Ellie's 75 - The fantastic fourth

Thread number 4! And I seem to be on a reading roll right now (touch wood) so hopefully I'll get some good stuff under my belt by the end of this one...

The earlier threads are here:
Thread 1: http://www.librarything.com/topic/79224
Thread 2: http://www.librarything.com/topic/83118
Thread 3: http://www.librarything.com/topic/86416

I'm doing the 1010 and Books Off The Shelf challenges this year as well (links to all my threads are on my profile), but this will be where the whole lot comes together, and all my full reviews will be here too. This is the Mother Ship!

I won't use touchstones in the Master List (!) - too much hassle to keep loading and correcting them - but I'll add the message number of each review/comment for quick reference.

BOOKS READ 2010

Thread 1:
1) Sunshine - Robin McKinley (post 31)
2) Persuasion - Jane Austen (post 100)
3) Thunderball - Ian Fleming (post 139)
4) Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Sex and Science - Mary Roach (post 219)

Thread 2:
5) North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell (post 64)
6) The Snow Tourist: A Search for the World's Purest, Deepest Snowfall - Charlie English (post 98)
7) Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything - Elizabeth Gilbert (post 130)
8) Dead Until Dark - Charlaine Harris (post 175)
*Member Giveaway 'Bonus Read': A Winter Solstice Celebration - DiDi LeMay (post 189)
9) Too Much Anger, Too Many Tears: A Personal Triumph Over Psychiatry - Janet and Paul Gotkin (post 194)
10) Living Dead in Dallas - Charlaine Harris (post 216)

Thread 3:
11) The Devil's Larder - Jim Crace (post 60)
12) Madness: A Bipolar Life - Marya Hornbacher (post 150)
13) Jaws 2 - Hank Searls (post 179)
14) The Secret Shopper Unwrapped - Kate Harrison (post 187)
15) Eating Myself - Candida Crewe (post 233)
16) Message in a Bottle - Nicholas Sparks (post 234)

This thread:
17) Club Dead - Charlaine Harris (post 22)
18) Crazy as Chocolate - Elisabeth Hyde (post 34)
19) Dead to the World - Charlaine Harris (post 46)
20) Teen Valour - Alaric Adair (post 88)
21) Rococo - Adriana Trigiani (post 151)
22) Bedlam: London and Its Mad - Catharine Arnold (post 171)

*posts before Stasia* >:)

Oh, congratulations! I was expecting Stasia and got my Nice Internet Guy instead - very impressive!

To catch up for a new thread, I'm currently 'reading' (some of them aren't exactly being actively read right now but I'll be back to them soon. Ish.):

Club Dead by Charlaine Harris
Crazy as Chocolate by Elisabeth Hyde
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana by Michael Azerrad
Cobain Unseen by Charles Cross

Indecisive, moi?

I was trying to get here earlier but you took too long to get the new thread going and I had all kinds of places to be :)

Oh me goshie! Thread 4!!?? with 16 books read in the challenge? :O get you miss popular!

Oh and starred...obviously ;-)

Stasia, how very dare you! This was my quickest setup yet (in anticipation of you popping round with a basket of muffins as a housewarming gift, obviously)... ;-)

Jess - thanks for the veiled insult there sweetness. "Thread 4 with ONLY 16 BOOKS READ! What kind of slowpoke are you anyway! Miss Popular my buttocks. EVERYBODY GET OFF HER THREAD!!! She's a FRAAAAAAUUUUUUUD!"
OK, just kidding ;-)

Right, tea done, washing up done, bills paid.... back to my book for half an hour before a good dose of DCI Gene Hunt on Ashes to Ashes. Happy days!

Got you starred again...

#7: How dare I? It took you entirely too long to set up the new thread - almost 30 minutes! I went home, discovered I had no electricity (for the second time this week), called the electric company, and was off taking the girls to their friend's house and on the way to the bank by then :)

Oh, sweet Stasia - at least it gave me chance to get my ticker and master list and everything transferred across before you arrived. I'd hate to have invited you in for tea with the place still in such a dreadful state... ;-)

GOOD NEWS! Regular readers of this thread (*preen*) may remember that we had an elderly lady, a real sharp cookie, who came to the shop on a regular basis to order books from us. Before Christmas she'd disappeared for a few weeks and when she came in again just before we closed for the holidays, it turned out she'd had a stroke. She seemed suddenly quite frightened and frail, and when she left that day told us she was having the same hallucination (a girl in a red dress shadowing her) that she'd had just before her stroke, and was scared she was about to have another.

After Christmas we had no word from her. She didn't come in, even as the weather improved, and we didn't like to call and make a nuisance of ourselves (she's far too proud for that!). The months went by and, horrible though it may sound, we started to believe that perhaps she had had to go into a care facility or a home, or even that she'd had another stroke and didn't make it. I was quite upset about the whole thing because she'd finally started to mellow down a little bit with me, and we'd grown rather fond of her once she'd stopped being so prickly about everything!

Well, imagine our delight when last week we had an unexpected phone call - she's okay! She'd had two mini-strokes over the winter, and an operation on her eyes more recently, but she's as well as she can be now! In fact, she hadn't realised it had been so long since her last visit. She asked us to find a couple of books for her, gave us a scathing overview of the shortcomings of her local library stock, and she came in Thursday morning to see us, more cheerful and chipper and friendly, and certainly looking more healthy, than she has in a long time. I was so happy I nearly cried all over again when she left, it was wonderful!

Naturally, I also had to have one outstandingly unpleasant encounter to balance the week. It was late afternoon and I was a bit sleepy, so I'd put down my book and was sitting doing a crossword instead. A bolshy-looking woman slowly approached the desk with her hands on her hips, staring at me with that rude 'er, hello?' look that puts you on your guard straight away. I put the crossword down and smiled. 'We're looking for Jack Higgins hardbacks', she barked. I asked if she'd checked the shelves, and suggested she try there while I went to see if we had anything in the back. At which point she held out her finger in that 'stop, peasant' sort of way and said 'Well, he writes under three or four pseudonyms as well.' Then she leaned towards me over the desk, with the most condescendingly unpleasant look on her face, and said in this singsong voice, 'You do know what a pseudonym is, don't you?' Well, I couldn't help it. I felt my eyes pop wide, my eyebrows hit my hairline somewhere, and my jaw drop, and she must have caught the murderous intent because she kind of laughed uncomfortably and said, 'Oh, er, well, you just looked a bit blank...'

Because obviously, a young woman behind a counter in a shop MUST be stupid and require speaking to like a naughty five year-old. I felt like congratulating her for the proud achievement of offering up THE most condescending comment I've ever had to sit and smile through. At least I didn't cry, like a clever colleague at the farm shop on the Chatsworth Estate, working over the university holidays, who came running into the kitchen in tears when a pearl-and-twinset wearing harridan viciously told her that 'well, you must be a no-hoper, working behind this counter for the rest of your life.' The mind boggles, it really does...

*Steps down from the 'equal rights for young people in business' podium, waves the all-clear signal across the thread, and goes back to her book*

Um, oops, that was a bit of a long rant, wasn't it? Ah well, it's my thread isn't it, where better to let off some bookshop-related steam?! *smiles apologetically*

I am so glad to hear that your elderly customer is OK, Ellie.

I agree with you - it is your thread and you may vent as you please!

*flops into thread* Gah it's awfully hard trying to catch up on threads when I've been away from my computer for a whole day.
Good afternoon Ellie m'dear - whoa kudos to you for not taking a swipe at that woman for saying that to you, I probably would have had to restrain myself from saying something *very* unpleasant or from throwing a heavy blunt object at her.
BUt that is wonderful news about your elderly customer :D

I think I was too busy hoisting my jaw off the desk and popping my eyes back into their sockets, to be honest. Let's just say that when I stormed into the office to look for said Jack Higgins books a minute later, my mum did a double take, shifted her chair slightly and raised her own eyebrows a little bit at the stream of naughty words I was hissing under my breath...

Ooooh, Rachel - I just got the best bargain ever in one of those Play 'Sales' (I use the term loosely because a lot of the stuff isn't that cheap!) that they put on every ten minutes. Anyway, I got a beautiful shiny new hardback copy of Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella, SIGNED no less, free delivery - for £2.99! How brilliant's that?! And now they have Mark Haddon's new book, hardback, signed, for the same price I think. I didn't go for that one, but I was going to buy the Kinsella paperback soon anyway for £3.50 or whatever price they are at the moment, so I could hardly pass up this offer could I? ;-)

>10 elliepotten:: Thanks for the update on your elderly customer. Now I know to go to the ER (that's Emergency Room in the "real" world, not Early Reviewer) if I notice a girl in a red dress shadowing me!

I love your bookshop tales -- both the heartwarming and the outrageous ones!

Good old Mrs H - I think she's actually a very nice woman under all the prickle, like she lets her pride throw up barriers round her that you have to knock down. Her bark's worse than her bite, perhaps. But I swear to god she almost twinkled at me on Thursday. Now that's something I never thought I'd never say after she huffed her way into the shop on her first visit and brusquely informed me that our aisles were too narrow for her to look at anything properly... Definitely a firecracker, that one. :-)

Dear Ellie -

I feel like a double dipper, getting to touch base with you on Facebook AND LT. It is wonderful. I would enjoy hearing that you (and Mum, if she wants) have begun keeping a notebook about and jotting down ideas for a book based on the adventures and experiences you and she have in your shoppe (shop). I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

You write so well, Ellie. It is somewhat as though I am there in the shoppe watching as these customers stop in. They really are looking for someone to behave badly with as few of us got away with it when we were very young and had NO MONEY or power.

Here's to respect and good treatment for all young people in business!!! Hear, hear.

You go girrrrllllllll!

Love and hugs and pats on the back, too -

Ruth/womansheart

I also enjoy reading about your encounters with the buying public - just finished a hilarious YA - Fill out this application and wait over there about a school leaver's first year in the retail world. I'm stalled on Les Miserables after failing to get up to speed for a group read so commiserate when I see The Count of Monte Cristo on your list of go slows.

edit - touchstones not working

#17: Here's to respect and good treatment for all young people in business!!! Hear, hear.

I am with you, Ruth!

Hi Ruth and Stasia! I'm not exactly jotting things down at the moment, but since most of the most notable goings-on at the bookshop end up on my threads I'm keeping all my old threads starred and starting to go back over them to pull out those parts... For the time being they'll just go in my journal, but who knows what might happen when we've been open long enough to ratchet up a good collection of anecdotes?!

And hello Kerry! I'm wishlisting that book right now - and good to know I'm not the only one to start a lengthy group read with great enthusiasm only to get sidetracked by everything else on my shelves... I swear it's not my fault, their sweet voices just get more and more sirenlike until suddenly I find myself standing in front of my shelves with a book in my hand, without even knowing how I got there...

#20: suddenly I find myself standing in front of my shelves with a book in my hand, without even knowing how I got there...

