PAUL C'S SECOND HOME - PART 6

SCENES FROM MY BOOKS

Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne - how have I not read this one yet?

POETRY

I couldn't include poetry from the modern poets that have most affected and influenced me without including the Grandaddy, TS Eliot. Adopted Brit and in my top three of poets always.

This is from THE LOVE SONG OF J. ALFRED PRUFROCK

Reading Record

JANUARY

1. Plague 99 by Jean Ure (1989) 218 pp
2. Tom Brown's Schooldays by Thomas Hughes (1857) 309 pp
3. A Lear of the Steppes by Ivan Turgenev (1870) 117 pp
4. A Fall from the Sky by Ian Serraillier (1966) 78 pp
5. The Overnight Kidnapper by Andrea Camilleri (2015) 262 pp
6. Dove on the Waters by Maurice Shadbolt (1996) 198 pp
7. A Portable Paradise by Roger Robinson (2019) 81 pp
8. The Other End of the Line by Andrea Camilleri (2016) 293 pp
9. The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (2019) 208 pp
10. Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome (1930) 501 pp
11. Carrie's War by Nina Bawden (1973) 211 pp
12. Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart (2020) 430 pp
13. Judge Savage by Tim Parks (2003) 442 pp
14. The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side by Agatha Christie (1962) 280 pp
15. Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer (1969) 227 pp
16. Jazz by Toni Morrison (1992) 229 pp
17. A Question of Upbringing by Anthony Powell (1951) 230 pp

FEBRUARY

18. Junk by Melvyn Burgess (1996) 278 pp
19. The Great Fire by Monica Dickens (1970) 64 pp
20. At Bertram's Hotel by Agatha Christie (1965) 265 pp
21. A Room of Own's Own by Virginia Woolf (1929) 153 pp
22. Bury the Dead by Peter Carter (1987) 374 pp
23. Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch (2011) 390 pp
24. Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne (1873) 242 pp
25. Woods, etc. by Alice Oswald (2005) 56 pp
26. Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg (2015) 293 pp

CURRENTLY READING

READING PLAN
Reading Plan

1 British Author Challenge - set this year by Amanda in the 75er Group

2 1001 Book First Edition - Ongoing

3 Booker Challenge - Read all the Booker winners; I may get close to completing that in 2021

4 Nobel Winners - Read all the Nobel Winners

5 Pulitzer Winners - Read all the Pulitzer fiction winners

6 Around the World Challenge - Read a book from an author born in or with parents from all countries - I reset this challenge in October 2020.

7 Queen Victoria Challenge - Read a book from every year of Queen Victoria's reign (1837-1901) with no repeat authors. Started December 2020

8 Queen Betty Challenge - Read a book from every year of Queen Elizabeth II reign (1952-2021) - British authors only and no repeats.

9 Dance to the Music of Time - One a month all year.

10. The 52 Book Club Challenge - A book a week from these selected categories https://www.the52book.club/challenges/2021-reading-challenge/

11. A Dent in the TBR - I have approaching 5,000 books in my TBR so I must read some of the 250 books I have bought in 2020 that end the current year unread.

12. Poetry - My first love in many ways and I am still something of a scribbler of lines to this day.

13. American Author Challenge - Linda came up trumps.

14. Series Pairs - I will choose one favourite series and read the next two books in that particular series I have slightly fallen behind with.

BAC



January: Children's Classics https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7317610

February: LGBT+ History Month https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7317871

March: Vaseem Khan & Eleanor Hibbert https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7318561

April: Love is in the Air https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7319432

May: V. S. Naipaul & Na'ima B. Robert https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7320231

June: The Victorian Era (1837-1901) https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7320541

July: Don't judge a book by its movie https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7321220

August: Bernard Cornwell & Helen Oyeyemi https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7321374

September: She Blinded Me with Science https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7321899

October: Narrative Poetry https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7322840

November: Tade Thompson & Elizabeth Taylor https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7323772

December: Awards & Honors https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7325017

Wildcard: Books off your shelves https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7325595

AMERICAN AUTHOR CHALLENGE



Please see:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/327669#7354831

January : Keep it in the Family : F. Scott Fitzgerald

BOOKERS
Personal Reading Challenge: Every winner of the Booker Prize since its inception in 1969

1969: P. H. Newby, Something to Answer For - READ
1970: Bernice Rubens, The Elected Member
1970: J. G. Farrell, Troubles (awarded in 2010 as the Lost Man Booker Prize) - READ
1971: V. S. Naipaul, In a Free State
1972: John Berger, G.
1973: J. G. Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapur - READ
1974: Nadine Gordimer, The Conservationist ... and Stanley Middleton, Holiday - READ
1975: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Heat and Dust - READ
1976: David Storey, Saville - READ
1977: Paul Scott, Staying On - READ
1978: Iris Murdoch, The Sea, The Sea
1979: Penelope Fitzgerald, Offshore - READ
1980: William Golding, Rites of Passage - READ
1981: Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children - READ
1982: Thomas Keneally, Schindler's Ark - READ
1983: J. M. Coetzee, Life & Times of Michael K
1984: Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac - READ
1985: Keri Hulme, The Bone People
1986: Kingsley Amis, The Old Devils - READ
1987: Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger - READ
1988: Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda
1989: Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day
1990: A. S. Byatt, Possession: A Romance - READ
1991: Ben Okri, The Famished Road
1992: Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient ... and Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger - READ
1993: Roddy Doyle, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
1994: James Kelman, How late it was, how late
1995: Pat Barker, The Ghost Road
1996: Graham Swift, Last Orders - READ
1997: Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things READ
1998: Ian McEwan, Amsterdam - READ
1999: J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace - READ
2000: Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin
2001: Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang - READ
2002: Yann Martel, Life of Pi
2003: DBC Pierre, Vernon God Little
2004: Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty
2005: John Banville, The Sea - READ
2006: Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss
2007: Anne Enright, The Gathering - READ
2008: Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger - READ
2009: Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall - READ
2010: Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question
2011: Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending - READ
2012: Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies - READ
2013: Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries
2014: Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North - READ
2015: Marlon James, A Brief History of Seven Killings - READ
2016: Paul Beatty, The Sellout - READ
2017: George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo
2018: Anna Burns, Milkman
2019: Margaret Atwood, The Testaments, and Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other
2020: Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain READ JAN 21

READ 32 of 56 WINNERS

Pulitzer Winners

As with the Bookers, I want to eventually read all the Pulitzer winners (for fiction at least) and have most of the recent ones on the shelves at least. Current status.

Fiction

1918 HIS FAMILY - Ernest Poole
1919 THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS - Booth Tarkington
1921 THE AGE OF INNOCENCE - Edith Wharton
1922 ALICE ADAMS - Booth Tarkington
1923 ONE OF OURS - Willa Cather
1924 THE ABLE MCLAUGHLINS - Margaret Wilson
1925 SO BIG - Edna Ferber
1926 ARROWSMITH - Sinclair Lewis (Declined)
1927 EARLY AUTUMN - Louis Bromfield
1928 THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY - Thornton Wilder
1929 SCARLET SISTER MARY - Julia Peterkin
1930 LAUGHING BOY - Oliver Lafarge ON SHELVES
1931 YEARS OF GRACE - Margaret Ayer Barnes
1932 THE GOOD EARTH - Pearl Buck
1933 THE STORE - Thomas Sigismund Stribling
1934 LAMB IN HIS BOSOM - Caroline Miller
1935 NOW IN NOVEMBER - Josephine Winslow Johnson
1936 HONEY IN THE HORN - Harold L Davis
1937 GONE WITH THE WIND - Margaret Mitchell ON SHELVES
1938 THE LATE GEORGE APLEY - John Phillips Marquand
1939 THE YEARLING - Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
1940 THE GRAPES OF WRATH - John Steinbeck
1942 IN THIS OUR LIFE - Ellen Glasgow
1943 DRAGON'S TEETH - Upton Sinclair
1944 JOURNEY IN THE DARK - Martin Flavin
1945 A BELL FOR ADANO - John Hersey ON SHELVES
1947 ALL THE KING'S MEN - Robert Penn Warren ON SHELVES
1948 TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC - James Michener
1949 GUARD OF HONOR - James Gould Cozzens
1950 THE WAY WEST - A.B. Guthrie
1951 THE TOWN - Conrad Richter
1952 THE CAINE MUTINY - Herman Wouk
1953 THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA - Ernest Hemingway
1955 A FABLE - William Faulkner
1956 ANDERSONVILLE - McKinlay Kantor
1958 A DEATH IN THE FAMILY - James Agee ON SHELVES
1959 THE TRAVELS OF JAIMIE McPHEETERS - Robert Lewis Taylor
1960 ADVISE AND CONSENT - Allen Drury
1961 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD - Harper Lee
1962 THE EDGE OF SADNESS - Edwin O'Connor
1963 THE REIVERS - William Faulkner
1965 THE KEEPERS OF THE HOUSE - Shirley Ann Grau
1966 THE COLLECTED STORIES OF KATHERINE ANNE PORTER - Katherine Anne Porter
1967 THE FIXER - Bernard Malamud
1968 THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER - William Styron
1969 HOUSE MADE OF DAWN - N Scott Momaday ON SHELVES
1970 THE COLLECTED STORIES OF JEAN STAFFORD - Jean Stafford
1972 ANGLE OF REPOSE - Wallace Stegner ON SHELVES
1973 THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER - Eudora Welty ON SHELVES
1975 THE KILLER ANGELS - Jeff Shaara ON SHELVES
1976 HUMBOLDT'S GIFT - Saul Bellow
1978 ELBOW ROOM - James Alan McPherson
1979 THE STORIES OF JOHN CHEEVER - John Cheever ON SHELVES
1980 THE EXECUTIONER'S SONG - Norman Mailer ON SHELVES
1981 A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES - John Kennedy Toole ON SHELVES
1982 RABBIT IS RICH - John Updike
1983 THE COLOR PURPLE - Alice Walker ON SHELVES
1984 IRONWEED - William Kennedy ON SHELVES
1985 FOREIGN AFFAIRS - Alison Lurie ON SHELVES
1986 LONESOME DOVE - Larry McMurtry ON SHELVES
1987 A SUMMONS TO MEMPHIS - Peter Taylor
1988 BELOVED - Toni Morrison - ON SHELVES
1989 BREATHING LESSONS - Anne Tyler
1990 THE MAMBO KINGS PLAY SONGS OF LOVE - Oscar Hijuelos
1991 RABBIT AT REST - John Updike
1992 A THOUSAND ACRES - Jane Smiley
1993 A GOOD SCENT FROM A STRANGE MOUNTAIN - Robert Olen Butler
1994 THE SHIPPING NEWS - E Annie Proulx
1995 THE STONE DIARIES - Carol Shields ON SHELVES
1996 INDEPENDENCE DAY - Richard Ford ON SHELVES
1997 MARTIN DRESSLER - Steven Millhauser ON SHELVES
1998 AMERICAN PASTORAL - Philip Roth ON SHELVES
1999 THE HOURS - Michael Cunningham ON SHELVES
2000 INTERPRETER OF MALADIES - Jumpha Lahiri
2001 THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY - Michael Chabon ON SHELVES
2002 EMPIRE FALLS - Richard Russo ON SHELVES
2003 MIDDLESEX - Jeffrey Eugenides ON SHELVES
2004 THE KNOWN WORLD - Edward P. Jones ON SHELVES
2005 GILEAD - Marilynne Robinson ON SHELVES
2006 MARCH - Geraldine Brooks
2007 THE ROAD - Cormac McCarthy
2008 THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO - Junot Diaz ON SHELVES
2009 OLIVE KITTERIDGE - Elizabeth Strout ON SHELVES
2010 TINKERS - Paul Harding
2011 A VISIT FROM THE GOOD SQUAD - Jennifer Egan ON SHELVES
2013 ORPHAN MASTER'S SON - Adam Johnson ON SHELVES
2014 THE GOLDFINCH - Donna Tartt ON SHELVES
2015 ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE - Anthony Doerr ON SHELVES
2016 THE SYMPATHIZER - Viet Thanh Nguyen ON SHELVES
2017 THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD - Colson Whitehead ON SHELVES
2018 LESS - Andrew Sean Greer ON SHELVES
2019 THE OVERSTORY - Richard Powers ON SHELVES
2020 THE NICKEL BOYS - Colson Whitehead


