Caty M's 2013 challenge

So, last year was something of a failure in the quantity department, but the end of studying (for the time being) is (hopefully) in sight, so 2013 might be a bit better.

My aims for 2013 are: read good stuff, and visit the threads more. If I do get up to 75, that'll be a bonus. (And if I get up to 250 like I did a few years back, it may be a miracle.)

January
1. Apologia Pro Vita Sua - John Henry Newman
2. The Jacobites - Daniel Szechi
3. Jesus of Nazareth vol. 1 - Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI
4. Faith of Our Fathers - Eamon Duffy
5. Saint Thomas Aquinas: The Dumb Ox - GK Chesterton

February
6. The Spirit of the Liturgy - Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI
7. The Innocence of Father Brown - GK Chesterton
8. The Great Divorce - CS Lewis
9. Sister Wendy on Prayer - Sr Wendy Beckett
10. Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives - Pope Benedict XVI
11. The Princess Bride - William Goldman
12. Full Moon - PG Wodehouse
13. Praying the Psalms - Thomas Merton

March
14. Pigs Have Wings - PG Wodehouse
15. A Brief History of Britain 1660 - 1851: The Making of the Nation - William Gibson
16. Religion and the Decline of Magic - Keith Thomas

April
17. Jesus of Nazareth vol II - Pope Benedict XVI
18. The Trial of Doctor Sacheverell - Geoffrey Holmes
19. Heretics - GK Chesterton

May
20. The Cloister Walk - Kathleen Norris
21. Unapologetic - Francis Spufford

June
22. Catholicism: A journey to the heart of the faith - Robert Barron
23. The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
24. Unseen Academicals - Terry Pratchett
25. Blackout - Connie Willis
26. Miss Buncle's Book - DE Stevenson

July
27. All Clear - Connie Willis
28. Light of the World - Pope Benedict XVI and Peter Seewald
29. Lumen Fidei - Pope Francis
30. Caritas in Veritate - Pope Benedict XVI
31. Illustrissimi - Pope John Paul I
32. The Lamb's Supper - Scott Hahn

August
33. Enigma - Robert Harris
34. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
35. The Masqueraders - Georgette Heyer
36. Vita Consecrata - Pope John Paul II
37. The Thing - GK Chesterton
38. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
39. The Long Earth - Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
40. A Time to Keep Silence - Patrick Leigh Fermor
41. God's Philosophers - James Hannam
42. Anti-Catholicism in eighteenth-century England - Colin Haydon
43. Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
44. Verbum Domini - Pope Benedict XVI

September
45. Mary: The Church at Source - Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI and Hans Urs von Balthasar

October
46. The Layperson's Distinctive Role - Francis Cardinal Arinze
48. The Silver Chair - CS Lewis
49. G. K. Chesterton, Theologian - Aidan Nichols
50. Flatland - Edwin Abbott
51. Blotto, Twinks and the Ex-King's Daughter - Simon Brett
52. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making - Catherynne M. Valente

November
53/54. The Making of a Marchioness/The Methods of Lady Walderhurst - Frances Hodgson Burnett
55. Raising Steam - Terry Pratchett
56. Truckers - Terry Pratchett
57. Diggers - Terry Pratchett
58. Wings - Terry Pratchett
59. Cold Comfort Farm -Stella Gibbons
60. Evangelii Gaudium - Pope Francis

December
61. Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures - Pope Benedict XVI
62. The Box of Delights - John Masefield
63. Unapologetic - Francis Spufford (re-read)
64. Sackcloth and Ashes - Ann Widdecombe

Thread found and starred, and looking forward to hearing what you are reading in 2013, whether it is quality or quantity, or even both!

Almost done with your dissertation?! Fabulous. Bon courage.

Hi Caty, Happy New Year!

Welcome back!

Welcome back!

Thanks, everyone.

Er, so I'm being a bit rubbish at that whole visiting-the-threads-more thing, which is bad. But I'm not being too rubbish at the reading thing, which is good. I'm not going to do anything more now than post the list of books I've got through, though I may possibly come back later and comment in detail on some of them; this may, I suppose, be good or bad. ;)

January
1. Apologia Pro Vita Sua - John Henry Newman
2. The Jacobites - Daniel Szechi
3. Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration - Pope Benedict XVI
4. Faith of Our Fathers - Eamon Duffy
5. Saint Thomas Aquinas: The Dumb Ox - GK Chesterton

February
6. The Spirit of the Liturgy - Pope Benedict XVI
7. The Innocence of Father Brown - GK Chesterton
8. The Great Divorce - CS Lewis
9. Sister Wendy on Prayer - Sr Wendy Beckett
10. Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives - Pope Benedict XVI

11. The Princess Bride - William Goldman

Frivolity! Adventure! Reading material in my thread that has nothing to do with religion!