I call it 'Book Zombieism' myself.

Now, another review! I know, I know, more fluff, but I can't seem to read anything else fast enough to satisfy The Hunger so fluff it must be! And I'm thoroughly enjoying it, which is what matters after all...

17) Club Dead by Charlaine Harris



Another Southern Vampire mystery that hit the spot beautifully, as I hoped. Although it started a little slowly, by the end it was racing along nicely and I ended up staying up and finishing it in the early hours of the morning because I couldn't wait another day!

It being the third book in the series, there isn't too much I can say without giving things away that I shouldn't... Bill leaves on a secret 'mission' for the vampire queen of Louisiana and then goes missing, only for Eric and Pam to land a hefty blow on Sookie when they tell her what he's really been up to. Despite this she heads straight off to Jackson, Mississippi, with the dashing werewolf Alcide on hand to help her infiltrate the local Supe scene, to find out what's happened. Throw in a sprinkling of all the usual drama: damsels in distress, handsome heroes, supernatural intrigue and violent clashes with the bad guys, along with a dose of Sookie's wry humour and the irrepressible Eric's determination to seduce her one way or another, and you've got another cracking little read.

Looking forward to the next one - and to buying up the rest of the series for my future reading pleasure!

#22: I'm thoroughly enjoying it, which is what matters after all...

You got that right!

Just popping in to say that I so enjoy your bookshop anecdotes! I worked in a bookshop for a few years, about 9 years ago now, and had many different encounters with customers, so sometimes your stories hit very close to home! Thoroughly entertaining, please keep sharing!!! :)

Also, glad to hear the feisty elderly woman is doing so well!

Me, too!

:) found you !

aha .. a new thread. starred you!

Hello all! The weather's taken a turn for the colder over here, though at least it's relatively bright and sunny today, so I'll crank up the teapot, the coffee maker and the hot chocolate frother, and roll out the tasty teatime treats... Cucumber and smoked salmon sandwiches, jam and cream scones, buttered crumpets and muffins, Victoria sponge cakes and fondant fancies, and a basket of ripe fruit... I'm just feeling so very English today!

#28: I am heading over for tea right now, Ellie! I love cucumber sandwiches.

Oh god don't bring out the french fancies!! I'll run off with the lot! I'm awfully hungry right now and the thought of mr Kipling's french fancies (or fondant fancies if we're going non-branded) is making me want to fly to the spar and buy some! *drools* Mmmm oh I need a cup of tea badly as well cos I'm not feeling anywhere near adequately caffeinated.

Me neither - but I just had a traditional Cornish pasty from the Proper Pasty Company (me, Mum and my grandma are all here at the shop so we thought we'd treat ourselves since it's the Bank Holiday!) and now I can't move, let alone fit in a mugful of liquid... Ohhhh it's so rubbish having the rest of Derbyshire out swanning round Bakewell in the sunshine (and there's a carnival thingy on the other side of town too) and most of the shops working way shorter hours, while we're stuck in here pandering to everyone else and working a normal day! Grrrrrrrrr!

Oh sucks to be in a picturesque touristy area when it's sunny, I'm slightly concerned to see what it's going to be like in town when I head off to my solitary class for the day (why do universities still have to be having classes on a bank holiday? :( s'not fair) cos I've heard whisperings that there may be pirates roaming the seafront - hopefully just guys in costume not actual pirates because although that would be rather fun, it would put a general damper on the day if we were besieged by a galleon in the bay :P (what the heck is going on with my imagination today??).
Gah now I'm just too hungry I'm going to have to dash to the kitchen and scrounge together something before I come over all faint .

This is the rubbish side of running a shop in a touristy area... On the days when everyone else in the universe is off work and enjoying themselves (or being handsomely paid for working a holiday), we're ALWAYS GOING TO BE STUCK HERE while they tramp mud through the shop, waste time while it's raining, and generally forget that while they're having a lovely day off we are SO not. But alas, Mum's business brain is set to 'make money' so looks like we're here until the end. The worst thing is, it's now blowing up a gale and starting to rain but instead of going home so we can too, they're all still flocking in, bringing yet more mud with them!

*Takes a very deep breath and thinks about the evening of reading and buttered toasted tea cakes she has lined up for tonight*

18) Crazy as Chocolate by Elisabeth Hyde



I wasn't as blown away by this novel as I expected to be after I'd sailed through the first few chapters - but I still enjoyed it. Hyde tells the story of Isabella, about to reach her 41st birthday and pretty darn nervous about the whole thing. Although it's not conventionally an important birthday, for her it officially marks the day she passes the age at which her mother died. On her own 41st birthday, she was found in her car, locked in the garage, with the engine running. Switching between flashbacks to Isabella's unusual childhood, and her attempts to handle this milestone in the present day, this is a complex little book with a whole heap of twisting issues running through it.

Isabella's mother was evidently a tormented woman, alternating between bouts of misery and madness, dancing in the rain, taking off on road trips across the country, and indulging her eccentric whims whenever the fancy took hold. These reflections make up the bizarre yet oddly magical story of Isabella's childhood, and it is clear that she has a lot of wonderful memories, overshadowed though they are by the troubling and heartbreaking times that followed. Now, approaching the dreaded birthday, Isabella is also having to cope with the people left behind. Her father is coming to stay, also full of trepidation as to how this weekend will go, and also her sister Ellie, who to both their horror is growing more and more like her mother as the years go by. Juxtaposing Ellie's behaviour with Isabella's memories of her mother introduces a sickly feeling of fear which grows more and more pervasive as the novel goes on.

All in all this was definitely an emotive little read. A story like this is always going to throw up a lot to reflect on, and a lot of difficult questions. Should someone with such serious mental health difficulties take on the role of motherhood? (A serious question for me even at my young age, and this book set me thinking again about the ethics of passing on a mental disorder, and becoming a mother when I know how easily a depressive spell can destroy a person's ability to uphold their responsibilities). What constitutes a good life and good parenting, and how strongly do families bond in the face of tragedy? And the ancient fear of every child that never goes away, but that we try not to think about: what would I do without my mum? Despite this, it ends on a note of hope and looking forwards, of acknowledging the past but not allowing it to overshadow everything yet to come.

I didn't love the book and I'm going to give it up to the shop shelves quite happily, but I'm glad I read it, and I'll be looking forward to Hyde's more famous The Abortionist's Daughter, which is still sitting on my shelves awaiting its turn. My advice? Maybe get it from the library rather than buying it - but worth a read.

Hi, Ellie! I've starred your thread, so that I don't lose it again.

Hey Darryl! Fancy seeing you here! (Cos I absolutely did NOT shamelessly shove you in this direction or anything) :-)
Welcome, sit yourself down - the more the merrier over here at Casa Eleanor...

I accidentally left my very first ever Member Giveaway book (nothing to celebrate - I got in months ago, oopsy) at the shop last night, having meant to start it as soon as I finished Crazy as Chocolate, so I've now added TWO more books to my 'currently reading' pile. Bedlam: London and its Mad is a library book which I was going to just take back in order to stick to some of my own books for a bit - but then I started reading it over breakfast this morning and whoosh, away I went. Plus that Member Giveaway book, Teen Valour by Alaric Adair, is now finally getting some attention. And tomorrow's my day off so if I find myself happily scouting my shelves for a 'one-dayer' novel I might end up with yet another on the pile by the morning... Better set to it then, settle in for a quiet post-Bank Holiday shop afternoon with coffee and cookies and get reading! I really have to try finishing some of these poor books instead of keep starting more!

Update: Oh heck. I'm seven pages in and already I'm wondering how many pages I have to read before I can fairly give up on Teen Valour. It's like reading a bad fanfic - stilted dialogue, bad grammar, and an atrocious lack of punctuation. The kind of writing that's okay in an email to your mate, but NOT in a published novel that (I hate to even think about it) is due to be part of a whole series starring the young 'hero' Adam.

Anyone got any input? How soon is too soon, the Pearl Rule aside?

#37: If it is a Member Giveaway book, I would say if by page 25, it still is not grabbing you - put it aside, do the review saying you hated it, and move on :)

Thanks Stasia! That makes me feel marginally less like throwing myself off the bridge right now! Ick ick ick.

25, 25... I hear 25... any advance on 25...??

Skip in to about page 150 and read 10 pages. If it still has the same problems, read the last 5 pages and then do your review! That way you've sampled the entire range. (My 2 cents, which are worth exactly that. Do they still have tuppence in England?)

It's rather old-fashioned, but yes - we don't have tuppenny bits or whatever they were any more, but we have two pence coins instead! I shall hold you to that instead, shall I? Good idea though...

Hey, I have been to a Spar.. it's a convenience story, right?
( in Wales) I bought my friend some electricity there.. and bought butter, too. And fizzy water :)

I'm intrigued by your system roni. I will remember it the next time I run into a book that does not hold my interest.

Hi Ellie! Love your book shop anecdotes and I heartily endorse Ronincats method (#40).

Correct on the Spar thing Kath - it's a small-ish convenience store, rather overpriced but handy!

I've set the MG book aside until tomorrow - I figured I could skim through a bit more at work tomorrow since I'm not exactly going to be worried about concentrating 100% and taking it all in. Anyway, sorry folks but it's back to vampy Bon Temps for another day off... When I realised that the next Charlaine Harris novel was THE Sookie & Eric story, the one with the amnesia plot I'd heard so much about and also the one that finally, er, gives some context to the references to Eric's 'gracious plenty' (*coughs delicately*) that have been floating around the fan pages (I just read that part... my my, deliciously steamy!), I decided to go right ahead and ditch everything else for the day! Yummy yummy.

19) Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris



Yeah, I know, I know, another Southern Vampire Mystery. The fourth, in fact. But as I said, when I realised this was the one with much-anticipated amnesia-storylined romance between Sookie and everyone's favourite Viking vampire (yippee), I dived straight in anyway.

Actually, this one had a whole lot going for it. Sookie's razor-sharp narration has been honed to whiplash proportions, and her dry humour just sparkles. The key players have been thoroughly established by now and sinking into these books is becoming quite the comfortable indulgence - yet there are also new faces to keep the series fresh, the action drags the reader along at a roaring pace, and the twisting threads of love and lust are spicily scintillating.

After the wider storylines of the last two novels, set in Dallas and Mississippi, this one was a welcome return to Bon Temps and the familiar local characters. Bill and Sookie are staying well apart - in fact, he's in Peru working on his vampire directory. A coven of powerful witches, with unprecedented triple power thanks to their Were status and taste for vampire blood, have moved into Shreveport with their eye on the vampires' business assets - and their personal ones too. Eric's memory has been hexed into oblivion in response to his rejection of the formidable Hallow, head of the coven. Left uncharacteristically sweet, vulnerable and completely clueless (but still totally gorgeous), it's left to Sookie to take him in and hide him from the witches - with sizzling repercussions... Oh, and Jason's mysteriously gone missing in suspicious circumstances. Just another week in Bon Temps, then!