17 READ
37 ON SHELVES
39 NOT OWNED OR READ

93 TOTAL

NOBELS

Update on my Nobel Prize Winning Reading:
1901 Sully Prudhomme
1902 Theodor Mommsen
1903 Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
1904 Frédéric Mistral and José Echegaray y Eizaquirre
1905 Henryk Sienkiewicz
1906 Giosuè Carducci
1907 Rudyard Kipling - READ
1908 Rudolf Christoph Eucken
1909 Selma Lagerlöf
1910 Paul Heyse --
1911 Count Maurice Maeterlinck
1912 Gerhart Hauptmann
1913 Rabindranath Tagore - READ
1915 Romain Rolland
1916 Verner von Heidenstam
1917 Karl Adolph Gjellerup and Henrik Pontoppidan
1919 Carl Spitteler
1920 Knut Hamsun - READ
1921 Anatole France - READ
1922 Jacinto Benavente
1923 William Butler Yeats - READ
1924 Wladyslaw Reymont
1925 George Bernard Shaw - READ
1926 Grazia Deledda - READ
1927 Henri Bergson
1928 Sigrid Undset
1929 Thomas Mann - READ
1930 Sinclair Lewis - READ
1931 Erik Axel Karlfeldt
1932 John Galsworthy - READ
1933 Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin - READ
1934 Luigi Pirandello - READ
1936 Eugene O'Neill - READ
1937 Roger Martin du Gard
1938 Pearl S. Buck - READ
1939 Frans Eemil Sillanpää
1944 Johannes Vilhelm Jensen
1945 Gabriela Mistral
1946 Hermann Hesse - READ
1947 André Gide - READ
1948 T.S. Elliot - READ
1949 William Faulkner - READ
1950 Bertrand Russell - READ
1951 Pär Lagerkvist - READ
1952 François Mauriac - READ
1953 Sir Winston Churchill - READ
1954 Ernest Hemingway - READ
1955 Halldór Laxness - READ
1956 Juan Ramón Jiménez
1957 Albert Camus - READ
1958 Boris Pasternak (declined the prize) - READ
1959 Salvatore Quasimodo
1960 Saint-John Perse
1961 Ivo Andric - READ
1962 John Steinbeck - READ
1963 Giorgos Seferis
1964 Jean-Paul Sartre (declined the prize) - READ
1965 Michail Sholokhov
1966 Shmuel Yosef Agnon and Nelly Sachs - READ
1967 Miguel Ángel Asturias
1968 Yasunari Kawabata - READ
1969 Samuel Beckett - READ
1970 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - READ
1971 Pablo Neruda - READ
1972 Heinrich Böll - READ
1973 Patrick White
1974 Eyvind Johnson and Harry Martinson
1975 Eugenio Montale
1976 Saul Bellow - READ
1977 Vincente Aleixandre
1978 Isaac Bashevis Singer - READ
1979 Odysseas Elytis - READ
1980 Czeslaw Milosz
1981 Elias Canetti
1982 Gabriel Garciá Márquez - READ
1983 William Golding - READ
1984 Jaroslav Seifert - READ
1985 Claude Simon - READ
1986 Akinwande Ouwoe Soyinka
1987 Joseph Brodsky - READ
1988 Naguib Mahfouz - READ
1989 Camilo José Cela - READ
1990 Octavio Paz
1991 Nadine Gordimer - READ
1992 Derek Walcott - READ
1993 Toni Morrison - READ
1994 Kenzaburo Oe - READ
1995 Seamus Heaney - READ
1996 Wislawa Szymborska - READ
1997 Dario Fo - READ
1998 José Saramago - READ
1999 Günter Grass
2000 Gao Xingjian
2001 Vidiadhar Surjprasad Naipaul - READ
2002 Imre Kertész - READ
2003 John Maxwell Coetzee - READ
2004 Elfriede Jelinek - READ
2005 Harold Pinter - READ
2006 Orhan Pamuk - READ
2007 Doris Lessing - READ
2008 J.M.G. Le Clézio
2009 Herta Müller - READ
2010 Mario Vargas Llosa - READ
2011 Tomas Tranströmer - READ
2012 Mo Yan
2013 Alice Munro - READ
2014 Patrick Modiano - READ
2015 Svetlana Alexievich - READ
2016 Bob Dylan - READ
2017 Kazuo Ishiguro - READ
2018 Olga Tokarczuk - READ
2019 Peter Handke - READ
2020 Louise Gluck - READ

READ 71 OF
117 LAUREATES

AROUND THE WORLD CHALLENGE
Around the world in books challenge. I want to see how many countries I can cover without limiting myself to a specific deadline.

From 1 October 2020

1. United Kingdom - The Ways of the World by Robert Goddard EUROPE
2. Ireland - The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde EUROPE
3. Lithuania - Selected and Last Poems by Czeslaw Milosz EUROPE
4. Netherlands - The Ditch by Herman Koch EUROPE
5. Armenia - The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian ASIA PACIFIC
6. Zimbabwe - This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga AFRICA
7. United States - Averno by Louise Gluck AMERICA
8. Australia - Taller When Prone by Les Murray ASIA PACIFIC
9. France - Class Trip by Emmanuel Carrere EUROPE
10. Russia - The Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov EUROPE
11. Denmark - Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard EUROPE
12. Democratic Republic of Congo - Tram 83 by Fiston Mwanze Mujila AFRICA
13. Canada - I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven AMERICA
14. Italy - The Overnight Kidnapper by Andrea Camilleri EUROPE
15. New Zealand - Dove on the Waters by Maurice Shadbolt ASIA PACIFIC


Create Your Own Visited Countries Map

QUEEN VIC CHALLENGE
Regarding my Victorian Era Challenge which I started this month with the aim of completing it by the end of 2021. 64 years. 64 books. 64 authors.

From Dec 2020

1843 FEAR AND TREMBLING by Kierkegaard
1850 PENDENNIS by Thackeray
1857 TOM BROWN'S SCHOOLDAYS by Hughes
1870 A LEAR OF THE STEPPES by Turgenev
1873 AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS by Verne
1881 PRINCE AND THE PAUPER by Twain
1900 THREE SISTERS by Chekhov

7/64

QUEEN BETTY CHALLENGE

From December 2020 70 Years 70 Books 70 Different British Authors

1962 The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side by Agatha Christie
1966 A Fall from the Sky by Ian Serraillier
1969 Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Framer
1970 The Great Fire by Monica Dickens
1973 Carrie's War by Nina Bawden
1987 Bury the Dead by Peter Carter
1989 Plague 99 by Jean Ure
1996 Junk by Melvyn Burgess
2003 Judge Savage by Tim Parks
2005 Woods, etc. by Alice Oswald
2011 Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
2013 A Delicate Truth by John Le Carre
2019 A Portable Paradise by Roger Robinson
2020 Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

14/70

52 BOOK CLUB CHALLENGE

Based on this challenge suggested by Katie & Chelle

https://www.the52book.club/challenges/2021-reading-challenge/

January
Week 1 : Set in a school : Tom Brown's Schooldays by Hughes Read 2 Jan 2021
Week 2 : Legal profession : Judge Savage by Tim Parks Read 28 Jan 2021
Week 3 : Dual timeline : Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer Read 29 Jan 2021
Week 4 : Deceased author : Jazz by Toni Morrison READ 30 Jan 2021
Week 5 : Published by Penguin : Junk by Melvyn Burgess READ 3 Feb 2021
Week 6 : Male Family Member : Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch READ 12 Feb 2021
Week 7 : 1 Published Work :
Week 8 : Dewey 900 Class :

SERIES PAIR CHALLENGE

January First Half : Andrea Camilleri - MONTALBANO DONE
January Second Half : Agatha Christie - MISS MARPLE DONE
February First Half : Ben Aaronovitch - PETER GRANT

READ MORE THAN ACQUIRED

Last year I added 300 books but read 50 of them. In addition I have another 4,500 plus on the TBR.
The challenge is not to make the situation of my TBR worse.
So I must read or remove from my wider TBR more than I acquire this year and I will gauge this against last years "new" TBR and any future incomings. Therefore the older TBRs don't count against this challenge.

The figure at the start of the year is 250 books and this number must be smaller by December 31. These are the 250 books:

1 Stay with Me Adebayo
2 American War Akkad
3 The Catholic School Albinati
4 The Unwomanly Face of War Alexievich
5 Saltwater Andrews
6 Big Sky Atkinson
7 At the Jerusalem Bailey
8 The Body Lies Baker
9 The Lost Memory of Skin Banks
10 Remembered Battle-Felton
11 Springtime in a Broken Mirror Benedetti
12 A Crime in the Neighborhood Berne
13 Stand By Me Berry
14 Love Story, With Murders Bingham
15 This Thing of Darkness Bingham
16 The Sandcastle Girls Bohjalian
17 The Ascent of Rum Doodle Bowman
18 Clade Bradley
19 The Snow Ball Brophy
20 Paladin of Souls Bujold
21 Parable of the Sower Butler
22 The Adventures of China Iron Camara
23 The Overnight Kidnapper Camilleri READ JAN 21
24 The Other End of the Line Camilleri READ JAN 21
25 Lord of all the Dead Cercas
26 Uncle Vanya Checkov
27 The Cherry Orchard Checkov
28 Blue Moon Child
29 Trust Exercise Choi
30 The Night Tiger Choo
31 The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side Christie READ JAN 21
32 At Bertram's Hotel Christie READ FEB 21
33 The Water Dancer Coates
34 The New Wilderness Cook
35 Hopscotch Cortazar
36 The Illumination of Ursula Flight Crowhurst
37 Deviation D'Eramo
38 Boy Swallows Universe Dalton
39 The Girl with the Louding Voice Dare
40 The Rose of Tibet Davidson
41 Dhalgren Delany
42 The Butterfly Girl Denfeld
43 Vernon Subutex 1 Despentes
44 Postcolonial Love Poem Diaz
45 Childhood Ditlevsen
46 Youth Ditlevsen
47 Dependency Ditlevsen
48 Burnt Sugar Doshi
49 Frenchman's Creek Du Maurier D
50 Trilby Du Maurier G
51 Sincerity Duffy
52 Sumarine Dunthorne
53 The Narrow Land Dwyer-Hickey
54 Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race Eddo-Lodge
55 Axiom's End Ellis
56 Figures in a Landscape England
57 kaddish.com Englander
58 Shadow Tag Erdrich
59 The Carpet Makers Eschbach
60 The Emperor's Babe Evaristo
61 Small Country Faye
62 To Rise Again at a Decent Hour Ferris
63 At Freddie's Fitzgerald
64 The Guest List Foley
65 Man's Search for Meaning Frankel
66 Love in No Man's Land Ga
67 Norse Mythology Gaiman
68 The Spare Room Garner
69 The Kites Gary
70 Gun Island Ghosh
71 Vita Nova Gluck
72 Trafalgar Gorodischer
73 Potiki Grace
74 Killers of the Flower Moon Grann
75 The Last Banquet Grimwood
76 Guapa Haddad
77 The Porpoise Haddon
78 Late in the Day Hadley
79 The Final Bet Hamdouchi
80 The Parisian Hammad
81 Nightingale Hannah
82 Coastliners Harris J
83 The Truths We Hold Harris K
84 Conclave Harris R
85 The Second Sleep Harris R
86 Tales of the Tikongs Hau'ofa
87 A Thousand Ships Haynes
88 The River Heller
89 Dead Lions Herron
90 Real Tigers Herron
91 War and Turpentine Hertmans
92 A Political History of the World Holslag
93 Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine Honeyman
94 The Light Years Howard
95 Promise Me You'll Shoot Yourself Huber
96 A High Wind in Jamaica Hughes
97 Ape and Essence Huxley
98 Me John
99 Nightblind Jonasson
100 Black Out Jonasson
101 How to be an Anti-Rascist Kendi
102 Death is Hard Work Khalifa
103 Darius the Great is Not Okay Khorram
104 Himself Kidd
105 Diary of a Murderer Kim
106 Dance of the Jacakranda Kimani
107 The Bridge Konigsberg
108 Who They Was Krauze
109 The Mars Room Kushner
110 The Princesse de Cleves La Fayette
111 The Other Americans Lalami
112 The Curious Case of Dassoukine's Trousers Laroui
113 Fish Can Sing Laxness
114 Agent Running in the Field Le Carre
115 Pachinko Lee
116 The Turncoat Lenz
117 The Topeka School Lerner
118 Caging Skies Leunens
119 The Fifth Risk Lewis
120 The Three-Body Problem Liu
121 Lost Children Archive Luiselli
122 Black Moses Mabanckou
123 Blue Ticket Mackintosh
124 A Burning Majumdar
125 The Mirror and the Light Mantel
126 Original Spin Marks
127 Deep River Marlantes
128 The Return Matar
129 The Island Matute
130 Hame McAfee
131 Apeirogon McCann
132 Underland McFarlane
133 Hurricane Season Melchor
134 The Shadow King Mengiste
135 The Human Swarm Moffett
136 She Would Be King Moore
137 The Starless Sea Morgenstern
138 Poetry by Heart Motion
139 A Fairly Honourable Defeat Murdoch
140 The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov Nabokov
141 The Warlow Experiment Nathan
142 The Left-Handed Booksellers of London Nix
143 Born a Crime Noah
144 The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney Nzelu
145 Girl O'Brien
146 After You'd Gone O'Farrell
147 Henry, Himself O'Nan
148 Inland Obreht
149 Weather Offill
150 Dept. of Speculation Offill
151 Stag's Leap Olds
152 Blue Horses Oliver
153 Felicity Oliver
154 Will Olyslaegers
155 Woods, etc Oswald READ FEB 21
156 Night Theatre Paralkar
157 The Damascus Road Parini
158 Empress of the East Peirce
159 The Street Petry
160 Disappearing Earth Phillips
161 Arid Dreams Pimwana
162 Peterloo : Witness to a Massacre Polyp
163 Lanny Porter
164 The Women at Hitler's Table Postorino
165 A Question of Upbringing Powell A READ JAN 21
166 A Buyer's Market Powell A
167 The Acceptance World Powell A
168 The Interrogative Mood Powell P
169 Rough Magic Prior-Palmer
170 The Alice Network Quinn
171 Where the Red Fern Grows Rawls
172 Such a Fun Age Reid
173 Selected Poems 1950-2012 Rich
174 The Discomfort of Evening Rijneveld
175 Jack Robinson
176 The Years of Rice and Salt Robinson K
177 A Portable Paradise Robinson R READ JAN 21
178 The Fall of the Ottomans Rogan
179 Normal People Rooney
180 Conversations with Friends Rooney
181 Alone Time Rosenbloom
182 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Rowling
183 The Watch Roy-Bhattacharya
184 The Five Rubenhold
185 Contact Sagan
186 The Hunters Salter
187 The Seventh Cross Seghers
188 Will Self
189 Moses Ascending Selvon
190 The Dove on the Water Shadbolt READ JAN 21
191 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World Shafak
192 In Arabian Nights Shah
193 The Caliph's House Shah
194 Mrs Warren's Profession Shaw
195 Arms and the Man Shaw
196 Candida Shaw
197 Man and Superman Shaw
198 Dimension of Miracles Sheckley
199 The Last Man Shelley
200 Temple of a Thousand Faces Shors
201 Year of the Monkey Smith P
202 Eternity Smith T
203 Crossing Statovci
204 Lucy Church, Amiably Stein
205 Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are Dead Stoppard
206 Blood Cruise Strandberg
207 Shuggie Bain Stuart READ JAN 21
208 Three Poems Sullivan
209 Rules for Perfect Murders Swanson
210 Cane River Tademy
211 Real Life Taylor
212 The Queen's Gambit Tevis
213 Far North Therous
214 Walden Thoreau
215 Civil Disobedience Thoreau
216 Survivor Song Tremblay
217 The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee Treuer
218 The Small House at Allingham Trollope
219 A Nest of Gentlefolk Turgenev
220 A Quiet Backwater Turgenev
221 A Lear of the Steppes Turgenev READ JAN 21
222 The Queen of Attolia Turner
223 The King of Attolia Turner
224 Redhead by the Side of the Road Tyler
225 Outlaw Ocean Urbina
226 Plague 99 Ure READ JAN 2021
227 The Age of Miracles Walker
228 The Uninhabitable Earth Wallace-Wells
229 Judith Paris Walpole
230 Love and Other Thought Experiments Ward
231 The Death of Mrs. Westaway Ware
232 Lolly Willows Warner
233 Second Life Watson
234 Final Cut Watson
235 Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen Weldon
236 Before the War Weldon
237 Lazarus West
238 Educated Westover
239 The Nickel Boys Whitehead READ JAN 21
240 The Death of Murat Idrissi Wieringa
241 Salome Wilde
242 An Ideal Husband Wilde
243 Lady Windemere's Fan Wilde
244 A Woman of No Importance Wilde
245 The Salt Path Winn
246 The Natural Way of Things Wood C
247 East Lynne Wood E
248 A Room of One's Own Woolf READ FEB 21
249 Interior Chinatown Yu
250 How Much of These Hills is Gold Zhang

