flissp 2009

...in preparation for the new year (when maybe I might learn how to make a slider counter...)

Edited to add:




Edited to add:

Recommendations from LTers (going to have to trawl the threads for this, I have the worst memory for recommendations!):

- Shutter Island/A Drink Before War: Dennis Lehane (drneutron)
- The Glass Castle: Jeanette Walls (karenmarie & VictoriaPL) (got)
- Galileo's Daughter: Dava Sobel (TT, Prop2gether, avaland) (got)
- Inkheart: Cornelia Funke (FlossieT)
- Captain Newman, M.D: Leo Roston (prop2gether)
- The Black Swan: Mercedes Lackey (suslyn)
- Founding Brothers/American Creation: Joseph Ellis (alcottacre)
- Cat's Cradle: Kurt Vonnegut (PiyushChourasia)
- Letters From the Earth/Mysterious Stranger: Mark Twain (Whisper1)

...from other people's threads:

- Rich Deceiver: Gillian White (dihiba) (got)
- On The Overgrown Path: David Herter (avaland)
- Lullabies for Little Criminals: Heather O'Neill (Whisper1) (got)
- Dandelion Wine: Ray Bradbury (blackdogbooks) (got)
- The Doomsday Book: Connie Willis (MusicMom41) + sequel (ronincats)
- Norwegian Wood: Haruki Murakami (jbeast)
- Kipling's Choice: Geert Spillebeen (Whisper1)
- Crazy Horse, the strange man of the Oglalas: Mari Sandoz (alcottacre)
- The Trick is to Keep Breathing:Janice Galloway (Prop2gether)
- The Sewing Circles of Herat: Christina Lamb (FlossieT)
- The Wasted Vigil: Nadeem Aslam (FlossieT)
- The Rivals: Richard Brinsley Sheridan
- Drawers and Booths: Ara 13 (wunderkind)
- Tethered: Amy MacKinnan (alcottacre)
- A Prayer For Owen Meany: John Irving (alaskabookworm)
- A Guide to the Birds of East Africa: Nicholas Drayson (TadAD)
- Antsy Does Time: Neal Shusterman (Prop2gether)
- A Sorcerer's Treason: Sarah Zettel (Severn) (got)
- How to Become Extinct: Will Cuppy (wunderkind)
- Eva Luna: Isabel Allened: (girlunderglass)
- Ella Minnow Pea: Mark Dunn (pretty much everyone)
- Remake: Connie Willis (ronincats)
- The Road: Cormac McCarthy (tloeffler/bdb)
- I Know This Much Is True: Wally Lamb (girlunderglass) (got)
- Flat Earth News: Nick Davies (FlossieT)
- Mistress of Art and Death: Ariana Franklin (Fourpawz2)
- Proust and the Squid: Maryanne Wolf (FlossieT)
- What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to…: Daniel Pool (TadAD)
- The Fish Can Sing: Halldór Laxness (TadAD)
- Dark Cities Underground: Lisa Goldstein (drneutron)
- A Certain Slant of Light: Laura Whitcomb (Whisper1)
- The Lies of Lamora: Scott Lynch (RebeccaAnn)
- Fruit: Brian Francis (loosha)
- Ice Blink: Scott Cookman (RebeccaAnn)
- Rashoman: Ryunosuke Akulagary (Prop2gether)
- The Bestiary: Nicholas Christopher (richardderus)
- World War Z: Max Brooks (lunacat and many others)
- The Lightning Thief: Rick Riordan (applebook)
- The Adoration of Jenna Fox: Mary E. Pearson (Whisper1)
- The Blind Owl: Sadeq Hidayat (Prop2gether)
- The Razor's Edge: Somerset Maugham (nannybebette)
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian: Sherman Alexie (Whisper1)
- The Perilous Guard: Elizabeth Marie Pope (lunacat)
- The Knife of Never Letting Go: Patrick Ness + sequels (FlossieT)

...and again to add Books that I definitely want to read next year:

- War and Peace: Leo Tolstoy (because my Dad gave me a lovely copy for Christmas last year and I've still not got around to reading it)
- The Trial: Franz Kafka (because I've begun it several times and left it unfinished because I've been distracted by something else)
- My Childhood: Maxim Gorky (another present)
- The Master and Margarita: Mikhail Bugakov (another one I've started, but because I wasn't in the right mood, I didn't get very far with)
- To Kill A Mockingbird: Harper Lee (because, shockingly, I've never read it!)
- The Jungle Book: Rudyard Kipling (I used to love the Just So Stories and the comparisons many people have made between this and The Graveyard Book make me want to investigate for myself)
- Middlesex: Jeffrey Eugenides - favourite book of a mate, who gave this to me.
- Possession: A. S. Byatt - I began this last summer, but was distracted by other books and drifted off course.
- The Little Friend: Donna Tartt - another unfinished book, although I've read much more of this one - I think I just tried to read it too soon after reading The Secret History.

The Idiots Guide to Creating Your Own Ticker!

Go to my thread and click on my Ticker.
Click on Create Your Own Ticker
Use: Savings Ticker
Select Ruler by checking the little circle (you can look at more by clicking on the numbers below)
Click on Next
Select Slider by checking the little circle (you can look at more by clicking on the numbers below)
Click on Next
Chose Password – E.G.: 2009 (Remember your password for updating later!)
Target Savings – E.G.: 75
Current E.G.: 0
Save
Scroll down to HTML: Highlight and copy
Paste in your thread.

Voila!

TT, you are wonderful.

*rushing to start my own thread and try out new knowledge*

>1 flissp: fliss, where's yours? :)

-TT

woo - thank you TT - feeling all competent now!! ;)

going to list my 999 challenge categories here too, so I don't forget them!:

1) 9 Non fiction - this is going to be the hardest for me - I predominantly read fiction, which I something I feel I should rectify.
2) 9 Books I've started but have left unfinished for one reason or another (this could lead to finally freeing up some shelf-space hopefully!)
3) 9 Books on my TBR pile.
4) 9 Books by authors I've never read.
5) 9 Classics I haven't read yet.
6) 9 biography/autobiography/diaries/letters
7) 9 Prize winners (I always mean to read these and never do).
8) 9 Plays.
9) 9 Books recommended by other LTers that I've never heard of before.

(edited to change category 6)

Hi flissp
Happy New Year
I look forward to reading your posts and recommendations in 2009.

flissp, I was thinking I hadn't seen you in the 2009 challenge - my brain must have gone all wobbly. Good to see you back again, and good luck with the 999!

Welcome back, flissp!

Maybe the nonfiction thread set up will inspire you. I know people have already been posting there, and perhaps you can find something that will encourage you to read it.

Thanks all and a belated happy new year to you too!

Rachel, yep, I've been hiding from my PC most of the holidays - and now I've got even more catching up on threads to do than usual!

I think the 999 challenge will probably indeed be just that as I'm very much led by whim when I pick the books I next want to read - so I'm not sure how well I'm going to keep to the categories... It also seems to me that a lot of the books I'd like to read would fit in more than one of the categories! Hopefully it should broaden my reading a bit though...

>9 alcottacre:: alcottacre Thank you - that's a very good suggestion!

Anyway, I think first up of the year will probably be The Trial (yes, I have actually had 2 reading-less days!)

Scratch that, I'm going to start with Nicholas Nickleby I think...

Thank you, Tortoise!! Now, I know this seems lame, but will someone tell me how to insert a book name as a link? Holding my head down . . .

>12 blondegarnet:: Put square brackets around the name of the book.

For example, this: [Pride and Prejudice]

will come out as this: Pride and Prejudice

k Tad I just wanna know how you get your teaching comments to show up like that as you did here and on your html thread. but, i don't need to know so no need to teach me that too :)

Heya Fliss -- glad to be here again.

and hi to you too!

Well, I've been unusually slow off the mark this year, but I'm back again now!

1) The Jungle Book - Rudyard Kipling
999 Category 5: Classics I haven't read yet (1/9)

This book doesn't need much description, given it's fame as a Disney film! However, as I might have guessed, if I'd thought about it much, it doesn't actually bear much relationship to the film at all. Short stories, revolving around the anthropomorphised wildlife of the jungle, or surrounds (including one about a white seal, whose parents made me giggle quite a lot). Only a few of the stories are about Mowgli and even these really aren't as saccharine as the film (this is from a fan of the film I hasten to add!). Certainly, giving the animals human characteristics and sentiments would seem to head in that direction, but Kipling does, somehow manages to avoid it. This was fun to read finally (although my interest did start to wain a bit in the final story where various animals of war were arguing with each other about how much better their own contributions were than the others). I'll be borrowing The Second Jungle Book off my granny anyway, when I've returned this one!

2) The Jane Austen Book Club - Karen Joy Fowler
999 Category 4: Authors I haven't read yet (1/9)

Following the lives of five women and one man reading Jane Austen's novels over the course of a year.

I don't read this kind of thing much, but picked it up at a book sale because I'd heard about it, there were some good reviews in the blurb and, well, I love Jane Austen and it was 50p! It's not a very challenging read, but was the kind of thing I was in the mood for and I enjoyed it enough to be a bit surprised it has so many bad reviews on LT.

The narrative is odd in that, while it's clearly not Grigg (the bloke) speaking, it's not really any one of the women - probably more like a female group consciousness. I can see why people might find this irritating, but I actually quite liked it.

Nicholas Nickleby still ongoing (and probably will be for quite some time - it's a bit of a tome!)

Gah! I've just realised that I can't remember the pin for my ticker!!

ouch!

>15 flissp: I enjoyed your review of The Jungle Book. It's on my TBR pile to read sometime this year.

Thank you #18 - glad to enthuse!

#17 boom boom! ;) ...I had to recreate the ticker in the end...

3) The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett
999 Category 3: TBR (1/9)

The Queen takes up reading and becomes obsessed...

What an odd little book! But it did make me smile. I wonder if she's read it?

I wonder if she's read it?

that was what I wondered too ;-)

great minds and all that... ;)

I want to write to her and ask but I think she's a bit busy, what with all the reading and all.

Then again, as a citizen of her country, don't you think I have the right to a reply from my monarch?? ;)

#22: Yes, I think you have the right to a reply.

Then again, I am a Yank, so what do I know?

#23

clearly you know more about my rights as an english person than I do. Then again, it isn't difficult to know more about things than I do.

Who am I again??

#23 ;o)

Actually, there's this thing that when (and if!) you turn 100, the queen will send you a birthday telegram. My Granny was 100 in 2007 and I was a little surprised to discover that a) you actually have to send off for it in the first place (in retrospect, not such a shock) - we did, my Granny being of the generation who actually cares about the monarchy and b) when you do, the signature is photocopied - surely there aren't that many people of 100 and over in the UK?

I'm afraid I don't rate lunacat's chances ;o)

#24 I believe you are lunacat, lunacat ;o)

Just stopping by to wave and say I'm starring your thread. I think I'll be adding The Jungle Book to my wishlist!

edited to try and fix touchstone

Same thing can be done with the President's office in this county (some states--the governor will send a notice). Congrats!!!

#26 thanks missylc and enjoy!

#27 I think that I'd be a lot more pleased with a 'congratulations' from President Obama than one from the Queen! Yep, 101 (and still going) is a pretty impressive age to get to, isn't it?!

thanks flissp, I too believe I am lunacat but I do like to check every now and again in case I am wrong. Its best to be sure I find.

lunacat, always a pleasure to help out in an identity crisis ...i too have moments of forgetfulness :)

4) Songbook - Nick Hornby
999 Category 1: Non-fiction (although could easily fit into the TBR category too)

Nick Hornby's ponderings on 31 songs and 15 albums.

One of my other great passions in life, besides reading, is music - in pretty much any form. I've always found Nick Hornby very readable (even Fever Pitch, and I really don't have any particularly strong feelings about football). I picked this up, ooh, years ago (in fact, according to the fly leaf, on the 8th November 2003, in LA, if you really wanted to know!) - I'm not quite sure why I've never got around to reading it until now - I'm afraid I identified horribly with the central character of High Fidelity, so I knew it would probably appeal to me, even though many of the songs/albums on the list aren't those I would choose myself... Anyway, I was right, I loved it.

His thoughts on the 31 songs range from the defense of good (and replaceable) pop, to the beauty of harmony, via the importance of good independent music shops (although chains aren't all bad), being English, and his autistic son, Danny's love of music and the miracle of this. En route, he is frequently very funny and occasionally, very moving (I was very close to tears reading the Badly Drawn Boy essay). Oh, I could go into so much more detail than this, but I shan't, otherwise, I'll basically be rewriting the book, only not as well... Suffice it to say, there are tracks he talked about that I rooted out straight away, and yet more that are downloading right now...

The last 5 essays, I think, are the "extra 5" touted on the front of the book (it was a re-release) - four of these are album reviews, but in the last, following the example of Gore Vidal's 1973 review of the Times bestseller list - having read everything on it, Nick Hornby listens to the top ten albums listed in the Billboard charts. Bear in mind, this was written in 2003. The results are hysterically funny...

Nicholas Nickleby still ongoing and I'm now also reading The Trial and a chapter a night of W H Auden's selected prose of G K Chesterton that my Dad lent me last year.

I flipped through Songbook in a bookstore a couple of years ago, just reading the essays that were about songs/albums I was familiar with. Like you, the part that made the most impression on me was where he talks about the Badly Drawn Boy song "A Minor Incident". Now every time I hear that song (which was already my favorite from the "About a Boy" soundtrack) I think about what Hornby said and it just makes the song even more poignant than it already is.

>31 flissp: This is not the type of book I'd ever read, but you make me wish I did!

#32 wunderkind - completely agreed.

#33 suslyn - thanks! have a flip in a bookshop, you may find yourself drawn in - it was a very quick read - all the essays are very short...

i definitely recommend it to anyone listening anyway (and, infact, shall be sending it to one of my mates who i just know will also love it).

Tried out the book quiz that's doing the rounds:

You're A Prayer for Owen Meany!

by John Irving

Despite humble and perhaps literally small beginnings, you inspire
faith in almost everyone you know. You are an agent of higher powers, and you manifest
this fact in mysterious and loud ways. A sense of destiny pervades your every waking
moment, and you prepare with great detail for destiny fulfilled. When you speak, IT
SOUNDS LIKE THIS!


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

...not sure I particularly recognise myself in it, but quite amused that this a book I'd never heard of until so many people list it as in their top ten books recently!

...particularly as I don't really believe in destiny...