Once again - it may not be everyone's cup of tea, but these are snappy little reads and I'm having a wonderful time snuggling down on my sofa devouring them on my days off, usually washed down with coffee and chocolate buttons!

I CAN'T SEEM TO READ FAST ENOUGH! Does anyone else ever get this feeling, not only the familiar feeling that there just aren't enough hours in the day, but also the all-encompassing desperation to just dive headfirst into a heap of books and devour them all, NOW?!

I'm trying to get stuck into Bedlam: London and its Mad since it's my last library book (and I won't be making that mistake again in a while when there's so much on my shelves crying for my attention!). And I'm trying to give Teen Valour a fair shot. Now that I've adapted to the dreadful writing style I'm attempting to put that to one side and give the plot a chance so I at least have SOMETHING to say along those lines in my review. Then there's a pile of books I've put on one side at the shop, the other MG/ER pile on the coffee table, the new books that have just arrived in the post.... oh, and the 600 or so on the shelves waiting their turn. AAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!

#47: Does anyone else ever get this feeling, not only the familiar feeling that there just aren't enough hours in the day, but also the all-encompassing desperation to just dive headfirst into a heap of books and devour them all, NOW

YES!!!

YES! Me too...

Angela (amwmsw04)

Me three, as my mother used to say. Sometimes I like to imagine that the mere fact of having FOUND a book means I have read it, then get depressed when I realize the TBR has not gone down, but up!

Yes, that's a familiar feeling for me too, Ellie. What makes it worse is when I have a few books going at once and I'm really enjoying a couple of them, how am I supposed to pick just one? I'm reading two like that now - every time I pick up one, I keep thinking about the other.

Oh my good grief, I just checked out the reviews of Teen Valour on Amazon UK, purely out of interest, and they're both 5-star raves! It's bordering on criminal that the book was published in this state and people are giving it 5 stars! I guess I'd really better make this review count - I'm making notes...

ETA - Angela! You've changed your name? Very pretty - glad you mentioned that it was you though, it's the 'rainpebble' thing all over again!

>47 elliepotten:: I'm with you 100%, Ellie, and all the others that posted after you. That's what makes LibraryThing such a mixed pleasure for me. I love the people and the book talk, but, oh, what it does to my TBR stacks and what I call "book pressure."

I've slightly backed away from my need to read the "latest" hot new books this year in order to gain control of my growing stacks of books. It's like rubbing a sore spot, though, when I read about all the lovely new books out there.

I soooo feel the unscratchable itch to read everything at once. I wish there was more time, but I don't feel any pressure from the shelves - if I did I wouldn't keep buying at the approximate "one book read, three books bought" rate that I am at now. I am a prisoner of book acquisition fever - and I don't expect that it will ever go away.

>51 bell7: - Yep, I'm reading multiple books as well. I start to feel guilty if I leave any one book neglected for too long, like it's just sitting there forlornly waiting for me to come back and love it again. Isn't that tragic?

>54 Fourpawz2: Ohhhh, I hear ya...

''I CAN'T SEEM TO READ FAST ENOUGH! Does anyone else ever get this feeling, not only the familiar feeling that there just aren't enough hours in the day, but also the all-encompassing desperation to just dive headfirst into a heap of books and devour them all, NOW?!''

Haha I feel like that every day!

I'm curious to get your take on Bedlam: London and its Mad, Ellie. (Aren't you done yet? Read faster!) That reminded me of a book I picked up at the bookshop at the Wellcome Collection in London last year, Madmen: A Social History of Madhouses, Mad-Doctors and Lunatics by Roy Porter, which has numerous sections about Bethlehem Hospital (a.k.a. Bethlem Royal Hospital, a.k.a. Bedlam). I haven't read it yet, but I am planning to read it this year, along with his book Quacks: Fakers and Charlatans in Medicine.

I know exactly what you mean. For every book I read I discover 5 new ones that get added to the wishlist, it never ends!

52- Thanks, Ellie! Rainpebble actually helped me get my name changed...a few people said that my old name was a bit unreadable, which it WAS. When I signed up for LT I didn't know I'd be chatting here and that my username would matter. I'm happy with the new choice, but I'm going to be signing my name as "the LTer formerly known as amwmsw04" for a while!!

>47 elliepotten: Doesn't everyone???

Ellie! Take heart! Compared to me you are a speed demon. I've just finished my 12th book this year and you are already on 19! You're doing just fine in my book. I don't pay too much attention anymore about the number of books others have read......I tend to feel disgrunteld and I don't like to feel disgruntled because I'm not even sure how to spell disgruntilled. I just continue at my own pace and enjoy everybody's achievements when I am aware of them.

*waves* off to ...hopefully dive into a book..

Darryl - I'm only a couple of chapters in so far - but don't worry, it's a library book so it's at the top of the pile! I think it's going to be an after-work read over the weekend, since it might be busy at the shop and I want to be able to concentrate on it... I'll keep you posted!

Lynda - I'm only on 19 because I've been swallowing fluffy novels whole recently! In a week or two I might be craving travel writing or history books, and then I'll slow right back down again... :-)

Hi everyone else too! I'm off to dive into a book again meself - ohhhh man, it's Saturday tomorrow, I should be in bed by now! *secretly hopes it'll rain tomorrow so she'll get more reading time*

#47 Yes!

AWWWWW! BABY DUCKIES DOING A BABY DUCKIE TRAIN! All poddling across the path behind their mum, squeaking away, little legs going frantically... :-)

And this morning we drove past a sheep, lying down in the grass, with her gorgeous little lambikin nestled on her back watching the world go by... I love spring time! Shame it's so darn cold today really.

Seems that cold is prevalent everywhere today. Texas is having the coldest spring in recent memory. Thunderstorms are moving through here again today.

People are wrapped up in scarves and coats and gloves here, no thunderstorms here yet but plenty of miserable drizzliness and freezing showers. This time last year we were in a heatwave! Shorts and T-shirts and sunnies, the works!

On the other hand, there are those baby duckies, and James and his owls managed to brave the cold all morning (I bought him a giant hot Cornish pasty to help!). I'm rather ridiculously excited because I bought myself some new girlie headbands this morning, and I'm about to buy my very first piece of new furniture for myself... Oh yes, having lived so far on family furniture, cheap student house stuff and hand-me-downs, I am about to invest in a large round leather armchair-cum-sofa with squishy fabric cushions that SWIVELS. Yes, swivels. All for the very reasonable sum of £649. Which, not having a credit card, I will be paying upfront. In its entirety.

*turns gray and staggers off for a little lie down*

Oh dear tis cold over the border Ellie m'dear? We've had lovely sunshine all day in Aber although the wind does make it seem cooler but shorts and flip-flops are rife amongst the students (I am not that foolish).

Oooh swiveling comfy chair!! A must-have for all serious readers no? Although the price is a tad scary - I'll be sticking with my Ikea chair this summer I think.

Oh, I'm sure I'm suppose to ooze masculinity in this situation by portraying complete disinterest and not commenting, but I can't help it. Trains of baby ducklings are SO CUTE!! =P

Its really drizzly and grey over here too has been all weekend.

Oh Ellie you should get a picture if you can of the baby ducklings, so sweet!

Yay and awwww for the ducklings. :)

Should I not mention that we've had warm sunshine all day down here in Devon?

Ohhh ducklings...!!! *faints from cuteness*

Why is it that some complete and utter (*insert naughty word here*) always comes along and ruins a nice peaceful day, thus putting you in the most simultaneously upset and angry mood possible for the rest of the day?

This guy's just come in, picked up a big hardback sci-fi book and another glossy hardback from the hobbies section, then brought two rarer, more expensive poetry books to the desk as well. He sidled up looking defensive (here we go) and asked what our best price would be for the lot? I hurriedly called Mum out as well since people can get really overbearing with me just because I'm younger. The books added up to nearly £30 and this guy had the nerve to aggressively offer us £20 for them! That was the price of the two poetry books combined, thus giving him two large hardback books free. I think I may have actually snorted. Well, I was all for telling him where to shove his £20, but Mum did her maths a bit wrong and did an overly generous deal for £24.

I hate it when people do that! They put us completely on the spot and they get so defensive and aggressive about it because they know they're pulling a fast one. And then I panic because they get so intimidating (being 5'3" and 22 has its disadvantages!) and we end up making totally the wrong decision instead of just telling them 'not a chance, sunshine'. It's not a dangerous situation here but for me it always harks back to working at Sainsbury's one evening, when all the managers disappeared and I was left to to deal with an aggressive customer trying to buy alcohol without ID, who ended up throwing a four-pack of beer at my head after twenty minutes of me frantically trying to reason with him and call for help.

*sigh* Oh, and I accidentally ended up spending £1200 at DFS, double what I'd anticipated, so I may be eating rather frugally for a while... :-)

I think that's why I like heroines like Sookie Stackhouse and Lisbeth Salander so much. They don't take (*nasty word here*) from anyone, no matter what size or species.

BTW I am also 5'2" but far from 22.

If I may ask - What is DFS?

74: "D" Furniture Store I'm guessing. Not sure what the D might be for. Department? Deluxe? ...DUCKLINGS!? ...

Oh my, that's happened to me too Ellie, more times than I care to remember. Mostly, I want to kick myself for my slow brainedness than anything/one else. Live and Learn Ellie, I'm twice your age and STILL learning. Chin up, tomorrow's another day :)

((((Ellie)))) Did you at least get some nice furniture out of your horrible day?

#74, 75 Don't know what it stands for, but DFS is indeed a furniture store.

I looked it up on google. Discount Furniture Store? Hooray google?

Hooray Ducklings! Hooray Discount Furniture! Boo on shady wheedling customers! I just love your daily stories. : )

Actually... I have no idea what the 'D' stands for! It's two minutes down the road and I don't know, how rubbish is that? OK, just checked with Mum, and hooray Google indeed! Discount Furniture Store - though how they can call this discounted I have no idea...

I ordered a very beautiful chocolate (yay!) leather-esque half-armchair half-sofa (just big enough for two if you don't mind snuggling!), on a swivel base thingy, with big squishy 'vanilla' fabric cushions. The perfect reading chair, methinks. And a seventie's-esque tub chair with one arm higher than the other, curving round, in a print that would look highly psychadelic if it wasn't... well, chocolate 'n' vanilla again. There were turquoise and scarlet options but they'll be coming with me if we end up moving house in the next couple of years, so I thought I'd better play a little safer and just buy bright cushions to match the new decor when the time comes. With that price (including a huge extra for everything-proofing them and a hefty delivery fee) I need them to go with everything and last a looooong time! The extra good news being that if I get rid of the old sofa AND the armchair in my living room before they arrive, given the smaller sizing of the new stuff I might be able to fit another bookcase in as well... ;-)

And never fear, today has been a better day! One or two 'miserable chuffs' as my mum calls them (and me!), but my dad has returned from Libya (having JUST missed being disrupted by the Tripoli plane crash at the airport), and our old battleaxe Mrs Hadfield has been in for a look round, had a brief 'hackles up' moment where she thought my order for her was wrong (it wasn't), and then confessed that she was going to her solicitor to bequeath us her books in her will... I knew there was a soft centre in there somewhere! It took a lot of smiling and concern and super-fast orders and sparky conversation (she's not one to suffer fools gladly!) but I think she's finally let the barriers down! I think she's been alone for so long and has such high standards in life, it just suited her better to keep her guard up and go for the 'all guns blazing' approach for a while. I'm really rather fond of her now!

