flissp emerging from the fog into the autumn (pt 4)

OK, crumbling under peer pressure to create a 4th thread before the end of September (well, I suppose we're nearly there), here it is:

Thread no. 1 for 2010.
Thread no. 2 for 2010.
Thread no. 3 for 2010.

Here's the ticker (goal of 125 books being fairly arbitrary, I just don't like to go off the end of the scale):

I'm a member of the LT Early Reviewers group, so here are my ARC reviews:

1) Beside the Sea: Veronique Olmi
2) Our Tragic Universe: Scarlett Thomas
3) Sword Of My Mouth: Jim Munroe
4) The Painted Darkness: Brian James Freeman (Brief, but I really couldn't think of anything else to add)




...and my list of goals for this years reading:

Goal 1: Non Fiction - to read 10 non fiction books (excluding travel guides):

i) Galileo's Daughter: Dava Sobel
ii) Four British Fantasists: Charles Butler - Thread 4, Msg50 (October TIOLI)
iii) The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh
iv) Last Chance to See: Douglas Adams
v) Gig - Simon Armitage - Thread 3, Msg219 (August TIOLI)
vi) An Angel at My Table: Janet Frame
vii) If This is a Man: Primo Levi - Thread 1, msg159
viii The Olivetti Chronicles: John Peel Thread 2, msg67
ix) Fear and Trembling: Amélie Nothomb Thread 2, msg114
x) The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Rebecca Skloot Thread 3, msg74

Goal 2: Group Reads:

i) The Picture of Dorian Gray: Oscar Wilde (starting 01Jan10) - Thread 1, msg82
ii) Chronicles of Prydain: Lloyd Alexander (starting 10Jan10)
- The Book of Three - Thread 1, msg27
- The Black Cauldron - Thread 1, msg159
- The Castle of Llyr - Thread 1, msg218
- Taran Wanderer - Thread 1, msg275
- The High King Thread 2, msg68
iii) The Elegance of the Hedgehog: Muriel Barbery (starting 05Feb10) - Thread 1, msg163, msg167 & msg192
(still yet to update msg192 properly, but I will)
iv) Brat Farrar: Josephine Tey (starting 15Mar10; re-read) - Thread 1, msg259
v) The Plague: Albert Camus (starting 01Apr10) - Thread 2, msg79
vi) The Aeneid: Vergil (starting 21Jun10) - Thread 4, Msg62

Goal 3: Books to read:

i) Les Miserables: Victor Hugo (November TIOLLI - Reading)
ii) The Master and Margarita: Mikhail Bulgakov (Started but unfinished))
iii) Middlesex: Jeffrey Eugenides - Thread 4, Msg22 (September TIOLI)
iv) Remains of the Day: Kazuo Ishiguro - Thread 1, msg275
v) Cat's Cradle: Kurt Vonnegut - Thread 3, Msg98 (July TIOLI)
vi) Things Fall Apart: Chinua Achebe - Thread 2, msg79
vii) I, Claudius: Robert Graves
viii Changing Planes: Ursula K. Le Guin - Thread 3, Msg201 (August TIOLI)
ix) The Magic Mountain: Thomas Mann
x) The Grapes of Wrath: John Steinbeck
xi) Vilnius Poker: Ričardas Gavelis (because it's an ARC I shoud have read months ago)
xii) The Magician: W. Somerset Maugham - Thread 2, msg131

Goal 4: Unfinished Christmas Reading!:

i) Wuthering Heights: Emily Brontë (reading)
ii) L'etranger: Albert Camus (in French)
iii) War and Peace: Leo Tostoy
iv) A Christmas Carol: Charles Dickens - Thread 1, msg70
v) Maus: Art Spiegelman - Thread 1, msg128

I shall update this map with each author's origin as I read:


23 states (10.2%)
map

...and here are links to my previous threads:
Thread for 2010 pt3
Thread for 2010 pt2
Thread for 2010 pt1
Thread for 2009 pt2
Thread for 2009 pt1
Thread for 2008