That's given me the best laugh I've had in ages - I just took the quiz and apparently I'm Ulysses!! Which, as it happens, I have read, and I wrote a dissertation on part of during my degree... But I never knew I identified so closely with it.

Very amusing.

#37 Made me giggle too!

Anyone out there know how I can code to strikethrough my text? I googled it and came up with words (without spaces), but this doesn't seem to work...

umm but put it together ok? alright? but you have to put a backslash through the one on the end like this

aha! thank you - that worked!

Your Welcome!

Fliss, you love fairy tales? Didn't realize. Have you read M Lackey's The Black Swan? It's written by a contemporary author but is your classic fairy tale. It's a fav, light day, re-read of mine.

#42 ooh no - i'm going to root it out!

Having said I'm a fairly tale fan, I'm now realising just how few I've read compared to the rest of you!

Yippee...another Zettel convert in the works I hope. :)

I've blathered on about the reading order a bit more in my thread, concerning the prologue.

Oh and you like fairy tales...me too, very much. I have a tag actually called 'Fairy Tale Fantasy' and another of 'Fairy Tales'. I'm always looking for more.

Well, I've got 2 Zettel books winging their way to me as we speak, so I'll keep you posted (unfortunately, I ordered the first book before the prequel and the prequel is going to take longer to arrive...). Definitely looking forward to them after The Trial though!

Well, I came in to work to finish up some stuff I put on overnight and it's all gone pearshaped in a very frustrating manner, so I'm now off to the pub to play chess with a mate - hopefully that'll be more successful (probably not though, we're neither of us very good)! I will get to the end of The Trial this weekend!!

hmm...I just saw that you're in my "50 most similar libraries"! We should have virtual tea parties where we discuss our common books - got you starred! :D

I took the book quiz..and apparently..I'm Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale
Having never read that before..don't know how to take this...
maybe..I should read it later.. :)

Phew - been manic at work for the last couple of weeks, so I haven't logged on much (or not for any length of time anyway) - and now I do, I wish I'd made more of an effort to stay on top of things! I don't know how I'm ever going to catch up on all those threads I've starred!

#46 girlunderglass - so we do! I'm always on for a virtual tea party - provided I have a real cup of tea by my side also, of course!

#47 applebook1 - I recommend it - it's a good book. Not sure how I'd take it as being a description of yourself either though!!

...and so, without further ado, to the books I've actually made time to read recently:

5) The Trial - Franz Kafka
999 Category 2: Unfinished Books (1/9)

On the morning of his 30th birthday, Josef K is arrested for an unknown crime. His subsequent attempt to defend himself in the bizarre and confusing legal system seemingly spirals further and further out of his control.

Well. I'm glad I finally got round to finishing this, but I confess, it was a bit of a slog to read - not that it's difficult, just that it didn't really grip me and I found it hard to get into the spirit of it. I do think it's an interesting idea though and I wish that I'd read it when I had more time to absorb myself in it completely.

6) The Tooth Fairy - Graham Joyce
999 Category 4: Authors I haven't read yet (2/9)

On the day his friend Terry has two of his toes bitten off by a giant pike, Sam first meets The Tooth Fairy. It continues to come in and out of his life as he and his mates grow up - sometimes to his benefit, sometimes the reverse.

Basically a story about growing up disguised as a modern(ish) fairy tale. There were parts of the story that, initially, I wasn't very happy with (to say more would be a major spoiler), but, in the end, I enjoyed this very much.

7) Candide or Optimism - Voltaire
999 Category 5: Classics I haven't read yet (2/9)

Voltaire's satire on the "everything is for the best" philosophy.

I loved this - it had me cackling aloud for a good portion of it. I wish I could quote you a couple of particularly amusing sentences, but I'm afraid they'd be spoilers.

Beyond these, I'm still slowly reading Nicholas Nickleby, and the G K Chesterton selected prose (both are good for dipping in and out of) and have begun The Sea by John Banville.

I drove to the coast yesterday afternoon (Southwold), with the intention of using up the rest of my black and white film for my photography course. Unfortunately, I arrived into a sudden snow storm. Probably nothing compared to those of you in Canada, but I'd turned into a snowman within 30 seconds of getting out of the car and still have wind-burnt cheeks today. Bit of a wasted drive really! The world looks very beautiful today though as it has continued to snow pretty much non-stop ever since...

Candide or Optimism is a favorite of mine, too, flissp. Glad to see you enjoyed it. It's been a while since I read it, so it may be time for a re-read.

I will put The Tooth Fairy on the Continent. It sounds like fun!

Hope things slow down for you at work.

#49 alcottacre - yep, I'll definitely be re-reading Candide. I immediately insisted my sister read it too...

Re The Tooth Fairy, yes, it was, but I should probably pre-warn you that it was a little graphic at times...

#50: Thanks for the heads up! I will not be getting to it any time soon, though, since my local libraries do not have it.

I too have a 999 classics category and have added Candide or Optimism -- thx

I read Candide for the first time last year and was pleasantly surprised at how funny it was (I was expecting a dry old 'classic'). I'm glad so many other people still like it too. Perhaps *that's* why they call it a classic! :)

Thanks for the recommendation of the day watch etc. books!!!

#54 BDB - my pleasure!

8) The Sea - John Banville
999 Category 7: Prize winners (Man Booker 2005) (1/9)

Following the death of his wife, Max returns to 'Ballyless', a childhood family holiday destination with many memories attached.

Somehow, I never got carried away by this. John Banville writes very convincingly with the voice of a man who is slowly coming to pieces, but I actually had far more sympathy for his long suffering daughter than for him. That said, the way in which Banville subtly depicts the completely un-self-aware Max using his own voice is very clever.

Just a quick update as I've got to catch up on some work I didn't do on Friday due to getting a tad distracted...:

9) The Blue - Maggie Gee
999 Category 4: Unread authors (3/9)

Some very touching short stories about the everyday, which I enjoyed very much (mostly - the last let it down a bit).

10) N.P. - Banana Yoshimoto
999 Category 4: Unread authors (4/9)

A slightly disturbing, semi-ghost story. I also enjoyed this, but did find, either the translation, or the writing style of Banana Yoshimoto (who's called Banana?!) a bit clunky.

11) The Black Swan - Mercedes Lackey
999 Category 9: LT recommendations (suslyn) (1/9)

A fun retelling of the Swan Lake story.

I may have a bit more to say on these at a later point, but really should leave LT alone for the rest of the day, before I let myself get completely distracted!

Edited to attempt to correct an uncorrectable touchstone.

flissp - I share your feelings about The Sea. I read it last year, and named it "The Book I Thought I Should Have Liked, but Really Didn't." But I did like Christine Falls, which Banville wrote under his Benjamin Black pseudonym.

#57 porch_reader - encouraging to see someone else felt the same about this - I think your comment would sum it up for me too! I've had Ghosts for ages (an ex-library book) and keep meaning to read it, but I have to say, The Sea put me off a little bit...

Oh dear, I did so well catching up with people's messages the other day, and now I'm way behind again! I suppose I spend a high proportion of my day at work at the PC, so I tend not to log on that often at home...

Anyway, where am I up to?

12) A Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett
(not a 999 contender)

This was a re-read as various people whetted my appetite with it and it used to be a great favourite when I was small - I still have vivid memories of reading it with a torch under the covers, in floods of tears, after 'lights out'... I'm afraid that it didn't live quite up to my memories of it (that would have been quite hard after all), but I still enjoyed it immensely and had a good old regress with it (aided by the fact that I'd forgotten that I'd coloured in all the pictures!)

13) Sharpe's Tiger - Bernard Cornwell
999 Category 4: Unread authors (5/9)

The first (chronologically, not in writing order) of Bernard Cornwell's Richard Sharpe novels. I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy this - it wouldn't normally really be my thing, but I've always enjoyed the silly Sean Bean ITV series, so have been toying with giving them a go for a while now. There were certainly bits I didn't enjoy (I will never like graphic violence), but it was still a fun read and I shall continue to read the series I think.

The great thing about the TV series is that it's all instantly forgettable, so although you know that Sharpe is going to come through in more or less one piece, the story wasn't spoiled (although I remember this one better than some, as it's a fairly new one!)

I am enjoying the Sharpe book series too, flissp, but I have never seen the television show. I am in agreement about the graphic violence, I do not enjoy it either, but it does not appear to be gratuitious in Cornwell's books.

#60 The TV series is great fun if you like swashbuckle (although some of the later ones are less good) - and have the advantage that you can turn away in the squeamish-making moments!

Here's a link to the wikipedia entry (incidently, it's BBC, not ITV as I previously stated): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharpe_(TV_series)

I think my main cringe moment with Sharpe's Tiger stemmed mostly from one particular moment with a large flat-headed nail...

There is one passage in Outlander I cannot read for a similar reason - large nail, human hand and hammer are involved. Ick!

Msg 56 I pick up The Black Swan every once in a while just for a quick escape. I found the language very visual... I had no idea it was Swan Lake. Maybe that's one reason I can see this book so clearly when I read.

#62 alcottacre - I second that ick! ;)

**SPOILER for anyone who's not read The Black Swan**

#63 suslyn - The Black Swan is definitely a good escapism book - good to find a new one - thanks for the recommendation! My one issue with it stemmed from it's origin in Swan Lake - the ending is just far too happy! That said, I would have been very disappointed in a sad ending - so there's a time and a place for a) accuracy and b) reality!

You know, I've owned The Black Swan for about 10 years now and I've never read it. I think it got pushed up into the attic to make room for other books, which means I'll be making a trip up there soon...

>48 flissp:, I had to read The Trial for a college course and was surprised to find it absolutely captivating. I couldn't put it down. I haven't read much by Kafka, but I've really enjoyed all his works so far. Reading this thread reminded me of him. I think I'll have to reread The Trial as well as put a few of his other books on my TBR 2009 list.

#65 Hi RebeccaAnn - yep, you know, I think I just read The Trial at a bad time - I just never really got into it properly - I suspect I'll get more out of it if I re-read it another time - it's the kind of thing I'd usually enjoy...

>66 flissp:, You know, some books just need a reread to be good. That's how Pride and Prejudice was for me. I hated it the first time, but the second time I read it, I couldn't put it down and finished it in a day and a half. It's now one of my favorite books of all time.

Likewise, some books are only good once. For me, those books are anything by Dan Brown and the Twilight saga.

#60 and 61 - I had no problem with violence in the Sharpe TV series - for me it's pretty mild. Mostly, aside from the part about where the series is not truly faithful to the books, the thing that has always stayed with me from them is the way Sean Bean breathes so heavily through his nose. It's very distracting. Ever since then, though I love him generally as an actor, I always find myself listening to him breathe and longing for him to cut it out.

#68 oh no! i can see i'm going to be breath watching sean bean from now on! ;)

actually, i didn't mind the violence in the sharpe tv series - for some reason, i find it much harder to read (i'm not quite sure what that says about my imagination...) - it was the same when i read misery - when she smashes his knees in - i found myself turning away from the book as though it's the tv!

#69: I have exactly the same problem. Weird, huh?

#70 ;)

14) Towards Another Summer - Janet Frame
(not a 999 book)

A post-humously published short novel that is clearly semi-autobiographical. I enjoyed this very much, but am going to review it later as my brain is clearly not in gear enough to do it properly...

15) The Road - Cormac McCarthy
999 Category 7: Prize Winners (Pulizer 2007) (2/9)

Recommended by several people on LT. A father and his son travel across America towards the ocean in a post-apocalyptic world.

A deeply sad novel that I was gripped by from beginning to end, but always kind of wondered how McCarthy was going to finish it satisfactorily. To be honest, for me, he didn't - the ending felt kind of unfinished and not quite right. That said, I'm not sure quite else he could have ended it that would have left me happy.

This was quite a good follow on from the Janet Frame book, as both read as trains of the subconcious (one more lucid than the other) - but left me with a need to read something cheerful... So, obviously, I picked up Duma Key next. Hmmm. Well, I've still got Nicholas Nickleby ongoing, if I need a bit of light relief!

Edited to change 999 category of The Road - I've got far too many LT recommendations lined up not to take advantage of an overlap with another category!

Don't worry, Duma Kay is very, very good. It's much more reminiscent of King's earlier works (and therefore, very creepy).

You'll never look at conch shells the same again...

Yep. I loved it! It's a great return to early King.

flissp

I'm catching up on threads. My but you have read some very interesting books thus far in 2009! I've never read any books by Kafka. I'm adding The Trial to my list.

#72 & 73 - yep, I'm actually quite looking forward to it (only read the first couple of chapters so far, got distracted by 84 Charing Cross Road, but shall start making inroads tonight!

#74 Thank you - that's definitely a complement from you! My recommendation for The Trial is to make sure you're giving it your full concentration - I think I was reading and thinking about too many other things when I read it - it's definitely going to have to be a re-read for me at some point...

Anyway,

16) 84, Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff
999 Category 3: TBR (2/9)

All I can say is that I can't believe this has been sitting unread on my bookshelf so long (since September 2002 according to the fly leaf!). What a lovely book. My edition also contains The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, so I read that at the same time - not as touching, but there were some fantastic moments ("MORE gin?").

I'm buying this for my sister...

Just a quick note to myself to add T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land to my list, after an interesting program about it on Radio 4 this morning (if anyone's interested, it'll be on 'play again' for the next 7 days). I've heard it's a bit of a difficult one, but the quotes definitely snagged my interest.

oh, The Waste Land is lovely, you should definitely read it!

good good!

i'm not much of a poetry reader, so it's always good to find something that piques my interest...

I think it would greatly enhance your reading of it to read a little bit about the context in which it was written...try looking it up on wikipedia maybe!

#79 thanks for the recommendation - shall do. will probably listen to the bbc programme i mentioned above again too (i was driving when i listened to it, so wasn't really giving it my full attention)...

Quick update:

17)Playing Beatie Bow - Ruth Park
(Won't fit the 999 thing)

An "end of the week, feel like something silly" re-read. There's a whole cache of great books I used to repeatedly borrow from the library, but never owned when I was at school. With my discovery of Bookmooch, I'm slowly accumulating some of them.

A book about growing up and first love. Abigail Kirk chases after another girl she has seen watching an unusual game (Beatie Bow) some children are playing. Knocked unconscious in the street, she wakes up to find herself in 1874 in the care of the Bow family who believe she is the mysterious 'Stranger' destined to save the family 'Gift'. She just wants to get back to the present day.

I'd forgotten that this was set in Sydney, which made me all nostalgic for the brief period I lived there. I have a real longing to go back to that side of the world for a while, but it's not on the cards for a while sadly.