OK, another long ramble there... Do carry on, everyone! I'm going back to my book and coffee for the last twenty minutes of work... :-)

OK, I have no pics yet of this year's baby duckies, but just for awwwww factor, here's the clutch we rescued from a quad at the local hospital a few years ago:



Sadly the rather stupid mother duck sheltered the ducklings in the wettest, muddiest part of the pond enclosure that night and... well, the babies drowned. It was awful. BUT this isn't a sad story, because just like 'Finding Nemo' out on the reef, one baby survived. Little Jemima was hand-reared and did just fine. Here's baby Jem helping my sister revise for her history exams:



The next clutch of ducklings we rescued were kept in a rabbit run until they were big enough to go out onto the pond safely, and Jem joined them in one big happy ducky group. But for months, if my sister went down to the field to revise in the sunshine, one duck would always break away from the group and come sit with her... Finally the ducks flew away together to be happy and free (*pause to break into song*) - in Bakewell perhaps... See, now, isn't that a happy ending?

I love happy endings and burst into 'Born Free' just for you, Ellie :)

Wow, I bet having someone tell you she's bequeathing you all her books has really made your week - what a lovely story!

And those ducks are so cute - well done on the ducky rescue.

Cute photos!

80: OK, another long ramble there... Do carry on, everyone!

Your "ramblings" are never long enough, Ellie! :)

Almost finished Teen Valour now - that's the dire Member Giveaway book I almost gave up on after eight pages... Well, the story is quite exciting even if the execution is atrocious (I still maintain that it's criminal that this book is being sold for £9.99 in this state), so at least I'll be able to provide a more balanced review at the end!

More rambling to come soon, I'm sure... ;-)

*Ack* ...animal stories make me tear up... but this one was so sweet and wonderful, I love the happy ending :)

OK! Finally, I've finished Teen Valour. Not as bad as I expected at the beginning (having nearly thrown the book at the wall within ten pages) but there are some VERY big flaws:

20) Teen Valour by Alaric Adair



Hmmm, where to start. This was a book that raised some huge issues for me, and has a heap of flaws that left me rather conflicted about the whole experience. Teen Valour, as the name suggests, is a young adult novel about a teenage boy who achieves recognition and success through his bravery, intelligence and innate goodness. This message that young people need to be given the right opportunities to fulfil their potential is discussed in Adair's 'mission statement' foreword and is a worthy goal in a society which has increasingly demonised young people into nothing better than layabout criminals.

On another level, this is a cracking action/adventure story, rather in the vein of the Young James Bond and Alex Rider books. Adam Cranford is recruited into 'The Foundation of Honour', a highly secret but undeniably powerful group, like a cross between MI5, military cadets and the Scouts, with a vast stash of private wealth to fund its activities. They pay for Adam to attend the best local school, set about training him in everything from physical fitness to disaster management, and assign him the (rather dubious) 'special skill' of lock-picking. So when Adam and a group of his school friends are kidnapped by armed eco-terrorists and held hostage at a remote Scottish base, who better to take command, drawing on everything he's learned and everything inside him to save the day?

So why, then, did I almost give up on this book about ten pages in? And what stopped me giving it a higher rating for all the complexity and excitement? Well... the writing's atrocious. I mean, REALLY atrocious. It reminded me very much of a fan fiction story - which is, by definition, an amateur and unedited piece of writing. There are words added in, words missing, typing and spelling mistakes, punctuation errors galore, and some of the grammar is, frankly, disgraceful. Certain explanations of events are convoluted, repetitive or unnecessarily detailed, and there are some real howlers thrown in there too - for example 'the roar of the distant breaking waves just some 150 metres away in the dark', and my particular favourite, 'There is 20,000 volts here. It is very painful. Speak now and tell me where he went or you will all feel the pain from my little stick.' Well, quite. It actually made me wonder if English isn't Adair's first language, because some of the turns of phrase are so odd.

Not only that, but the dialogue is so stilted it's painful. When the coachload of children is attacked the armed hijacker opens, rather hilariously, with: 'Stay calm, do nothing and you will all be okay. I am the leader and we are terrorists.' Teenage boys chatting to each other never use slang or contract their words ('I'm going out' instead of 'I am going out'), and there is a noticeable and completely unrealistic overuse of names. At one point I felt like there was something not quite right about the novel - and then I realised that while the characters smile and cry, they don't FEEL anything. The reader never sees inside Adam's head to find out how his logic is working to solve a crisis, or how he feels about what's happening to him, which makes the story feel rather shallow.

So, the question remains: is it worth reading, or not? I did feel myself being drawn into the story, partially helped by the short, snappy chapters, and I became quite immersed in the strange and privileged world of the Foundation. The plot is complex and Adair has clearly done his research, even if it is rather obviously deployed at times. There is plenty of plotting and gadgetry to satisfy action junkies, and all the loose ends are tied up nicely by the end.

The problem I have is that a book with this poor a grasp of basic English is being targeted at young adults. Let's be honest, today's school children aren't known for their superior grasp on literary matters, particularly when it comes to writing. Although I'm very much in favour of exciting books encouraging children to read, I just feel that it's irresponsible to offer such a flawed novel to a young audience. Young people learn the ins and outs of language through reading, and to set this book as an example feels downright irresponsible. At least for an adult reader the errors are more jarring than misleading - personally I wouldn't give this book to a child unless I knew they were strong on literacy and would read the book as I did, skimming over the mistakes in pursuit of the plot. My advice to Mr Adair? Get yourself a good editor and proofreader, and you've got yourself a great book!

Well, I went to give a thumbs up to your review, Ellie, and discovered it is not on the book's page. Please post it, would you?

Just doing a couple of last-minute alterations, a read through and edit as it were (shame Adair didn't do the same!)... it'll be over on the book's page in a minute. And a pre-emptive thanks!

ETA: Done!

Thumbed!

It's official. Stasia is so fast she reads reviews before they're even posted. *goes cross-eyed*

How can you read if you are cross-eyed, Stephen? Uncross them and get to it!

Stasia's like The Stig on 'Top Gear' - a mythical being of untold power:

"Some say she reads so fast that time actually goes backwards. Others say that she's secretly the author of over a thousand books, and that when she cuts her finger the letters of the alphabet spill out instead of blood. All we know is, she's called 'The Stasia'..."

Yeah, right.

93: I'd respond to that, but I can't read what it says. ;P

94: Yep, that sounds about right. I'm pretty sure she once got bored with reading words, so she read time backwards to several hundred years B.C. and invented palm reading, just for kicks.

Not palm reading - I read tea leaves instead. I drink enough of the stuff :)

#94 *giggle*

A little over an hour later an it's already a hot review. Fancy. :)

Ooooh, yay! Now I can go back to my sandwich a happy woman... :-)

Thumbs up from me, too, Ellie. It's really great to see a review which bothers to figure out what's wrong with an "okay" book. I doubt I would have read it anyway, but your analysis was really interesting.

awwwww the duckies

Review thumbed although the book itself is staying firmly off the list!

i love the duckie pictures! They're such adorable little things

Thanks guys, for the duckie comments as well as the review ones! I guess I just thought that since this was a Member Giveaway book, and given that some of the reviews, rather inexplicably, sing its praises as if it was the best thing since sliced bread, I'd better make sure I did this properly, y'know? I even made notes to make sure I didn't miss anything that needed saying!

Book 2 of the Adam Cranford trilogy is already on the shelves apparently, but I'm hoping that some well-targeted constructive criticism might make future novels (or future editions of current ones) a bit less jarring to read...

Cute ducklings! We have six five cygnets (baby swans) on our lake. We also have snapping turtles. Not a good combination.

>80 elliepotten:: Keep the stories coming! I think you'd have a bestseller if you would write them up as a bookseller's memoir. Put me down for the first copy sold.

No cygnets here yet - though last year's still-slightly-brown youngsters are hanging around into the new breeding season. One batch of Canada goslings, and plenty of baby duckies - though with the horrible nasty crows around here, a big batch soon gets smaller. :-(

Oh, and we have a VERY noisy batch of kestrel babies in one of our house walls (we live in an old tithe barn), currently at the 'flying practice' stage and having a whale of a time trying to push each other off the roof!

ETA - Thanks Donna - I think Stasia might already have dibs on the first book but rest assured, when it happens my LT buddies will be the first in line for signed copies! Hehe, my ego will start to suffer from all this flattery... ;-)

I definitely have dibs on the first book! Autographed and inscribed to me, of course.

Oh, naturally... ;-)

I would definitely buy your book, Ellie. You are in my top six threads - the ones I read before any others.

You'll have to make sure you have a box of pens there, Ellie ... we're all going to want an autographed copy of the book.... hmmm.... maybe we could get some LTers together to head over for the launch party. :-)

I would definitely go - although it might take a while for me to paddle across the Atlantic :)

You guys! I love LT, I really do - at the most unexpected moments people drop by and say the most lovely things and make you feel all warm and fuzzy and put a big smile on your face. Though I'm going to need to deflate my head before I can get into bed tonight at this rate. Which really should be soon - I was half asleep at 9 o'clock and now, magically, it's gone 11 and I'm wide awake, how does that keep happening?! Actually, I think I may have dropped off for a few minutes earlier, but since it was that strange half-sleep, and I was sitting on my living room floor with my head on the sofa (weird, I know, but oddly comfy for a short-ass like me)... well, I'm not sure if I was sleeping or not. Or how long. OK, I'm burbling - definitely time for bed! I might even get some actual reading done tomorrow - bar a handful of pages today's been painfully light on that front! Goodnight sweet friends...

(Ricardo, if you're dropping by, avert your eyes for a moment!)

#113: Too cute, Ellie.

Oh, that is so sweet it makes my teeth hurt! lol
Very cute picture. I have four cats, and I love cats almost as much as I love reading (well, reading is WAY in the lead).

I lurk on your threads, Ellie, and I don't think I've ever said "hi!" So, it's about time... "Hi, Ellie!"

Karen O.

love the picture, Ellie .... how cute. Makes me miss not having cats in the house, and once again, I wonder if there are pills I can give my husband that will cure him of his hatred of all things cat.

#113 Aaaaah *melts*

Hi, Ellie -

Ducklings and kittens. So soft and adorable, eh.