BEGIN : 250
READ : 13
ADDED : 21 (Nett after deducting those already read)
CULLED : 0 (AGED TBR)

PRESENT TOTAL : 258

THIS YEAR'S ACQUISITIONS

1. Some Experiences of an Irish R.M. by Somerville & Ross
2. Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome READ JAN 21
3. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
4. The French Revolution by Thomas Carlyle
5. The Black Corsair by Emilio Salgari
6. The Prime Ministers : Reflections on Leadership from Wilson to Johnson by Steve Richards
7. The God Child by Nana Oforiatta Ayim
8. Arturo's Island by Elsa Morante
9. Coningsby by Benjamin Disraeli
10. The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott
11. The Light in Hidden Places by Sharon Cameron
12. Death's Mistress by Terry Goodkind
13. The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey
14. Small Days and Nights by Tishani Doshi
15. Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai
16. Desert by JMG Le Clezio
17. For the Record by David Cameron
18. The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
19. The Guardians of the West by David Eddings
20. Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi
21. The Council of Egypt by Leonardo Sciascia
22. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

22 added
1 read
21 nett additions

RESOLUTIONS

BOOK STATS :

Books Read : 26
Books Added : 22
Nett TBR Reduction : 4

Number of Pages in completed books : 6,419
Avergae per day : 142.64
Projected Page Total : 52,065

Number of days per book : 1.73
Projected Number : 210
LT Best : 157

Longest Book read : 501 pages
Shortest Book read : 64 pages
Mean Average Book Length : 246.88 pages

Male Authors : 17
Female Authors : 9

UK Authors : 18
Italy : 2
USA : 3
NZ : 1
Russia : 1
France : 1

1001 Books First Edition : 3 (307)
New Nobel Winners :
Pulitzer Fiction Winners : 1 (17)
Booker Winners : 1 (32)
Around the World Challenge : New countries : 2 (15)
BAC Books : 10
AAC Books :
Queen Vic Books : 4 (7/64)
Queen Betty Books : 13 (14/70)
52 Book Challenge : 6 (6/52)

Next one is yours

Happy new thread!

>21 amanda4242: Thank you, dear Amanda.

Happy new one!

Happy new one!

>23 figsfromthistle: & >24 drneutron: Thank you Anita and Jim. It is always a pleasure to have both of you keep me company.

Happy new thread!

With continuations working again it's possible to end up tangled in new threads.

>26 quondame: Thank you, Susan. I don't mind a bit of entanglement now and again!

>2 PaulCranswick: That was required reading in high school, and it has stuck with me ever since. Thanks for the snippet revisit.

>28 justchris: I delve into poetry every week without fail from several fairly large anthologies but I will also drop into some of my absolute favourite poets from time to time - Yeats, Eliot, Dylan Thomas, Auden, McNeice, Betjeman, Larkin, Hughes, Heaney, Clarke, Armitage, Paterson - plus some oldies - Longfellow, Tennyson, Hardy, Rosetti, Wordsworth, Keats, Byron, Shelley, Arnold and Manley-Hopkins.
Eliot and Dylan Thomas I probably turn to the most.

Happy New Thread, Paul. Have a good work week.

>29 PaulCranswick: And I still so poetry ignorant. I need to get some all-purpose anthologies and start remedying myself. Actually, I had eyed the a pretty large collection of Mary Oliver's poems, but it was too expensive. Sigh. Need to use the library more.

>30 msf59: Short week this week, buddy, as Chinese or Lunar New Year makes its welcome appearance on Friday.

>31 justchris: I do like Mary Oliver's work very much as well as the new Nobel Laureate Louise Gluck.

Happy new thread! (By the way I've made my 21st century list. I think you'll find at least a few titles in common.)

>33 AnneDC: Thanks Anne. Guess where I am going to now?!

Happy new thread, Paul.

My kids have Thursday off school, too, as well as the Friday public holiday.

>35 humouress: Thanks, Nina.

So you don't get any holiday on Thursday or Friday but the kids do?! More work not less work for you. xx

Happy New Thread, my fine friend!

Happy New Thread, Paul!

Happy New Thread!

Short week fo rmy kids too - but in their case they have an Inset day (teacher training). After all the time out of school recently (paid for school no less), this feels very much like it's taking the piss...

>37 mahsdad: Thank you, Jeff, my old china.

>38 connie53: Thanks, Connie. Always a pleasure to have you here.

>39 BekkaJo: Hi Bekka.

It does indeed appear that the Michael is being extracted - I hope you weren't paying them through the lockdowns.

>41 PaulCranswick: Yup...pay, pay, pay :(

Though to be fair to them they did well with the online learning - far better than most of the schools, so I will take that. What is doubly annoying is that in 2019 the teachers were striking so the kids lost a couple of weeks to those closures as well!

Happy new one, Paul! Have a great start of the week!

>42 BekkaJo: I had forgotten about on line learning. How on earth should you have to foot the bill if they decide to strike. Seems unfair to me. Is state education in the Channel Isles not too good?

>43 PersephonesLibrary: Thank you, Kathe. I have thoroughly enjoyed you being so active in the group this year. You are 19th at the moment in the posting league and I think you have more posts this year than the last several combined.

Hej Paul, I just read in the old thread about the unfair comment by an ex-member. Sad. you are welcome on my thread and look at my pictures or whatever :)
How is your mother?
Have a good start into the new week

>45 paulstalder: Thanks Paul. I do enjoy the pictures you post.

Mother is not doing very well to be honest. I am praying that her fighting spirit stays with her.

Happy new one, Paul. I read the Verne a few years ago for the first time. Listened to it on audio, actually. Entertaining but I wasn't blown away as I might have been had I been much younger.

Happy new thread Paul.

>47 jessibud2: Long overdue to read it, I think, Shelley. XX

>48 trandism: Thank you, Nick. Great to have you around again.

>49 HenryFrost: Henry HENRY I am sure that your brother Jack has been doing the rounds in the Northern Hemisphere.

Hi, Paul!

I'm a big Prufrock fan, myself. *So* much packed into every line. I love it.

>44 PaulCranswick: It is really good - in most places. The problem was with our old catchment area *shrug*. Now we are stuck with private as they would both hate to move.

Fingers crossed, as always, for your Mum. My Grandad has had to go back into hospital, so I'm on tenterhooks if the landline rings too.

>52 scaifea: That and the Four Quartets are such an enjoyment of language and the power of words. I can stand of an evening an declaim the sparkling stanzas to the world on a regular basis and never tire of the joy of it. Nice to see you, Amber. x

>53 BekkaJo: I understand that completely, Bekka. My three were all privately schooled and me a died in the wool socialist! Fact was I wanted them to have a "British" education and know something of our culture and history which was best achieved by a British curriculum.

Hope your Grandad is ok, Bekka. Worrying time for the senior members of families.

Happy New Thread, Paul.

Another Prufrock fan here. Nice to see that excerpt. Debbi and I often jokingly say the first three lines to each other as we embark on a journey.

BOOK #21



A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
Date of Publication : 1929
Origin of Author : UK
Pages : 153 pp

Challenges
British Author Challenge : LBGT Authors - 1 (9th total)

I have always had a problem with reading Virginia Woolf. So little happens and that meandering stream of consciousness stuff generally ties my tired brain in knots. Well ,based on this, something of a reappraisal is in order because this feminist text is wonderful.

The basic premise is that woman needs independence of thought and especially means in order to attain parity of literary and life achievement. The independence of access to the fullest education is also emphasised and the image drawn of Woolf being hounded off the college campus premises by the Beadles is a vivid one and illustrative too. Her prose allowed full rein in this format is a thing of distinct beauty.

One very acute observation she makes towards the end of the essay is that the greatest of writers are androgynous. Shakespeare, Keats , Sterne, Cowper, Coleridge and Lamb with Shelley described as "sexless". George Eliot joined Kipling and Galsworthy as being too masculine as writers and Charlotte Bronte too feminine.

Recommended.

>56 jnwelch: Joe I do think that my choice for this thread was a "safe" one. How could those words not resonate?

>57 PaulCranswick: Yay. And it gets better as you reread it over time, Paul.

>57 PaulCranswick: Oooh! I'm not a Woolf fan either, but that seems positive. May switch out The Waves for it this month.

Happy new thread, Paul!
And again, a good suggestion for an author.
But I'm still busy with The Tin Drum from the last thread, so I'll suspend a round....

>57 PaulCranswick: Woolf can be a little hit or miss for me, but I loved this one and Mrs. Dalloway. Not so much The Waves, and To the Lighthouse was just OK for me.

>59 Caroline_McElwee: I will definitely re-read parts of it, Caroline as - unusually for me - I did underline certain passages as I went.

>60 BekkaJo: It is shortish as well even if it doesn't fully grip you, Bekka!

>61 SirThomas: I am sure that The Tin Drum is a much better novel read in its original language, Thomas. I have taken a break from it but will get back to it soon.

>62 curioussquared: It is the first thing that I have read of hers that hasn't left me baffled, Natalie!

Happy New Thread, Paul! I hope your mother is improving.

>57 PaulCranswick: I can also be ambiguous about Virginia Woolf Paul, but one I really love is Orlando.

>57 PaulCranswick: Nine BAC books already! I'll have to get a move on if I'm going to keep my lead!

>65 SandDune: Thank you, Rhian. Orlando is one of her better known works that I haven't yet read.

>66 amanda4242: That probably equals the number of BAC books I managed last year!

Hi Paul, happy new thread mate.

Happy new thread!!

>68 johnsimpson: Thanks John and nice to see you. I do think England needed another quick 50 or 60 runs yesterday to be comfortable today. Our spinners are not worldies and Kohli and Pant could still take India home.

>69 leperdbunny: Thank you, Tamara

Happy new thread, Paul!