I'd issue an immediate recommendation to everyone in the entire world to read this book immediately, but I'm pretty sure I'm the last person in the world to get round to it.

Anyway. It's utterly brilliant. Almost as good as the film, even.

LOL I'll give it a look :) I adore the film. For my 50th bday I invited a family over. We watched it and ate pizza :) Low key and utterly memorable.

Susan, that sounds like an excellent birthday to me. :) And I hope you enjoy the book too.

12. Full Moon - PG Wodehouse

It's a Wodehouse, so there are impersonations, sundered hearts, outraged aunts and chaos over who has which parcel. And the Empress.

Not one of Wodehouse's best: the first half is a bit strained, though it picks up admirably in the second half and the last few quarter is cracking. Still, an average Wodehouse is still a good read. 4/5.

13. Praying the Psalms - Thomas Merton

An essay rather than a full-length book, and a basic introduction to praying the psalms rather than a detailed examination of the practice.

14. Pigs Have Wings - PG Wodehouse

The Empress is in the running to win the Fat Pigs class at the Shropshire Agricultural Show for the third year running, but Lord Emsworth's bitterest rival Sir Gregory Parsloe has a new contender for the title in his sty--and also a fiancee who's put him on a strict diet. Meanwhile, Freddie's sister-in-law is enamoured of a penniless writer but betrothed to a Lord, who is himself bewailing the loss of his own beloved to another man, and the private detective Gally calls in to scupper any attempts to nobble the Empress brings chaos in her wake.

One of the best Blandings books, I think. The plots and people are of the usual Wodehouse kind, but the sheer number of sundered hearts, enraged sisters, conspiracies, plots and pignappings, plus a particularly sharp batch of prose, makes it great fun.

I love the alternation of Merton and Wodehouse. I wonder if Merton ever read Wodehouse?

#9 I almost picked up Apologia Pro Vita Sua after reading some of the Barsetshire books.. And then I put it back on the shelf again. But I would like to read it one day! I know my husband has his eye on Pope benedict XVI's Jesus of Nazareth books so I would be very interested in your thoughts on those if you have time.

#10 The Princess Bride is very good - I need to reread it (and rewatch the film)

#15. An interesting thought, Genny!

#16 Heather, the short answer is that I like the books a lot. There's a huge amount of substance in them, something profound to take away from every page, but they don't feel like hard work to read at all. I've been a bit frustrated that a lot of the theologians he refers to are people I don't know at all, who are were/are writing in German. Or sometimes in Italian. That's a very minor thing, though. I really need to get back to volume 2, which I was hoping to have finished by Easter

15. A Brief History of Britain 1660 - 1851: The Making of the Nation - William Gibson
A solid general history of the period, aimed at a popular audience. Gibson's own academic interest is in religious and political history, so that focus comes through heavily.

more for my list. hmph.

#18 Sorry, Susan. I shall try harder to only read very bad books.

So. Update.

16. Religion and the Decline of Magic - Keith Thomas
Very interesting and exceedingly thorough. A bit dated now in terms of its scholarship, but it holds up very well for a forty-year old work.

17. Jesus of Nazareth: From the Entrance Into Jerusalem To The Resurrection - Pope Benedict XVI
As with the other volumes, a huge depth and breadth of scholarship present in a very readable book, with treasure on just about every page. The whole trilogy is excellent.

18. The Trial of Doctor Sacheverell - Geoffrey Holmes
This is a very thorough look at said trial, which is fascinating if you need to study it, but I'm guessing the potential readership for detailed examinations of the prosecutions of politically hyperactive clergy by paranoid politicians during the reign of Queen Anne is fairly small. Rather dated now, but still interesting.

19. Heretics - GK Chesterton
Not one my favourite Chesterton works, and some of the essays are better than others, but still interesting and makes some good points.

"I'm guessing the potential readership for detailed examinations of the prosectuions of politically hyperactive clergy by paranoid politicians during the reign of Queen Anne is fairly small."

Ya' think? ;->

As for msg 19, seems you need to try harder still :) xox

So, I'm being rubbish at (a) reading anything, (b) updating my thread, and (c) visiting other threads. Which is not at all surprising given my performance on all these counts over the last couple of years, but is still a tad annoying.

