this is a print version, I couldn't continue reading. Instead I turned to my kindle (the new one with the inbuilt light) and finished the next instalment in the Daisy Dalrymple series - Rattle his bones. Although I'm enjoying this series this book is not one of the better stories. I found it hard to remember who the characters were, where or what the different departments in the museum were and there was no real sense of tension. I have all the remaining books in print (a Book People bargain) so I shall have to be organised enough to have them with me instead of being able to dip into my kindle.

I've finished another two books:

Tyler's Row, on 6th November, an audiobook. This was a bit of cosy reading after the high adventure of A Tale of two Cities. It's a book I know well from the print version but a first-time listen.It was pleasant enough but I didn't like it as much as I expected. I was asked why on the audiobooks thread and, after thinking about it, and expounding rather more to Ellie than she probably wanted, it just came down to "It just doesn't sound right".

The Monk, finished 8th November. I've been reading along with Madeline on her tutored thread, which has been very useful as some of her questions have been ones that I would have asked, and keeping to her speed has meant that I have read more carefully and thoroughly. It was a good read but not a style of book that I would read often - Lewis really piled it on.

I've read half of Bring up the bodies and have had to stop this week as there's been no time - it's just been 5 minutes here and there from my kindle - and I've started Black Ships before Troy as my audiobook. It's read, very well, by Robert Glenister although I half expected him to sound like a version of his racist, sexist detective from the TV series! (He doesn't).

I read this review of the new super-cheap e-reader due out soon and it sounds very nice except that it only holds 5 books at a time and although, the batteries should last for a year, that is based on reading 12-15 books per year.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/nov/08/beagle-e-reader-review

Some time when I have read all the unread books, I have *got* to re-read the CS series. I don't remember anything about Basel and now that we've lived there I want to read all the Swiss stuff. Very funny that she never went there!

I've read the first few Daisy Dalrymples this year and have really enjoyed them. And I love BUTB - but you definitely have to be in the right frame of mind for it. I often end up reading for 5 minutes at a time but that's one book I don't think it works for - hope you get time to get back into it soon.

Lewis really piled it on.

Fair comment! :)

Finished Stardust Memories by Ray Connolly yesterday. This is a collection of interviews, originially published in newspapers or magazines in the 1960s/70s, with the famous of the day - mostly actors, pop stars, TV personalities and writers. The collection was first published in the 80's so that each interview is followed by a postscript updating the interviewee's situation. I had heard of most of the interviewees although I knew little more than the name for some of them. It was rather odd reading for me as I knew what happened next - even after the postscript - and I don't think I would recommend the book either for information or the quality of the writing. It's not badly written, they're good interviews, but not well enough for a book. I got this in an Amazon sale for kindle so I don't feel I've wasted any money, but possibly some time.

I've finished two audiobooks in the last week - Black Ships Before Troy and The Wanderings of Odysseus, by Rosemary Sutcliff and both read, very well, by Robert Glenister. The books are versions of the Illiad and the Odyssey written for children. It was interesting to hear all the names pronounced properly (I assume) as I tend to skim over them when I read them myself or use the pronunciations that I first worked out as an eight-year old. I didn't know then that the greek ch was hard and Achilles with a soft ch sounds cosy rather than heroic, and using English rules I never pronounced the final e so that Paris had to choose between the goddesses Atheen, Afrodight and Hura to award the golden apple.

The other book I finished this week was Lucia on Holiday. This is a continuation of E. F. Benson's Mapp and Lucia novels written by Guy Fraser-Sampson. I love the Benson novels and have read them many times so I was wary of someone else's version but this was a kindle bargain so I felt it was worth a try. It was a fairly enjoyable read. The author managed to reproduce Benson's style of writing and plot quite convincingly but it wasn't quite good enough. There was too much and too detailed referencing back to incidents in earlier books and, as it all takes place in Italy with only the main characters, there's not enough Tilling. It was all too heavy-handed: too much detail, too much explanation, too much setting the scene.

I'm now in a reading black hole: there is nothing in my TBR collection (of 900 or so books) that I want to read and with that many unread books available I can't go on just re-reading old favourites. I've just had a day and a half off work with a bad back, feeling rather sorry for myself, and needing something light and cosy. I finally started a chick-lit story, Bed of Roses by Daisy Waugh, set in the English countryside, thinking it would be a light easy read but I hadn't got two chapters in when the possiblity of a violent stalker was introduced. I plodded on a bit longer but then I noticed that it was 400 pages long (I was reading on Kindle) and decided I wasn't going to bother after all.