>51 PaulCranswick: I thnk you are the only one who even replies to spammers ;-)

>51 PaulCranswick: - LOL!!

Hi Paul, happy new thread.

>1 PaulCranswick: Finally a book on your thread that I have read before you. Our village library when I was a kid, had a whole series of Jules Verne books, dark blue covers, original illustrations. I didn't read the lot, as some are pretty boring, but this one was fun.

I loved A room of one's own as well. She's so clear and sharp. Fiction is a different thing, and I couldn't get through Orlando at all.

>71 FAMeulstee: You caught me, Anita! I try to find friends wherever I can!

>72 jessibud2: I have a rule to respond to every post even the ones that shouldn't be there in the first place!

>73 EllaTim: The only Verne I have read in full format (I read abridged kid's versions in school) is Journey to the Centre of the Earth. His books are in the 1001 Books First Edition list so I must read them soon and they do promise to be fun.

I think you are right about the difference between fiction and non-fiction as it impacts enjoyment of Woolf's writing.

>75 PaulCranswick: I read that one as well. And 20.000 leagues under the sea of course. Liked that the best. There was a shortage of books in the library, I was willing to try anything, but his other books were just so wordy.

>76 EllaTim: Sometimes if the library is smaller then the choice is more focused. xx

Hi Paul - I've just got back from four wonderful days in Wellington. Good that I took the car as I had quite a bookhaul to bring home. Youngest daughter and I also visited The Katherine Mansfield House.
Anyway about that ex75er who made not nice comments about you, please ignore as we all love you as you are and welcome your visits to our threads.

Hi Paul, happy new thread.

I'm finally all caught up with you.

I think anyone who joins a very active group, starts a thread then carries on because someone comments on said thread has a few issues to work out, seriously if you don't want people to read and comment, don't bother starting a thread in the first place. You are always welcome on my thread and as previously stated by someone else, your visits do keep me coming back when I get so caught up with other things I lose track of everything here.

Sorry to hear your mum's not doing well, sending healing thoughts your way.

As for David EddingsI'm glad I've inspired you there. I will say I agree with Nina, I loved the first series The Belgariad better than the Mallorean, and it is better to start with the Belgariad series first. I did my re-read of that one last year I think, just now getting around to the next chapter. I have been slacking off the last couple of weeks since being back at work, trying to get back into some sort of routine.

>78 avatiakh: Thank you, Kerry. I would love to go book shopping with you. Hope you have spilled thebeans at your thread as to what you added.

>79 fairywings: Lovely as always to see you here, Adrianne. I will buy one book a month that will acknowledge who inspired the purchase. I will cheat for Jan and include one I bought in February (the bookstores were closed) but you are my February. See below at the next post. I couldn't start with the Belgariad as it wasn't on the shelves in the bookstore.

Belle gave me a Kino gift card today which turned out to be worth around $40 which I turned into golddust (for the addition of less than $5) at lunch time. I bought or should I more properly say was gifted:

19. The Guardians of the West by David Eddings
20. Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi
21. The Council of Egypt by Leonardo Sciascia
22. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

Book one was the reason I went to the store to correct my addition from Sunday.
Book two will give me more choice for the BAC later this year as Oyeyemi is featured in August
Book three was added because Camilleri/Montalbano speak so highly of Sciascia.
Book Four was added because it caught my eye as I was picking up Book Three.

ANNOUNCING A NEW AWARD

READING INFLUENCE OF THE MONTH AWARD.

Rules : Once a month I will choose a book I have added in the last 30 days to my TBR collection directly influenced by one of my friends in the group.

No submissions required and not necessary to have posted on my thread during that period.
Prize will be a gift of one book from me to the winner sent to them via Book Depo and chosen by me from the "what should you borrow from" facility on the winners profile page.

I will PM the winners each month to request their address to send them a book or to confirm the address I have on record for them.

An individual can only win once in a year which means that, God Willing, I shall be giving out 12 books for this award in 2021.

READING INFLUENCE WINNER FOR JANUARY 2021

MARK (msf59)

For his enthusiastic championing of THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS by Stephen Graham Jones



Thank you Mark.

>83 PaulCranswick: Great prize idea, Paul! And I LOVE the fact that I am it's first participant. My warbling still pays off, now and then. Thank you, sir.

>85 msf59: Not participant but first recipient, Mark, to be exact!

Your book has been selected and ordered dear sir. I do hope you will like it.

>82 PaulCranswick: LOVE Guardians of the West - well, love Eddings, full stop. The first real fantasy series I read when hit that YA gap - which at the time had very little really accessible literature in. I accidentally read this series - The Mallorean, first, rather than The Belgariad. So it has a very special place in my heart.

>83 PaulCranswick: What a fun concept!

>83 PaulCranswick: And again a great idea to spread joy.
Even for those who are not drawn. We all get a list of great books. Thanks for this, Paul.

>83 PaulCranswick: That's super fun, I'll be looking forward to seeing who wins each month and what books you read as a result :)

>87 BekkaJo: Looks like I may have stumbled upon a winner then, Bekka.

>88 thornton37814: Thanks Lori. Of course the more one reads and reviews every month the more likely my eye is to fall upon something I haven't yet read or owned that calls to me and leads to a win.

>89 SirThomas: It will be my pleasure, Thomas, because I will also be getting some great books.

>90 bell7: I used to do it for the first person to post to each of my threads - I think this one is a more qualitative way to approach the buying of a book for a friend.

Hello Paul! Happy new year and new-ish thread! I hope all is well with you.

Given that I've been largely absent over the last year, I wonder if you ever got around to The Count of Monte Cristo?

>1 PaulCranswick: I love the airship topper. I don't think I've read that one either.

>83 PaulCranswick: Happy New Thread, Paul, and such a very generous idea! Just one more reason why you are one of the most beloved members of the 75ers.

>83 PaulCranswick: What a lovely gesture! And a sneaky way of getting more book recommendations. ;)

>93 brodiew2: I haven't gotten round to it yet, Brodie, but it is slated for my Queen Vic challenge this year.

Lovely to see you back.

>94 kac522: Thank you Kathy *blushes *

I wasn't aiming for friendship by bribery honestly!

>95 amanda4242: Yes, I mean, I just don't have enough books!

Happy new one, Paul! Of your lunchtime haul, I've read Boy, Snow, Bird. I will be interested on your take of it.

Happy New Thread. Incredible the way you are zipping along!

>98 Carmenere: I will read it in August, Lynda. Talk about detailed planning!

>99 Whisper1: Thank you dear Linda. If that is the case then my friends can take equal share!

I hope you laugh as much at Me Talk Pretty One Day as much as I did Paul. Laugh out loud funny for sure. His early books are all hysterical bu his last few not so much.I met Sedaris at an appearance here several years ago and on the desk where he was signing books he had a stack of Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy that he was trying to press on people. I had recently read and loved it so we had a nice discussion.

>101 brenzi: That is a great story, Bonnie. I don't have any recent author stories myself in this Asian outpost.

>80 PaulCranswick: I hope to update my thread later tonight. Have needed a day to recover from the drive plus get our house back in order.

I added Me Talk Pretty One Day to my wishlist some years ago, must have had an LT book bullet at the time.

>103 avatiakh: I will be looking for it, Kerry, that is for sure!

>44 PaulCranswick: The perks of lockdown...:)

>83 PaulCranswick: Lovely idea! Though it will probably cause my TBR pile to grow still higher...

What a lovely idea Paul.

I've seen Me Talk Pretty One Day pop up in lots of different places. Haven't heard anything bad about it. Looks like you're in for some good reading this year.

>105 PersephonesLibrary: One thing for sure is that Mark cannot win again in 2021! I am slightly disconnected in this part of the world - in fairness Nina is a four and a half drive away in Singapore but lock-down prevents a meet-up anyhow. So therefore it is nice that I can reach out to my friends and supply the best of currencies for our friendships here - a book!

To be fair Kathe, I have worked very hard today and got almost no reading done!

>106 fairywings: Shows I was dawdling with the last post!

Adrienne there is an overwhelming contender for February's award thus far!

I have also seen the book mentioned so many times and it was just one of those times when the cover of it sort of leapt at me and I was sort of press-ganged into adding it.

How is your mum doing Paul?

Hi Paul. Happy new thread, a tad late.

>57 PaulCranswick: That’s the only book by Woolf I have on my shelves, still unread more than 40 years after acquiring it. I will read it one day, but I got rid of all her fiction years ago. So little happens and that meandering stream of consciousness stuff generally ties my tired brain in knots. Yup.

Interesting that George Eliot joined Kipling and Galsworthy as being too masculine, since that’s the pen name of Mary Ann Evans.

>67 PaulCranswick: Orlando is the only one I completed and was the impetus for cleansing my shelves of Woolf.

>82 PaulCranswick: Me Talk Pretty One Day is absolutely hilarious.

>83 PaulCranswick: I’m confused. What’s this? "what should you borrow from" facility on the winners profile page..

>109 Caroline_McElwee: She is still in the hospital, Caroline and needing some help to breathe. Told me brother that she wants to come home but is clearly not up that at the moment.

>110 karenmarie: Woolf's fiction is a thing of indigestible beauty.

She was clearly making the point that Eliot needed to write in a masculine style to get her recognition.

If you go to my profile page you will see on the right hand side of the page suggestions as to what to borrow from my library and it will actually list choices both ways.

t actually has a header that says "COMPARE BOOKS" and underneath "what you should borrow"

Late to the party as usual, but always game!
Count me as another *Prufrock* + fan. One of my happy memories teaching was carefully reading the beginning of the poem with a class who had challenged my statement that it is a wonderful, important poem. They paid attention, the conversation was passionate, and they were hooked! Such a privilege to be part of that!
I am much relieved to hear that your mother is making progress, for I think her talking about home-going shows progress. It takes a long time for some of us; it did for an older cousin, who made it through a long hospital stay and is now improving by coffee spoons at home.
Now I'm off to see what you thought of the A. Powell. Please continue to *Dance*! I think that they improve as you move into the series.
My suggestion for you (which I had occasion to remember on Lucy's thread) is #1 of a trilogy about growing up in red clay country Georgia in the 1930s, Run with the Horsemen. Except for one affectation that Sams outgrew in the second and third books, this one is laugh-out-loud funny and illustrative of race relations and economic relations at the time. My uncle thought this first book captured his childhood perfectly. (You might not laugh out loud at the way young Porter dealt with the gassy mule, but I promise that the laughs are there.)

>57 PaulCranswick: Jane Eyre offers a beautiful paragraph of pure Feminist thought that still rings true today.
(I'll send when re-found.)

I wonder if Woolf bothered to read Charlotte Bronte closely.

>112 LizzieD: I think the success of the dissection of a poem depends on its musicality in many ways. I distinctly remember that less musical of his works The Waste Land being a much tougher proposition to love but I go there eventually!

I am hopeful for my mum but not content.

I will definitely continue with the Powell Dance to its conclusion.

I will also go and find that trilogy, Peggy.

>113 m.belljackson: I think she found CB annoying and Jane Eyre in particular. Less criticism for Emily though.

>70 PaulCranswick:, Hi Paul, what a great win for England but they must beware of an injured Tiger on Saturday. Root gauged is target just right and managed to get a vital wicket in the overs they had on the fourth evening. Leach bowled well and the old warhorse just seems to be getting better and better.

I just hope the changes they are going to make does not affect the confidence they have built up and the added bonus if they win the series with three wins of going into the Test Championship final against New Zealand at Lord's.

>115 johnsimpson: It was a good win, John, and I am usually critical of the England organisation but I have to say that I am pleased that it went well for them this time. Few points though:

1) Root can do what he has done in every game - 684 runs in 3 tests @ 114.00.

2) If India bat first can England bowl them out reasonably cheaply with two spinners that the top order obviously fancy

3) In a long innings the protection of Stokes only bowling a handful of overs could really damage the other four in the attack

4} Will England make room and play Broad and Anderson together again?

5) Lawrence should not bat at 3. He was looking fine at 5 - it is time for Buttler to earn his keep there or even Pope.

>116 PaulCranswick: It's like you've suddenly switched to a different language when you start talking cricket. ;)

>117 amanda4242: Hahaha that is a type of Yorkshire dialect, I believe, Amanda!

All your challenges are overwhelming! Luckily not for you though :)
I was surprised to see some of the authors I have read are Nobel laureates!

I confess to not reading the entire thread, so I might have missed it, but what did you think of A Room of One's Own? I loved it. And Rivers of London* I gave away after reading a review of it, criticising it for its portrayal of women, I think..?

*touchstones are awry.

>119 LovingLit: I also really liked A Room of One's Own, Megan. My review of it was here

https://www.librarything.com/topic/329586#7416451

My weekend starts now! I have now three days off because of the Lunar New Year and I am going to binge read if possible.

I am targeting 50 hours of reading from now until Monday. 2,000 pages.

Enjoy your weekend. I hope your 50 hour reading marathon is successful.

>121 PaulCranswick: *tries to consider 2,000 pages over the weekend* Nope - does not compute. Good luck though!