Two very quick reads that I'm not going to count to the total as they're short stories really:

a) The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch - a graphic novel written by Neil Gaiman, with art by Michael Zulli that arrived in the post yesterday. One of the stories in Smoke and Mirrors, this was a fun quick read, although, I confess, I prefer other artists that Gaiman has worked with (Dave McKean for example...). There is a definite blurring of fact with fiction here (a TV presenter called Jonathan whose wife is called Jane and a narrator who is a fantasy writer who loves sushi anyone?!)

b) The Adventuress - another short story, this time more of a sort of surreal grown-up picture book, by Audrey Niffenegger. I happened to spy this on display when I was in the library yesterday and read it when I was there. Bizarre story, lovely artwork.

18) North Child - Edith Pattou
999 Category 9: LT recommendations (applebook) (2/9)

This was a recommendation from a fellow fairy-tale lover (girlunderglass? I forgot to write it in my list in message 1 annoyingly).

Another YA book, basically a re-telling, from the point of view of the protagonists, of "East of the Sun, West of the Moon", one of my favourite fairy-tales (and, if you don't already know that story, this will be a SPOILER): when a family fall on hard times, a mysterious, white bear comes to their door and promises a return to good fortune if the youngest daughter goes away with him. The girl agrees, not realising that she is his last hope to break the enchantment the bear himself is under. When this hope seems to have been scuppered unknowingly, by the girl herself, she journeys to rescue him. End of Spoiler.

Oh, I loved this! Of course, I was predisposed to like it, but it was a beautiful and believable re-telling, which I struggled to put down to meet my mate to watch the rugby (England vs Ireland. Don't want to talk about it ;)) and have just spent the morning finishing off.

...now, back to Duma Key (which I'm enjoying very much so far!).

Oh, my, I simply have to add North Child to my list. I'm on a quest to read a lot of YA books in 2009. This one sounds great!

Yes, definitely worth adding - hope you enjoy it!

Tried to post this yesterday but LT didn't want to play...

>81 flissp:: East of the Sun, West of the Moon is one of my favourite fairy tales and now I have to find that book.... curses. I would say "and I was doing so well", but that would be a total lie.

>81 flissp: would love to take the credit for that, but unfortunately I have to echo Shaggy and say that it wasn't me.

#84 I have North Child on loan from Rock Road - I'll be returning it on Saturday at some point, so, if you put in a request for it... It was transferred from St Ives though...

#85 Hmmmm. Who could it have been?! I really should write things down more!

Aha! Just did a conversation search (confused by the fact that the book is also called East and it was applebook1 who recommended it - thank you!

>86 flissp:: knowing the joys of the library request system, they'll insist on sending it back to St Ives before they'll send it out to me (sigh). The automated request system always seems to send me books from the weirdest places - as in, there'll be an available copy in Cam storage, and instead it will place a hold for me on a copy that is on loan from, say, Burwell. But it may be worth a shot.

ETA: my resolve is weak. I checked - but there is already someone in the holds queue so it would go to them first anyway! For once iBistro actually saves me from myself.

#88 Aha - the library system saves you from yourself! ;) Yes, I've noticed that too - maybe it's their way of making a (very) little money as you don't have to pay for the ones in storage... Although actually, I didn't have to pay for North Child either, as it's a YA book.

Anyway, quickly dropping by to update my reads:

19) Duma Key - Stephen King
(Not a 999 book)

Enjoyed this very much, although thought that the story changed into something I wasn't quite expecting and wasn't quite sure about, about 200 pages before the end (to say while would spoil it). Was also a bit thrown to find my secondary school mentioned completely randomly more or less half way through! It's been a long while since I've read any Stephen King, but I never fail to find him completely gripping.

20) InterWorld - Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves
(Not a 999 book)

Joey gets lost very easily. Even in his own house. Trying to find his way home during a school exercise in, well, trying to find your way back having been dumped somewhere, without phone or money (strange school exercise anyone?), he gets lost more than usual. His home is not his home and his mum is not his mum...

I've been umming and erring about reading this for a while - it's had mixed reviews and is another YA book (I'm longing for another Neil Gaiman book for adults - the YA books have been great, but they just don't quite match Neverwhere, American Gods or Anansie Boys for me. Still, while, I'd agree, it's not up to Gaiman's usual standard (that subtle humour was, for me, mostly missing, besides anything else), and the story didn't completely grab me (interestingly, I much preferred Diana Wynne Jones's Homeward Bounders, which the book initially reminded me of), it was still a fun read and I'm glad I finally got around to it...

21) Changeover - Diana Wynne Jones
999 Category 3 - TBR

To continue my roll, I thought that it was high time to finally get around to reading this. It's the only Diana Wynne Jones that I've never read - her first book and only one truly aimed at adults (in my opinion), I knew it was completely different from all the others and I was really worried I wasn't going to enjoy it.

It's the 1960's and the (fictional) African nation of Nmkwami is about to gain independence from Britain. Threatening this historic moment is the mysterious figure of Mark (or is it Roger?) Changeover - who is he?

The story is basically a farce (as in stupid errors leading to other stupid errors in the plot, not that it's a farce as a book!) and reminded me a little, in some ways, of Scoop, which I read last year. You can tell it's an early work and sometimes, the writing style gets a bit confusing (everything happening at once on the page, but in many different places in the plot - deliberately meant to confuse I think, but occasionally hard to read!). It is also very much of it's time. Nonetheless, it had me giggling a lot of the way through, just from the pure ridiculousness of it all.

whoa you've read a lot this week! Well done! You'll reach 75 in no time at all (well...almost no time at all) :)

#90 ah, Duma Key has been ongoing for a while now - but it's true, I did have a very lazy weekend, mostly spent reading (am half way through Sharpe's Triumph too)!

another quick update:

22) Sharpe's Triumph - Bernard Cornwell
(not 999)

I don't have a lot to add to my comments about Sharpe's Tiger (book 13, msg 56) - good, fun escapism... although I'm waiting for him to join the Rifles ;)

Yet again, I'm horrendously behind on everyone else's threads - I keep coming to conversations a week late...!

Anyway, so...

23) Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - Washington Irving
(another one that could go in a couple of 999 categories, but I'm going to include it with authors I've not read yet (7/9))

At the weekend, I came across a random second hand book sale and foud this little book - to be honest, I fell in love with the physical book itself, rather than it's content (although it didn't hurt that it's fairy tales). I don't know if you'll be able to see this picture clearly or not (and will probably get the html wrong...), but I took photos of the front and back covers:



The stories themselves are written in a style that's a bit dated, but are absorbing enough. Everyone knows Rip Van Winkle, but I'd never read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow before - unsurprisingly, the film (which I prefer, to be honest), is quite different, except, bizarrely enough, for the physical likenesses of the characters, which were, in fact, quite true to the story.

24) Inkheart - Cornelia Funke
999 Category 9 - Recommended by FlossieT (3/9)

I'm feeling all bunged up and fluffy-headed with cold at the moment, so I'm going to review this later when my brain has revived a bit, but I enjoyed this very much. As, I think, Rachel said when she read it, anyone who loves reading can't help but identify with Meggie and I thought that the characterization was wonderful.

25) An Ideal Husband - Oscar Wilde
999 Category 8 - Plays (1/9)

I realised that I've not yet got around to reading anything for my 999 plays category this year and I've been meaning to read this for ages (since I saw the film adaptation I'm afraid).

I've always loved what I've read of Oscar Wilde (shamefully little), although he never fails to make me think of a very good friend who hated the deliberate 'wit' and was quite caustic about it. Of course, as with The Importance of Being Earnest, it's all very flippant, but I enjoy this and had a smile on my face the whole way through. The thing is that, even with the flippancy and an underlying message that I was quite shocked by when it appeared towards the end (apparently, men are more important than women, who should exist to support their husbands - the more surprising to me, as Wilde has quite strong female characters), a few truisms do slip in there quietly...

Anyway, I'm off home now to knock back the Lemsip I think...

Edited to put the picture in properly, but you can't really see the detail sadly... ho hum.

Great books you've been reading!

Oh, btw, I'm afraid your pictures of the front and back covers didn't work. I can't see anything. :(

Thanks gug/(Eliza?)!

Think I've got the pic right now, but unfortunately, you can't really see the detail clearly...

Began The Ground Beneath Her Feet last night before I fell asleep with the book in my face. For some reason, I've never got around to reading any Salman Rushdi before, so he's all new to me - I picked this one because it seemed like it was going to rotate around music. Not very far in as yet, but he does write very lyrically - I feel like it should really be read aloud...

...I may have to pick up The Princess Bride again at the weekend too - Inkheart gave me enormous cravings for it!

flissp
I had a wonderful American Literature prof in college (many years ago.) He taught Rip Van Winkle in a way I'll never forget. I developed an appreciation for Washington Irving.

This one has been on my tbr pile for sometime and I hope to read it soon:

http://www.amazon.com/Washington-Irving-Bracebridge-Traveller-Alhambra/dp/094045...

Hi flissp

Oscar Wilde is my favorite too! Have you read The Picture of Dorian Gray? Salman Rushdie is a very different author with a very distinct writing style, I read Satanic Verses last year and was much intrigued by his writing.

Thx for the reminder on Wilde. I needed another item or two for my 999 category :)

Bother! The picture's disappeared again... Ho hum...

#96 Whisper, I confess, I'd never heard of Washington Irving before - looks like I should, perhaps, investigate further... Sounds like you had a great American Literature prof though!

#97 PC, No, I haven't read The Picture of Dorian Gray - it's one of those ones that's been of my shelves for years - I keep looking at it thinking that I should read it and then something else distracts me. I'm making an effort to read some of these this year, so watch this space!

#98 suslyn - my pleasure! ;)

I was going to get stuck into the Salman Rushdie last night, but got taken away from it by a mate's last minute birthday celebrations, so I'm looking forward to curling up with it this weekend...

...got briefly distracted from The Ground Beneath Her Feet for:

26) Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorised Autobiography - Lemony Snicket
(not 999)

Great fun as always, but didn't fill in as many gaps in A Series of Unfortunate Events as I had hoped it would!

>99 flissp: I think you'd really enjoy The Picture of Dorian Grey !

#101 - I'm looking forward to it! ...but I'm now getting slightly panicy about just which of the 'top of my TBR pile' to read next - I need 16 sets of eyes! ;)

>100 flissp:: I found that one a wee bit of a disappointment as well - bit of a cash-in, really. ho hum. I think he should write some more - pre-schism, perhaps?

#103 I want to know what happened to everyone! Although I suspect that he was quite right to leave the story as he did... pre-schism may indeed be the way forward ;)

OK, got distracted from The Ground Beneath Her Feet again, with some more quick reads:

27) Sharpe's Fortress - Bernard Cornwell
(not 999)

I tend to get a bit carried away when I read series - I will almost certainly finish the Sharpe books this year. I'm starting to wonder which savage animal Obidiah Hawkeswill (I've probably spelt that wrong) will get thrown to next time - tigers, elephants, snakes...

28) The Tales of Beedle The Bard - J K Rowling
(not 999)

I'm not sure I can add much to other people's comments on this - fairy tales set in the Wizard world, but the joy of it is in Dumbledore's opinionated comments... Fun

29) Skellig - David Almond
999 Category 7: Prize Winners (Whitbread Children's Novel of the Year Award & Carnegie Medal) (3/9)

Michael and his family have just moved to a dilapidated house that they're doing up, but his baby sister is born early and is very sick. One day, Michael goes into the garage at the back of the house and discovers a strange man living there.

I've spied this on a few people's threads now and am so glad I bought it on impulse at the weekend (supposed to be buying my Dad's birthday present, hmmm). I loved it. It's such a simple story, but I was genuinely in tears for the last quarter of the book. In a happy way as well as a sad way.

This is, however, another case where I got very annoyed with the blurb writers - yes, of course you can guess who the man in the shed is early on, but the blurb should never give something like that away, even if it is obvious! Pah! I'm giving up reading blurbs.

Flissp

..so glad you liked Skelling. It was my #1 read of 2008. I read it in December, near the holiday and thus it held extra importance.

Good luck with finishing the Sharpe series this year. Last year I attempted to read "The Corps Series" by W.E.B. Griffin, which consisted of just 10 books. But, I only managed the first eight. The sudden change in setting from WWII to Korea in book nine totally threw me, and I was getting a little tired of the writing style.

It's that series fatigue that worries me a little when faced with 21 Sharpe novels. But, I have them all lined up and waiting, as I do with W.E.B. Griffin's "Brotherhood of War" series (9 books), Elizabeth Peters' "Amelia Peabody" series (18 books), and Colin Dexter's "Inspector Morse" series (13 books). And that list doesn't include the many smaller series collections I have still in their infancy!

#106 petermc - what'll probably actually happen is that I'll read the Sharpe books to a point when I never want to pick another one up again (like I did with Agatha Christie)! But, for the moment, I'm quite enjoying them as quick reads in between other books, so we'll see...

30) Nicholas Nickleby - Charles Dickens
999 Category 5: Classics I haven't read yet (3/9)

Finally finished this last night! This is the problem with my lunch-time reads, they take a lot longer to get through as I usually only have time for a chapter. Dickens however, for obvious reasons, is very good for short spurts of reading.

I'll have more to say on the book a bit later (really must get on with some work now), but suffice it to say that I did enjoy it, although less than either Bleak House or Edwin Drood (the only other two I've read) - it was just a tiny bit tooo flippant. Had a smile on my face most of the way through though...

>104 flissp: I'm so glad you liked Skellig, as I've just received an autographed copy of the book in the mail. At least, it said on Bookmooch that it's signed by the author but you never know if it's true, I suppose. I haven't seen the book yet as I'm away from home but my mom says it's a nice-looking copy. I can't wait to get home and read it, but that'll be in two-three weeks.

#107

You're a better person than me cos I can't manage classics and especially Dickens. I've tried reading him but I just get bored!!!!!!!!!!

#108. I am exceedingly jealous of your autographed copy of Skellig. I hope it proves to be true when you obtain the book. I anxiously await your comments after you have read this marvelous tale.

>110 Whisper1: I hope so too - although there's no way to prove it really. Oh well, I'll be happy to at least think it might be real :)

#111 I'm now going to say that you're absolutely going to hate Skellig - just so that it doesn't get overhyped for you (don't really mean it)! ;)

#109 lunacat - I've only read a couple of books by Dickens - but those I've read, I've found slow to get into, but once I did, I enjoyed them very much - both Bleak House and Nicholas Nickleby did take quite a while to get through however! I can see he wouldn't suit everyone though and I won't say he's one of my favourite authors.