So what am I reading after all that? The Woods of Windri, a children's Ruritania-type adventure and Mansfield Park. Jane Austen never lets me down.

Hi Kerry, I have set up the thread for the December Group read.

A Tale of Two Cities

Looking forward to seeing you there.

I've finished quite a few books without updating my thread.

The Woods of Windri, finished 18th November. I've only recently discovered Violet Needham's books - this is my second - and I'm enjoying them very much. This is an exciting, and moral, tale. I found it a bit hard to distinguish all the characters and their relationships to each other at the start but as the action got going it all fell into place. I think this may be my problem rather than the book's, it seems to be happening to me a lot lately. It must be age creeping on...

Mansfield Park, finished 21st November. I started this when I was in my reading slump. I've had my Penguin English Library copy for nearly 30 years now, and read it umpteen times, but this time I used my kindle. Of the six main Austen titles four of them move in and out of 'favourite' position (Sense and Sensibility and Northanger Abbey only make second position, but even they get read fairly often and S&S has the best film version).

The Reluctant Widow, finished 22nd November. This was an audiobook, beautifully read by Cornelius Garrett, and is, I think one of the best Heyers I've read recently. I read my way through nearly all of her Regency books when I was a teenager, but nothing more until fairly recently, so most of them should be re-reads. However I've either forgotten most of what I read back then or I didn't read as many as I thought. Eleanor is a wonderful heroine, not afraid to stand up for herself, and Francis Cheviot a wonderful villain. The reader gave him a suitably mincing voice and an inability to pronounce his r's properly. The plot was suitably complex and winding with enough twists to keep me guessing and it was laugh-out-loud funny.

The Stolen Voice, finished 24th November. This is the sixth book in the Gil Cunningham series and another good one. Since I went to an English school we only learnt Scottish history when it affected England - really only after 1603 and even then happenings in England were more important, so I am not familiar with the historical background to this series. The stories follow on in quick succession and some characters are re-appearing. The main characters, Gil and his, now-wife, Alys are developing with each story. I'm looking forward to moving on the seventh story.

Cheerful Weather for the Wedding, finished 25th November. This was an audio version of a short novel, read by Miriam Morgolyes. The reading was very good; the book I'm not so sure about. Having listened to it I then read some reviews, almost to see what I should have thought of it. I couldn't tell if it was funny or sad - some and some, I suppose. It is very short - less than two and a half hours of reading - and seemed to me as if the beginning and end were missing.

Dream Angus, finished 26th November. This is from Canongate's The Myths series. Alexander McCall Smith retells the myth of Dream Angus in traditional and updated form. It was a very pleasant and easy read.

The Müller Twins at the Chalet School, finished 28th November. This is the latest Chalet School fill-in novel, just published. It is set in the Tyrol section of the series, which is my favourite part, and uses some of the characters whom EBD had only named in passing. Katherine Bruce has written one other Chalet School book - Peace Comes to the Chalet School, which is set at the end of the Second World War when the school was in Armishire (Herefordshire) - and her writing style and plotting make both books fit very well into the series. I shall certainly be happy to include this one in my future re-reads of the series.

On Friday I finished The House at Riverton and it's a long time since I have enjoyed a new book so much. I liked the flash back and forward method of telling the story. I'm someone who usually reads the last page long before I get there but this time the hints of what would happen were enough for me and I didn't have to rush through the reading to find out what happened but was able to take my time and yet still find it enthralling enough to keep going at a good pace. I've started The Forgotten Garden now and it's just as enthralling.

November round-up:

A Tale of Two Cities, audio and print, finished 1st November
Rattle his bones, finished 2nd November
Tyler’s Row, audiobook, finished 6th November
The Monk, tutored thread, finished 8th November
Stardust Memories: Talking about my generation, finished 10th November
Black Ships before Troy, audiobook, finished 11th November
Lucia on Holiday, finished 15th November
The Wanderings of Odysseus, audiobook, finished 15th November
The Woods of Windri, finished 18th November
Mansfield Park, 21st November
The Reluctant Widow, audiobook, finished 22nd November
The Stolen Voice, finished 24th November
Cheerful Weather for the Wedding, audiobook, finished 25th November
Dream Angus, finished 26th November
The Müller Twins at the Chalet School, finished 28th November
The House at Riverton, finished 30th November

Although it didn't feel like it at the time I read quite a few books this month: 16 titles in all. 6 audiobooks, my most ever in one month, although were quite short, 2 print and 9 on Kindle. The two print books were new, 6 of the Kindle books were bought (in the summer sale) and 3 were free.