>121 PaulCranswick: Good luck, Paul, and happy long weekend!

I will be overly happy if I read half of that in 4 days, my reading isn't what it used to be. Blame the puzzles ;-)

>122 avatiakh: If my eyes can cope, I will do it, Kerry!

>123 BekkaJo: I will let you know how I do, Bekka.

>124 FAMeulstee: Less than two years ago you were doing that sort of thing on an almost daily basis!

Good morning Paul. I'm keeping your mom in my thoughts. The Only Good Indians was a good read from last year. Well written and creepy. :)

>114 PaulCranswick:

Feminine or Feminist?

from Jane Eyre:

"Nobody knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions ferment in the masses of life
which people earth.

Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel;
they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do;
they suffer from too rigid a constraint, too absolute a stagnation,
precisely as men would suffer;

and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that
they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings,
to playing the piano and embroidering bags.

It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more
or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex."

A Room of One's Own had its good moments,
but most of the rest of V.Woolf offers ongoing boring introspection.

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/329698

Enjoy your binge reading weekend, Paul!

>127 leperdbunny: Lovely to see you, Tamara and thank you. I'm looking forward to that one.

>128 m.belljackson: Too feminine according to Woolf. I'm not saying she is right but that was her opinion.

>129 SilverWolf28: Given my statement above, Silver, I am a definite this weekend.

>130 PersephonesLibrary: Thanks Kathe. I hope to finish seven books.

>131 PaulCranswick: Hey - I wish I could play the piano and knit stockings! What a different world...

>133 m.belljackson: Haha, her world view was a different one, Marianne, but I do understand what she meant about the writing style of Eliot. Is Jane Eyre more feminine than feminist? Honestly, I do not feel even halfway competent or qualified to answer that one.

>121 PaulCranswick:
If you read that much you will put everybody doing the weekend Read-A-thon to shame. I hope to finish my current books this weekend so that I can start Question of Upbringing.

>135 benitastrnad: I have seven books minimum targeted for this weekend:

Bury the Dead by Peter Carter
Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
The Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
Woods, etc. by Alice Oswald
A Burning by Megha Majumdar
Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg
The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare

Actually in total 2,012 pages

Happy weekend, Paul! Lots of reading planned.... seven books is my goal for the month, but I think that I still have six to go.

>137 banjo123: Hahaha and lovely to see you, Rhonda. Just finished one of the seven so I am doing ok so far!

BOOK #22



Bury the Dead by Peter Carter
Date of Publication : 1987
Origin of Author : UK
Pages : 374 pp

Challenges :
British Author Challenge : Children's Classics - 10 BAC book
Queen Betty Challenge : 11th book (12/70)

Very interesting book. Set in East Germany in the 1980s, Erika is a budding high jump star, her parents both government officials and the Grandmother's bloodline is of the Prussian nobility. When the Grandmother's long lost brother makes an appearance their lives will be changed forever.

Gives a remarkably even handed view of the two Germanys - what was good and laudable about the old GDR and what were its faults. Carter does a good job of having us care for this family and hope that they are not ruined by forces beyond them.

Over long for a YA novel but I enjoyed it.

As always, your New Year starts earlier than ours, Paul. Enjoy your reads this weekend. I hope your mum keeps her strength to fight through this bout. Sorry to hear there was some drama on the threads and someone chose to include you in their meltdown.

Thanks for posting the stats on your last thread but a bit sad to see how far I have slipped down. Too many other things taking up my time, I know. Have you started The Warmth of Other Suns?

Enjoy reading, Paul - and good success.
Have a wonderful weekend.

The Great British Historians

Who are the great British historians? History was always my favourite subject at school together of course with English.
I have in recent times enjoyed some American historians - especially those writing biography - but I do think (biased as I may be) that the writing of history is something that we Brits do rather excel in.

Since I don't have enough challenges (!!) I want to read something by one of the great British historians every month to at least the end of the year. I will combine them with other challenges where I can.

I will be looking to read:

The French Revolution by Thomas CARLYLE 1837
The Age of Improvement by Asa BRIGGS 1959
The History of England by Thomas Babington MACAULAY 1848
The Making of the English Working Class by EP THOMPSON 1963
Fifteen Decisive Battles by EDWARD CREASEY 1851
A Shortened History of England by G.M. TREVELYAN 1942
The Course of German History by AJP TAYLOR 1945
The American Future by Simon SCHAMA 2009
The Face of Battle by John KEEGAN 1976
The King's Peace by CV WEDGWOOD 1955
The Days of the French Revolution by Christoper HIBBERT 1980

Carlyle, Macaulay and Creasey will fit my Queen Vic challenge
Briggs, Thompson, Wedgwood, Schama , Keegan and Hibbert will all fit my Queen Betty challenge

>140 Familyhistorian: Lovely to see you, Meg.

Thanks for the wishes for my mum - so far she is holding firm.

I haven't started The Warmth of Other Suns yet. Hopefully some time next week.

>141 SirThomas: Thank you Thomas.

>142 PaulCranswick: The hosts of a podcast I listen to (Bad Gays, "evil & complicated queer people in history") LOVE E.P. Thompson, whenever he's even a little relevant they're both like "hey if you want to know more you should read…"

Have fun with your reading marathon and happy LNY!

>136 PaulCranswick: I have no doubt that you will finish all of them. I hope you still can enjoy them. Aaronovitch is a lot of fun to read, so is Verne. The others I don't know (yet) - but I will keep my eyes open for your reviews.

>144 false-knight: I am a staunch socialist, Emery, and EP Thompson was certainly a socialist historian. I read his magnum opus at school and I am looking forward to seeing if it still impacts me as it did as a student.

>145 PersephonesLibrary: I am halfway through the Aaronovitch and whilst the premise is fantastical the pace of the writing is compelling.

Happy new thread! I am incredibly behind, as usual!

From your last thread, I hope your mother is doing better!
I sent you a PM about the person who was nasty to you, please don't take it to heart. Just know that there are plenty of people that would be very sad if you stopped visiting threads!

Enjoy your long weekend and reading marathon! I took an overtime shift tomorrow from 0600-1800 and I am hoping for at least 8-10 hours of reading during that time!

>57 PaulCranswick: Well ,based on this, something of a reappraisal is in order because this feminist text is wonderful. Isn't it? A Room of One's Own and Mrs. Dalloway are my favorites of hers so far, and it was a relief to finally "get" why so many readers revere her. I remember in particular longing for something, anything to happen in To the Lighthouse, and then they never do get to the lighthouse - are you kidding me?!

I did like the Tin Drum book and movie back in the day; I'm not sure what I'd think of reading and seeing them today.

Is this a re-read or new read of Around the World in Eighty Days? I was a big Jules Verne reader as a lad. Maybe because it was less well-known, Mysterious Island was my favorite back then.

>147 ChelleBearss: An overtime shift that allows reading sounds like a boon, Chelle!

I won't stop visiting the threads of my pals, Chelle. xx

>148 jnwelch: I liked Mrs Dalloway more than To the Lighthouse and that more than The Waves but I didn't love or get any of them particularly, Joe. I was enthralled by her prose in A Room of One's Own.

I will like The Tin Drum just it isn't for me right at this moment.

I have read an abridged kid's version of the book, Joe but not the real thing before.

Hi Paul. Just visiting your thread and hope to keep up with things happening here if I do that on a regular basis. Have a nice weekend.

>150 connie53: The treads are slowly starting to settle down, Connie, so it should soon be more than manageable. xx

>142 PaulCranswick: I'll keep my eye out for your thoughts on those!

>152 thornton37814: Lori, do you mean >142 PaulCranswick:?

VERY late to the party, but happy new thread. Hope you are enjoying the Aaronovitch. The Eddings are very traditional epic fantasy but the characters are what hook me on it.

>153 PaulCranswick: Yes, I do. I corrected it!

>148 jnwelch: But Joe, if they got there it would be At the Lighthouse!

>154 ronincats: I must say that the group and some of its fantasy adherents have properly converted me - Roni, Nina, Rhian, Lucy et etc

>155 thornton37814: A year long project but eleven of my favourite historians. A couple that I don't yet have on the shelves, Lori, but I know where to find them!

>156 quondame: Maybe she had planned a sequel, Susan?!

When I do something of a readathon, I always prepare a playlist to accompany my efforts. This has what has been my music set so far this long weekend:

Nils Lofgren - The Loner : Nils Sings Neil
Rhett Miller - The Instigator
Fred Neil - Fred Neil
Phil Ochs - I Ain't Marching Anymore
Alan Price - England My England
Quicksilver Messenger Service - Quicksilver Messenger Service

BOOK #23



Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
Date of Publication : 2011
Origin of Author : UK
Pages : 390 pp

Challenges :
Queen Betty Challenge : 12 (13/70)
Series Pair Challenge : Book 1 of the the Peter Grant Series (5/52)
52 Book Challenge : Book with a male family member (Peter, my twin) : (6/52)

Certainly a departure from the run of the mill police procedural. Peter Grant, a sort of youthful Obama looking probationary policeman realises his witness in a grisly murder case is ghost. He is recruited into a special section of the "Met" that deals with keeping the supernatural in check or balance under the wing of Nightingale (pun of course intended).

This first instalment sees him start to learn his "trade" as well as attempt to resolve his first big case.

Not exactly high-brow writing but the narrative has a force of its own and is enjoyable enough for me to look forward to next week and the second episode.

>143 PaulCranswick: Oh good, I'm not very far into The Warmth of Other Suns yet and need to finish off The Anarchy because, strangely, the library wants their book back.

Interesting list of history books you have there. I have The Making of the English Working Class on my shelves and need an excuse to get to it. We could read that one at the same time if you are interested.

>161 Familyhistorian: I shall be up for that certainly Meg. It is a work close to my heart as I was brought up very much as working class.

>151 PaulCranswick: I noticed that, Paul. Much more relaxed now to keep up.

>160 PaulCranswick: You certainly have some interesting challenge there. I like the 'Book with a family member in it'. I will remember that one for my RL book-club challenges next year.

>160 PaulCranswick: Connie if you see my post >14 PaulCranswick: you will see it is part of a challenge called the 52 Book Club Challenge which Chelle and Katie pointed out. It is good fun.

https://www.the52book.club/challenges/2021-reading-challenge/

>157 PaulCranswick: Touchdown!

>160 PaulCranswick: I see, you gave me ideas for more challenges! Thanks.

>165 humouress: Hahaha I think we'll be seeing quite of few of those in the coming weeks and months!

>166 connie53: More than welcome, Connie. My busy mind seems to be coming across new challenges almost daily!

>160 PaulCranswick: I've enjoyed the first four or five of the Peter Grant series. I'm behind by a couple now.

>167 PaulCranswick: ... and conversion!

>160 PaulCranswick: Glad you enjoyed this :) Both hubby and I love this series.

I couldn't sleep last night and then I realised I was worried about the Eddings (I know I'm that sad). You should read the five books of the Belgariad first - they lead directly into this one. But if you don't read them first a lot of things won't make sense (I mean you can easily catch up but still...) and there are some spoilers (again, really all pretty obvious but...).

So, basically, if you haven't read the first series, start with Pawn of Prophecy and read that series first!

Now I might have a coffee.

>168 avatiakh: I have another three on the shelves, Kerry and they do seem easy enough to find.

>169 humouress: And what a conversion that is!

>170 BekkaJo: Bekka, Bekka, you strange lovely lady. Ok I have ordered the first Belgariad opener from Book Depo just because for you. I couldn't have you without your forty winks now could I?

BOOK #24



Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
Date of Publication : 1873
Origin of Author : France
Number of Pages : 242 pp

Challenges :
1001 Books : 3 in 2021 (307 total)
Queen Vic Challenge : 1873 (7/64)

First and foremost : where is the balloon?

One of the original rollicking adventure stories with unforgettable characters Phileas Fogg, Passepartout, Inspector Fix and the ravishing Aouda. It is obvious why this story has such an enduring and endearing appeal to boys and girls of ages between 8 and 80.

Second Weekend Playlist :

Tom Robinson Band : Power in the Darkness
Santana : Abraxas
Pete Townshend : Who Came First
Uriah Heep - Sweet Freedom
Suzanne Vega - Suzanne Vega
Loudon Wainwright - Last Man Earth

>159 PaulCranswick: No Paul, reading and listening at the same time are not my skill-set, unless it is newspapers. Never books.

Happy Weekend, Paul. Glad you finally read Rivers of London. I read and enjoyed the first 4 but felt that was enough.

>174 PaulCranswick: I love Suzanne Vega but have not listened to her in years. I can listen to jazz while reading but nothing with vocals. I get distracted easy.

>175 Caroline_McElwee: I'm not sure that I am fully listening, Caroline, it just sort of washes over me, keeps me company and does not intrude. If it was the sort of music that did so, I would have to turn it off. That is why most of what I listen to is singer songwriter albums which are mellow and soothing.

>176 msf59: I'm not sure it will be a favourite series, Mark, but it was a little better than OK.