>109 lunacat: & >112 flissp:: luna/fliss, sorry to say I loathe Dickens. Apart from A Tale of Two Cities, which I loved (and I think that was only because I'd seen a stage production first so had a sense of the plot arc), I just haven't ever been able to really get into the chunkier ones. It's not all bad at least - "I have never read Great Expectations" can come in handy for family games of 'I Have Never...'.

I know Stasia is collecting the Nonesuch Dickens so may be along to chastise me shortly ;-)

#113: I am not going to chastise, Rachael. I think Dickens tends to be one of those 'you either love him or hate him' writers. I am sure there are a ton of writers other people love that I do not care one whit for :)

>113 FlossieT: aw that's too bad Flossie. Actually I've never read A Tale of Two Cities, but my favourite Dickens, one that I can recommend and not feel guilty about it is Our Mutual Friend. I plan to join the Bleak House group read in June too because I've heard it's one of his best. Maybe try one of the two before you give up on him?

#113 FlossieT - I do own a copy of A Tale of Two Cities, but I just can't quite bring myself to read it. I'm sure I will one day, just not yet - I saw the black and white film adaptation and, with the exception of Jean de Florette (which is in a whole league of it's own), I have never cried so much over a film in my life - personally, if I'd been the heroine, I would not have gone with the wimpy hero - the ending is all wrong! ;) I shall need to be in a very strong frame of mind to read it I think!

I would say about Dickens that I can completely understand people not enjoying him - among other things, his characters just aren't real (particularly the young women!). I've enjoyed what I've read, but, having read 2 in the last 6 months, I'll wait at least a year before the next one (probably David Copperfield).

I didn't comment properly on Nicholas Nickleby above, so I shall do it now, starting with the statement that it was on the borderline for me. There were parts I loved (the Crummles, Ralph Nickleby...) and parts that irritated me (Nicholas's "love" for Madeline Bray (lust, surely) and I know that Mrs Nickleby is meant to be a caricature, but I couldn't help but find her annoying - I realise this was the point, but...). I briefly summarised the plot for a mate when I was about 2/3 through and realised that it read like a cartoon (very few shades of grey)...

All that said, as I stated above, I genuinely had a smile on my face most of the way through - it was the gentle comedy throughout. What I think Dickens really excels at are the oddball/ridiculous characters and the incredible amount of background detail.

Of course the ridicule of the support characters can be quite cruel and patronising, for example, Newman Noggs (who I liked) - ugly, skew eyed, monosyllabic, but good hearted, compared to the handsome, hot tempered, impetuous, but always the gentleman Nicholas Nickleby (who if I met in real life, I would probably dislike, even though he's supposed to be universally liked by everyone who's not evil eg Ralph Nickleby - I must be evil). I suspect that my values in life probably wouldn't completely coincide with those of Charles Dickens...

#114 alcottacre. I was going to agree with the love/hate relationship with Dickens then I realised that, in fact, although I've enjoyed what I've read, I wouldn't class him in my favourite authors... I think you'd be right in 9 out of 10 cases though!

#115 girlunderglass - just not for everyone I suppose ;) I think Rachel has read Bleak House (I seem to remember a mention somewhere)?

I think I definitely hate Dickens, and as it seems that I won't be condemned for doing so, I will gladly state now that I intend to never read, or even attempt to read, anything by him!!

#117 fair enough - you've given him a go after all! ;)

>116 flissp: no, never read Bleak House, although I do own a copy.

One day I will probably give him another chance, but not for a good few years yet.

#119 ah sorry, must have been someone else then... this is the problem with LT, not being able to put names to faces - my memory is very visually based!

Took me 3 attempts over many years to get Bleak House read and I don't ever intend to re-read that one. Liked Our Mutual Friend though. After reading the Ackroyd biography of "the Great Man", however, I don't like him much of any at all. Going to make it tough to read the unread Dickens works that I have on the shelves.

We do have a group read for Bleak House coming up in June for all those who are interested.

Having a slight panic attack at just how behind I am on everyone's threads I am since Easter...

OK, I'm currently in the middle of several books, hence the lack of updates:

- The Ground Beneath Her Feet (nearly done - I am enjoying it, but I keep getting distracted)
- The Rough Guide to Croatia (this will be ongoing a while, since I'll probably not go until October!)
- Vilnius Poker (first new ARC)
- Bozo and The Storyteller (second new ARC - actually, I've not begun this yet, but am about to and will probably read it before Vilnius Poker)
- How To Become Extinct (reading in dribs and drabs) and
- G K Chesterton: Selections from his Non-fictional Prose (lunch time reading)

hmmm. Maybe I need to cut that list down a bit!

...but in the meantime I read this:

31) Sharpe's Trafalgar - Bernard Cornwell
(not 999)

Next in the series, Sharpe, despite being in the Army not the Navy, manages to get caught up in the battle of Trafalgar (which at least allows Obidiah Hawkeswill respite from all the wild animals slathering to tear him apart) ;)

(edited to correct grammar and correct the touchstones)

Finished it!

32) The Ground Beneath Her Feet - Salman Rushdie
999 Category 4 - Authors I haven't yet read (7/9)

The book begins with the disappearance/death (during an earthquake) of Vina Apsara, rock goddess and the love of two mens lives; Ormus Cama, fellow rock star and Umeed "Rai" Merchant, photographer and narrator, both of whom she has know the majority of her life. Rai traces the history of Ormus, Vina, their band VTO and his own life from the 1950's to the 90's, through the changing face of Rock, via Bombay, London and the USA, to Vina's end in Mexico and beyond, in a universe that has twisted away from our reality and is suffering the consequences. There are many subtle and (mostly) not so subtle differences (Lou Reed is a woman, the assassination attempt on the life of JFK in 1963 was unsuccessful, VTO is the biggest band in the world...) between this world and our own but there also many (again, not so subtle) covert parallels.

The story is described as a retelling of the Orpheus/Eurydice myth and certainly the theme keeps reappearing, as do many other links between myth, religion and reality, at heart, however, it's the classic love triangle with a twist or two, set in the world of Rock.

I've been meaning to give Salman Rushdi a go for ages - but picked up a copy of Satanic Verses (being the obvious one on display!) a few years ago, read the first couple of pages (a good first pass way of seeing if I'm going to get on with an author) and was put off for a bit. So more recently, when I came across The Ground Beneath Her Feet, I reasoned that, being centered around music and myth (two loves of mine), this would be the one to start with.

First of all, I want to state for the record that I very much enjoyed it. However, despite this and being completely absorbed every time I picked it up, I did find myself constantly being distracted by other books. What I'm saying, I think, is that it wasn't a truly gripping book in the usual sense. This wasn't completely because the book starts with the end - there are enough twists and turns throughout that you know the end at the beginning is not the whole story (if you follow my tongue twister!).

The photographic imagery at various moments is incredibly vivid (there are one or two scenes I can picture now), and the many minor characters, and their stories, wonderful, but at times the plot becomes a little ponderous. The structure jarred me a little too - 5/6 of the book leading back up to the earthquake and then what felt (to me anyway) like a sudden change of direction and, in some ways, pace, for the final 1/6. I also struggled a little with just why these two men (and indeed the whole world) would fall in love with such an irritating character as Vina (oooh I hate it when people end every sentence with a question? Even when it's not obviously a question? You know what I mean?!) - and, indeed, the fact that every single character seems to be incredibly self-absorbed (not just those who are famous - seriously, I'm really struggling to think of a character with more than a couple of lines who isn't). But these were really quite minor annoyances in the general scheme of things and I really am glad that I read this.

#124: The only Rushdie I have ever read is Haroun and the Sea of Stories earlier this year. I will have to give The Ground Beneath Her Feet a go, too.

I liked The Moor's Last Sigh so much more than The Ground Beneath Her Feet, which I still think is worth a read. Midnight's Children is up there with The Moor's Last Sigh, and it won the "Booker of Bookers."

OK, I'm a sucker for a quiz, so here's that questionaire that's doing the rounds at them moment:

1) What author do you own the most books by?
Terry Pratchett (54 books, although that includes a couple of Discworld maps I think). Next closest are Neil Gaiman (35) and Diana Wynne Jones (32). Hmmm. Who says I'm obsessive?

2) What book do you own the most copies of?
I own 2 copies of every Jane Austen novel except Northanger Abbey - in each case, a "good" hardback edition and a mangled "everyday" paperback edition. Bizarrely though, (bearing in mind I still haven't finished reading it), Wuthering Heights is joint tops with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - I have 3 copies of each - Wuthering Heights because I had a nice old edition, so bought an everyday paperback - and then was given another, beautiful old edition; and Harry Potter, because I have UK, US and French editions.

3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
Only a very little bit ;)

4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Perhaps Ford Prefect or Dream (as in Sandman)?

5) What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children; i.e., Goodnight Moon does not count)?
I've read Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion (Jane Austen), Archer's Goon and The Lives of Christopher Chant (Diana Wynne Jones) so many times that I have no idea which of these I've read the most. I'd hazard a guess at Persuasion, but it's many, many times for all of them...

6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
I'm not sure I've ever had a single favourite. I had a small shelf of the ones I reread most, which included Charmed Life (Diana Wynne Jones), Warrior Scarlet (Rosemary Sutcliff), The Magic Finger & The Twits (Roald Dahl), White Boots (Noel Stretfield), A Little Princess (Frances Hogeson Burnett and The Magic Faraway Tree (Enid Blyton).

7) What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
Ah, the advantages of LT - any other year (bar the one in which I read The Da Vinci Code), I couldn't have told you. According to my threads, it is probably Inglorious by Joanna Kavenna.

8) What is the best book you've read in the past year?
This is a difficult question - I'm not very good at picking "best" things - I usually have several. Since January, I'd probably say 84, Charing Cross Road or Candide or Optimism.

9) If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
The Princess Bride or The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy maybe?

10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
Hmmm. No idea.

11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
A short one. In my opinion, the majority of film adaptations are not well done - those done best tend to be short stories, because much less cutting is needed.

12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
The Sandman comics. It would just be wrong.

13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
I have extremely odd dreams all the time. Going to have to think about that one... I'll get back to you!

14) What is the most lowbrow book you've read as an adult?
Probably The Da Vinci Code - but it has turned into a bit of a pet hate, so I could be villifying it more than necessary!

15) What is the most difficult book you've ever read?
Don't know. Another one to ponder...

16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you've seen?
The Taming of the Shrew? Henry IV parts I & II? I don't think any of those are particularly obscure, but I'm not sure what would. I've seen quite a few. Edited to add that I forgot I saw The Winter's Tale at the Globe a couple of years ago - that would probably count as the most obscure.

17) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
I don't like to classify like that - an example: Francois Sagan is a completely different kettle of fish from Gustave Flaubert. I love many French and Russian authors. They all tend to be a bit depressing though!

18) Roth or Updike?
I haven't read either.

19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Both!

20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Shamefully, I've only read Shakespeare!

21) Austen or Eliot?
Austen. I did love Middlemarch, but I love pretty much everything about Jane Austen!

22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
Milton and Chaucer apparently! Hmmm. I'm not really embarrassed by any of my gaps in reading - there certainly are some, but I know I'll get round to lots of them one day and I like to be eclectic ;) I do confess that I'm not good at reading non-fiction, or poetry though...

23) What is your favorite novel?
No idea! Depends on my frame of mind! I have a "favourite" tag in my library if you're truly interested, some of these are books I regularly re-read and some are books I've only read once but made a big impression. I'm sure that there are some that are missing - my tagging system has been a bit haphazard in the past...

24) Play?
Twelfth Night

25) Poem?
See #22 - I'm not much of a poetry reader. There are a few I enjoy - mostly those more humorous. Here's one that's not:

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams

It's the last line that I love. Name that tune ;)

26) Essay?
"Silly Novels by Lady Novelists" by George Eliot - seriously scathing (and hilarious)!: http://library.marist.edu/faculty-web-pages/morreale/sillynovelists.htm

27) Short story?
I'm probably unusual in that I love short stories. It's a struggle to think of any particular one that struck me more than anything else. Maybe Flowers For Algernon, which we read as a short story at school (yes, I know it's been expanded into a book too). Probably my favourite collection of short stories is the first volume of Somerset Maugham's Collected Short Stories though.

28) Work of nonfiction?
See #22. Bill Bryson type of stuff? The Rough Guide to Egypt (full of interesting stories as well as useful information - and whoever it was that wrote the text has a great sense of humour)?

29) Who is your favorite writer?
Jane Austen, Douglas Adams, Neil Gaiman, Elizabeth Gaskell, John Wyndham, Evelyn Waugh, Somerset Maugham, Hanif Kureishi.... Don't ask me to choose!

30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Dan Brown. I'm sure there are others, but he's the one that lept to mind!

31) What is your desert island book?
Argh! Can I have the complete works of Jane Austen in a book? I'd be tempted by The Count of Monte Cristo too though - I loved it, but it's a tome, which means that it may be quite a while before I re-read it otherwise!

32) And... what are you reading right now?
Many things! See Msg 123 (minus The Gound Beneath Her Feet, plus The Universe Against Her)

flissp
I'm with you on the DiVinci Code. For the life of me I simply cannot understand what is so special about this book and why it is/was a best seller.

#128 Me neither. About the only good thing about it I can say is that it is a page turner.

Very quick update:

33) The Universe Against Her - James H Schmitz
(not 999).

I read The Witches of Karres years ago, liked it and was disappointed when I couldn't seem to find anything else by Schmitz in print. I found this fairly recently and thought I'd give it a go. To be honest, I was a little disappointed - it was OK, but just a bit run of the mill. Nothing in it really grabbed me and I wasn't terribly happy with the double standards in morals - it seemed to me that it was fine for the heroine to do pretty much what she liked with the 'baddies' without any qualms, but that was OK because she was the heroine and they were bad... This is a series, so maybe consequences become apparent further down the line...

34) Sharpe's Prey - Bernard Cornwell
(not 999)

Next in the series. It's all good fun...

...most of the books mentioned in msg 123 still ongoing, but I'm half way through the ER ARC Bozo and the Storyteller and enjoying it very much.

Hi flissp! Cracking on through the books there... was about to ask you the other day what you thought of an Ursula K LeGuin (someone's requested a swap on ReadItSwapIt and I was considering accepting for that), but then noticed you'd tagged it 'unread'.