December's Currently Reading:

The Forgotten Garden, Kindle
Bring up the bodies, print
Little Women, audiobook
and many other long-term reads that I'm not going to list.

I've made a start on my Christmas reading with Little Women, but there'll be plenty more.

Delurking to say thanks for posting your comments of The House at Riverton. I hope to get to it next year, along with The Forgotten Garden. I loved The Distant Hours when I read it earlier this year!

Kerry, I've been uhmming and ahhing over Kate Morton's books for a while now but your comments on The House at Riverton and The Forgotten Garden may have tipped me over the edge to a decision. Having said that, I am going to try and wait until the New Year before buying any more books although the kindle price is tempting...

I've finished The Forgotten Garden and enjoyed it, but not quite as much as The House at Riverton, although it was certainly worth 69p! I liked the constant changing between times and points of view and the gradual discovery of Nell's background, although some reviewers have criticised the book for this. I had guessed the truth before the end but not much before. I find that reading on a kindle doesn't give me a feel for the length of the book - I was surprised to find that this was 600 pages on paper as it didn't feel that long to me. My main criticism is that the final chapters seemed a bit rushed.

I think one of the reasons I enjoyed The House at Riverton slightly more is my parochial outlook - it's set in England!

Having read Mansfield Park last month I wanted some more Jane Austen. I've chosen Emma as it has a Christmas episode.

I've stopped listening to Little Women at the part where it turns into Good Wives. It was a book I loved as a child and re-read many times but the last time was many years ago. I had obviously forgotten many details - or perhaps I read an abridged edition - and the rather over-sweet moralising and sexism of the time was a bit annoying. I shall go back to it as the chapters in which Jo goes to New York and meets Professor Bhaer are enjoyable (and I do like having a good cry over Beth's death), but I decided to move on to some more Christmassy listening and have started and audio version of The Christmas Mouse & No Holly for Miss Quinn.

The Christmas reading is going well. I read Little Grey Rabbit's Christmas at the weekend. I loved this series of books when I was a child, more, I think, than the Beatrix Potter books. Unfortunately a fairly recent biography of Alison Uttley showed her to be a less than pleasant woman and, although that shouldn't make a difference to my enjoyment of the books it is there in the back of my mind sometimes. I'm completely inconsistent about this as I can completely disregard the characters of some writers, musicians, actors etc and like or dislike their work for itself alone but for others I can't.

Unable to fancy anything from my TBR pile I again turned to Jane Austen. I chose Emma as it has a Christmas chapter. The first time I read it I completely missed all the hints about the relationship between Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax and their engagement came as just as much of a shock to me as to Emma but every time I've read it since (over a period of thirty-odd years) I notice more and more of the hints and clues that Jane Austen provides. It seems so obvious now - how could I have missed it?

For the ultimate nativity play I read End of Term, part of Antonia Forest's Marlows series. I don't think I read this series as a child - I'm sure I would have remembered it - but came to it as an adult and I find it so emotionally wrenching that, much as I love them, I don't read them often.

I've finished a Christmas audiobook - The Christmas Mouse & No Holly for Miss Quinn by Miss Read, read by Gwen Watford. These are books I've read, and loved, in print many times and I'm now getting used to Gwen Watford's reading style so they've made lovely bedtime reading.

In print (or on my kindle) I've gone on to rather sentimental Victorian or Edwardian Christmas stories. First, finished 19th December, The Upas Tree by Florence Barclay. The wife (too good to be true and certainly too good to be lived with comfortably) conceals her longed-for pregnancy so that her husband will not feel obliged to put off his planned seven months trip to Central Africa where he intends to gather local colour for his next novel. A wicked cousin puts his oar in so that our hero arrives home, ill, and still unaware of the existence of his son. The perfect wife assumes he is selfish (not that unreasonable an assumption) and, instead of telling him about the baby, prepares for the failure of her marriage. Really the whole novel could have been shortened to the first chapter if she'd just said 'OK go to Africa but try to be back by the time the baby is due.'