Suzanne Vega was just the sylph like cerebral lady who set my heart fluttering when I was a very young man. I dated a girl for a while who had a more than passing resemblance to her but couldn't hold a tune!

I don't get easily distracted if the book I am reading can drag me in. Speaking of which.........

I'm also firmly entrenched in the *can't listen to anything while reading* camp.

>178 PaulCranswick: It probably helps me read mainly because it stops me from fiddling with the possibility of a "quick" Netflix show.

Literally I don't believe that I am fully listening to the pieces in the entirety but the music sort of helps impel me onwards.

Good job getting this week's prompt completed! I had to search through my tbr stack to find one that would work.

BOOK # 25



Woods, etc. by Alice Oswald
Date of Publication : 2005
Origin of Author : UK
Pages : 56 pp

Challenges :
Poetry Collections : 2/12
Queen Betty Challenge : 13 (14/70)

Sometimes we have to admit when a poet is simply far to clever for us. Oswald is often on a plane removed and I cannot make head or tail of some of her work in absolute honesty.

She is capable of crystallising words and emotion in an ephemeral manner that is profound but she managed it on too rare an occasion here. She is very much a writer of the countryside - the woodland ways, the river banks, the stones, the moon and stars. She can also fall into imitation and there was a fair bit of poor woman's Hughes here too. Four or five excellently polished pieces make this worth the price of the book including "Field" and the wonderful "Five Fables of a Length of Flesh". Also this one:

Wood Not Yet Out

closed and containing everything, the land
leaning all round to block it from the wind,
a squirrel sprinting in startles and sees
sections of distance tilted through the trees
and where you jump the fence a flap of sacking
does for a stile, you walk through webs, the cracking
bushtwigs break their secrecies, the sun
vanishes up, instantly come and gone.
once in, you hardly notice as you move,
the wood keeps lifting up its hope, I love
to stand among the last trees listening down
to the releasing branches where I've been -
the rain, thinking I've gone, crackles the air
and calls by name the leaves that aren't yet there

Alice Oswald is supremely gifted but this wasn't her at her very best or is it just that I am not smart enough to follow her meandering ways?

>181 ChelleBearss: It took me a while too Chelle but it was a pleasant coincidence that I had put the Aaronovitch on the reading table for this month and his character was PETER Grant.

If I listen to music while reading it has to be instrumental, I'm afraid. But I will say that I am a *huge* Suzanne Vega fan.

>184 scaifea: Quicksilver Messenger Service and Santana were largely instrumental, Amber. I had to move on Uriah Heep as the heavy guitars were in fact distracting me.

>184 scaifea: YUP..."No words" is the rule for music when I have a book in my hand. But Bach doesn't work, because it's like it HAS words....I have to listen.

>186 laytonwoman3rd: I know what you mean. Tchaikovsky and particularly the 1812 Overture cannot be listened to without me pretending to be on percussion.
Surely I am not in a minority of one who can concentrate on reading with song with words in the background?

>185 PaulCranswick: Samba Pa Ti is one of the great instrumentals of all time. My attention would immediately shift away from the book!

I would agree that I don't want to hear words when I am reading.

>188 RBeffa: I actually had my hopes on you, Ron, to agree with me!

I think if I had to choose my top ten albums (one per artist) then Abraxas by Santana is included.

>189 PaulCranswick: No longer young men, Rolie and Santana can still be brilliant. I hope you can watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGJdU2dpYxg

Abraxas is a very fine album, I do agree with you.

>190 RBeffa: Lovely to see that. Remarkable players those two.

>162 PaulCranswick: Good. I wasn't brought up working class, Paul, but I know that I have roots in London's East End where my grandparents ran a pub in a decidedly working class neighbourhood. I'm interested in finding out more.

Rivers of London and sequels are so much fun!

>170 BekkaJo: >172 PaulCranswick: I'm a bit of an Eddings dissenter. They are at their best if read early in one's experience of epic quest narratives - when there haven't been enough already and you are under 30. A couple of my friends thought that they were especially good because they blew off the epic quest language that had developed. I thought that was worth about 1 giggle and didn't really enhance the experience. My feelings about all of the big name guys doing the epic thing in the 80s and 90s is similar. The boys liked them and hyped them and the 20 somethings of most genders, but they were not really going anywhere new for all their questing.

Well, I've read a ton of fantasy and am certainly over 30, and I *still* love Eddings' stuff. In fact, all this Eddings talk round the threads is making me want to start another reread!

>194 scaifea: But how old were you when you first read him? That's more what I was considering - those stories that were the first ones we liked in a genre don't generally fade too much afterward, though I'll make a bit of an exception for the Edgar Rice Burroughs books that captured my adolescent self, tough possibly reevaluating adolescent crushes is de-riguer.

>192 Familyhistorian: My maternal side were colliers and the paternal side tradesmen in the sense of being pipe-fitters and welders etc. The epitome of Northern Working Class - I was the first generation to go to University and not leave work at 15/16 to go below ground or seek an apprenticeship on "the tools".

>193 quondame: Interesting opinion but a scary one since I am in my mid-fifties and will read one in the next couple of months!

>194 scaifea: I think I read The Fellowship of the Ring at 11 and have re-read it twice. Both times my experience was slightly different but both times I essentially still very much enjoyed it. I'm not sure that my old tastes have changed so utterly in the last 25 years.

>195 quondame: I'm not sure that the furrowed brow of my twenties has been fickle as to time, Susan. I have never re-read a book from that era of my life and had completely opposed views upon it other than appreciating something in a book I may have missed or being to callow for earlier.

I do think that our reading experiences are all different, however, and that there will be many who identify with your own insights.

>197 PaulCranswick: There are many books I've re-read that have become better experiences later in life, some with and some without any outside input. But the Poldark books, which I thought amazing at first reading, for instance, except for the first two volumes, became a soap opera. I'm sure many of the romance novels I ate up in my twenties I'd throw against the wall - and Anthony and Chalker I just look back in horror. I pretty much read whatever came down the pike, fantasy wise in the 70s and early 80s and re-evaluated a few near or just after the mid 80s. When people were declaring Rothfuss among the best 10 all time fantasy authors, leaving off all women other than LeGuin, I was WTF, it's pretty good, but great or innovative it is not. And really maybe not that good, because I can only remember what annoyed me about it, rather than good qualities. Now, Gene Wolfe, that's a great. OK, ranting, I know I'm ranting.

>198 quondame: Hahaha rant away, Susan! I will definitely learn on a subject I have barely scratched the surface of from some of the group members, such as you, far more learned in the fantasy genre. I have lots of them on the shelves and often have no idea where to start. I mean I know I loved Tolkien and his uni buddy Lewis was cool writing for kids too. I love flaky Jo Walton and I was captivated by Magician by Raymond Feist. But, but, but what else and where to start?

Tad Williams
Adrian Tchaikovsky
David Eddings
Terry Goodkind
Gene Wolfe
CJ Cherryh

I think C.J. Cherry and Gene Wolfe have much more to offer than Williams, Eddings and Gookind or even Feist. Those do the big epic thing, each with their own flavor and pretty competent which Terry Brooks, who started before them, eventually becomes, but their stories haven't stuck with me - well I remember Pug and something of Feist's collaboration with Janny Wurtz, though at the time I thought Cherryh's Paladin blew it away and made my dad read it to compare. I don't think we ever quite agreed, but he was more romantically inclined, in the older Walter Scott tradition, not the HEA romance tradition. In general though, I wouldn't go to Cherryh for fantasy, it's not where she absolutely shines, but whatever he wrote, Gene Wolfe always made new in his own twisty way.

I've read a couple of Adrian Tchaikovsky's SF. One I liked, one I didn't and they were from the same series. I can remember nothing about either of them and would have said I'd never read him except LT records that I have.

>198 quondame: I think you and I are alike. I ate up tons of Piers Anthony in my youth but had to stop when the pedophilia became too damn blatant to ignore. I read one Chalker book and told I really enjoyed it but don't really remember and wasn't inspired enough to read further. I certainly went through the epic quest subgenre and remember very much enjoying the Belgariad and Shannara books, but then they all became much of a muchness and began to bore. I've heard all the hype around Rothfuss, but I haven't been tempted yet. I've gotten tired of a lifetime of white-boy wankery lauded as the top of a field. Not claiming Rothfuss is that, just that there's so much new stuff by so many different people, why would I go with the same old, same old.

>160 PaulCranswick: I haven't read these books yet. I heard the audio version of this on a couple of road trips with friends, but since I kept dozing off in the back seat, I need a redo. What I caught was lovely and interesting, and I look forward to finally reading the books someday. Or maybe sticking with the great narrator.

>201 justchris: Oh yes, the white-boy wankery is strong with Rothfuss. It was my feeling of his writing to his internal adolescent male that almost made me toss the book across the room. I'm not saying it isn't a decent fantasy, just that there are about 10 contemporary women doing as well and some better.

>202 quondame: Well, that certainly explains all the fanboy love.

And yeah, all these amazing women and other writers doing great things. I'm looking forward to stuff like the Broken Earth trilogy and the Murderbot Diaries and all the stuff by Charlie Jane Anders and and...

>202 quondame: Those are worth looking forward to and even re-reads. I'm partial to Jaran though I'll admit it's not top rate, and though Melanie Rawn did some not especially special series, her Glass Thorns is not your same same stuff at all.

Oh, Adrian Tchaikovsky put octopuses in space. Yah gotta love him just for that. Though really, with all the genetic mods that were going on there's no reason they need to stay in water and heft it about in space - after all floating boneless doesn't need water for buoyancy in space! If a stupid fish could evolve lungs a smart cephalopod is sure to make it!

Susan and Chris thanks for that lovely and informed exchange which I understood just a little bit!

>200 quondame: So Cherryh and Wolfe are the ones, Susan?

>201 justchris: Paedophilia has no place in any sort of fiction and quite possibly especially fanstasy.

>202 quondame: "white-boy wankery" - I must remember that one, Susan. Not my thing (anymore, anyways!).

>203 justchris: Jemisin is someone I have heard good things of. What about Guy Gabriel Kay and Ken Liu ?

>204 quondame: Not familiar with those two authors at all.

>205 quondame: Eight legs and big heads - I'd send them off to space too.

>206 PaulCranswick: Well, after Le Guin and Bujold, sure. Wolfe is the best after Le Guin, but not the most representative while Le Guin is both.

Kate Elliott is one of the authors that has been and is doing work much more interesting and memorable to me than any of the boys club. I'm also a fan of Jo Clayton, Sheri Tepper, R.A. MacAvoy, and Patricia McKillip. Lest I be called unduly prejudiced against male writers I prefer Harry Turtledove to all of the men aside from Wolfe, and am a great fan of Charles de Lint though I came late to his writing. And of course, Terry Pratchett is a favorite. I think Pratchett and Wolfe account for more hardbacks in our house than most other authors.

>206 PaulCranswick: I'm a newborn fan of Guy Gavriel Kay, Paul. His recent A Brightness Long Ago was tied for my favorite novel read last year. I plan to read another of his books soon. Children of Earth and Sky is on its way in the mail to me right now.

If you have never read LeGuin's A Wizard of Earthsea I think that would be an excellent starter fantasy novel.

>207 quondame: I have books by Tepper, Turtledove, de Lint and of course Pratchett on the shelves. Looks like I have a lot to go at.

>208 RBeffa: I have read the Earthsea books, Ron. Not bad at all but certainly not Tolkien good IMHO.

Paul - Have you not read The Hobbit?
Fantasy - so much scope, I love so many but will say Diana Wynne Jones does magic better than anyone though most of her books are for YA and children. Dark Lord of Derkholm is rather fun and more for an older reader.

Scifi - I fell in love with Dune when I was a teenager, no idea if the book holds up now. Now I like British scifi writers, Alastair Reynolds and Peter F. Hamilton.
Last year among my best reads were The Murderbot Diaries, most of them are novellas...also the Bobiverse books because they were so entertaining.

I'd suggest you look into Neal Stephenson's books....and for fun time travel you can't beat To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, the only one of hers I've read.

>210 avatiakh: I read The Hobbit several times, Kerry. Love it to bits.

I have some Neal Stephenson books on the shelves too.

Thanks for the suggestions Kerry. I can see me trying Dune again some time soon.

The conversation has taken flight here. From Bach to Tolkien and Guy Gavriel Kay. Love to read about that. And I recognize and read a lot of those books.

On music: Has anyone heard about the (Golden) Earring stopping? (Radar Love, When the lady smiles)

https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2021/02/an-end-of-an-era-for-golden-earring-as-geo...

>212 connie53: That is sad news, Connie. With them and Focus, the Netherlands have been well represented in rock music.

Re the Alice Oswald. I have only dipped in to her stuff. I love the way the poem you quoted suggests the woods are not only alive but conspiring behind the visitor's back. I tell myself I don't have to understand every bit of every poem/ collection I read otherwise I would throw them all away in disgust.

>214 charl08: Lovely to see you, Charlotte.

That was one of my favourites from that collection. I never expect to understand every reference a poet is making but the incidence of comprehension has to reach an acceptable level for me not to be overly frustrated.