Anyway. Short update.

20. The Cloister Walk - Kathleen Norris
21. Unapologetic - Francis Spufford
22. Catholicism: A journey to the heart of the faith - Robert Barron

All good stuff.

I shall now wander off again with the definite intention of getting some books not only read but also noted here, with actual details and stuff, in significantly less than a couple of months' time. (And we'll all believe that'll actually happen when we see it.)

It's good to see you pop up here now and then, Caty. I really like Kathleen Norris's writing. I may reread The Cloister Walk someday. So much to think about in her journey of faith.

Caty, the two good things about your rather infrequent visits are 1) that it is good to hear from you at all, however infrequent, and 2) you reassure me that I'm not the only one who is being very slow to update my thread and read other threads. And as ever, when you do drop in, you mention some interesting books! I'd like to read the Spufford; I enjoyed a rather different work of his, The Child that Books Built, a memoir and reflection on his childhood and adolescent reading, which I loved (partly because he's pretty much the same age as me and grew up with the same books and partly because he had interesting thoughts). I've heard good things about Unapologetic too.

#23 Donna, when I read that one I put it back on the shelf thinking it would be a good one to come back to in a few years. Something about the way she looks at all the different facets of her experiences makes me think it'll read very differently in different situations and at different stages of life. I think it's definitely one to re-read. And yes, huge amounts to think about.

#24 Thanks, Genny. The Spufford book is great. Very easy to read, being very conversational in style. I didn't agree with him on every single point, and he himself acknowledges that the book is a very subjective and experiential take on the subject, but there was a lot that I loved. I thought he was brilliant on the subject of original sin: he rejects a lot of the traditional language as unhelpful, given changes in language use, and talks about the concept as the 'human propensity to f*** things up' in a way that really makes a lot of sense.

23. The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

Trying to work out why I'd never read this until now. Can't. Should've done. Great fun. Shall be reading sequels sooner rather than later.

#24 Exactly what Genny said.

You're the third person I've seen recommend The Cloister Walk this month so I think I will definitely get hold of a copy.

And the Spufford sounds very interesting too.

#26 Hooray! Do listen to the BBC radio series too if you get the chance. The books were actually based on the radio series (rather than the other way round) and both are very, very funny.

I was going to say what Heather said about the radio version of HHGG - which I remember listening to with my Dad when it was first broadcast. I think I must have heard the first episode about 20 times, because Dad taped it and played it to all his friends to persuade them to listen too! You can get the radio series on Audible.

Ditto too about Cloister Walk, I'd not heard of it before but suddenly it has popped up in several threads with favourable comments.

I'm not glad for you that you're having trouble updating your thread and visiting others. But I am very relieved to see I'm not the only one!!

xox

#27/28 Heather and Genny, I shall try to get round to the radio series at some point. And yes, definitely do try to get hold of The Cloister Walk: I think you'd both appreciate it.

#29 Susan, I'm very glad I'm not the only one, too!

So, a bit of progress. Though this sudden burst of reading activity is probably a sign that I've not been being doing as much work as I ought to have been...

Anyway.

24. Unseen Academicals - Terry Pratchett
A re-read. I had been looking up the a reference near the start of the book (the reasons for employing a professional candle dribbler, in fact) and sort of ended up re-reading the whole thing. Oh, well. I'd forgotten how much fun this one is. Still a 5/5.

26. Miss Buncle's Book - DE Stevenson
Also a re-read. I can't remember why I wanted to re-read it (there was a particular thing that prompted me to pull it down off the shelf) but I'm glad I did. Also still a 5/5.

I reviewed this when I read it before, and have nothing to add to what I said then:

When Miss Buncle wrote her book, she wrote about what (or rather who) she knew. Everyone loved it. Except her neighbours.

Absolutely superb. Plot, characters, phrasing, humour, the lot. Glorious. Splendid. Perfect.

25. Blackout - Connie Willis
27. All Clear - Connie Willis
I picked up Blackout secondhand a couple of years ago and, knowing they are one story, had been holding off from reading it until I had also picked up a copy of All Clear. I finally gave in and started Blackout, and ordered All Clear so that it would arrive in time for me to go straight on to it. It didn't quite work - I read Blackout very fast, and there was a one day gap before All Clear arrived, which I took advantage of to read Miss Buncle's Book - but I basically read through the two volumes as one story.