Isn't the Da Vinci Code (I'm not honouring it with a touchstone) dreadful? It wouldn't be accurate to say I hated it (if I really had I'd have given up after about 30 ages) but it was just so bad. I was forcibly lent mine by a friend so slightly honour-bound to finish it - read in a single evening as I just wanted to get it over with, kind of like gulping down malaria pills as fast as poss so you don't have to keep on tasting them ;-)

Flossie, I was in the exact same position, lent by a friend so I had to read it. I ended up reading one of the 3 page chapters, then putting it down for hours or a day before I could face another 3 page chapter. It was the most hyperactive book I have ever read! And it wasn't the subject matter, it was the WRITING.

#131 Hi FlossieT! Well, I've been reading a lot of easy reads lately, it has to be admitted...

Re Ursula LeGuin, yep, I'm afraid I've only read the Earthsea books - I loved them though, hence the others in my library, which are amongst those I bought ages ago, but haven't got around to yet... I've noticed a lot of championing of her work on LT in the last year though, so she's bumped up the TBR pile a bit...

#131 & 132, Re The Da Vinci Code (I shall take a no-touchstone leaf out of your book), I confess that I actually bought it myself - albeit way after most of the hype was over (I'm always slow off the mark with this kind of thing) - I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Hmmm. Not one of my best decisions. But then, I don't like to abuse something without having read it/seen it for myself, so...

Flossie, the reading it as fast as poss so as not to finish as quickly as you can was pretty much my experience too - and ronincats, agreed about the writing! One of my biggest irritations with it was the way Dan Brown kept inserting all these random, irrelevant facts just to show how clever he was. Oooh it irritated me...!

OK, another quick update so that I don't loose track:

35) Sharpe's Rifles - Bernard Cornwell
36) Sharpe's Eagle - Bernard Cornwell
(neither 999)

Continuing with my Sharpe fixation - and I've finally reached the Rifles, which were the TV episodes I liked the most... These two last were written earlier than the last few I read and you can spy a very few minor continuation changes, but I actually particularly enjoyed Sharpe's Eagle (which was the first he wrote), despite the irritating Josefina (love interest). Cornwell really does lay it on with a trowel - it's great! I'm still a little stumped as to why I like these so much as usually, I find the violence of war extremely barbaric, but hey, who cares!

37) Bozo and the Storyteller - Tom Glaister
999 Challenge category 4: Unread authors (8/9)

I've suddenly been inundated with ARCs, which is fantastic, but now they're all competing with each other to be read. This is the first on the pile and I did enjoy it, but I'm going to review it when I'm not at work, so I can do it properly...

38) Coraline - Neil Gaiman
(not 999 again)

I'm going to an early showing of the film in 3D in London the week after next (with both Neil Gaiman and Henry Selick) and I can't wait, but I thought I'd re-read the book first, so I whizzed through it last night.

Coraline and her parents have moved to a new house during the summer holidays, bored, she explores the house and finds a mysterious bricked up door. Opening the door again while her parents are out, she discovers that it now leads to a parallel reality in which she discovers her 'other mother' a woman with buttons for eyes who wants Coraline to come and live with her permanently.

I'd forgotten just how spooky this book is - with some really quite terrifying ideas (I would have loved it when I was small - shame he didn't write it until I was 25!) and I had some very strange dreams last night!

(edited to fix italics)

Ooh. Envy re Coraline screening!!

#135 I know, I found out about it completely randomly and got one of the last tickets - I'll be miles from the screen, but who cares! ;)

also, forgot to add...

39) How to Become Extinct - Will Cuppy
999 Category 1 - Non-fiction (2/9)

I came across this on someone's thread at the start of the year, and I'm ashamed to say, I can't remember whose now. It sounded my cup of tea anyway. And it is, mostly.

Lots of mini-essays on various types of fish, reptile and extinct animal from a slightly surreal, random, but amusing point of view. With many silly footnotes (often the best bit). I enjoyed the later entries (particularly one on Aristotle) more than the first (fish ones) mostly, I think, because I was reading the book far more sporadically by this point - initially I was trying to read it in one go and, to be honest, the style got a little repetitive. Anyway, light-hearted nonsense, that's all good fun...

ooooh I love weird and seemingly nonsensical dreams! do tell! :)

#137 The tragedy is that I don't remember very clearly at all - my alarm clock snooze button went off while I was in the phase where I normally pull the threads together and I lost the plotline - by the time I'd got to work, the whole lot had gone :( All I remember is that they were unusually lurid and confusing (I actually woke myself up several times, which is unheard of - I'm a very deep sleeper), and I badly wanted to go back to sleep to continue the story, but there was no point once the alarm had gone off again! I'm hoping that it'll seep back into my subconscious tonight (in which case I'll keep you posted), but somehow I doubt that'll happen!

...I should really try to keep a dream diary...

ah! darn! The same thing has happened to me many times...especiallyduring the Deathly Hallows anticipation period :)

>136 flissp:: I think it might have been my thread. I agree with you that it's better to read it sporadically. I feel like that's true about most of the comic writers that I've liked at some point (Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, David Sedaris , P.G. Wodehouse): if you read their style too thoroughly, you start to see the method behind it, which renders it predictable and unfunny.

Oh wow..you have read a lot while I was...drowning in school work ;)
I'm assuming from your questionaire that you like Jane Austen (who doesn't..) and Diana Wynne Jones...
I highly doubt this..but if you never read Jones' Hexwood I highly recommend it ;)

I'm assuming from your questionnaire that you like Jane Austen (who doesn't)...

ME! lol :)

#139 girlunderglass, now I'm intrigued as to what your Deathly Hallows dreams were like!

Some dregs came back to me - the dream involved Sean Bean in the roll of Coraline and a black cat with hypnotizing eyes (you know those red and white swirly things they always show in cartoons) coming up to me eyeball to eyeball, then everything flashing white (and that was the point at which I woke up with a start the first time). A tad surreal. I just wish I could remember what actually happened - there was a vague narrative, definitely...

#140, wunderkind, I think you're right, it probably was your thread, and I agree (although actually, I could read Douglas Adams, at least, back to back - although part of the reason I haven't read The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy for several years is that there was a point where my brain was reading ahead of the words, if you see what I mean). Still, all good to read in little chunks!

#141 applebook1, hope the schoolwork is not so whirlpool-like now. Yep, I have read Hexwood (I've now read every novel she's written - Changeover was the only one I hadn't got around to) and I agree, it's one of the better ones. Partly because there's actually quite a sinister undertone...

#142 dk_phoenix - right. Off my thread with you! I will not have dissenters here!! ;) (nah, it would be a very boring world if we all had the same likes & dislikes...)

catching up -- good stuff going on here. :)

>143 flissp: I was listening to all these HP podcasts every week...where a bunch of people were discussing what they think it's going to happen, what clues do we have, where the story is going, character development and so on. And after every podcast - almost - my brain just took the day's "themes" and ideas and just spun them into elaborately-constructed dreams. Basically I was trying to guess what was coming up in book 7 even in my sleep :)

#145 whose plot was better?! ;)

#146 flissp

I nearly snorted my drink thanks to that statement! The real question I want to know is.........was the epilogue any better? couldn't be too hard.......

the epilogue was much more dramatic in my head - and that's because I had a dream where everyone died except for prof. Mcgonagall and me (yes I was a witch and had a wand too and participated in the war), and we were both just crying our eyes out :)

I didn't mind the epilogue too much, except for the names of some of the children (I am trying to avoid spoilers here, LOL). I mean, really, Hugo???

I think Victoire and Hugo are an homage to Victor Hugo. JKR used to teach French.

Lol, I hated the epilogue so much that I now refuse to read it. I love Deathly Hallows and have reread it many times already but cannot bear that ending! It reads like poorly written fanfic to me.

The epilogue was baaaaaaad... reminded me of the sort of exercise you used to be assigned at school to write a story featuring the characters from your favourite book. By all means, know in your head that's where it's going, but have the wisdom not to bludgeon your readers with it. eurgh.

I'll join in with the abuse of the HP epilogue - I was thoroughly disgusted!

...I think my excuse for her was that I felt it may have been a way of preventing people asking for more books - which I'm sure they will have done anyway, despite this...

Anyway, hmmm. I go away for the weekend and I discover I have about 60 million posts on other people's threads to catch up on, so I'm going to prewarn anyone who actually reads mine that I'll probably be very out of date...

I'm also feeling very guilty for still not putting up a review for Bozo and the Storyteller or getting round to reading the other 3 ARCs I have lined up (unlikely to be this coming weekend either - been having/going to have all sorts of Bristol meet-ups with Uni mates...).

In the meantime:

40) Sharpe's Gold - Bernard Cornwell
(not 999)

Probably the one I've enjoyed least so far, to be honest - maybe I'm starting to get Cornwell saturation?! I've got another 2 lined up at the library though, so...

41) Inkspell - Cornelia Funke
999 Category 7 - Prize winners (Book Sense Book of the Year Children's Literature Winner 2006) (4/9)

Following on from Inkheart (and I've just noticed that I never got around to reviewing that properly, so I'm going to have to do that at some point too) - I loved this. It's unusual for me to enjoy a sequel more than the first book, but this was definitely the case here. What I think she's so good at is creating, for the most part, completely believable people - noone is too good to be true, they say the wrong thing on occasion and do stupid things etc etc. Can't wait for the final part - I'm withholding it from myself by waiting for the paperback to come out at the start of June. Argh!

On the subject of Inkheart, I rented the film on Friday. It's really not good, is it? Why they felt the need to change the best bits, I don't know... However, at the same time, I finally got around to seeing the adaptation of Blindness, which I thought was very good (although losing some sense of the timespan, in my opinion therefore losing some of it's impact). Definitely going to have to bump Seeing (the sequel - touchstone won't work) way up my TBR pile now!

Edited to note that I read Blindness 3 years ago, so if there were plot changes, I may have missed them... Although I got the impression that there weren't any major changes - I may be wrong?

oooh and just wanted to get all excited with everyone about going to see Coraline 3D tomorrow evening - yay!

>153 flissp:: ...maybe I'm starting to get Cornwell saturation...

I was worried about that happening (I'm going through the series in audio book during my commutes), so I alternate Cornwell with Patrick O'Brian and, once I've done two of each, I do a single book by some other author.

I just started the sequence again—I'm in the middle of Sharpe's Prey now, then The Ionian Mission, then Sharpe's Rifles, then Treason's Harbour, then Who Knows What.

>153 flissp: flissp, if you can't wait til June, I'm sure my son would be happy to lend you his copy of Inkdeath - he spent his birthday money on the hardback :) (If you love it, you can always buy the pb when it comes out...)

Enjoy Coraline. I'd really like to see it but I think it may be a bit scary for my kids.... at least this time the 3D version will actually be showing at the Cineworld in Cambridge. The feature on the animation in Wired UK was really interesting.

Apparently Neil Gaiman was on breakfast TV this morning with Henry Selig (Seligman? brainfart, can't remember his surname) but I forgot to switch it on - shattered after riding to Reach Fair on Monday!!

Thanks for the info on Inkspell. I like the first, but wasn't raring to go for the sequel. Now I just might if I get the chance :)

#157 suslyn - I'd definitely recommend giving Inkspell a go - I did enjoy Inkheart, but not as much as I expected to, so it sounds like we had a similar reaction...

#156 Rachel that is very kind - thank you! I have an enormous backlog of stuff that I want to read at the moment though (one of those "but which do I start with?" moments), so I think an enforced hold on reading Inkdeath is probably a good thing as it's only a month (and I've got the paperback on order, so it should arrive pretty much when it comes out)... I may yet cave though ;)

Re the Coraline film, thanks, I really enjoyed it - partly, I confess, because the film started at 18.10, so I had an excuse to take the afternoon off and just hover around reading on the South Bank, which is something I love doing. Neil Gaiman is always entertaining when he's interviewed too - Henry Selick was also quite interesting, but I kept getting distracted by his manic head wiggling... They came armed with Blue Peter badges, so clearly they were on that too - I shall have to see if I can find the TV slots on youTube!

Actually, I found the film nothing like as scary as the book (but I suppose books always have so much more potential to be creepy, because you've got more time to ponder the nastiness and your imagination can run riot with whatever you personally find scariest). That said, I think it probably could have small children running screaming from the cinema ;) I'd definitely recommend giving it a go yourself though, just to test it out - they may be OK with it (I seem to remember that my mum was far more traumatized by Bambi than either my sister, or myself - but then I've a friend who still has nightmares about the animated Watership Down!)

#155 TadAD - this is a very sensible solution, unfortunately one that won't work with my slightly obsessive streak - in that, if I have a copy of a book I want to read to hand, I find it very hard to postpone it. This is why I'm a little traumatised by my TBR pile at the moment ;) Actually, I usually have more than one book on the go at a time anyway, but the Sharpe books are such that I find I have to read them in one go, I don't know about you?!

...and a quick note for the next book, which was the 2nd ARC out of 4 this month, so I need to have a bit of a think before I review it at the same time as Bozo (maybe on Sunday):

42) An Elegy for Easterly - Petina Gappah
999 Category 4 - unread authors (10/9!)

Enjoyed it very much, more to add later!

>158 flissp:: I understand the difficulty with books in hand. I'm able to do it with the Cornwell and O'Brian books but there are other authors where Book Come Out = Book Gets Read.

I'm struggling right now because a book by a favorite author just came out and I've bought it. However, I'm in the middle of three books plus have two more that are due back at the library next week. Life is so hard!

#160 It is, it is! ;) I completely understand the reaction - I have a couple of authors for which everything ongoing will be postponed if something new comes along from them... Give in to the pull, give in (mwah ha ha ha ha)!

>160 TadAD: LOL poor baby.

Life is so traumatic and tricky for us booklovers isn't it?

#159: Looking forward to your review of that one!

#163 ;)

#164 alcottacre I hope my review will do it justice!

...and the missing reviews are on their way, honest... I was in Bristol for the second weekend running, meeting up with loads of university mates - had a fantastic time (which was much needed, work has not been good the last couple of weeks), but was, consequently, completely exhausted by the time I made it home on Sunday. Anyway, I'll try to post this week (although I'm away again this weekend) - for the 2 ARCs and also for:

43) Prater Violet - Christopher Isherwood
999 Category - well, I'm not sure, it fits into about 4 of them!