Hi Paul!

>111 PaulCranswick: Ah. Thanks re What you should borrow.

>160 PaulCranswick: And onto the wish list it goes!

>187 PaulCranswick: I don’t listen to music, with or without vocals while reading. I don’t have NPR on in the background either. Absolute and complete silence is how I like it.

>211 PaulCranswick: I have Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle on my shelves. I read Dune a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away but don’t want to re-read it. Daughter’s in the middle of the series right now and is enthralled. Pass forevermore on anything by Tolkien (outlier, I know).

Happy Sunday, Paul! Interesting to see the wide variety of responses to music/reading. I generally can't have music on while I'm reading, whether it has words or not, I find listening too distracting. However, I can have talking in the background (probably a result of having a large family and growing up a reader among them all), so I'll sometimes have a sports game on the TV playing quietly while I read a book in front of it. Listening to an audiobook (or music, for that matter) I CAN knit at the same time. There seems to be a difference in how I can concentrate aurally when I keep my hands busy, while reading and listening at the same time doesn't work for me.

Nice job working through the books you'd planned for the weekend! I have a stack I've been working on for awhile and am hoping to make good progress in finishing a couple today and tomorrow, but I don't think I'll come close to your planned 2,000 pages :)

>216 karenmarie: If I had been a little less ambitious with my Series Pair Challenge this year, I may have tackled series like the Baroque Cycle or Outlander or even the Simon Scarrow Two Generals Series Napoleon/Wellington

>217 bell7: Funnily enough I should have kept quiet as I had to turn off the music today because it was distracting me! Probably thinking about the comments!

O.K. I have taken up your challenge, Paul and have listed on my thread the best books that I read from 2000-2020 ( although mainly 2005-2020) My criteria was a feeling of oh, that was good!

Maybe next year for Outlander, Paul. It's got time travel, romance, treachery, bravery, wars, great emotional range, and I found it just plain fun. I'm anxiously waiting for #9 in the series, but looks like it might, if we're lucky, be out sometime in 2022.

I've just messed up my list of 2021 reads by adding the first in the Baroque Cycle, Quicksilver!

Hej Paul, wish you a great weekend. Fantasy: I also like Trudi Canavan (Kyralia), Frank Peretti, Markus Heitz, Walter Moers and Suresh Guptara.
I doubt that I will win your prize, since many of the books I read are not translated into English ...

>187 PaulCranswick: I have to have music on in the background - which I don't listen to - otherwise I start listening for sounds in the silence.

>221 karenmarie: I love Outlander, the books I've read two times for sure but even maybe some three times. And I watched the series. Once on my own, but now again with my brother. For covid I used to visit him every Wednesday evening and we are stuck now in the fourth season.

For Outlander fans, CLANLANDS is scheduled to be up today (Sunday - USA)
on STARZ.

>220 torontoc: Once you start compiling something like that, Cyrel, it is mightily difficult to stop! Believe me when you finish it a few days later you'll be thinking "gosh, why didn't I include that one!

>221 karenmarie: I may read the first episode this year, Karen. I have it on the shelves anyhow.

>222 paulstalder: I need to study German more, Paul, to give you a fighting chance!

>223 CDVicarage: Finally Kerry! Someone, finally, has the same use of music as I do. Background is exactly it.

>224 connie53: I love the TV series, Connie, and I have to say that Catriona is quite some lady! I understand that there are some distinct differences between the TV and the books and I hope the books are even better than the TV series undoubtedly is.

>225 m.belljackson: What is Clanlands, Marianne? It sounds fascinating.

BOOK # 26



Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg
Date of Publication : 2015
Origin of Author : USA
Pages : 293 pp

Challenges :
None but a shared read with my pal Kimmers.

First thing I noticed about this book when it was up for awards was why the title has no question mark. I think I get it now having read it but the author was still missing punctuation - he should have affixed an exclamation mark.

Her family goes up in flames on the eve of her daughters wedding and June's life is in tatters. Clegg uses that trusty Faulknerian device of telling the story from several viewpoints and it is both effective as well as emotionally wrought.

Even that his method is different, Bill Clegg is taking up some of the space left by the passing of Kent Haruf. This is small town America and universal themes impacting otherwise fairly normal lives.

It is also a very fine debut novel.

>229 PaulCranswick: - Guess I will have to try Clegg as you are comparing him to Haruf. Am adding this one to my library list - which is currently about as long as the distance between my library branch and my house. Okay, maybe the list isn't actually a mile long, but it feels that way. The Only Good Indians has to go on that list too; I am totally captivated by that cover and you know how ridiculous I am about a good book cover.

>229 PaulCranswick: Bill Clegg is taking up some of the space left by the passing of Kent Haruf. I will recommend that one to Mr SandDune then, as he loves Kent Haruf.

>229 PaulCranswick: Sounds like a good book!

>230 Fourpawz2: Never judge a book by its cover is the old adage but I am as guilty as you in doing exactly that on so many occasions, Charlotte!

>231 SandDune: I don't think he will be disappointed with it, Rhian.

>232 banjo123: I have been fortunate with my book picks this year so far, Rhonda.

> I do think that as a result of this and one or two other things that have happened recently I will be very careful in creeping out from my shell. I will only visit a few threads for the time being where I feel safe and know I can post without fear of causing unintentional distress.

> If I don't post too much outside of this thread for the time being please don't think too badly of me, but I am not in the best of places right now.

Have a belated virtual hug from me - I only just caught up on your prior thread - and let me assure you that your visits to my thread are very much welcome.

Well my target for the weekend Readathon was 7 books finished and 2,000 pages.

I ran out of steam yesterday with tired eyes and Valentine's commitments.

I did manage 5 books completed and 1,356 pages in completed books. Another two started and almost 1,600 pages in all. Not shabby I think you'll agree.

>211 PaulCranswick:
Add me to the Guy Gavriel Kay list of fans. I loved his duology Under Heaven and River of Stars. I also like Ysabel. One of the few books I have read that had the old Gallic Celts at the center of action in Gaul. I want to read Brightness Long Ago but just haven't gotten to it.

I also have several of the Neal Stephenson books and really want to get around to reading them someday.

>229 PaulCranswick:
I want to read Did You Have A Family as well, but ... just haven't gotten around to it yet.

>160 PaulCranswick:

I loved Rivers of London. I'm glad to see you like it too.

>235 ArlieS: Thank you for saying so. xx

I have decided to not let that incident stop me being me around the threads although I will be a little more careful venturing to certain threads.

There are a few threads that I post regularly to who for some reason avoid posting here which is more than ok with me so long as I am made welcome there even though I often wonder why I am in turn avoided.

>237 benitastrnad: There are just so many darn books, Benita!

>238 ArlieS: I will start book #2 this week in proof perfect that I was fine with Rivers of London!

Not much of a fantasy reader Paul, but even I have read Guy Gavriel Kay. I read Tigana and The Lions of al-Rassan and very much enjoyed them. I also have Under Heaven and River of Stars on my Kindle. Maybe this year.

>241 brenzi: It would be Tigana that I start with, Bonnie, because it has been so lauded and has been on my shelves a while.

Glad you enjoyed Rivers of London, I had a great time with it and would be interested to see what you think of the next one.

Have a nice week!

>243 false-knight: You won't have too long to find out, Emery, because I will be starting it this week!

Ooops. I seem to have started a heated debate there... in some ways I do agree - I don't know that the Eddings will sing as much to you as to a teen, just discovering Fanstay. It isn't sophisticated in that way. But it is thoroughly enjoyable.

Also, Katherine Kerr - again, part of it is rosy tinted glasses, but I love her books too. First series is best.

We are in the middle of winter in the Northern Hemisphere so that a little bit of heat is sometimes welcome. I think the debate was very well mannered but opinionated as it should be. Result is that I will read it fairly soon and make up my own mind!

I read all the Dune books when I was a teenager. Have thought about re-reading them but that will be a while away I think. Most of the Fantasy I read was books my mum had that I could borrow a set every time I went down to see her. So of course they were the first books I bought for myself once I started building my own collection. I've been exposed to a lot more authors since joining LT though.

>245 BekkaJo: I agree Bekka, the first series is definitely the best.

Ten New (for me) Fantasy Series to go at:

Lois McMaster Bujold - Chalion
CJ Cherryh - Chanur Saga
David Eddings - The Belgariad
Diana Gabaldon - Outlander
N.K. Jemisin - Broken Earth
Guy Gavriel Kay - The Fionavar Tapestry
Ken Liu - The Dandelion Dynasty
Neal Stephenson - The Baroque Cycle (fantasy or sci-fi?)
Tad Williams - Memory, Sorrow and Thorn
Gene Wolfe - Book of the New Sun

Tepper, Elliott, Canavan , Tchaikovsky, Kerr and Goodkind are all likely in the next phase - if I can get through this little lot. Thanks for the recommendations everybody.

>247 fairywings: That exposure has been noticed by most all of us, Adrienne, I would say. My reading was pretty parochial really pre-2011. Literary fiction, some history on issues I liked, thrillers especially crime. Predominantly British with some Scandi creeping in too.

>248 fairywings: Katherine Kerr is someone I had honestly never heard of. Will make my second lot of ten series I guess.

>249 PaulCranswick: That's a varied list.

Lois McMaster Bujold - Chalion (I think the first two are the best)
CJ Cherryh - Chanur Saga (Lots of people love Cherryh)
David Eddings - The Belgariad (I liked it when I was younger)
Diana Gabaldon - Outlander (liked - more historical than fantasy and sex, violence and attitudes to gender roles can be off-putting to some )
N.K. Jemisin - Broken Earth (haven't read but want to)
Guy Gavriel Kay - The Fionavar Tapestry (Love it. Most derivative of his works, not surprising as it was his debut and written shortly after he worked for the Tolkein estate. His later stand-alone novels are better as he finds his own voice)
Ken Liu - The Dandelion Dynasty (haven't read)
Neal Stephenson - The Baroque Cycle (fantasy or sci-fi?) (haven't read as I don't have the third book yet but I really enjoy reading his books)
Tad Williams - Memory, Sorrow and Thorn (really good example of its genre)
Gene Wolfe - Book of the New Sun (I love it, re-read it a couple of years ago and think it has great world-building)

>239 PaulCranswick: To be honest, Paul - though I do post here - there are many times when I look at your thread and a few others that have raced away from me and decide to put off visiting until I have time to read through them properly. By which time, as often as not, you're all onto the next thread.

>228 PaulCranswick:

Hi Paul. The TV series follows the books pretty good. When I did my second reading in the summer of 2016 and combining them with the things I knew from the series all little details were more meaningful to me. So it was win-win for me.

>251 calm: I guess that I have chosen a decent bunch of books then, Calm. I don't have all of them on the shelves so I will prioritise those that I have to hand first.

Thanks for giving me your much more expert view on the genre.

>252 humouress: I certainly wasn't referring to you, Nina! Your visits here are regular whether you are struggling to keep up or not! I have no bad feelings to anybody that makes me welcome at their place but for whatever reason don't want to or don't feel up to posting here as we are not all made the same way. Some of our pals don't maintain a thread and that is cool too.

>253 connie53: I do love the TV series even if it is a bit risque at times.

>249 PaulCranswick: I started the first of the Broken Earth series earlier this month. Good so far but not completely grabbed me as yet. I suspect it will do when I get a bit further in.

>256 BekkaJo: I don't have it on the shelves so it won't be first up for me, Bekka.

Thread Posting League Updates

There are 82 threads with more than 60 posts so far:

1 PaulCranswick 1,662
2 scaifea 1,481
3 KatieKrug 1,275
4 richardderus 1,028
5 crazymamie 877
6 msf59 872
7 jnwelch 720
8 karenmarie 587
9 MickyFine 472
10 ronincats 464
11 Berly 437
12 FAMeulstee 424
13 EBT1002 377
14 laurelkeet 338
15 drneutron 322
16 thornton37814 315
17 FamilyHistorian 310
18 lyzard 303
19 PersephonesLibrary 300
20 SandDune 293
21 BBLBera 282
22 ChelleBearss 271
23 Whisper1 257
24 jessibud2 245
25 mstrust 228
26 brenzi 208
27 quondame 208
28 johnsimpson 205
29 figsfromthistle 198
30 bell7 184
31 Streamsong 180
32 loving-lit 179
33 Carmenere 167
34 curioussquared 163
35 Caroline_McElwee 159
36 EllaTim 159
37 fuzzi 159
38 Sir Thomas 156
39 rebarelishesreading 155
40 harrybutler 154
41 LizzieD 154
42 cbl_tn 153
43 laytonwoman3rd 143
44 AMQS 142
45 justchris 140
46 connie53 139
47 mahsdad 138
48 Humouress 137
49 coppers 133
50 foggidawn 132
51 DianaNL 129
52 avatiakh 127
53 Ameise1 123
54 Weird_O 122
55 sirfurboy 117
56 sibyline 115
57 Swynn 115
58 jayde1599 108
59 London 108
60 Bekkajo 105
61 ffortsa 103
62 PawsForThought 102
63 sandymc 102
64 lindapanzo 84
65 AnneDC 83
66 false-knight 81
67 norabelle414 81
68 BBGirl55 77
69 Rbeffa 77
70 aktakukac 72
71 amanda4242 70
72 banjo 70
73 souloftherose 69
74 CDVicarage 68
75 genealogy_nana 67
76 paulstalder 66
77 tiffin 65
78 fairywings 63
79 lycomayflower 63
80 majkia 62
81 oberon 61
82 The_Hibernator 61

Of those 82 threads this is the Books Read League Standings as I can make them out.