Next I tried some American sentimentality - The Birds' Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggin. A saintly child who spreads joy and happiness to her family (her influence prevents her brothers from going to the bad) and the local poor family, is born on Christmas Day and dies on her birthday some years later. I found this very predictable and too sentimental but I read some reviews and found I was in a minority. I'm guessing that it's a standard text in America and people read it in childhood so that it then becomes a Christmas tradition. I know I've got books like that.

I've gone on to A Christmas Carol for my audiobook. Having had it recommended I though I'd try the Tim Curry version this year but it was no good I've gone back to Anton Lesser. This was the first one I read/listened to so it must be imprinted and now no other one will do - my Christmas tradition!

I read a second Kate Douglas Wiggin story: The Romance of the Christmas Card, finished 24th December, and found that less sentimental.

I finished A Christmas Carol on 28th December. It took me longer than I expected as I've had a few late nights and so fell asleep listening and had to go back the next night. I think I listened to the Ghost of Christmas Present three times.

Today I read Beasley's Christmas Party by Booth Tarkington. It was very filmic (have I made this word up?) I'm sure I must have watched it as a child, in black and white, one Sunday afternoon!

My husband, a clergyman, always reminds me that Christmas doesn't finish until Candlemas (2nd February?) so I shall probably go on reading some Christmas stories into January, but they will go on to my 2013 thread. I must make a summary of this year's reading but probably not until after New Year as we shall be away for a few days and I shall have limited access to LT.

Hi Kerry, finally catching up with Christmas greetings on the sixth day of Christmas (your husband is quite right, of course!).

I have never tended to do thematic 'Christmas' reading, though this year I did read a quick short Kindle book A Highland Christmas. And I did listen to the Tim Curry Christmas Carol a couple of years ago - the first time I'd ever actually read that story in the original version, as opposed to all the film and musical versions I've seen. It was a free download on Audible, and one of the first audiobooks I listened to.

Glad to hear you enjoyed the Kate Morton books so much - I have The Forgotten Garden waiting, and I even bought a cheap Kindle version although I already had the paperback, so I could take it with me on holiday in NOvember, since I didn't want to take too many big heavy books. Didn't get round to starting it then though, so hopefully soon in 2013. I know what you mean about finding large heavy books difficult after getting used to reading with an e-reader. I have lovely hardback Folio editions of Austen and Trollope, but find myself reading free ebook versions sometimes for the physical ease of it - though I then go back to the print editions to admire the lovely illustrations and binding.

Happy New Year Kerry!

Final books for 2012:

The Great British Christmas by Maria Hubert, finished 30th December. This was a free book for kindle. It is an anthology of short pieces from old magazines and books and was a pleasant enough Christmas diversion.

The Thirteen Days of Christmas by Jenny Overton, finished 31st December. This was a lovely story, illustrated by Shirley Hughes, based fairly plausibly on the Twelve Days of Christmas song, and I can see it becoming an annual re-read.

These two bring me up to 161 books in 2012 although, allowing for duplicates and individual short stories, I think the true figure is lower. The statistics round-up in the next post will show...

2012 resumé:

I read a total of 161 books in a variety of formats.
There were 151 different titles – 9 of the audio books I listened to I also read in print, and one print book I read twice (Diary of a Provincial Lady).

This year my kindle has very nearly taken over: of the 161 books 97 were ebooks. Of the rest: 25 were audiobooks (which surprised me), 28 were paperbacks and 11 were hardbacks.

I do a lot of re-reading and this year 54 books were re-reads but 107 were new to me. However most of these new-to-me books were also newly acquired (oh, all right, all of them were), so my TBR pile is as big as ever. Many of the books were free – out of copyright classics or library loans – and there were lots of kindle bargains, so I only bought about 20 books. Perhaps I should count the books I bought but haven’t read yet…

Reading rate: September and March were slow months with 9 and 10 books finished and November was the fastest with 17 finished. The rest were fairly even at around 13. I can’t account for this as September and March’s books were not especially long ones nor were November’s short.

Series: I started some new series this year – Daisy Dalrymple by Carola Dunn and Gil Cunningham by Pat McIntosh, both of which have plenty more books for me to read in 2013. I started a re-read of the Barchester Chronicles, I’m in the middle of the Chalet school series and I hope to continue with Alexander McCall Smith’s two Scottish set series and Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache series. There are also several ‘Girlsown’ type series that I intend to continue or re-read.

I've got a new thread started for next year. I hope you will follow me there