I have had many beloved kittens/cats over the years, but, only one duckling. I took the duckling to school with me in a doll cradle. It was a big hit. I used to walk it around my childhood neighborhood in a baby carriage/pram with newspapers in the bottom (for reasons that are probably obvious, if you have been around baby ducks). When the duck grew up it went to live on my Grandparents farm in Central Florida. It was very happy there, too, as they lived close to a big lake and already had other ducks to paddle around with.

Still enjoying the anecdotes about the shoppe. I totally agree they would be the framework of a charming book written by you!

With love, R

PS Did you see the note from Sir Richard? He thought the book a little twee for thee and me.

Aww I'm loving both the kitten and the ducklings baby animals are the cutest things ever arent they?

I've been out for a bit, and I've only just now read your story about the horrible haggling customer. I'm really angry on your part, and I wish him copious paper cuts from his nearly-stolen hardbacks.

Just stopping by to catch up!

Oh my, Ellie, I hope you do in fact write a book. Your observations are both on point and charming.

Have you read Orwell on working in a bookstore? Bleak.

Hi Ellie,

Just catching up on your thread(s)! I feel your pain about the horrible customers (I agree with the comment above - may they suffer the agony of a thousand paper cuts), and just as I was getting all grumpy and remembering a truly appalling woman I dealt with last week, I found pictures of cute fluffy animals. Ah kittens. They ease the pain.

Hello Ellie, just found your thread and enjoy your descriptions of encounters with customers. May you have many more positive encounters and fewer of the horrible ones!

And yes, kitten and duckings are very cute!
Genny

Hope you don't mind Ellie, this was a great way to check out my new found ability to create polls. :0)

#125 Of course!

> 125 - Congratulations! I haven't worked that one out yet but I am very impressed to have one on my thread... my thanks!

Ohhhh today is so beautiful and sunny! I babysat the owls (and one grumpy kestrel) this morning for half an hour, basking in the sunshine and trying not to fall off my flipflops (sorry, but how hard is it to keep them on your feet after a long winter of normal shoes?!). Then I popped out for chips 'n' beans from the chippie and sat on the grass, down by the owls in the sunshine, right by the river, watching a pair of geese and their seven little goslings, and a new mummy duck with her TEN tiny little babies, all squeaking and chasing each other across the water like little bumblebees.

Mum and I have 'adopted' two of the owls between us - Geoffrey the little owl as 'Shop Owl' for our one-year anniversary at the shop, and Gilbert the barn owl for me, for my birthday next week. Not only that, but James has invited us both up to Honeybank for a falconry morning, absolutely free, on Wednesday. Given the agoraphobia I'm quite nervous, but to my delight I found out today that I'll be able to fly Gilbert - the closest I'll get to flying my own bird without taking a full course and buying one - and that we'll be flying Harris hawks and one of the other owls too, and James will fly one of the big falcons for us as well, which will be an amazing photo op. We'll take a camera and take it turns to take pics of each other, and James will have his professional camera too, so it should be amazing! We have an hour in the classroom learning about falconry first, then two whole hours out in the sunshine. Wish me luck!

One slightly more annoying customer story: a man who picked up a big paperback book on Marilyn Monroe and complained at the £1.50 price... Apparently it 'had some mud on one page' (which I wiped straight off), but he wanted it for 75p because 'that's what he'd pay at a car boot sale'. I couldn't be bothered to mar my lovely day so I gave him it for £1, pointedly reminding him that we do actually have bills to pay, only to find out that he was going to cut the darn thing up anyway because he 'collects pictures of film stars'. I think he just puts them in a folder or something. I'll have my eye on him next time he comes in!

I think James has had it worse off today, to be honest. One woman shouting at him for 'feeding ducklings to the owls' (he actually takes a delivery of frozen male chicks every few days, the ones that get killed on hatching anyway). Another staring at Gilbert where he was sitting placidly on his chicky dinner and squealing, 'oh look, that one's giving birth!' (The mind boggles). And an American woman peering over the bridge and telling her friends with some authority that it was terrible to see the birds being forced out in daylight, and that one of them was hiding in the shade 'to save its eyes'. As James hissed at me, 'I think she's mistaking them for vampires - does she think they might burst into flames?' Blimey.

Right, well, every evening so far this glorious weather has turned to rolling black clouds just as it was time to go home and actually, y'know, enjoy it - so hopefully TONIGHT WILL BE THE NIGHT. The shorts are going on and me, a cup of coffee and a book are going to enjoy the evening together. Then I can go back to a DVD box set for the evening - shamefully, the reason I haven't been around much recently... :-(

Laters, lovely people! *dances off into the sunshine with a smile and a song*

That was great, Ellie!

Hi Darryl! Um, yes, I do get 'spill-the-beans-itis' sometimes... :-S

I'm so pleased you didn't mind my poll, Ellie. I think we all no what the answer was going to be anyway! Enjoy the beautiful day!

#127 That's fantastic news about the falconry lesson. Hope the sun stays out for you this evening!

Good luck with the falconry Ellie! I hope you can overcome that pesky agoraphobia and have a great time. :)

I'm not sure I could deal with customers coming in all the time asking me to drop my prices even LOWER. I'm stubborn and would probably wind up driving customers away all the time. "What's this? You want to give me £.75 for a book I have listed as £1.50? Ok ok, I'll only do this for you, but I'll change the price to £3. That's more? Well of course it is, if you are going to offer me LESS than why can't I chage you MORE? Obviously if I barter with you I can never win, because the price will always go below what is listed, so I'm just trying to be fair!" Bah! *strikes "owning a book store" off his lifetime dream list* I don't think I could handle it for long.

Ohhh! And yea, go write a book already! But don't you go selling one to that guy who cuts them up... :O

#127 he wanted it for 75p because 'that's what he'd pay at a car boot sale'

I always want to point out to people who say things like that that they're not at a car book sale - or didn't they notice the shop roof and the solid floor, and the door they walked through to get in? - and ask them whether they'd pull the same stunt in Waterstones. (But because I'm a polite charity shop volunteer, I have to stop at wanting to say it.)

Anyway - a big awwww to the ducks and geese, and yay for falconry! I *love* Frank the owl on your profile: he's adorable.

One woman shouting at him for 'feeding ducklings to the owls

That always puzzles me: even assuming he had been doing that - would she prefer all carnivores to starve and the world to be overrun with voles, rabbits, insects and antelope?

'oh look, that one's giving birth!'

She must have been off school the day they did the birds and the bees in biology.

I think she's mistaking them for vampires

*giggle*

Oh, and I have contributed to your ability to pay the bills, and given you something extra to do on Monday: I finally remembered to go and have a look at your stock on ABE, salivated over the Trollope novels listed there and couldn't resist ordering one. I've been after it for ages, and it doesn't seem to be in print from any mainstream publishers. *happy dance* :)

Edited so it doesn't sound as though I think you normally do nothing at all on Mondays. *rolls eyes and shakes head at own incoherence*

#127 When people are being particularly awkward and unpleasant in my line of work, I sometimes fantasize about an alternative career, running a second-hand book shop. Your entertaining descriptions of awkward customers are a helpful reminder that there are plenty of difficult people to be encountered in every walk of life - I guess the challenge is to deal with them graciously, and without letting them get to us. You seem to manage that well - I hope that writing about it in an entertaining way is a help.

I must admit, I was surprised at how many unpleasant customers we get in here. I kind of thought a second-hand bookshop would attract more nice bookish people! We had nicer customers at the charity shop I volunteered for...

>134 Eat_Read_Knit: - Why, thank you! Actually your book is already packed and ready for us just to nip to the post office on Monday - we work all weekend... :-(

I managed a delicious evening reading my book in the sunshine (with the cat), caught a bit of sun, drank a rather large glass of Pimms before tea and got a little tipsy... The kestrels are back in our house wall which is nice - they had early babies which have now flown and the whole lot disappeared for a few days, but it seems the pair may be back for clutch #2.

And today is another glorious hot day - which is sad since we're at work again! I decided to face another 'scary agoraphobia situation' this morning and headed over to the huge car boot sale right out the other side of town. Partially for my own sake - sometimes I just need to take advantage of the sunny day and my sunny mood to push myself, like when I went out for dinner with my mum last week - and partially because, can you believe it, we're running out of popular fiction... After having to turn people away in the winter because we were full to bursting, we're now running out of supplies to restock the shelves.

So I scoured the entire boot sale, bought three bags of books on the cheap (including one or two as a treat for myself) and... a cushion. Well, it was pretty and it was only 50p. I got far too hot, my fringe was flopping in my face and I had to lug these three bags of books right back across town, and arrived back at the shop looking like I'd run a marathon (though I did stop to coo over the baby duckies and goslings again on the way). So I headed out to the ice cream shop, which is two minutes away but which I've never been to, and discovered that one scoop banana, one scoop coffee, with a Flake, is actually heaven in a tub. Amen.

And then I met the loveliest old lady, my nicest customer of the week! I hunted down an author name she was after, a Cornish writer who wrote about his smallholding, and set out a note for her so she'd know what to ask for next time. Her daughter just thought she was having a senile moment so I was glad to be able to come up with a name! As they left the shop I heard them say, 'oooh, what a lovely helpful girl! Wasn't she nice?' At which point I went back to my ice cream with a very happy smile on my face.

Here's to hoping the rest of the day will be just as scrumptious. Three more hours to go, then I can clean this place down and head home with my new books, and sit outside with mushroom risotto and a good book for a whole Sunday evening. We finish a little earlier tonight, and I think it's getting cooler tomorrow, so I want to make the most of it... *Smiles happily and throws some warm rays of sunshine across the thread*

NOTE TO SELF: Must refrain from writing fountains of detail to send LT-ers into paroxysms of boredom just because it's sunny outside... :-)

I will take your warm rays of sunshine any day, Ellie!

Hooray for kestrels, sunshine and banana ice cream! And new books and risotto and more sunshine! And nice customers!

Packaged up already? Yay! *Another happy dance*

Ellie- It looks like I may have lost you for awhile but now you are found! Glad the reading is going better for you! Did you ever get to Norwegian Wood?

I love visiting here. I've never traveled abroad, but have seen most of the United States. Coming to your thread filled with messages of food, animals, weather, books...just makes me feel as though I've visited your country.

Hooray for sunshine indeed! Not one grumpy customer all day, and everything feels relaxed. Y'know, like it's Sunday or something... ;-)

>140 Whisper1: Thanks Linda! A bit like reading other people's threads makes me feel just a little bit like I've visited America... One big happy LT world indeed.

Oh... er, hi Mark! *grins sheepishly* I may not have started Norwegian Wood yet. I may have ACCIDENTALLY started an Adriana Trigiani novel that I was flicking through idly the other day. And I MAY, just possibly, have found another DVD box set to get addicted to instead of reading like a good girl. Obviously this is an entirely hypothetical scenario... *runs away loaded with bookish guilt and hopes Mark will forgive her*

Oh well, at least I bought the book ready for this group read, so I'll be able to read it soon, won't I? My good intentions seem have fallen horribly by the wayside recently. Perhaps Norwegian Wood should be next up, especially if I have a good run towards the end of Rococo tonight? *smiles hopefully*

ETA: WHY AREN'T THE TOUCHSTONES GOING A NICE BLUE COLOUR? WHYYYY?