I like Connie Willis a lot, but I do wonder whether the Oxford Time Travel books are all a bit too long. I don't know quite what I'd lose from these, not least because so much that seems superfluous earlier on actually turns out to be relevant when you get towards the end, but I think maybe it could have been condensed - made more concentrated in some of the earlier parts. It's beautifully plotted, though, and since I finished I've been going back to some of the earlier scenes to look again at the other side of some of the things that happen at the end and see how things fit together. It's really very clever.

The plot is *far* too complex to summarise properly, but basically three historians from the future travel to the past to study the Blitz, but something goes wrong and they're stuck there. For months, and in some cases years. While they are trying to get back (or forward) before they get killed, their department is trying to retrieve them, and everyone is desperately trying not to do anything that could change the outcome of the war.

As with Doomsday Book, I was very involved with the characters, and thought that they were superbly drawn. There were some errors with terminology that irked me (the repeated use of the rank of the USAAF rank Flight Officer in relation to the RAF, instead of Flying Officer or Flight Lieutenant, for example, and a couple of other American terms) but that's a minor nitpick.

A 4 for Blackout and a 5 for All Clear, making a 4.5 for the pair.

#31 Hi Caty! I've been dithering over whether to read Blackout and All Clear for some time and I think you've decided me in favour.

#32 Heather, I definitely recommend them, and I definitely recommend having them both at hand to read together. And I hope you enjoy them.

Glad to see you are leavening your heavy religious readings (Newman! Chesterton!) with some lightweight frivolity (Wodehouse! Pratchett!). Reminds me to seek out the next Pratchett to read...

Heather, there are lots of Connie Willis books at £2.99 each on Kindle at the moment. I'm quite tempted.

#35 Yes, I saw that offer. I am almost definitely going to get Blackout and All Clear this month.

#34 There's some heavy reading going on the background: it has just been on pause for a week or two. I should probably try to alternate in an organised way.

And I keep picking up the recent non-Discworld Pratchett books in bookshops and nearly buying them but them replacing them at the last minute. I shall crack shortly, and buy them.

Hope you're doing well. Re: the willis books. Sounds like they could be closer to To Say Nothing of the Dog than the Doomsday book. Is that right?

Bless you!

#38 I'm fine, thanks, Susan. Yes, that's probably fair, though they're a bit darker and definitely more serious than To Say Nothing of the Dog.

So, catching up, but omitting the Serious Religious Reading:

31. Illustrissimi - Albino Luciani (Pope John Paul I)
This is really not Serious Religious Reading, I promise, though as you'd expect there is a strong Catholic Christian theme running though the book. This is a collection of open letters written by Luciani before he became Pope, for publication in an Italian newspaper. They're addressed to all sorts of figures from history and literature, including Pinochio, Charles Dickens, Figaro, GK Chesterton, Hippocrates, Sir Walter Scott, Christopher Marlowe, Jesus, Empress Maria Theresa, and Goethe; as you might expect, they tackle a huge variety of themes. I don't think I'd have bought this for myself - it was a gift - but in assuming that I'd not enjoy it or gain from reading it, I'd have been wrong. There's a lot of humour and charm in the writing, as well as a serious point to each letter.

33. Enigma - Robert Harris
An entertaining thriller, set against the backdrop of the work at Bletchley Park to crack the Enigma code during the Second World War. It's not flawless, but it's well written, there's a very powerful sense of period, strong characters and the plot is decent enough. I was a bit disappointed in the ending, but that may have had more to do with my expectations than the actual book. I've scored the book at a strong 4/5.

34. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
I read this when I was about 8, and didn't like it. I forget why, but I remember it being a slog; I expect it bored me and I didn't find elves and dwarves and things particularly interesting. Anyway, I've been idly saying for the best part of a decade that I probably ought to give it another go sometime, and actually meaning to do so since I found my old copy in the back of a cupboard two or three years ago. A good friend of mine was re-reading the book recently, and while he did so he gave me several updates about how he was getting on with it, which inspired me to finally dig my copy out from the shelf where I had inexplicably stored it. I can't say I loved it, but I did at least like it. It wasn't a slog. And having spent years saying I won't read Lord of the Rings because I hated The Hobbit, I'm now thinking I probably shall read Lord of the Rings, and sooner rather than later. Also a 4/5.