Edited to correct italics

it fits into about 4 of them! -- that's much better than what I've been doing: reading books that fit none of them! LOL

#166 - well, I've been doing a lot of that too! :)

OK, some reviews. A bit late, but better than nothing:

37) Bozo and the Storyteller - Tom Glaister
999 Challenge category 4: Unread authors (8/9)

An ARC I received a while ago, with a lovely note from the author, so I'm feeling a little guilty over taking so long to review this. I'll do my bit and add that the audio book is available to stream or download for free at www.bozoandthestoryteller.com

On a planet somewhere, every night, The Storyteller weaves stories to the childlike Bloons about a strange world called Earth and the Hoomans who live there. A world created in his own imagination. But the story has grown a life of it's own and a darkness, The Enemy, is taking over, making The Storyteller sick. So he sends a boy into the story - the only hope of finding The Cure. On his heels, to give the boy a hand, he sends Bozo, a Bloon with a bit more curiosity than the rest.

Here, in the real world, an untraceable boy wakes up from a coma with a mission.

This is a morality story, a quest, and it's a fun read - light hearted, despite the subject matter, traipsing all over the world - and I enjoyed it very much. But, if I'm honest, there was something about the story that was just a little heavy handed. There's a doctor, for example, who, for me, was too evil - too black and white and I just did feel as though I was being preached to on occasion. Irrespective of this however, it's a lovely story and I look forward to finding out what happens next to Bozo and Theo and the people that they have met along the way (and to finding out if they ever discover that The Cure are a band from England ;))

42) An Elegy for Easterly - Petina Gappah
999 Category 4 - unread authors (10/9)

A deeply affecting collection of stories about people from all walks of life in Mugabe's Zimbabwe.

Petina Gappah writes about a world I know nothing about, but with such great sympathy and humour that I was utterly drawn in. Most of the tales are just increadibly heart-wrenching, but few are without hope.

Highlights, for me, were "The Annex Shuffle" (about a law student who enters an asylum after a breakdown) and particularly, "The Mupandawana Dancing Champion" (which does what it says on the tin) - neither are what you expect. I heartily recommend this.

43) Prater Violet - Christopher Isherwood
999 Category 6 - Biography (1/9)

I've decided to put this into my biography/autobiography/letters category, mostly because I know I'm going to find this the hardest to fill! It has, however, been on my TBR pile for years amongst other things.

I started reading this thinking it was years since I'd read anything by Christopher Isherwood, and wondering why that was, when I enjoy him so much - and then realised that actually, the only one I've read is Goodbye to Berlin (on which the wonderful play and film Cabaret is based). So. Clearly, I'm going to be reading more Isherwood this year!

This is quite a succinct book, really being a mini Biography of the larger than life, Viennese film director Friedrich Bergmann during the pre-WWII period that Isherwood worked with him on the film Prater Violet. But he is an extremely entertaining, unrelenting and observant writer, who writes with great affection about a man who, for a while, seemed like a father to him.

This was a very amusing read, but the larger, darker background story of the prelude to war and of day to day loneliness isn't lost. He is not afraid to laugh at himself, and the images that he creates are wonderful - here's a bit that had me laughing out loud at the beginning:

"He was off the line. I jiggled the phone for a moment, stupidly, with vague indignation. Then I picked up the directory, found Imperial Bulldog's number, dialled the first letter, stopped. I walked across to the dining-room door. My mother and my younger brother Richard were still sitting at breakfast. I stood just inside the doorway and lit a cigarette, not looking at them, very casual.
'Was that Stephen?' my mother asked. She generally knew when I needed a cue-line.
'No.' I blew out a lot of smoke, frowning at the mantelpiece clock. 'Only some movie-people.'
'Movie-people!' Richard put down his cup with a clatter. 'Oh, Christopher! How exciting!'
This made me frown harder.
After a suitable pause my mother asked with extreme tact: 'Did they want you to write something?'
'Apparently,' I drawled, almost too bored to speak."

...I'm smirking as I read it right now!

#168: Sounds like one worth looking for, so I will!

#169: Already on the Continent.

#170: Added to the Continent.

...and a quick update as to what I'm reading at the moment, so as not to lose track!:

- The Rough Guide to Croatia: still ongoing
- G. K. Chesterton: Selections from his Non-fictional Prose: also still ongoing lunch time reading
- A Traveller in Time (a children's book I used to love)
- The Wonderful O (this turned up on Friday and I had to start it!)

...and books lined up to read:

- Vilnius Poker: first new ARC, which, I'm ashamed to say, I've not got around to reading yet - and am put off a bit by some of the reviews that I've been reading...)
- The Moon and The Sun: yet another ARC (I'm a lucky person!), which I have yet to get around to beginning - partly because it's in pdf format and I'm not very good at reading off a screen - I prefer to read curled up!
- Inkdeath: the paperback turned up early on Friday! How am I going to resist it?! I have told myself I have to at least wait until the bank holiday weekend when I'm mostly free, because I've got the next 2 Sharpe books lined up from the library...
- Sharpe's Havoc and
- Sharpe's Escape

...I'm having a real crisis of too many books to chose from at the moment - it's fantastic!

#171 - I definitely recommend bumping An Elegy for Easterly up the TBR pile - it's one of those books that I just keep thinking about...

#173: My problem is getting my hands on it. None of my local libraries have copies of it and I have a moratorium on book buying until at least June :(

I'm adding Bozo and the Storyteller and Elegy for Easterly to my tbr list. They both sound like very interesting books.

I have never read Inkheart and its series..
do you think its worth a try?

#174 alcottacre - I'd send you my copy, but I'm afraid I quite want to hang on to this one. I notice there's quite a long queue for it on Bookmooch, but if I spy another copy, I'll put it up there for you.

#175 arubabookwoman - I hope you enjoy them!

#176 applebook1 - definitely. Given our overlap in fairy tale love, I think you'll enjoy them. What I've liked the most is how believable the characters are. I will say that, while I enjoyed the first very much, it didn't completely grip me as much as I thought it would - the second, on the other hand did...

...on which note, I'm still finding it very hard to resist Inkdeath! I have decided that I'm not allowed to touch it before the weekend, which will be my first mostly free one in a while - so lots of time for reading. But I must give Vilnius Poker a go first... And the Blindness sequel Seeing (which keeps getting lost in my TBR piles)

#177: I appreciate the thought, but I am not on Bookmooch, just PBS. Thank you anyway.

#178 PBS?

44) The Wonderful O - James Thurber
(Not 999 - I really need to do some catching up on one or two of these categories!)

Another lovely edition of a James Thurber fairy tale. Pirates invade the land of Ooroo in the search of jewels they can't find and ban the letter 'O'. Good, silly, fun, which I think probably works best when read aloud - I particularly noticed this in the first couple of paragraphs of the book, which are incredibly rhythmic and visual. I confess, I enjoyed The 13 Clocks more however...

I've also finally got around to beginning Three Men in a Boat, which has been sitting beside my bed for years.

#179: PBS = Paperback Swap (www.paperbackswap.com)

Even though I am not a Bookmoocher, I suspect the sites work in a very similar fashion.

Enjoy Three Men in a Boat - it is laugh-out-loud funny in many places and has made my list of memorable reads for the year.

flissp, I have never read any James Thurber. That's something I need to remedy soon. Looking over my TBR lists soon equals sometime in the next seven and a half years.

#181 VG, me too! There are books on the piles that have been there for 10 years! Re James Thurber, my favourite so far is easily The 13 Clocks.

#180 alcottacre - aha, another book website for me to find/avoid! Definitely enjoyed Three Men in a Boat - hadn't realised it was written so long ago.

More on this later (not been at home much recently, just keeping an eye on my own thread...)

Flissp, I'm currently reading Snow White and Rose Red, 'an original novel based on the classic fairy tale' by Wrede. This book is the fourth in TOR's The Fairy Tale Series (per the book, despite what it says on the series page -- however as they're each stand alones, I'm guessing that's a non-issue except from a veracity POV).

I wouldn't call it amazing, but it is interesting to see how Wrede decided to deal with the tale and I'm enjoying the setting (Elizabethan Englad) very much.

Hi Susan - thanks, that sounds interesting - I'll keep an eye out! Always on for a fairy tale adaptation :)

Just dropping by to say "Hi!!" and "thanks for the I.L. add!" :P

*big grin*
*waves*

#185 Hi back! ;) What can I say, you read a very interesting range of stuff - combined with enjoyable reviews!

Time for an update... I didn't read half as much as I planned over the bank holiday, mostly because it ended up not being as free as I planned, still, it was a beautiful weekend! So:

45) Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K. Jerome
999 Category 3 - TBR 4/9

Three men and a dog go on a rowing trip up the Thames towards Oxford. With much pontification on the part of the author.

Very amusing - had me snorting loudly in public places, I enjoyed this very much. Another one that has been waiting to be read for a very long time and I'm now not sure why! The whole way through, a little part of my brain was wondering what it would be like to do the same trip in the present day (and if it's possible) - over 100 years later. Actually, it amazed me that this book is as old as it is (first published 1889) - very little of it has dated.

46) Sharpe's Havoc - Bernard Cornwell

I've been reading the Sharpe books sequentially, but managed to skip this one somehow. Good fun as ever - and better than the last one I read, which fell a little flat.

...and a small mention for a wonderful book I found browsing the Tate Modern bookshop at the weekend, 365 Penguins. I should mention that I've always been a penguin lover, which was why I was drawn to what is basically a children's book (that and it was next to the Moomin books)! I shall be giving to my cousin's daughter, even though she's probably too young for it. Basically, it's a (quite complicated) counting book - a family receive a penguin through the post every day of the year - what I liked was just how manic it gets!

...and I STILL haven't got around to beginning Vilnius Poker, or The Moon and The Sun - I really must!

Three Men in a Boat is a lovely read for a bank holiday as beautiful as it was. How immensely suitable!

>183 suslyn:: Susan, I really liked that series...sorry she kind of stopped doing it. My favorites were Yolen's Briar Rose and de Lint's Jack the Giant Killer but they were all good to one extent or another with the exception of Frost's Fitcher's Brides, which I just couldn't seem to enjoy.

>187 flissp:: flissp, I'm also reading through the Sharpe stuff, though I'm a ways behind you. I've just barely started Sharpe's Rifles.

>187 flissp: was that prep for Doomsday Book as well as reading for other reasons?

Actually I meant the non-sequel sequel to DB...
(touchstone not responding)

To Say Nothing of the Dog is Connie Willis' non-sequel to Three Men in a Boat--is that the one you meant, Susan? It takes place on the same river, partly in the same time, uses the same type of chapter headings, and the 3 guys and the dog even make a cameo appearance!

#188 lunacat - actually, I read it mostly on the tube at the end of last week (I was on a course in Mile End (woo) in London) - not quite so idyllic! ...but still very enjoyable. However, good thinking Batman, I shall have to root out something summery for this weekend! :)

#189 TadAD (and Susan), I seem to have missed out on this series entirely - I've no idea how! Definitely going to be hunting them down this year though...

Re the Sharpe books, I think you're being far more sensible than I am with them - I do tend to get a bit obsessive about series (this is probably part of my issue with Robert Jordan...). I think Sharpe's Rifles and the next one (chronologically) Sharpe's Eagle are my favourites to date, so hope you enjoy them too!

#190 Susan & #191 ronincats, actually, it's been on my TBR pile for quite a long time, but all the rave reviews of Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog definitely bumped it up - the two books are very high on my not-yet-purchased-TBR pile anyway - even more so, now you remind me of this!

Oh dear, it's been a while since I checked in to my own thread - it's mostly because I'm feeling guilty that I still haven't been able to get myself to read those two ARCs... That and I've suddenly gained part of an allotment...

In the meantime, I've read:
47) Sharpe's Escape - Bernard Cornwell and
48) Forty Years On - Alan Bennett

...and gave in to begin Inkdeath

More on all the above to follow this evening or tomorrow...

(Edited to switch off boldface)

How was the Bennett book? I adored The Uncommon Reader, but remember a so-so review on another of his books.

OK, I was going to update when I'd finished Inkdeath, but, while I'm ploughing through it, I probably won't have finished it until the weekend, so just a brief update on the last two instead.

47) Sharpe's Escape (not 999) Next in the series, and, to be honest, while it was a fun read, I'm already struggling to remember what it was about! It's come back to me now, but it's clearly not a particularly memorable one...

and, for Susan:

48) Forty Years On - Alan Bennett
999 Category 9 - Plays (2/9)

I was browsing my parents shelves at the weekend (something I love doing, there are so many random things I've ended up with from their shelves - that was how I first discovered Jane Austen when I was 10) and came away with this and a Brecht play that I hadn't heard of (next on the play list).

I don't have a huge amount to say about this really though. There is an old fashioned, fuddy duddy Prep School headmaster on his last day after 40 years of service. There is his replacement, itching to step into his shoes and make some changes. There is a play within a play about a family in the Second World War, apparently starring mostly staff.

Some plays I've read have been instantly visual (My Mother Said I Never Should, for instance), so the fact that I'm reading them, rather than seeing them on the stage, makes no difference. This was not one of those plays unfortunately. It was funny, but didn't have me rolling around on the floor and almost certainly would have benefited from being seen rather than read.

Other than these two, I'm still currently reading:

- The Rough Guide to Croatia
- G. K. Chesterton: Selections from his Non-fictional Prose
- A Traveller in Time
- Seeing
- Inkdeath and
- Vilnius Poker

...as I said in my last post, I've recently gained an allotment. I'm still all excitable about it - my flat doesn't have any garden at all and I've really been missing my outdoors space, but this means, I've been virtuously digging and I haven't been reading as much as I would normally... :)

Pardon my ignorance. What does that mean, "I've gained an allotment?"

Many town councils (or in my case, an independent allotment society) own patches of land which are divided up into smaller fragments that people can rent, for a nominal fee, in order to grow vegetables etc. I think that it's a very good idea, particularly in very built up cities (which, it has to be said that Cambridge is not).

As I say, I live in a flat which has no garden attached (and very little green space even attached to the whole building. I love my flat (it's part of a converted Victorian building built in 1881 and has the most amazing windows and stained glass), but having grown up in villages, and, prior to buying my own place, at least been completely surrounded by parks (some of which are effectively fields), I've really been missing having some outdoors space and always wanted to grow my own veg anyway. So...

I put my name on the TWO YEAR waiting list (allotments have started to become very popular in recent years) for a half size plot (there's only one of me) with the allotment society nearest me and expected to have moved out by the time one became available. Very fortunately for me, the society are trying to crack down on people who don't 'work' their plots properly and they happened to notice that one of my neighbours had a half sized plot that he was only using half of. So, reading between the lines) they suggested that we come to an arrangement where I can use the half he was not using, which he very happily agreed to and I have a quarter size plot (which is plenty to be getting on with for the moment), a bit late in the year, but nonetheless, I'm very excited by it (I spent about 11 hours digging and planting the weekend before last...)