January: 7 pre-owned : 4 borrowed : 6 new (5 re-reads) - 4 countries, 17 books.
Best of the Month: Maus
February: 3 pre-owned: 3 borrowed: 4 new (3 re-reads) - 5 countries, 10 books.
Best of the Month: Cannery Row
March: 5 pre-owned: 5 borrowed: 6 new: 1 ARC (3 re-reads) - 6 countries, 17 books.
Best of the Month: Remains of the Day
April: 4 pre-owned: 1 borrowed: 4 new: 0 ARC (0 re-reads) - 4 countries, 9 books.
Best of the Month: The Ask and The Answer
May: 1 pre-owned: 2 borrowed: 1 new: 1 ARC (0 re-reads) - 3 countries, 5 books.
Best of the Month: Fear and Trembling
June: 2 pre-owned: 3 borrowed: 2 new: 1 ARC (0 re-reads) - 3 countries, 8 books.
Best of the Month: The Bloody Chamber
July: 2 pre-owned: 3 borrowed: 1 new: 0 ARC (1 re-read) - 3 countries, 6 books.
Best of the Month: Eva Luna
August: 5 pre-owned: 1 borrowed: 4 new: 0 ARC (1 re-read) - 2 countries, 10 books.
Best of the Month: We Have Always Lived in the Castle
September: 4 pre-owned: 3 borrowed: 2 new: 1 ARC (0 re-reads) - 4 countries, 10 books.
Best of the Month: The Haunting of Hill House
October: 5 pre-ownded: 1 borrowed: 2 new (1 re-read) - 4 countries, 8 books.
Best of the Month: I Shall Wear Midnight
November: 2 pre-owned: 1 borrowed: 2 new: 0 ARC (1 re-read) - 3 countries, 5 books.
Best of the Month: Room - Emma Donoghue
December: ongoing.

...and here are my TIOLI challenge books:

TIOLI Books from July, August & September

OCTOBER (6/10):
1) Long author's surname (over 10 letters):
Fish Show - James Delingpole - DIDN'T GET TO.
6) In memorium (author died in 2010):
Death at Intervals - José Saramago - Thread 4, Msg77 (to update)
7) Decade challenge (something from the 00's):
The Boy With the Cuckoo-Clock Heart - Mathias Malzieu (2009) - Thread 4, Msg26
Four British Fantasists - Charles Butler (2006) - Thread 4, Msg50
Lavinia - Ursula Le Guin (2008) - DIDN'T GET TO.
9) Single syllable title:
Shades of Grey - Jasper Fforde - Thread 4, Msg62
and possibly (if there's time), (In Cold Blood - Truman Capote)
12) Musical book (my challenge):
Bliss - Peter Carey - Thread 4, Msg77 (Bliss by Muse)
and, if I can convince myself, Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë (Wuthering Heights - Kate Bush)
13) Stasia recommends (A-L):
Dandelion Wine - Ray Bradbury - DIDN'T FINISH. (Reading)
14) Multiple TIOLI readers:
I Shall Wear Midnight - Terry Pratchett - Thread 4, Msg50
16) Austen in October:
The Watsons - Jane Austen - DIDN'T GET TO.

NOVEMBER (2/4):
1) Book in alphabetical order:
Vilnius Poker - Ricardas Gavelis - I don't know if I'm ever going to get to this!
2) Book translated from the French:
Les Miserables - Victor Hugo - still ongoing
6) Book with 4 letters or fewer in title:
Room - Emma Donoghue
17) Time travelling:
Doomsday Book - Connie Willis

DECEMBER (2/7):
1) Book with an animal on its cover:
The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
4) Old & Only (on shelf over a year, only book by that author):
A Kestrel for a Knave - Barry Hines (~ 10 years)
5) Sentimental Favourites:
The Loon's Necklace - Elizabeth Cleaver
6) ER or ARC:
Vilnius Poker - Ricardas Gavelis - yes, it's on here again!
8) Thinster challenge (140 pages or fewer):
The Silent Gondoliers - William Goldman
10) Book on the TBR list all year:
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
14) Book by a Nobel Laureate:
The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck

For my own reference, some links:
TIOLI October Wiki page
TIOLI November Wiki page
TIOLI December Wiki page

Oh yes! Much roomier on this thread than the last one.