35. The Masqueraders - Georgette Heyer
I was reading serious stuff about Jacobite rebellions, for reasons of a dissertation-related nature that we need not go into, and gave into the temptation for a fluffier perspective with a re-read of this. It scores a 4.5/5 because I find it just implausible enough to be silly, and the Viscount, 'Kate' and Letitia annoy me immensely. I like Prudence and Tony, though. And Heyer does improbable historical romps so well.

38. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark
It's been a while since I watched the film, but the degree of difference between the book and what I remember of the film surprised me - though, even so, couldn't read the dialogue without hearing Maggie Smith. It's an odd sort of book: I disliked many of the characters intensely, which I think says something about the genius with which they're written: they're so vivid, and strongly depicted, and consistent. One of the curious things about the book is that Spark doesn't comment overtly on her characters, hinting that they should be liked or disliked, painting anyone as good or bad: the characters are merely present, painted, and the reader is left to make their own assessments.

I wasn't sure that I would like the way the narrative jumps back and forth from the girls' childhood in Miss Brodie's class, to their teenage years, and their adulthood; it was surprising at first, because I had expected a more linear narrative. I do think it works, though: there's a lot of interwoven stuff about how the girls themselves come to understand Miss Brodie and how they relate to her, and how they themselves mature and begin to understand their own actions. The degree of control which Miss Brodie wields over the girls, and the extraordinary calculation behind her actions, are shown very cleverly. Also a 4.5/5.

39. The Long Earth - Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

From some excoriating reviews I'd read, I almost expected to hate it.

I didn't hate it.

The premise was interesting: there are multiple earths, and an inventor discovers a way to allow people to step easily between them. Travelling between the multiple earths is no longer the preserve of a few people who can do it naturally, but a mass colonisation movement with a huge impact on the planet.

The execution could have been better, but wasn't bad. The opening was a bit erratic, and it took a long time for disparate threads to come together. More could have been done with the premise, I thought, and the characters could have been developed more, but it was definitely a case of unrealised potential rather than problems being wrong with what was there.

I was very disappointed in the ending, which struck me as an anticlimax followed by a hook for the next book. Given the time that's supposed to elapse between the setting of this book and the sequel, I may be wrong about the latter - in which case the ending strikes me as an anticlimax followed by an odd event that seems to be unresolved.

3/5.

40. A Time to Keep Silence - Patrick Leigh Fermor
I've had a couple of Leigh Fermor's books lying around for a couple of years - I think I acquired them after I read his obituaries and discussions about him around the time of his death, which reminded that I'd never read any of his work. This was the first that I got around to actually reading; I have A Time of Gifts on the shelf, waiting.

I liked this a lot: Leigh Fermor does a good job of conveying the monastic atmosphere, and gives interesting descriptions of the surroundings and the history. Short and entertaining.

4/5.

I had just finished boxing up all my books and putting most of them into store, when a parcel arrived from my Dad, who thought I might be feeling bereft of books and so sent me a copy of A Time to Keep Silence! I'm glad to hear it's a good one - I too have been meaning to read him for several years, but may end up reading this first as I'm not sure I've brought the others with me to my new home.

#42 That was a lovely thing to do, and I hope you enjoy it.

41. God's Philosophers - James Hannam

A good introduction to the history of science in the middle ages, written for a popular audience. The focus is far more on the history than on the science. Hannam makes his argument clearly and the book is both interesting and very readable. I keep changing my mind on the rating, but either a 4/5 or a 4.5/5.

42. Anti-Catholicism in eighteenth-century England: A political and social study - Colin Haydon

If academic tomes on this subject are your thing and you have easy access to a university library, this is a very good one and worth reading. For the other 99.99999% of you, the noteworthy thing here is that I've equalled my total number of books read from last year.

Glad you're getting some good books in and esp happy (for you) to see that includes some text books.

#46 Thanks, Susan.

Quick update:
43. Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
44. Verbum Domini - Pope Benedict XVI
45. Mary: The Church at Source - Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI and Hans Urs von Balthasar
46. The Layperson's Distinctive Role - Francis Cardinal Arinze
48. The Silver Chair - CS Lewis
49. G. K. Chesterton, Theologian - Aidan Nichols
50. Flatland - Edwin Abbott

Not much to say about that lot. Water for Elephants was good, but I didn't like it as much as I expected to; I gave it a 4, but more on technical merit than personal enjoyment. Well written, but just not something I got on with particularly well. The Nichols book on Chesterton's theology is good for people who are particularly interested in Chesterton's religious writing and ideas. Flatland, I think, is best put in the 'dull to read, but philosophically very interesting' category.