I will comment that my plot seems to have been the origin of all Bindweed and also possibly the place where all good sheds come to burn when they die, shedding their rusty nails like the useless baubles that they are... But I'm not complaining really ;)

Sorry, bit of a long-winded explanation that!

...and if anyone's even remotely interested, I've taken some photos, because I want to keep track of my progress... (well, I said I was overexcited about it, didn't I?!):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/flissp/sets/72157619086404812/

oooh that sounds wonderful flissp! I too have grown up in a village and I miss the big green spaces everywhere sooo much. That's the one thing that annoys me more than all others about Athens: it is shocking how very few green spaces exist. In fact I'm pretty sure it sets some sort of record for European capital with less green. I have told my boyfriend over and over again that as soon as we move together (next year when I graduate) I don't care how small the house is, I don't care if we have to share etc but I really really really need a garden. Nothing big, nothing fancy just a little green space. It's necessary for my mental sanity. :) oof rant over.

I hope you will post some pictures of your quarter size plot for us to see :D

haha oops guess we must've posted at the same time! Thanks for the link I'll go take a look now!!

Hee, it is wonderful!

I have to say that when we flew to Greece years ago on a family holiday, coming over Athens, it was impossible to see the city for the smog! But I've heard that it's become a lot cleaner since the Olympics? I suppose that wouldn't have much effect on green space either... But actually, the one thing I dislike about Paris (a city I love) is just how little true green there is in the centre, so maybe it's not just Athens!

Cambridge is actually a very green city, but it's still not quite the same as having your own green space - particularly if you have to walk more than a couple of minutes to get there.

One of my aims in my plot is to have a spot where I can just sit in a deck chair and read... :)

PS Eliza, it all looks a bit like just mud at the moment, but it _is_ growing, I promise! ;)

That looks like something they've recently started in my neighborhood (Hyde Park, south side of Chicago). They took an empty lot and turned it into a community garden with little plots like that. It's really nice to see people working in it on sunny days, although the setting isn't as idyllic as yours seems to be, what with the train tracks half a block away.

Ah, there are train tracks not so far from mine and an (albeit very small) airport close by too! that said, I really haven't noticed either very much (infact, I notice the planes more at home). But I've been to the Hyde Park area of Chicago (a mate used to live near the university) and I'll grant you, the trains are very busy!

Can I say how much I find it....I don't know....intriguing? Fascinating? The amount of standard information that gets talked about and exchanged on LT, especially in the 75ers. Things like people not knowing the word allotment and that side of British life being opened up, and so many other times it happens. I love it, how varied our societies are even within the 'western' world.

It's all good!

Thanks for the education!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was a really interesting convo on allotments - definitely not something that we have in Canada, at least not where I live. That is one of the best things about southern Ontario - everywhere you look, it's green. I live in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, right on one of the Great Lakes, so it is pretty idyllic. Funnily (is that a word?) enough, all I really want to do is move to a city - I guess we always want whatever we don't have!

Flissp, I saw your mention of visiting Rome - such an incredible city. Make sure you see the Trevi Fountain at night. It is touristy and full of people, but beautiful. Oh, and Piazza Navona is a great square with Bernini's Four Rivers Fountain, and a gathering place for artists to sell their paintings and sketches. Like I said elsewhere, travel is one of my fav things! :)

Oh, and I may be in your neck of the woods next summer - my best friend wants to spend three weeks in England and Ireland, and Cambridge is probably on the list. Do you enjoy living there?

Have fun with the allotment, fliss! When we lived on Newton Road we toyed with the idea of putting our names on the list for the patch that's just off Brooklands Avenue - then we heard about the waiting list and realised we'd probably have moved out before we reached the top... sadly, I am definitely NOT a gardener. I am death even to the toughest of pot-plants, although I can just about be trusted to keep a basil plant going for longer than a fortnight. Sometimes.

Enjoy Cambridge when you get here, Cait! It's now officially the single place I've lived the longest in my life, although it did take a lot of getting used to. It does get quite busy with tourists over the summer - if you did have a choice, I'd say the nicest times to come are actually mid-to-late March or early September, as you often get spells of lovely weather, but the volume of tourists (and, ahem, students) is considerably down. Do you know when in the summer you'll be here?

ETA an apology to fliss for overenthusiastically weighing in on Cambridge - sorry!

#206 BDB Sorry for getting a bit carried away! ;)

#207 Cait, it really does sound idyllic - I can see why you wouldn't need allotments! I can also see why my uncle (who's also from somewhere in Ontario, but has lived in London now for over 30 years) was my first introduction to the idea - he's kept one as long as I can remember.

I also understand the lure of the city, having grown up in villages! But the villages I grew up in were never that far far from towns, so I can imagine that feeling being amplified for you! That said, when I lived in Bristol, which is a much larger city than Cambridge (although still quite green), I did actually miss the countryside after a while.

...and yes, I love living in Cambridge. I sometimes feel a bit as though I should defend ending up in the same place I went to school and it does feel a bit small-town sometimes (there was a point, not long after I left school, at which every time I went out, I bumped into someone I knew), but I travel around quite a bit and it's not far from London - and it's small enough that it's a nice compromise between countryside and town. So yes, I definitely recommend a visit. If you're after the university feel, Oxford is also a beautiful city, but is much more city-like, nothing like as green.

I do, however, completely agree with Rachel (and Rachel, feel free to weigh in any time!) - the best time to visit is definitely either the spring (when all the blossom and daffodils are out) or the autumn - much less busy - and everything that she said!

That said, this time of year, there's lots of stuff going on - it was the Strawberry Fair last weekend (http://www.strawberry-fair.org.uk/ - a bit of a mixed blessing - best to go during the day), there's a comedy festival this week (and more comedy in a tent on Jesus Green in August), various other fairs and music. There's also the Shakespeare Festival through July and August (http://www.cambridgeshakespeare.com/) - the quality of the acting can be a bit patchy (I've seem some very good and some not so good people - but it's never terrible), but that's not the point really - they put the plays on outdoors in various college gardens, so you take your picnic supper and it's more about the atmosphere than anything else.

...anyway, if you do decide to go, let me know (and when) and I'll give you some more recommendations!

Thanks for your Rome recommendations, I'll be adding them to my list of things to investigate!

#208 Rachel - oh I am - I don't know if it's just the excitement of the moment or not, but currently, I'm loving it in an extremely overgrown child-like way! The funny thing is that I'm also extremely good at killing pot plants - I've even managed to kill a cactus in the past - I'm just hoping that this won't translate to the allotment! It's been OK so far...

...and if anyone's interested, I took a look last night and the spinach is coming up nicely, along with some beetroots, one potato and a bean ;) I'm hoping there's going to be more than one bean...!

No ned for apologies. I enjoyed the conversation and the pictures.

;)

Cambridge sounds lovely - strawberry fair! and a Shakeseare festival! I must admit when I first visited the UK - when I turned 18 - I wanted to see one of these "university cities" but chose Oxford over Cambridge. I enjoyed it immensely but had no idea that Cambridge was even more green and less city-like (both great qualities to my mind) - I would have gone there instead had I known! Oh well, there's always next time.

It's quite a bit smaller than Oxford too - not sure if that is true in actual demographic terms, but it has a real small-town feel to it. That was the thing I found hardest to get used to when I was first living here... but one of the things I've grown to appreciate more. The green space really is an enormous blessing (even if the Canada geese have ruined much of the riverside with their droppings...)

Thanks Flissp and Rachael for the Cambridge info! It is definitely one of my stops the next time I travel. It will probably be in July 2010, because I will hopefully have a teaching job come the fall, so I can only travel in July and August of next year. My friend and I really want to spend three weeks in England and Ireland. I am sure I will be asking you both many questions before the summer!!

#214 my pleasure Cait - and fire away with the questions whenever you like - hope you have a fantastic time, even if it is a year away!

#213 Rachel, if you think the Canada geese droppings have ruined the backs, you should see where I work! ;)

#212 Eliza, don't let me do down Oxford it's also a lovely place with lots going on - I just have an inbuilt need to defend Cambridge, due to the fact that both my parents and my sister went to Oxford University, so (particularly in my parents case), think Oxford is wonderful and, don't know if you've noticed, but there's a smidgen of competition between the two towns ;)

What is it, do you suppose about the places we went to university? I feel the same way about Bristol (and UK people, no, I did not apply to either Oxford or Cambridge first ;)... I suppose it's good memories...

So, I'm still working my way slowly through Seeing by Jose Saramago (I've given up trying to make the touchstone work, so have linked to the Amazon page instead). I am enjoying it, more so as I get further in, but less than Blindness, I confess. His writing style (conversation is continuous with the plot) means that it's one of those books I do have to sit down and concentrate on for a reasonable chunk of time, so I'll probably be reading it for a little while yet.

I'm also still leafing through The Rough Guide to Croatia, but have decided to go in the spring/autumn of next year, instead of this coming autumn (I want to spend 3 weeks there and I don't have that many days of unallocated holiday left), so I'll probably be reading it in dribs and drabs for the rest of the year now...

In the meantime, I'm spending a lot of time perusing the program for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (which arrived on Friday, making me all excited). I don't like to get stuck in a rut, but I've been going to the Festival for the last, hmmm, well, at least 10 years, probably more and I love it. Wonderful atmosphere, lots of theatre, comedy, music... and reading... All in a beautiful city.

The fringe gets bigger and bigger every year, so somewhere to stay has to be booked further in advance each time I go, now I don't have mates/family to stay with. This year, I booked in mid-March (the festival is in August) and still didn't manage to get a room the weekend I wanted to go, but had to book for the weekend before. This didn't really matter to me, until I discovered that the weekend I originally wanted, Amanda Palmer is playing as part of the Edge Festival (there are lots of concurrent festivals) and I was really annoyed. Then Rachel pointed out to me that Neil Gaiman is also talking around about then. Yesterday, I discovered, he's speaking twice. Two days after I come home. In case you hadn't gathered, I'm a bit of a fan. Absolutely gutted! My favourite current author and one of my favourite singers over in the UK, playing DAYS after I'm back from holiday. Grrrrr.

Sorry. Just had to rant!

Hmph.

Besides this, I've now finished:

49) A Traveller In Time - Alison Uttley
(not 999)

Penelope goes to stay with her great aunt and uncle on a farm where, hundreds of years ago, Anthony Babington was part of a plot to try to rescue Mary Queen of Scots from her incarceration and send her to France. She finds herself drifting backwards and forwards between the 'current' day and the time of the Babington family.

This is another book I read and loved when I was small and it still holds up. I have no idea about the historical accuracy I'm afraid, but it's an engaging story, even if (as ever with a lot of the stuff I read when I was this age), it now seems a little dated. What was fascinating to me this time around, was not just the story itself, but the evocative descriptions of the present day as it was then (this was originally published in 1939). The world was changing, but, even so, it feels worlds apart from countryside life today. I kept wondering (much as I did when I read Three Men in a Boat, what that part of the countryside is like now...

50) Inkdeath - Cornelia Funke
(not 999)

The final part in the Inkheart trilogy - more of the same and very enjoyable indeed. The main resolution of the plot can be seen a mile away, but there are enough twists and turns and unanswered questions en route to keep the suspense. Great fun.

I don't really want to say too much more, partly because I don't want to give anything away, but my one small issue with the book was that there was one character who I thought was beautifully drawn in the previous two books, but somehow, didn't quite come to life in the same way in this one, which was a shame, as this was one of the most believable previously. I think my favourite of the trilogy will remain Inkspell.
.
.
I finally received a copy of Tam Lin by Pamela Dean through the post at the end of last week, so, again postponing both Vilnius Poker and The Moon and The Sun (argh, the guilt!), I began this over the weekend. I am enjoying it, but there's something about Pamela Dean's writing style that is slowing me down considerably. I don't know what it is, I can't pin anything down. She doesn't write in a complicated way and it's not a difficult read, I just keep having to re-read sentences as I haven't followed what she meant the first time around. I think it must just be that she expresses herself very differently to my subconcious! Anyway, it's giving me major cravings for a Fire and Hemlock (Diana Wynne Jones) re-read... I managed to resist the Princess Bride cravings following Inkspell, so we'll see how it goes with those for Fire and Hemlock!

One thing I have realised, is that I should never put my name on the list for an ARC that is in pdf form (a la Moon and The Sun). I just don't read from computer screens outside work (where I spend far too much time reading papers on screen) and I'm not getting around to it at all... Ho hum. One day I'll have a Sony Reader, or Kindle or something for travelling with, but I think I will always prefer a physical book...

Edited to correct italics

>216 flissp:: I agree with you on the PDF format ARCs. I had one and it just goes much more slowly. I'd read it a bit on my phone when I was waiting someplace but I also spend too much time on a computer screen at work and prefer physical books.

Adding A Traveller in Time to the Planet. I really need to get on with reading Inkdeath since I have read the other 2 books already. Thanks for the reminder!

#216 Where in Croatia are you planning to go? We spent a couple of days exploring the Istrian peninsula last year before going on to Slovania and it is one place I'd love to go back to.

#217 Either you've got a much bigger phone than me, or a lot of patience! ;) Yep, it just feels like work reading from a computer screen most of the time...

#218 Hope you enjoy it!

#219 Croatia is somewhere that's been right at the top of my list of places I want to visit for ages, but somehow have never got around to - everyone I know who's been there seems to have a similar reaction to you!

The tentative plan is to fly in to Pula, take the train up the middle to Zagreb, meandering on the way (stopping points to be decided, but national park will be involved), then train back down to Zadar, where I will take the ferry down to Split and Dubrovnik (stopping at one or two other places en route again). Then ferry back to Zadar, where I will fly out. You can see why I want to take 3 weeks rather than just the 2 I have left unallocated this year!

More detail will probably emerge nearer the time (most of the reading I've been doing is about the history), but I'm a bit of a random traveller - while I like some definite stopping points, I tend to go by recommendations, and on impulse to a certain extent, once I'm there.

Have you any places/spots you'd particularly recommend to me?

#220 - I'm so jealous of your plans to visit Croatia! My mother is Croatian, born in Sibenik (perhaps one of your stops between Zadar and Split?), and I hope to visit the country one day myself. I have so many relatives there I've yet to meet!

#221 ah, but when you make it there petermc, it'll be amazing, because you'll have people to show you the country - always the best way to see a place is with people who live there I reckon! I shall look Sibenik up in the guide book ;)

Argh, now I'm regretting my decision to postpone until next spring!

Ha, I shall do some driving, cycling and camping in France instead...