Ellie, sorry you had to work on such a gloriously sunny day, but it sounds as if ice-cream and lovely and relaxed customers made it a pleasant one. Enjoy your evening and your risotto and your reading tonight!

And what DVD box set might you (hypothetically) be watching if you are not reading?

Glad the weather is so nice, Ellie! We finally had a really nice day after many days of rain. No ducklings though! =P

Ellie, your ice cream and risotto are making me hungry!!! I think we have some ice cream in the freezer, I'd better hunt it down so I can stop drooling...

Hope the end of your work day was fab!

Mmmmm...nothing better than THIS. I've been avoiding all forms of "junk" food recently but I can't resist a small box of that every once in awhile. :)

I don't know if they still make it, but I found Ben and Jerry's "Caramel Sutra" to be unbelievably good. But the Breyer's looks good to me---ice cream is sooo soothing.

Ellie, I hope you keep your posts just as they are: windows into (for most of us) a different and most entertaining world.

I agree. I love reading your stories.

Hallo Ellie! Checking back in after far too long (and before you start yet another thread...) ;o)

#10 Good to hear that your stroke lady is OK and back visiting your shop - she sounds like my kind of person, prickles and all, but oh my word, the Jack Higgins lady!?! Please continue to vent to us any time you need...

#20 I'd also love to read a shop tales book, keep tagging! ...and me too with the group reads...

#28 ;o) So did the Pimms come out this last weekend?

#22 & 46 You're starting to erode my decision to steer clear of the Sookie Stackhouse books...

#47 "I CAN'T SEEM TO READ FAST ENOUGH! Does anyone else ever get this feeling..." Yes. All the time.

#65 "And this morning we drove past a sheep, lying down in the grass, with her gorgeous little lambikin nestled on her back watching the world go by... I love spring time! Shame it's so darn cold today really." - I saw a lamb sitting on the back of it's mother (with other lamb cuddled up next to her) a few weeks back - I'd no idea they did that! I wish I'd stopped to take a photo ;o)

#88 Great review of Teen Valour - definitely a book I shall be skipping - I can't believe the publisher can get away with the kind of grammar you quote!

#106 Donna828 "Cute ducklings! We have six five cygnets (baby swans) on our lake. We also have snapping turtles. Not a good combination. - oh no! Do I detect snapping turtles making a meal of oneof the cygnets?!

#127 & 136 Sounds like you had a lovely weekend, despite the book-chopping-man. It was a gorgeous weekend, wasn't it? I am so jealous of your kestrel nest and owl-man-James friendship with the falconry lesson - fingers crossed that the agraphobia takes a day off. There is something so completely fascinating and amazing about birds of prey - I could watch them for hours. When I return to the Peaks/Bakewell, I shall clearly have to coincide with a owl day... :o)

Yay! Caught up again!

Hi There!
If my records are correct, you have a birthday this weekend. The 29th? Right?

I may be out of town this weekend and might not have the opportunity to wish you a special day on the actual date, so I'm sending this to you now.

Happy Birthday!

Ellie.. you should post some of your great photos here, too.

21) Rococo by Adriana Trigiani



This was my first Trigiani, and I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for more of her books. It tells the story of one Bartolomeo di Crespi, interior designer extraordinaire of coastal New Jersey. In between brief flirtations with beautiful women of the design world and dealing with the dramas of his boisterous Italian-American extended family, Bartolomeo manages to secure the job he has always dreamed about: the renovation of his beloved local church, Our Lady of Fatima. However, it soon becomes apparent that there will be huge obstacles to overcome in the quest to turn this old Gothic building into a heavenly haven, and Bartolomeo must bring together all the people he loves and learn a few lessons along the way in order to fulfil his dream.

The novel is, quite simply, delicious. It drips with colour and texture, fabrics and furniture, and our charismatic narrator's knowledge and passion for his work infuses every page. The characters are larger than life, and the dialogue within the feisty family just sparkles. I looked forward to returning to the book each time I had to set it aside, and thoroughly enjoyed savouring each and every moment I was reading it. I can't wait to see what else Trigiani has to offer!

Hehe, wow Ellie, you almost made me want to read a chick lit novel based on interior design...but I don't think that one is for me. ;)

Well, nobody dies of the plague at any point - best give it a miss... ;-)

Oh, and hello Fliss! Don't forget, not only does your next trip to Bakewell have to coincide with the owls, but YOU HAVE TO ACTUALLY SAY SOMETHING THIS TIME! Haha, don't worry, I admit if it were me I'd probably just wander round the shop blushing and then bottle it!

Hello everybody else too... too tired to write properly... go see my profile, I have a pic of me flying my beautiful Gilbert! What a little star he is. *waves a sleepy goodbye as her eyes start to close of their own accord*

Hello Miss Ellie--Is it your birthday? How fun!! Best wishes. And I loved how in #141 you just ACCIDENTALLY started a new book and MAY have found something else to do, rather than read the book you said you would. That happens to me all the time! In fact, just yesterday, LOL. Hugs.

Well, nobody dies of the plague at any point - best give it a miss... ;-)

Ha, just out of curiosity I did a tagmash of "chick lit" and "plague" ...miraculously, I got 14 results! Unfortunately, most of them are just poorly tagged (such as The Stand by Stephen King, not exactly a prime example of chick lit.)

Love the owl! Gilbert is awesome! :)

Fantastic pics with the owls, Ellie!!

> 155 interesting. *off to tagmash "chick lit" and "plague"*

Hi Berly! My birthday is on Saturday, I'll be 23! On the bad side, I have to work all day. Even worse, it's a Bank Holiday Saturday (in Bakewell's honey trap touristiness, that translates as Hell On Earth). On the plus side, James and his owls will be there, and I'll get all my sponsorship stuff for Gilbert. Except it's given rain so they might NOT be there. Not that James or the owls would mind the rain, but people start complaining to animal welfare authorities that he's maltreating them... (Again, the mind boggles). On the other hand (how many hands is that?!), if it rains it might be quieter and less stressful! See, getting sleepier and less coherent by the minute... :-)

Stephen - oh dear. Pity the poor delicate flower who looks to LT for a chick lit book rec and never sleeps soundly again.

Love the owls!

Happy birthday in advance. :)

Happy Birthday in advance, Ellie ... have a hotly hopping one!

Happy birthday!

Have a perfectly lovely birthday, Ellie!

Thank you! I may be at work all day tomorrow, but according to last night's weather forecast it's given a swathe of rain so it might be quiet enough for me to settle in with a book for a while - and I have a lovely birthday tea lined up of steak with fried mushrooms and onions, my most favouritest potato salad (with mayo, chives and a sprinkling of cayenne), sweetcorn and cherry tomatoes. All rounded off by the biggest chocolate cake I could find... ;-)

Don't forget to go say Happy Birthday to Kath too - it's her birthday on the same day! 'Tis a small world indeed.

#162: Good to know about Kath. I will head over to her thread now. Thanks for the heads up, Ellie!

>162 elliepotten: oh my goodness, Ellie, your birthday tea sounds fabulous! You're making me drool.

Have a happy birthday despite working, and I hope the weather works in your favor so you can read a bit! :)

Wishing you a very happy birthday, Ellie! Hope it's a sun shiney day!

Happy birthday, Ellie! I hope it's a lovely, and quiet, one.

=)

It's hard to top Mr. Ape's "Hooty Birthday" so I'll just say have a good one -- and enjoy that yummy meal you have planned. Oh, to be 23 again! :-)

Happy Birthday tomorrow, Ellie! You're still a pup!

My father had us over for steaks last night, and my sister sauteed some mushrooms in butter & Riesling to put over them. Yum, yum!

Lovely birthday wishes and an owl, what more could I ask for?! Thanks again everyone!

ETA: I am VERY much looking forward to my steak - and now, I'm off for a nice mug of tea and a slice of early birthday cake. We opened it so I could take James a slice tomorrow - just in case the rain holds off after all...

22) Bedlam: London and Its Mad by Catharine Arnold



This has been hovering on my radar for a while and on my wishlist for months, so when I spotted it in the library I had to pick it up. It's a terrifying book but I am so glad to have read it. As the title suggests, it is predominantly a history of the Bethlehem asylum in London, soon contracted to 'Bedlam' in local slang and quickly fixing the term in our language as a byword for chaos.

Bedlam's history is a horrifying tale swimming with chains and straitjackets, ice baths and purging, bleeding and starvation, mania and despair. Arnold draws the reader through the years from Bedlam's conception, into different locations and grand buildings, through the reigns of monarch after monarch. Doctors and superintendents come and go, treatments fluctuate and metamorphose, knowledge grows and changes for the better... eventually. Through the sweep of Bedlam's history, Arnold has included the stories of some of the saddest, quirkiest and most notorious patients to haunt its cells, as well as extending her research to offer the reader a wider historical context and a broader look at the treatment of madness across the country. There is also an interesting chapter on mad women as a cultural construct, including a look at Miss Havisham and Bertha Mason as literary representations of contemporary stereotypes.

As a manic depressive, all I can say is, thank heavens I'm not living my life any time but now. Right up the mid-20th century, people suffering from mental illness have been 'treated' with a host of remedies from the ridiculous to the barbaric to, just occasionally, the hopeful and enlightened. I found this book by turns sad, wry, mind-boggling, thoughtful and plain horrific. I feel like I've come away from it having been educated and enlightened, not to mention harbouring a profound feeling of gratefulness that today's medicine has, for the most part, finally rejected the attitudes and approaches to mental illness that made elements of this book so painful to read. Highly recommended!

Now THERE is a book that might interest me. :)

#171 Good review - sounds like a very interesting book.

Hope you had a good birthday!

I thought of you just now because of that feeling you mentioned where you want to read it all now.

Because you see, I just went to a library book sale in which the last two days are fill a bag for a dollar. And I filled two bags. And now I'm entering everything into LT.

And I want to read it all, now, and I'm already reading like 5 books...