#47 I think I liked Flatland more than you did, but being a maths geek probably helped! Still haven't read Water for Elephants.

#48 It probably did help, Heather!

51. Blotto, Twinks and the Ex-King's Daughter
I moved between quite enjoying this tale, and finding it intensely irritating. It's basically a parody of golden age mysteries and adventure tales; the first half is very much a take-off of the country house mystery, and The Prisoner of Zenda and similar works get the same treatment in the second. At times, I found it very clever and entertaining; at other times, it felt very overblown and unconvincing, with the parody aspect pushed too far. I made it to the end without too much difficulty, though there were moments when I struggled, but I'm not likely to bother with the rest of the series. Pace, a few sharp observations and considerable ingenuity bump it up to a 3/5.

52. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making - Catherynne M. Valente

A beautifully written fairytale. Really very lovely indeed.

53/54 The Making of a Marchioness/The Methods of Lady Walderhurst - Frances Hodgson Burnett

Emily Fox-Seton is in her mid thirties, well-born but poor, and has basically made a living out of running errands for people. Invited to a house party to do the drudge work of making it all run smoothly, she catches the eye of a middle-aged, widowed Marquis who needs to re-marry to stop his title going to an objectionable relative and has little interest in the debutantes being flung at him.

The first part/book covers their courtship, and the second the early stages of their marriage and the reactions of the displaced heir. I read the Persephone edition with the two books in one. I liked the first part/book more than the second, and found the characters increasingly annoying as time went on - though there's certainly far more substance to the later parts of the tale than the earlier, which redeems it more than a little. Overall, 3.5/5.

55. Raising Steam - Terry Pratchett

Dick Simnel, a man with his flat cap on straight and a good, solid education in mathematics, has managed what many an enterprising but less systematic man has failed to do: get a steam engine to actually work, rather than explode. And his steam engine soon catches the imagination of the rich and powerful, who see profits to be made and an excellent way of getting fresh seafood and still-edible strawberries into Ankh-Morpork. Moist von Lipwig, given the task of Arranging Things to the benefit of the city, soon finds there is rather a lot for him to do. But meanwhile, there is unrest among the dwarves: the faction who disapprove of the new ways are on the rise, and the coming of the trains is the final straw.

I had been looking forward to this immensely, and was disappointed to see extremely negative reactions in the first couple of days after publication. I was also disappointed when I started reading. Something - I couldn't quite put my finger on what - was a little off in the early pages. It just didn't sound quite right: there was nothing actually wrong with it - in fact, it was quite enjoyable - but it didn't sound quite like Proper Pratchett.

But somewhere around the time Ankh-Morpork was becoming entranced with the idea of trains, people were writing down the locomotive number "1" in a notebook without quite knowing why, and Lord Vetinari was musing over the possibilities of the technology as a small model train chuffed around in circles on his desk*, something fell into place, and from then on I really enjoyed it.

Anyone who comes to this expecting absolute vintage Pratchett, in the sharp style of fifteen years or so ago, is going to be disappointed. And anyone who's read the last four or five books and come to the conclusion that Pratchett just can't do it any more is probably not going to have their mind changed by this book. The tone of this book, like that of other recent work, is a little slower, and a little softer, than mid-series Discworld. This is not flawless, and it's not going to be my favourite Pratchett. But I do think it's still a very good book.

4/5.

*Somewhere around page 40-50, if that matters.

56. Truckers - Terry Pratchett
57. Diggers - Terry Pratchett
58. Wings - Terry Pratchett

Not having discovered Terry Pratchett until adulthood, I have missed most of the books he has written for children. I was flicking through an all-in-one edition of the Bromeliad Trilogy the other day, and thought I should remedy that state of affairs. So I have. It's a pretty good story, with lots of interesting stuff to ponder about knowledge and religion. An average of 4/5 over the whole set.

Didn't realize Burnett had written more... duh. LOL

I think you summed up how I felt about Water for Elephants quite well -- how'd you know?!

Hope you have a good break! And, just in case I don't make it back, have a wonderful Christmas.

#54 Thanks, Susan.

A small update:
59. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
61. Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures - Pope Benedict XVI
62. The Box of Delights - John Masefield
64. Sackcloth and Ashes - Ann Widdecombe

There'd have been more completed reads to report, but I'm half way through a single-volume edition of The Lord of the Rings (amongst other things), which is taking me ages and won't get listed until it's all finished.

A slightly belated Happy Christmas, everyone.

And that's it for the year. 2014 thread is here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/162932