A September book update...:

88) Midnight - Lene Kaaberbøl
(Sep 2010, Rock Road Library)

The sequel to Silverhorse, again, this was an enjoyable read, although the resolution did feel a little bit sudden - maybe a consequence of the compression of three books into two as Kerry mentioned.

89) Hex Hall - Rachel Hawkins
(Sep 2010, Rock Road Library)

I requested this from the library on a whim after reading the comments on someone's thread (can't remember who right now) - I suppose I was in the mood for something light and fluffy at the time. This is quite good at that - a girl cocks up one too many spells and is sent to a magical boarding school cum detention centre at which witches are mysteriously dying. It's very silly and just what I was in the mood for, but I'm not sure I'll bother to read the rest of the series.

90) The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet - David Mitchell
(May 2010, Cambridge)

Unfortunately, I don't think I can write about this. I just can't think of anything useful to say. I've always enjoyed reading David Mitchell and this was no exception. Unexpected in that the novel changed direction completely a couple of times and really didn't follow any course that I could have predicted. This is a good thing, although I'm not sure that all the paths completely convinced me. All in all, an enjoyable read, but I'm going to stick with Black Swan Green as easily my favourite of his books.

I must get round to Ghostwritten - I don't know why, but I never seemn to pick it up, despite being his only book I've not yet read.

91) Baba Yaga Laid An Egg - Dubravka Ugrešić
September TIOLI: Once Upon a Time
(Aug 2010, Edinburgh)

Divided into three sections, a story within a story, this is an unusual book and, again, wasn't at all what I expected. Baba Yaga appears in many guises - the author's mother; a group of friends including a frail old lady who wants to, but can't, die; a young, needy woman...

The first part concerns the author and her relationship with her mother. We then head off in a completely different direction following three older ladies who decide to go on holiday together, visiting an expensive spa. The final part, "written" by a friend of the author's mother (met earlier in the first part) delves into the myth of Baba Yaga, analysing the two previous parts. This is where the book gets a little odd and, to be quite frank, less enjoyable. The analysis and expansion on the many guises of Baba Yaga is both fascinating and, to be honest, a bit over lengthy. I wanted to enjoy this bit more - I was certainly interested - but it was just a little bit too analytical. I loved the idea of the author essentially analysing her own story for us, but it just became a little too dry and, well, detailed - to the point where I started to switch off a bit. The sign off, however, was nicely chilling.

92) The Painted Darkness - Brian James Freeman (Review)
(Sep 2010, Cambridge; ARC - ER)

Best ARC yet.

Henry stands in his attic in front of a blank canvas, stuck, for the first time in his life, for inspiration. Is it because his wife left, with their son, for her parents, last night, following a massive argument, or is it something more, something terrible from his past that he has blocked from his mind?

The stories of his past and his present simultaneously unfold, in a tense, gripping and vividly nightmarish modern fairy tale. Highly recommended.

93) The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson
September TIOLI: Book with a building in the title
(Sep 2010, Cambridge)

I am so happy to have discovered Shirley Jackson - how had I never met her before? If The Painted Darkness is the best ARC that I have received to date, it suffered just a little in comparison to this genuinely chilling, swirling ghost story of a group of people who have shut themselves up for the summer in a haunted house in the name of science.

This is part of collection of Shirley Jackson's work - I'm very much looking forward to the rest of the stories!

94) Eagle of the Ninth - rosemarysutcliff::Rosemary Sutcliff
September TIOLI: Book with "9" in the title
(1986ish, Herts)

Marcus Aquilus takes a post as Centurion for a Cohort of Gauls stationed in Britain with the hope that one day he may find out the truth behind the disappearance of his father and the Ninth Legion, lost when he was a child. When he is forced to leave the Roman Army, he goes in search of the lost Eagle of the Ninth.