Anyway, just wanted to share with a fellow book-lover! :)

Stephen - the bells are ringing! The angels are singing! Could I finally have read something non-girlie enough to whet your appetite?! ;-)

Mary - we posted at the same time! I'm glad someone else has that feeling on a regular basis. I went a bit mad at the Bakewell car boot sale last weekend. We needed some fiction for the shop, and I wanted to conquer another agoraphobia-inducing situation, so I went over there and spent about 45 minutes just combing the place for books. Once I settled down I had a wonderful (albeit hot) time, and brought back a whole heap of books for the shop shelves, as well as a couple or five for myself. At that price, how could I resist?! I'm glad you dropped by to share your slice of the book madness that brings us together! And now I've finished my library book and replaced a couple of my 'read three pages so I haven't really started them properly yet' so-called 'current reads' on the shelves for the time being, I'm free to attack whatever I want! *rubs her hands together with glee and heads for the shelves*

Genny - it's my birthday today, actually... It's nearly quarter to one in the morning so today's the day, though I don't officially turn 23 until 5am... or was it 7am... can't remember, something like that! Anyway, only a few hours to go, so when I finally get to bed (ahem), the next time I wake up I'll be 23. *waves a tiny Happy Birthday flag at the woodlouse wandering across the floor who is graciously sharing this moment*

Ohhhhh, you know I need to get to bed when I start talking like I've been smoking something I shouldn't... Goodnight all! ;-)

Well Happy Birthday for a few hours' time then! And yes, it's time I got to bed too! :)

Great review, Ellie! I would definitely get this, but I'll probably read the apparently very similar book by Roy Porter, Madmen: A Social History of Madhouses, Mad-Doctors and Lunatics.

ETA: Happy 23rd birthday!

Hi Darryl! I nearly read that one myself when it fell onto my radar back at university, but I never got hold of a copy. This one is a more recent book and had already been on my wishlist for months when I spotted it at the library, so away I went... You could always read both - just not too close together, that would be a little intense...

ETA: More simultaneous posting! Thanks for the b'day wishes!

Could I finally have read something non-girlie enough to whet your appetite?! ;-)

Yes!! But my library doesn't have it, so it's getting banished to my amazon wishlist, where it will likely remain for awhile. But on the bright side, while I was searching for it I also saw Bedlam: London's Hospital for the Mad, which seems eerily similar...hmmmmm...

Since I'm also still awake at this rather daft hour (but since it's a friday it doesn't quite matter so much) I shall take this opportunity to wish you a very happy birthday!! *throws party streamers* I hope you have a great day when you wake up later and hopefully all the curmudgeonly customers will stay away and not ruin things for you.
Now I better get myself off the computer as there is a rather handsome vampire named Dimitri who urgently requires my attention :P

*sneaks a bit of cake on the way out* tee hee hee...

Ooo, I will certainly be picking up Bedlam: London and Its Mad. I read Arnold's Necropolis: London and Its Dead before, and really enjoyed it. I can't wait to see how she tackles Bethlehem Asylum!

Have you read The Female Malady by Elaine Showalter? It is fantastic - and greatly disturbing.

Unlurking long enough to say Happy Birthday Ellie!

Hi Ellie!! Good review of Bedlam! I hope you have a wonderful birthday!!

#171: I read Arnold's Necropolis last year and found it interesting, so into the BlackHole Bedlam goes! Thanks for the recommendation, Ellie.

Happy birthday -- I hope you have a great day!

Happy Birthday...hope it's a good one!

Happy Birthday - hope it's a fab day even though you have to work.

Happy birthday Ellie!

Happy Birthday, Ellie.

Happy official birthday Ellie! My entire family is getting together and having a big barbeque in your honor! ...oh, alright, the barbeque is for Memorial Day, but still! :)

23 huh? You're a year older than me again, so I'm pretty sure that makes it ok for me to refer to you as "that old lady with the bookshop and owls." :)

Very nice review :)

Hope your birthday is behaving magically~

Happy Birthday!



Bedlam, the Roy Porter book and The Female Malady all sound fascinating. *Adds them all to the wishlist.* I read Porter's general survey English Society in the Eighteenth Century and liked his accessible writing style: it's not often that academics have the knack of making detailed surveys so readable.

Happy, happy birthday, Ellie! May only the most cheerful and pleasant customers come into your shop today!

Thanks for the cake crumbs Rach... get your little butt back here with a dustbuster and hoover up! *tuts at Rachel for leaving her thread in such a state*

Luxx - hello! Nice to have you over here - and THANK YOU for recommending that Showalter book. Arnold mentions her several times but I couldn't see anything in the bibliography, it was like you read my mind... :-)

Stephen, "that old lady with the bookshop and owls" is going to rapidly become "that old lady with the bookshop and owls chasing the young man, yelling blue murder and brandishing a heavy encyclopedia" if you don't behave yourself...

And thanks AGAIN everyone for the b'day wishes... So far so dull. I've had half a hot chocolate, read one page of 84, Charing Cross Road, had people dripping everywhere from the rain outside (but it's not my day to clean, mwahahaha!), stolen a book... yawn. Ringing my sister and making a sandwich have been the highlights so far! So I'll get back to my book now... ;-)

Oh fine.... *stomps back into thread and tidies up* I would have been back earlier to clean up but a strange mixture of frustrating vampires, dying Brontes and a dash of Elizabeth Gaskell meant I was so wired last night that I overslept by a *huge* margin and have only been up a half hour :S

Be glad if things are dull, excitement can sometimes be overrated after all - enjoy the book while all is calm... :)

Will do - it's better than being harassed and harangued by a multitude of Difficult People (though there have been a few unpleasant children in so far)... Although there was a VERY sweet little munchkin in a bright green coat toddling round looking cute, so it's swings and roundabouts as usual!

And my dad has just done what my friend does as soon as her boyfriend beckons - 'oh, well, yes, I was going to come and see you on your birthday, but Andrea (the girlfriend, FYI) is coming this afternoon...' OK, not a problem, maybe pop across tomorrow then, it's given nicer weather anyway. 'Well, perhaps, but if it was nice me and Andrea were going to go out somewhere...' *sigh*

Back to my book (again). :-)

Oh, I'm glad I could help! Showalter is wonderful; I hope you enjoy the book. And once again, happy birthday!

Stephen, "that old lady with the bookshop and owls" is going to rapidly become "that old lady with the bookshop and owls chasing the young man, yelling blue murder and brandishing a heavy encyclopedia" if you don't behave yourself...

Always with the encyclopedias! I'll never be able to look at them again without imagining them flying across the room at me after being thrown by an enraged English lass!

Of course the encyclopedias - they're the heaviest! It wouldn't be the same if I thwacked you with a paperback novella, would it?! ;-)

>199 elliepotten: Aren't there dictionaries bigger than most encyclopedias? My two French and Spanish dictionaries are *much* larger and heavier than most encyclopedias I've seen in any case :P Although I'm sure my input is not all that helpful ;-)

I thought Ellie was choosing the encyclopedias because they are usually multi-volume tomes and she could cast them rapid fire at the object of her derision (#198)...whereas dictionaries are a pitiful A-Z single shot.

200: Nope, not helping!

201: Ohhhh, I'm sure Ellie's accuracy is so perfect she doesn't need more than one book. *laughs nervously as he looks for something to hide behind*

199: Yes, well, ummmm... I'm sure you can make the case that the paperback novellas are...hmmm....more aerodynamic!...and thus, will fly through the air faster. Yes, that's it!

Bedlam sounds like a really interesting read. I read The Lives They Left Behind by Darby Penney which was a portrait of 10 patients in a state mental hospital in New York, whose journals and notes were found in the attic when the hospital was closed and moved to a different location. It was a very powerful book and while the personal details of the patients were understandably vague, I think to preserve their identities, the details of their diagnosis (some of them wrong) and treatment, and the interaction between themselves and the medical profession was at times sad, infuriating, hopeful but always interesting. It was a real eye-opener for me because I'd never before given much thought to psychiatric institutions and the patients within.

Thanks for the review of Bedlam - I've had my eye on that one for a while, good to know that you enjoyed it. I've also got a copy of Mad, Bad and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors from 1800 to the Present lined up, which looks interesting too, if a bit chunky!

And many happy returns, hope you had a lovely day - steak and chocolate cake sounds like a good way to celebrate!

Update: The steak and potato salad was absolutely bloody gorgeous, thanks to my stepdad. My grandparents arrived after we'd eaten (my grandma stays a couple of nights every week or two), then I watched the Eurovision song contest with a big piece of chocolate fudge cake and a mug of coffee. Tonight I get to curl up and read with the rest of the potato salad, fresh pork pie, sweetcorn, and more cake... Roll on the end of the day!

And thanks EVERYONE for bringing such a bundle of cheer to my birthday - it means such a lot, especially given how many people back home didn't... Most of the time 'independent and bookish' works fine for me but it's funny how isolated and lonely it can suddenly feel from time to time, having lost so many people along the way when the agoraphobia came along and trapped me in the house for such a long time. It was lovely being able to drop by my thread through the day and remind myself that there are kind, smart and generous people out there to share my life with - and talk books with! - even if they may be sadly lacking in Bakewell... THANK YOU! :-)

Glad you had such a lovely birthday, Ellie.

And look at you, you're review for Bedlam is at the top of the Hot Reviews list! :)

ellie dear .... you have had me laughing out loud. You are wonderful!

Looks like you're having a lovely birthday weekend, Ellie .... and with delicious loot too... I haven't had a good pork pie in ages! Enjoy it all, sweetie.

omg, the kitty & corn.. LOLOL

Brings a whole new meaning to catercornering your computer monitor. :)

Happy Birthday, Ellie! I believe in birthday weeks, so keep on celebrating. You've made me so hungry with talk of steak and potatoes and chocolate cake. I'm going to get dressed (Whaa? It's only 1:30 in the afternoon here in Seattle!) and go buy a new book and a slice of fudgy, cherry-and-whipped-cream-filled Black Forest Cake in your honor!

Oh Caro - LOVING the minivid there... I was trying to eat a risotto outside the other day and our cat slowly inched closer and closer... then she was on chair... then the patio table... then my knee... then her paws were on my chest... By the end she was sitting on my chest trying to climb higher still, with me holding the risotto above my head yelling for Mum to come retrieve her! We had quite a giggle as this purring 'who, me?' little panther was plucked off and carted back into the house... :-)

Why Bonnie - a most excellent idea! I went on the falconry morning on Wednesday, opened my birthday cake on Friday, had my birthday and my birthday dinner on Saturday, more cake and belated cards and homemade lasagne tonight (bit of a surprise so I put the other food on hold) - and TOMORROW it will be reading and maybe a bit of TV with cake and pork pie and potato salad. This coming Wednesday is going to be my surrogate 'birthday day off' so I'm planning yet more laziness... Yes, on reflection I think that fits quite wonderfully: a Wednesday-to-Wednesday birthday week with the actual day right in the middle. Very nice. I think we might be onto something here...

Now excuse me, I have to try and find a couple of books to offload to the shop... My mother carefully explained to me the origins of the word 'decimate' today, and informed me that if I bought ONE MORE BOOK in the next couple of weeks, that would be the fate of my entire TBR book collection. I figure if I can find a few more to give up now she might relax the rules a bit sooner. If not, I'll just have to build a barricade. Or buy a really BIG safe. Or change the locks. Then I'm going back to 84, Charing Cross Road, which has put a big smile on my face all day at the shop and which I think is going to become a very firm keeper...

84, Charing Cross Road is an all-time favorite of mine. I re-read it about once a year. The movie is excellent, as well.

I vote "change the locks". How can one refrain from buying books? Seems like cruel and unusual punishment.