#220 We only spent 2 days in the Istrian peninsula and I'd definitely go back - we came from Venice and lunched in Slovenia's Piran then drove down to Porec which was a gem of a town, a fishing village with some old old buildings from early Roman times and I would have loved to spend more time there. My overall impression of the area was this is Italy as it used to be - without all those guided tour tourists and tour buses which clog up everything worth seeing in Italy. Quiet, there are tourists but they are more independent travellers or stayput. We stayed in Rovinj which is also unspoilt, then went on to Pula which was a bigger town/city and less appealing. The drive through the centre of the peninsula was stunning -beautiful unspoilt scenery. I'll upload some photos and give you a link in a few days - my laptop is in getting a software glitch looked at at present. From there we went on to Slovenia and after a few days on to Lake Balaton in Hungary - we had a choice of driving either via Zagreb or via Graz and I chose Graz, mainly because it meant staying in the EEC.
Years ago I drove from Greece to Austria with friends and I'll never forget how stunning the scenery was the whole way, we visited Dubrovnik, but the highlight was our visit to the Plitvice Lakes.

Now back to books - can you suggest anything set in this part of the world?

The Oxford-Weidenfeld translation prize was won by Anthea Bell a couple of weeks ago for Sasa Stanisic (I'm not even going to try and get those accents right) - How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone, which is set in Bosnia - so not far up the road... looking at the work page there are quite a few 75ers who've read it.

Quick note to self to update:

Tam Lin
Fire and Hemlock
Magic Strikes
Sharpe's Fury

#224 Having a mild panic at work at the moment (lab talk on Thursday, have nothing to talk about, foolishly, took yesterday off), so I'll get back to you on that! (Sounds like an amazing holiday - thanks for the recommendations!)

Just catching up on threads and stopping by to say hello. Loving all the travel talk. How's your allotment coming along?

#225 Rachel, I've not heard about that - have you read it? At a quick glance, the reviews on LT aren't very helpful (there was a link I didn't follow, it is true...)

#224 avatiakh, I had a bit of a think, but, off the top of my head, I can't think of anything other than The Balkan Trilogy (highly recommended, following an English couple based in Romania at the start of WWII) and The Historian, both of which are set in The Balkans, but neither in Croatia. I'm probably forgetting something.

The Rough Guide series always have a section on Books/Films they recommend as related to the country/city in question though, I'll take a look and update!

#227 Hallo VB! Me to to the travel talk - I always think that the best way to discover great places is to discuss them with other people...

After the initial push, progress is slowing down a bit on the allotment - I've covered about the same amount of ground again since the pictures I first linked to), but it's taking a VERY long time to pull up all that bindweed, not to mention all the bits of old shed. Plus, in the meantime, all the weeds at the back have grown into a jungle! Things are starting to come up now though:

This was the state of affairs on Monday

Still enjoying it very much though - thanks for asking about it!

Edited to correct grammar!

So. The books I've been reading then...

51) Tam Lin - Pamela Dean
999 Category 9 - Spotted initially on suslyn's thread I think, but I've had my eye on it for a bit (4/9)

A modern take (set in a college in the 70's) on the story of Francis James Child's ballad of Tam Lin, a man held captive by the Queen of the Faries, who is rescued from being sent to Hell by the lovely Janet. (I'm sorry. Janet, is just not a romantic name. I keep feeling he should have come up with something less prosaic - but then maybe that fits the story!)

I've talked about this a little already in msg #216 (wish I could remember how to link back up to that - I know someone's told me how to before, but I can't find it the post).

I did get more used to Pamela Dean's writing style, but I think maybe I was just too excited to read it by this point, so my expectations were too high. It definitely did improve on me and I really did enjoy it, I was just a little disappointed. Somehow, everything just felt unsatisfactory - particularly the ending, which I found a bit blunt and seemed a little unfinished. I think that she spent so long writing about the first year of school that the remaining two years (and the crux of the story) felt hurried. The depiction of college life (although over 20 years before I went to university) rang a lot of bells, but I just wasn't terribly convinced by the characters themselves.

All this sounds like I didn't enjoy reading the book, which is patently untrue - I did very much - it just wasn't quite what I expected of it.

It also gave me monstrous cravings for one of my favourite Diana Wynne Jones books:

52) Fire and Hemlock
(not 999)

This is also loosely based on the Tam Lin story (hence the cravings). The funny thing about this is that when I first read this one (around the age of 13?), I didn't enjoy it as much as other books she's written. It took a re-read to fully grasp it - partly, I think, because a lot of the story has quite a dream-like quality to it and the ending had me a little confused. Pamela Dean's book is also quite dream-like at times, so maybe I'll enjoy it more on re-reading it too.

I love Diana Wynne Jones. I have loved her since my form teacher read the class an extract of Charmed Life when I was 8, so reading her stuff, particularly the best ones always gives me a warm, fuzzy, happy feeling and I can have no perspective on her work. Shes' just a really good story teller.

53) Magic Strikes - Ilona Andrews
(not 999)

The third in a series of completely ridiculous, cliched, nonsense. They're sort of detective novels in a fantasy setting, with a bit of romance thrown in (this is the most cliched bit). I don't know, they've been really very silly, but I'm loving them!

54) Sharpe's Prey - Bernard Cornwell
(not 999)

...and next in the series of these - it's the battle of Barrosa this time. All good fun. What I do find quite interesting is that these last several have been set in the same period as Jane Austen's Persuasion - I particularly registered this when reading Sharpe's Trafalgar, because of couse, half the male characters in Persuasion are in the Navy. Completely different worlds!

I think maybe it's time for a change in genre, so next up is To Kill A Mockingbird (and yes, probably Vilnius Poker too - cringe)...

Edited to switch off boldface

I'm glad to see someone else liking A Traveller in Time. I loved it as a child and its now a comfort read when I'm ill or feeling extremely stressed or tired. Its so nice when you go back to a childhood book and still enjoy it as much as an adult.

lunacat, I do the same with a lot of children's books - I suppose it's good memory associations, isn't it.

I hadn't read this since junior school I think, so it was a relief to find I still enjoyed it - I found a lot of fantastic books through the library as I was growing up and recently, I've been buying up some of my favourites. Unlike the ones I've had all along, I can have some perspective on these ones, as I haven't read them nearly as many times and I've had a couple that just didn't live up to my memories...

Oh, cripes, now I want to re-read Fire and Hemlock.... it's such a great book. Polly is such a fantastic heroine (it is Polly, isn't it?? Suddenly feeling rusty...). I used to live on the edge of a cemetery around the time I read it as well, so the opening scene when she wanders into the "party" was particularly vivid for me.

Re Sasa Stanisic, I haven't read it, no, but it sounded quite good - there are some good bits on the Prize web page:

http://www.st-annes.ox.ac.uk/about/translationprize.html

#225 flossieT I got How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone from the library to have a look, it has a picture of Daniel Handler aka Lemony Snicket on the cover playing his beloved accordion with an inside credit from the publisher as Comrade in Chief of Accordionists!
I've also got The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric out from the library - it was recommended as a good read on rebeccanyc's thread.
#228 I read the Balkan trilogya long time ago and I have a copy somewhere.

#232 yep, it is Polly! Ah, re-read it, why don't you? It's quite a quick one! (sprouts horns...)

Hmmm, How the Soldier... is sounding intriguing ;)

#233 re The Balkan Trilogy, did you enjoy it? I actually enjoyed The Levant Trilogy even more... There was a fantastic TV adaptation of all 6 books ages ago, "Fortunes of War", with Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson (before they were well known) and Ronald Pickup - it really was done incredibly well - Ronald Pickup was particularly good as Prince Yakimov (although, not completely true to the books).

I've made a slideshow of 50 photos of the Istrian peninsula. My youngest two - Dana and Liam are in some of them. Here's the link, I hope it takes you there: http://s811.photobucket.com/albums/zz32/avatiakh/?action=view&current=ce3993...
Now that you mention The Levant Trilogy I wonder if that's the one I read, so long ago now. I do have a copy of The Balkan Trilogy, I picked it up at a bookfair last year, just have to find where I put it. I haven't watched Fortunes of War but will look out for it.

I always planned to read Fire and Hemlock yet didn't really have a chance yet..seems like you enjoyed it quite a lot..
I'll try reading it this summer (after I'm done with Vanity Fair)

>235 avatiakh: Beautiful slideshow, Kerry! Thanks for sharing!

#235 Yes, lovely photos avatiakh - thank you! i look forward to exploring myself! ...and i forgot to check the Rough Guide for book recommendations again, but shall do so tonight...

The Levant Trilogy follows on from The Balkan Trilogy, so is later on in the war and, strangely enough, in the Levant rather than the Balkans - if that helps at all?!

#236 applebook1, yes, Fire and Hemlock is one of my favourite DWJ's (despite the fact that the number I've times I've read it is only in the single figures rather than double figures like eg The Lives of Christopher Chant or Archer's Goon! ;) Definitely recommend it.

But I loved Vanity Fair too - how are you getting on with it?

Oh my - is anyone watching the tennis?! I skipped my photography class to watch some and am so glad I did (after a shaky start...), even if it does make me a bad person (sorry, am home alone and had to share!).

So, Vilinus Poker was postponed yet again for:

55) The Spook's Sacrifice - Joseph Delaney
(not 999)

Next in a very enjoyable, slightly dark children's series. I'm really enjoying them (although tradition says I should have waited until I go to Edinburgh to read it!).

...and I'm really enjoying To Kill A Mockingbird...

Yup I'm watching! There are so many things I should be doing, so does that make me a bad person too?? I'm even considering taking some long, late lunches this week!!

avatiakh, I've got my Croatian Rough Guide to hand and (while Murray takes a bathroom break), here're their recommendations (I'm just going to write books and authors as otherwise I'll be typing forever - but I can expand on what they've written if you're interested). An asterisk indicates something particularly recommended:

Travel writing:
Travels into Dalmatia - Abbe Alberto Fortis
Dalmatia, the Quarnero & Istria - T. G. Jackson
Highlands & Islands of the Adriatic - A. A. Paton
* Black Lamb & Grey Falcon - Rebecca West *

History & Politics:
Tito - Phyllis Auty
The National Question in Yugoslavia - Ivo Banac
Tito: The Story From Inside - Milovan Djilas
Croatia - Ivo Goldstein
The Serbs - Tim Judah
Dubrovnik in the 14th & 15th Centuries: a City Between East & West - Barisa Krekic
* Yugoslavia as History - John R. Lampe *
A Small War in the Balkans - Michael McConville
* Croatia: a Nation Forged in War - Marcus Tanner *

The Break-up of Yugoslavia:
Europe's Backyard War - Mark Almond (isn't he a musician?!)
Yugoslavia's Bloody Collapse - Christopher Bennett
* The Fall of Yugoslavia - Misha Glenny *
The Impossible Country - Brian Hall
* The Destruction of Yugoslavia: Tracking the Break-up 1980-1992 - Branka Magas *
Prejudice & Plum Brandy - Alec Russell
Slobodan Milosevic & the Destruction of Yugoslavia - Louis Sell
Unfinest Hour: Britain & the Destruction of Bosnia - Brendan Simms
* The Death of Yugoslavia - Laura Silber & Alan Little *
A Paper House - Mark Thompson

Croatian Literature:
The Bridge on the Drina - Ivo Andric
As If I Was Not There - Slavenka Drakulic
* Sarajevo Marlboro - Miljenko Jergovic *
* The Return of Philip Latinowicz - Miroslav Krleza *
Gold, Frankincense & Myrrh - Slobodan Novak
The Museum of Unconditional Surrender - Dubravka Ugresic

Can I take this moment to rave about Rough Guides? Every time I look for a guide book when I'm going somewhere, I leaf through whatever is available on the shelf and, with the exception of the occasional Time Out city guide, I invariably come away with a Rough Guide - Lonely Planet usually has better maps, Time Out is better for up to date popular food/drink, but Rough Guide consistently have well researched, entertaining text - they don't just state facts, they have opinions. And silly stories. They regularly recommend the not so obvious things you might have missed with other guide books (except maybe Lonely Planet), they give very good background history and they have the bit where they recommend books/films/music with a bit of banter. They also frequently recommend really nice budget places to stay that are easy to miss. Basically, they really care about what they're writing about and do it well. Advert over!

...now, back to the tennis!

#240 lunacat, no, I'm just bad, because I'm missing my course to do it!

Go for the long lunch breaks!! ;)

This guy Wawrinka's good, isn't he?!

Unfortunately.............yes. And there was me thinking the Henman tension was difficult to cope with!!!!!!!!!!!!

funnily enough, i actually cared more about whether henman won or not - i was even supporting james blake against murray for the queens final... but this has been an extremely tense game, with some wonderful tennis - i'm not sure i can cope with much more tension right now!

they're going to have to stop if it goes to 5 sets, aren't they?!

nope, it can go as long as the middle of the night if necessary, cos of the roof and the lights!!

but i can't last that long!!

Me neither!

nooooooo!

Stupid stupid boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! grrrrrrrrr

*speechless*

#241 Thanks for the list. I'll check out some of them, I have The Bridge on the Drina from the library already as it was reviewed here on one of the threads and sounded excellent.
I second your recommendation of the Rough Guides - we always try to get them in preference to the others. Though in saying that I have to say that on a recent trip to Buenos Aires we had a lot of fun with the DK Top 10 Buenos Aires.

even my kittens are watching!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#253 avatiakh, my pleasure! You'll have to let me know what you think of The Bridge on the Drina...

Yay for another Rough Guide fan! I agree with you for the Top 10 guides for handbag sized guides too...

#254 aaaaaaargh! i keep having to turn away! are the kittens enjoying it? (lovely photos on facebook btw)

...holds breath till nearly passes out...

Wawrinka has a very red nose

phew.

(keels over in relief)

THANK GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

poor guy - they should just let him go off and have a long bath instead of asking if he can win wimbledon!

...right, i'm off to read To Kill a Mockingbird into the small hours now - sod the early start...

chortle chortle.... I enjoyed that commentary track on the Murray marathon. Think you should pitch it to the Beeb for their red button.

Rachel, always glad to entertain! ;)

Lunacat - hope you've recovered by now!

55) To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
999 Category 7: Prize Winners (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 1961) (5/9)

I thought that this was wonderful. Another book I've taken far too long to read (and has been on my TBR pile for what seems like forever). I'm not going to comment on this right now, as I've spent far too much of the day faffing around, but will do my best to at a later date...

It's probably unnecessary, but, as it's the half way point of the year, I'm starting a new thread here