1 amanda4242 40
2 richardderus 38
3 jnwelch 33
4 thornton37814 33
5 quondame 30
6 CDVicarage 29
7 scaifea 29
8 PaulCranswick 26
9 Whisper1 26
10 FAMeulstee 24
11 sibyline 24
12 ChelleBearss 23
13 PersephonesLibrary 23
14 avatiakh 22
15 false-knight 22
16 FamilyHistorian 22
17 sirfurboy 22
18 lyzard 20
19 msf59 19
20 mstrust 19
21 Sir Thomas 19
22 BBLBera 17
23 crazymamie 17
24 fuzzi 16
25 majkia 16
26 paulstalder 16
27 souloftherose 16
28 Bekkajo 15
29 curioussquared 15
30 DianaNL 15
31 Streamsong 15
32 bell7 14
33 figsfromthistle 14
34 lindapanzo 14
35 MickyFine 14
36 brenzi 13
37 EBT1002 13
38 fairywings 13
39 foggidawn 13
40 London 13
41 sandymc 13
42 AnneDC 12
43 Caroline_McElwee 12
44 cbl_tn 12
45 harrybutler 12
46 johnsimpson 12 (Karen Simpson 9 books)
47 KatieKrug 12
48 Weird_O 12
49 aktakukac 11
50 drneutron 11
51 ffortsa 11
52 mahsdad 11
53 ronincats 11
54 tiffin 11
55 BBGirl55 10
56 Berly 10
57 coppers 10
58 justchris 10
59 oberon 10
60 Rbeffa 10
61 karenmarie 9
62 AMQS 8
63 Carmenere 8
64 jayde1599 8
65 laurelkeet 8
66 loving-lit 8
67 SandDune 8
68 connie53 7
69 jessibud2 7
70 laytonwoman3rd 7
71 LizzieD 7
72 The_Hibernator 7
73 banjo 6
74 Humouress 6
75 lycomayflower 6
76 rebarelishesreading 6
77 Ameise1 5
78 EllaTim 5
79 Swynn 5
80 norabelle414 3
81 genealogy_nana 0
82 PawsForThought 0

>259 PaulCranswick: I am very glad to be in 19 slot, in the Reading League. I thought my numbers would have dropped significantly, due to lack of audiobook listening.

Thread Posting League

Top Six US Residents

1 Amber
2 Katie
3 Richard
4 Mamie
5 Mark
6 Joe

Top Six Canadian Residents

1 Micky
2 Meg
3 Chelle
4 Shelley
5 Anita
6 Sandy

Top Six UK & Channel Isle Residents

1 Rhian
2 John
3 Caroline
4 Stephen (Sir F)
5 Bekka
6 Bryony

Top Six Europeans

1 Anita
2 Kathe
3 Ella
4 Thomas
5 Connie
6 Diana

Top Six Asia/Pacific Residents

1 Paul
2 Liz
3 Megan
4 Nina
5 Kerry
6 Adrienne

Top Six Ladies

1 Amber
2 Katie
3 Mamie
4 Karen
5 Micky
6 Roni

Top Six Men

1 Paul
2 Richard
3 Mark
4 Joe
5 Jim
6 John

>260 msf59: To be fair, Mark, there are some big hitters missing from the list either because they didn't get enough posts or because they are not in the group this year. In that category:

Charlotte, Suz, Stasia etc.

But your numbers are not much short of normal. I am happy with my own. I don't think I have ever been as high as 8th at this time of year.

>258 PaulCranswick:

Actual footage:

>263 scaifea: Hahaha. My hair is better preserved!

>264 PaulCranswick: No, silly, I'M Number 2. *tsk*

Wow, your thread really got away from me!

I will join you in liking to listen to music while reading, although I rarely think to do it and I'm impressed with your playlists identified in advance. Idea. I find I am not distracted by music, even music with words, in the way that I am by conversations, television, other activities occurring around me--so I think I use music as a concentration tool.

In college I used to put headphones on with music playing so that I was less tempted to chat with others nearby. It still helps me focus.

On Tolkien--I tried to read The Fellowship of the Ring when I was 11 or 12, but I hated it and didn't continue on to the other books. I returned to it as a young adult, probably in my 20s, and adored it. And I've now read the trilogy at least 5 times over the years (when the Peter Jackson movies were coming out, I re-read the series each year.) I remember that my 12-year-old self experienced the book as unrelentingly dark (not in the sense of evil, although there's that, but as if the whole book took place underground). I didn't notice the green Shire, or the elves, or any of the elements that drew me in later.

>249 PaulCranswick: I'm *very* fond of Chanur. I'm looking forward to re-reading them for the DAW project. Also very much a Broken Earth fan. Most of the others are in the swamp, except for the Eddings which I've tried a few times and decided to read other things instead.

>265 scaifea: I am a bit slow this evening, Amber. xx

>266 AnneDC: Another thing we have in common, Anne!

I think I liked the darkness and light in LOTR and the good against evil and weak against strong themes as a young fellows. I remember the Wraiths scared the Bejaysus out of me!

>267 swynn: I am an absolute beginner on fantasy, Steve so I am liable to get swamped myself!

Hi Paul

Thanks for the stats - it is always interesting to see!

I am trying to catch up on threads - I have enjoyed the fantasy talk on your thread. I am a late comer to the genre - only getting into it in college when my boyfriend (now husband) introduced me to Tolkien.
I have read more modern & YA fantasy, but I did read Rothfuss a few years ago and enjoyed Tigana by Guy Gavriel Key. It is a genre that I wish I had found earlier, but like others mentioned I was influenced by my surroundings.

Oh, there are statistics again - and I am mentioned. And this for something fun!
Thank you very much, Paul.

>258 PaulCranswick: >259 PaulCranswick: Yay, statistics! Thank you, Paul!
Very happy with 12th and 10th place, I just finished book 25 :-)

>270 jayde1599: Nice to see you, Jess. Like you I am a latecomer to the genre.

>271 SirThomas: You do feature prominently in the stats this time, Thomas.

>272 FAMeulstee: I'm sure that you'll get the jet burners on reading wise at some stage and climb still further!

>255 PaulCranswick: Imagine watching the series with in my case my brother.

>257 PaulCranswick: I love the books by Jemisin. They were strange but intriguing. The first book simply blew me away 4,5 stars, the second one was 4 stars and the last one 3,5. Very entertaining.

Fantasy is my first love since I started reading grow up books. As a kid I simply read everything I could lay my hands on. There was only one thing on wish-lists for birthdays and such events. A BOOK. No title, just that. When I read Ghost story by Peter Straub I was hooked on fantasy.

>275 connie53: My first love will always be poetry, Connie, nut I'll give fantasy a good go!

An interesting discussion here on fantasy, Paul! Very useful.

>249 PaulCranswick: have read about half of the authors you list here, but the others are unfamiliar. Nice to have a list of recommendations.

Thanks for the stats! Always nice to see that I am not at the bottom ;)

>258 PaulCranswick:, >259 PaulCranswick:, Hi Paul mate, thanks for the stats and the inclusion of Karen's reading and she says thank you as well.

Not a good result for your boys yesterday but at least they kept on battling away whereas my boys had another shocking result, they are so up and down and need to get the defence sorted out to become realistic title challengers.

Have a good week mate, love and hugs to the Cranswick clan.

Always fun to see the stats, Paul! I'm not *quite* up to last year's numbers (I'd already started thread #2 and read 17 books so far in 2020), but not far behind either.

>277 EllaTim: Thanks to some of our specialists, Ella, as I have not too much idea on these authors either!

>278 figsfromthistle: Those at the bottom of these lists are not at the bottom either Anita. The top 140 threads are those that I record and #140 currently has 21 posts.

>279 johnsimpson: I did promise re Karen mate!

We nearly made the Gunners sweat yesterday. Had we been given a penalty when Bamford had clearly been fouled we might have brought it back to 4-3 with a nervy 15 minutes left. We wouldn't really have deserved a share of the spoils after such a bad start but the team spirit is there.

Man City are head and shoulders the best team this year.

We will be lucky to make lunch today in Chennai.

>280 bell7: Almost missed you there, Mary! Your numbers reflect the busyness of your life at the moment. When that gets settled I think your numbers will soar.

Neal Stephenson series is a bit of both science fiction and fantasy. They are different from both - but the same as some in each genre. You will just have to read one of them and see if you like them.

>284 benitastrnad: Indeed Benita.

It will be very much a case of suck it and see!

Had a frustrating trip to Kino. It has a very respectable fantasy section consisting of 18 sets of shelves 6 shelves high. I calculate over 2,000 books to choose from. Frustratingly they had most of the series but in those I don't already have they did not have the first book so:

Broken Earth - only an expensive hardback edition of the opener
The Belgariad - all the books except the opener
Fionavar - books 2 and 3 there but not book 1
Chalion - the opening book is missing.

That does leave me six other series for which I have already the series opener and I will decide which one to start with shortly.

I am toying with the idea of reading NK Jemisin's earlier Inheritance series before moving to Broken Earth. Good idea?

>286 PaulCranswick: Apparently Chalion is a series where publication and internal chronological order differ, so you could start with either The Curse of Chalion or The Hallowed Hunt.

>287 amanda4242: While that is accurate, the world building is absolutely in publication order. And the first Penric shouldn't be read before Paladin of Souls and the second before The Hallowed Hunt.

>288 quondame: *shrug* I've only read the Penric novellas, and didn't have any problem following them without reading the novels. And why should Paladin of Souls be read before Penric, since according to Bujold it's set about a century later?

ETA: Er, just realized that the last line up there could be taken as argumentative, but it's truly just a question to satisfy my curiosity.

>287 amanda4242: I have no idea but I will follow the publication order in this one as it seems to be the one mostly recommended.

>288 quondame: OK Susan, since you seem so sure, I will follow your advice.

>289 amanda4242: Yikes, I certainly cannot answer your query, Amanda!

Morning Paul! I hope you have a good day reading! You certainly have a lot of good series on the TBR. Such a disappointment non of the first instalments were available. I hope you find them soon.

>289 amanda4242: I'm not saying you will have difficulty understanding them in chronological order, just that the layering of the mystical concepts was developed in the order written and I very much enjoyed how the additions enhanced the plotting and how they have developed in the Penric series. Also there are vague spoilerish aspects to Penric for The Hallowed Hunt.

>292 connie53: It was the series I was looking for that couldn't get started butI still have plenty. As you will see I did not come back entirely empty handed either!

>293 quondame: You were so passionate on the issue, Susan, that I would be remiss in not following your advice.

Hi Paul, have a wonderful Tuesday.

>295 Ameise1: It is a better one for you being part of it, Barbara. Welcome back!

Before I go to the new thread:

>156 quondame: LOL! To the Lighthouse: I'm sure VW would appreciate that "At the Lighthouse" joke. It was about the journey, not the destination, right? Which would've been fine with me if anything had happened on the journey - ideally, a shot ringing out, and the exciting fallout from that.

>173 PaulCranswick: where is the balloon? And to make it more confounding, a balloon is featured in the first part of The Mysterious Island.

Alice Oswald - is there one you recommend where she's at her best. Caroline likes her poetry, too, IIRC, and I've yet to read a volume that grabs me.

Neal Stephenson: I don't know how well they've aged, but his shorter Diamond Age and Snow Crash might be good starting places. I've found the lengths he goes to (literally! they're doorstoppers) in recent books off-putting, although I did enjoy Reamde.

I'd add Nnedi Okorafor to the list of great current female sci-fi/fantasy writers.

>297 jnwelch: I'm with you on To the Lighthouse, Joe. A book where absolutely nothing happens.

There were some sort of sled things which I didn't understand but I kept waiting for the balloon.

I have liked extracts of Dart, Joe, but I don't think she will ever quite be one of my favourites either.

Thanks for the further fantasy pointers - I do have something by Nnedi Okorafor on the shelves.

>294 PaulCranswick: My own experience was that The Curse of Chalion was perhaps the best fantasy book since Lord of the Rings so that, as good as they were, the rest of the series didn't quite reach as far. Some prefer Paladin of Souls and I understand, though it did not hit me in the same place. So that's the disadvantage of not reading in chronological order - the two most lauded ones would then be the final reads. Still, I have a great fondness for all of them.

>297 jnwelch: Diamond Age is my favorite by Neal Stephenson - his obligatory plot hole is almost entirely obscured by the character arcs and it is just ever so much fun. I've read it at least 3 times and enjoyed it every time.

>299 quondame: & >300 quondame: It is funny isn't it how we have different takes on things. I am going into these books with a completely blank slate.