Very enjoyable - I'm looking forward to the other two books contained in the trilogy I own (The Silver Branch and The Lantern Bearers), however it doesn't displace Warrior Scarlet or Knight's Fee from their top spots. It has to be said that reading these for the first time as an adult, there are certain plot devices rosemarysutcliff::Rosemary Sutcliff uses that are very familiar. Not in a bad way, but maybe this is why I didn't engage quite so much with the central character as I have done with those in the top spot!

Stasia, how do you do that!! ;o)

Talent. Pure talent :)

#6 Of course!

...but I'd written all these last night, so I could upload them quickly! ;o)

So, the conference in Stockholm wasn't the most useful I've ever been to, but I love travelling and, in the end, I did get to see a few things, albeit mostly after dark or en route to the conference centre (a very good argument for always trying to stay in the centre of town when at a conference!). The final morning, I have to admit, we skiived off as there really weren't any useful talks to go, so it didn't seem unreasonable to head over to Skansen, (Europe's biggest open air museum), which I didn't have time to see last time I was in Sweden and I shall do some catching up next week. Here's a mini photo digest:

The promised pic of the room:

Hey, Fliss! Yay, new thread:) Love your pictures too!
The touchstone for the book Midnight seems to be wrong though, just thought you should know:)

Have a wonderful afternoon!

Ha, a high school friend of mine was just in Stockholm as well. He managed to reconnect with another HS friend, who lives there, for the first time in 30 years! (All because of Facebook...) Now I'm under pressure to visit the Stockholm friend, though I did visit her when she lived in Goteborg. Have never even met her daughter, who is the same age now as we were back when we met. Scary, that is...

How was the weather?

Your pictures make me want to visit Europe again, such beautiful old buildings!

great pics! That last one reminds me of Amsterdam. Wonderful. Thx for sharing.

Love your photos. I better get going on the Baba Yaga book, I've been sidetracked onto library books that need to be returned.

Thanks for sharing the photos, Fliss!

#8 Hallo Bente! ...and thanks for the heads up - I'll change it in just a mo. A lovely afternoon to you too ;o)

#9 Very scary! You must definitely visit your friend - Stockholm may not be as vibrant as places like New York, London or Rome, but it's a lovely city and there's lots of good (if expensive) restaurants...

#10 You must!

#11 Thanks Susan! It does look quite Amsterdam-ish, doesn't it?

#12 Thanks Kerry. The Baba Yaga book was interesting (hmmm, must write comments...) - an odd book, but I did enjoy it. It's a fairly quick read anyway (until the last part, perhaps).

#13 Thank you (all) for putting up with my photo obsession Stasia (particularly as these weren't the best I've taken)!

OK, so I've been trawling the October TIOLI options and here's my list so far:

1) Long author's surname (over 10 letters):
Fish Show - James Delingpole - although I'm going to see if I can't come up with something higher up my "to be read next" list...
3) Pulitzer Prize in the year of your birth (1977):
Not sure yet - there was no prize for fiction in 1977, so I'm going to have to peruse the other options. I'm very bad at reading anything other than fiction, so this will probably be very good for me!
6) In memorium (author died in 2010):
Death at Intervals - José Saramago
7) Decade challenge (something from the 00's):
I don't know yet, but this shouldn't be too hard to fill!
9) Single syllable title:
Shades of Grey - Jasper Fforde and possibly (if there's time)
In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
12) Musical book (my challenge):
Bliss - Peter Carey (Bliss by Muse) and, if I can convince myself
Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë (Wuthering Heights - Kate Bush)
13) Stasia recommends:
I'll have to get back to you on this one, but shouldn't be too hard to find something!!

I may also do 4) Old fashioned book &/or 5) Published in 1970, but I'll start with these...

I can always recommend something for the 'Stasia Recommends' challenge :)

#15 Ooooh, yes please! I thought I had a tag for you, but I think that there are always so many, I just gave up recording them! ;o)

#16: Any particular year? I can do recommendations as far back as 2005. My records prior to that year were destroyed when my computer crashed.