Though potentially she has a point - much as my inner addict is in screaming denial - since I'm actually starting to wonder which furniture I can get rid of in order to buy more bookshelves... And even I was a little embarrassed when I had to tell my grandmother that my unread book tally, even minus a few that I've tagged 'TBR' just because I'm about due a reread, is still well above 600. Oooooops.

The worst thing is, now I have birthday money and Amazon vouchers and I CAN'T USE THEM!!! Good incentive to get reading though. Unfortunately my two current reads ain't going anywhere when I'm done - The Count of Monte Cristo and 84, Charing Cross Road - but I'll read a couple of fluffy books after that to get my tally of shop-bound books back up. Fortunately she didn't notice the three or four books I sneaked home this week... ;-)

I love 84 Charing Cross Road! And I like the film, too.

Mmmmmm... pork pie. When I lived in Yorkshire, both the local butcher's shops used to make their own. Yummy.

Glad you had a good birthday. :)

I love 84, Charing Cross Road too - which I discovered through the film version (a rarity for me!), which is very good. I hope you continue to enjoy it.

since I'm actually starting to wonder which furniture I can get rid of in order to buy more bookshelves...

I hear ya. I just came across these websites, and am wondering what I did wrong in my previous lives to be denied such happiness - be sure to move away from your computer slightly before you look if you don't want drool on your keyboard.

I love that staircase - I've seen pictures of it before, and I'd love to have one.

The built in bookcases just make me crave a room like some of those.

*Imagines not having to double stack books and not having piles of books on the floor that I keep tripping over*

*Sigh*

(I have your furniture problem, too, Ellie. Maybe I could take up naturism and put a bookcase where the wardrobe goes? On second thoughts, I might need to move somewhere warmer first.)

Um... yes, that might be a good idea. *huddles into oversize cardigan at the mere thought*

Oooooooh, such beautiful libraries! I do like the one with the staircase coming down into it, with the bachelor-esque dark furniture, very yummy.

Working another Bank Holiday here - and not getting paid at all, let alone double! It does feel a bit sucky when the rest of the world is off or at least working nice short hours. Mum won't let us do nice short hours! My grandma's come in as well - she's sitting in the back reading Mills & Boon, drinking tea, and wondering when she can go get a Cornish pasty/fish and chips for lunch. Sound like anyone you know?!

Oh, and I just had a guy quickly scope out the shop with his wife then come up to the desk and ask, 'Erm, The Muppets... Muppet videos... ever get any in?' I politely pointed out that we were a BOOKSHOP and sent him off the charity shops instead...

84, Charing Cross Road lovers - well, I may be banned from book buying on pain of death, but I DID order the DVD last night... I figured that didn't count!

#219: I do not get paid double either, Ellie, and I am still at work, if that is any comfort to you.

I hope you enjoy the DVD of 84, Charing Cross Road!

You should come up with a brilliant plan to somehow turn your current furnitue into book cases. You know, something like this! (who needs arm rests anyways?) Or how about this!?. :)

Note: If you go to Google image search and type Chair Bookcase or Couch Bookcase, you find a lot of interesting things. My favorite has to be this! Who needs furniture when you can fill your room with bookcaes and SIT IN THEM! It's even got a light. =D

Oh, I love that last one!

I'm hitting the "need more storage" point, also. My wife is opposed to stacks of books, but doesn't particularly mind shelves all over the place as long as they aren't an eyesore. I've filled the library floor to ceiling on all four walls with hardbacks; I've filled the shelves in the third floor hall with paperbacks; I've filled the bookshelves in our bedroom; I don't feel it's reasonable to fill the bookshelves in the kids' rooms with my books.

While those staircase bookshelves look fun, if I did them on our back stairs, I think they'd quickly get filled with dirt and ruin the books. This is going to require some thought.

I liked the bookcase stairs. Better than my own staircase which always has piles of books taking up half the tread space, waiting to go to the TBR piles or to be shelved after reading.

I'm fortunate to live in a large house on my own (apart from the dog) so am gradually filling every room with bookcases. Just got a cheap new one from Ikea for my bedroom so for now the untidy TBR piles are neat TBR shelves. I don't like to think what will happen to all my books when I retire (not for about 20 years though) and have to buy my own place instead of living in big vicarages.

Can't wait to hear your thoughts on 84, Charing Cross Road Ellie! I have that one on the TBR pile.

Oh my good grief Steven dearest, I want that bookcase with the seat thingy. How amazing to be able to SIT IN YOUR BOOKSHELVES! *goes off into a little daydream for a moment* Oh yes. All it needs is a little trapdoor in the back with some sort of tray for a futuristic robo-butler to push tea and biscuits through, and it would be perfect.

Jess, sweetness, you should read 84, Charing Cross Road SOON, it's so bookish and lovely. Actually I've finished that part now and I'm onto The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street which is handily situated, unheralded, in the same book. That's two copies I've seen now where the two were published together without it so saying anywhere on the cover. Very handy for me - not so handy for anyone who buys the two separately by mistake...

Ellie: Indeed! There is another one (here and here) that has room for a computer. It's a good thing it looks so uncomfortable, if it had a big fluffy seat I'm afraid I'd never leave! :)

#227 Not to mention that they look as though books would be falling off their upper shelves onto you head every time you shifted in your seat. Ouch!

I apparently do NOT have 84, Charing Cross Road on my shelves. How can that be? or maybe it is on the shelf and not entered here? Well, either way I have to sort it out, as I have wanted to read that one for a while.

I too have storage problems with my books. Do you know that some crazy designer I saw on Rachel Ray said bookshelves should never have just books on them?!?!?!?

What is he thinking? Who would use up valuable space with Chotchkies?????

#229 *Shakes head sadly* And he probably thinks walls are for hanging pictures, too, instead of putting up bookshelves.

*eyeroll* Designers!

this designer probably hasn't read anything that didn't have pictures in them

The poor dear~

We're refitting the bookshop where I work, and the designers have some very odd ideas about how we should present books. We want as much shelf space as possible so that we can have as many titles as possible in stock, but they want us to be able to display hundreds of copies of single titles because it apparently "looks better". Ugh, spare me your "design philosophy", and may I second Richard's eyeroll.

Check this out for some more very desirable bookshelves...

I am thirding Richard's eyerolls . . .No books on bookshelves?! Ridiculous!!

Happy birthday week Ellie! Mmmmm pork pie, YUM. I liked 84 Charing Cross Road when I read it last year (although I thought she got a bit whiny in places, but that was in the second book attached to 84 CCR in my edition).

Those bookshelf stairs look great! It cracks me up that the only comment is a grumpy one saying there's no handrail and you would kick the books.

Yes, I'm finding The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street less charming than 84, Charing Cross Road - the first was so witty and punchy, the second is dragging a little bit, though it's interesting to see the England of that decade through the eyes of an American who had so romanticized our country prior to her visit. I'm hoping to finish it tonight or tomorrow morning - I'm sitting here swigging Bacardi and Coke right now, helping amuse my stepdad's atrociously posh and bolshy cousin. My mum was VERY impressed when she invited herself to stay for the night... and my stepdad's away. So I'm here, with my Dutch courage, until I can get away back to the flat and my book!

P.S. Stephen - I agree, I am definitely not liking those chair-with-computer-stand bookcases. Icky. And what is it with yuppy people installing swathes of bookshelves, adding about three arty books per shelf, then filling the rest with ornaments and photo frames? NO!!!

I've seen worse, Ellie .... I've seen bookshelves bereft of anything but a single vase or figurine on each shelf, or a photoframe. No books within smelling distance of the varnish.

>238 elliepotten: my stepdad's atrociously posh and bolshy cousin ROFL And her name's something like "Gemma" or "Davina", isn't it?

>239 cameling: I did NOT read that. I did NOT read that. I did NOT read that.

Richard: Yea, I didn't read that thing about the bookshelves with no books either. ... =P

They probably have some other yuppie name for them, like "ornament display units".

Is the greater crime to have mostly empty bookshelves with the odd ornament/photo, or to buy books to put on the shelves for aesthetic reasons and with no intention of reading them ('I'd like ten feet of leather-bound books with green spines please, Ms Second-hand Bookseller - they'll match my curtains nicely.')?

*Ponders*

Ellie

I'm catching up on your thread this morning and find such fun, witty messages. Also, a very sincere one in message 205. I couldn't agree with you more. This is a lovely, lovely group of people. I was hesitant about joining a social network and I'm ever so glad I pushed my doubts aside and found LT and this incredible group of kind souls.

Hi Ellie, I'm sorry you're not enjoying The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street quite so much. I think I preferred it to 84 Charing Cross Road even - I really enjoyed seeing London through the eyes of an enthusiastic outsider. Anyway, it's a very short book, so you'll soon be done with it and on to something else!

I'm still trying to wrap my head around "pork pie". Perhaps if I load the top with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.................

#246 Really? Definitely no cream etc - they're not that kind of pie. I don't think I would have the patience to make one, but when this shop was one of my local butchers I used to buy these pies regularly. (And only by googling them today did I discover they now do pies by post: I may have to put in an order. *Salivates*)

Linda, 244: You definitely picked a good website to join! I'm not much of a social networker either, but I've been a member of numerous message boards. I've never come across a group filled with many nice and wonderful people. I love Librarything! :)

Ellie, your thread is so much fun! :)

I have to read 84 Charing Cross Road now...

Ah, Ellie! Your thread is, indeed, a lot of fun -- and very busy. And I'm finally caught up on the last 101 messages! (And added a title or two to my list . . .)

So sorry I missed your birthday while we had company. Belated best wishes!

Ooooh Caty - we've had that request already. We're fulfulling an order for a hotel or something, down south somewhere, who have installed a library for their guests but are filling the whole thing with unreadable multi-volume sets of books and old reprint society ones 'that match'. On the plus side, they're paying more than we'd sell them for otherwise - £30 a foot I think. Suckers... And people who do that in houses - well, I'm sure every LT-er would produce a similarly contemptuous and disbelieving face at the very thought.

>246 Carmenere: - Pork pie with cream? Nooooooooo no no no. That's banoffee pie, sweets - pork pie is squat and round, thick rich pastry, a layer of meaty jelly and pork. Mum dunks hers in brown sauce. The best I've ever had is Chatsworth Farm Shop's own pork pie, but our local butcher's isn't bad either. Calorific but yummy!

Had a lurvely day yesterday sitting outside roasting quietly, eating Haagen Daaz Baileys ice cream and reading. Total teen fluff, but I volunteered to read it because we weren't sure whether it was adult or YA and didn't want to be accosted by irate parents if we got it wrong! I might finish it today - Watch This Space.

Ricardo, dear, her name's Alison; we call her 'The Queen' - just not to her face! ;-)

No whipped cream! Sorry, I'll have to pass on the pork pie, I'm not much of a carnivore. I did google it and the crust looks mighty tastey.

Time for a new thread guys:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/92232

See you there!