OK, just as a matter of fun, I went back and found the posts from 2009 where I listed recommendations from previous years: http://www.librarything.com/topic/56925. My recommendations lists start at message 24.

I also put the link on the TIOLI challenge thread for October.

Is there a Stasia recommends challenge? How does it work...the members have to read whatever Stasia recommends? Hehe, I actually think it would work!:D

Oh, now I saw the TOILI challenge. Well, maybe next year it should be a challenge of its own. I think there would be many of us joining in. Maybe I should join this months TIOLI? Haven't really thought about it before:)

Nice pics from Stockholm. And another pretty blue night sky. I MUST figure out how to achieve this with my camera.
I am impatiently awaiting the day that the owners of my apartment building and the tenants agree to a purchase deal. Then I'll know how much money I'll need to put aside to purchase my apartment. Then I'll be able to spend money on travel. I have not traveled outside the US in 2 years.
The berth bunks in your pic are different than the one my ex used to live in. That one was recessed into the wall. You were closed in except for the curtained opening.

I like your musical book challenge for the TIOLI.

#17 Thanks Stasia! No particular year and I now have a long list of books to choose from!

#18/19 ;o) Join, join!

#20 Thanks VB. I think that the real secret with night photos is not to use the flash. But in order to do that, you need to either have a tripod or have something that you can prop your camera on. This is to avoid shake - even if you have a very steady hand, you're going to end up with a blurred image at shutter speeds slower than 1/60 (which you need at night time). Which also brings me to the fact that you really do need to be able to manipulate the shutter speed and aperture yourself. I don't have a tripod for my point-and-shoot, so I usually end up taking zillions of photos before I get to one I like (ah the advantages of digital!) and even then... Don't know if that helps?

Fingers crossed for a low purchase deal for you! I wish I could spend more time travelling. I've been very lucky with conferences recently, but they never go to the places at the top of my travel list - most of which are either way out of my price range or require a visit of more than the 2 weeks I feel I can take off at a time. Still, I'm very lucky in having a generous holiday allowance and I'm sure I'll make at least some of them one day...

Sounds like your ex was even more squished than us!

Re TIOLI ;o)

I still need to update on The Thousand Autmns of Jacob de Zoet and Baba Yaga Laid an Egg - also to add Middlesex, but the library computer is about to time out - gah....

OK now sitting in Starbucks and have just about enough time to upload my comments of Middlesex before getting chucked out of here too. Gah. I really must fix my internet connection!

95) Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
Goal 3 (books to read); September TIOLI: chunkster
(Jul 2004, Cambridge)

This was given to me by a very good mate, who said at the time that it, along with On Beauty (which she also gave me), was one of her all time favourite books. So really, I should have come round to reading this much sooner. The problem is, when faced with an epithet like that, it can sometimes put me off a book - what if I don't like it? Add to this the fact that although I haven't read The Virgin Suicides, I did see the film and I absolutely hated it. Suicide is not and never will be romantic. It left a very bitter taste in my mouth (as does "Jules et Jim"). But, because of my friend's recommendation, I've felt guilty about not getting to it for ages - hence the fact that it's been on both this year and last years "books to read this year" list.

OK, preamble over, I was very pleasantly surprised.

Cal(liope), a man who spent the first 14 years of his life as a girl due to a very rare recessive mutation* narrates the history of that mutation's travels through his family history culminating in Cal himself. Starting in Smyrna, ending in Berlin via the USA.

I really don't know how to describe this book, I'm not having a lucid day, but it truly is wonderfully written. We float in and out of the present day and the past, Cal believably documenting things that he couldn't possibly remember. Obviously, one of the central themes is gender identity, but it also delves further into personal identity. The characters are well drawn and presented warts and all, three generations aging convincingly as the Greek Stephanides family assimilates into the changing America of the C20th. Very glad I finally got round to reading it anyway - and I enjoyed his writing style enough that I may even read The Virgin Suicides one day (although probably not)...

* In case anyone's not sure what a recessive mutation is: Everyone (with a few rare exceptions) carries two sets of 23 chromosomes - 22 pairs of autosomal chromosomes and 2 sex chromosomes (2 "X" chromosomes if you are female and 1 "X", 1 "Y" if you are male). One set comes from your mother, the other your father. These carry your DNA which encodes (via genes) all the proteins etc needed to make you and keep you functioning. Our DNA sequence on these chromosomes is mostly very similar, but there are thousands of differences between every individual, even between family members. Mostly this is fine, but sometimes mutations happen in crucial parts, messing up genes - the proteins that they produce either removing, suppressing, or amplifying the protein product. Sometimes this protein is compensated for by another pathway, often it isn't. Basically, a dominant mutation is when you inherit a single mutation from one of your parents (or sometimes they crop up de novo), but it still has an effect. With recessive mutations, you have to inherit a copy of that mutation from both parents for there to be an effect. This is why consanguineous relationships tend to result in a much higher instance of genetic disorder - two related parents are much more likely to carry a copy of the same mutation than unrelated individuals.

Edited to correct a lot of spelling and grammar

#21: I wanted to make sure that you had plenty from which to choose!

;o)

OK, a September summary:

Pre-owned: 4 (0)
Borrowed: 3 (0)
ARCs: 1 (The Painted Darkness)
New: 2 (0)
(re-reads in brackets)

...from US (5), UK (2), Denmark (2) & Croatia (1).

Goal 1 (non-fiction): 0 (Total: 50%)
Goal 2 (group read): 0 (Total: 90%) (Aeneid still ongoing!)
Goal 3 (to read list): 1 (Total: 50%)
Goal 4 (from Xmas): 0 (Total: 40%)
Goal 5 (TIOLI September): 5 (Total: 71%)

Best (new read) of the Month: The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson
Reviews: The Painted Darkness - Brian James Freeman (Review) - brief, but it says everything I wanted to say...
Currently reading: The Boy With the Cuckoo-Clock Heart - Mathias Malzieu; Four British Fantasists: Place and Culture in the Children's Fantasies of Penelope Lively, Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones, and Susan Cooper - Charles Butler; Aeneid - Virgil and Travel Through Cambridge - David Berkley.

96) The Boy With the Cuckoo-Clock Heart - Mathias Malzieu
October TIOLI: Decade Challenge (2009)
(Sept 2010, Cambridge)

Thanks to Kerry for this recommendation - you were right, I enjoyed it very much.

A melancholy little story - a sort of modern day fairy tale, but not quite. A boy is born on a freezing cold night at the top of Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh, saved from death by a cuckoo clock placed over his heart to keep it pumping. He grows up separate from the world but happy, until, on his 10th birthday, his "mother" Madeleine (the midwife who delivered him) caves in to his longing to visit the town below. On this trip, he sees a beautiful little singer who he instantly falls in love with. But, he has been warned that he must never fall in love or he will die.

It's quite an odd one - twisting between fairy tale and an almost reality, questioning our perceptions. Touching nonetheless. I'd be intrigued to see this written in the original French, given that the first half is set in Edinburgh and there is a fair amount of Scots dialogue!

#26: My local library still does not have that one, but I just found out it is available for the Nook. Good news!

#26 Woo!

For anyone who's interested, Don Bachardy was on Front Row (Radio 4) last night talking about Christopher Isherwood, as the second volume of his diaries is just about to come out. It was very interesting.

The link is to the Front Row programme page as there are still interviews with Alan Bennet and Cornelia Funke available to listen to also.

#26> Glad you liked that one, it was a bit off-centre. Did you watch the youtube clip of the song set to the animation?
I see you are reading Four British Fantasists - I really must get to that, I have about six books on children's lit that I should read, but keep bumping for fiction.

#29 I didn't register that there was a youtube clip - I shall now go and investigate!

Re Four British Fantasists, while it's been fairly interesting, to be honest, I'm finding it quite a dry read - I'm not sure I'd recommend it particularly. Maybe that's a little bit because it's been a long time since I've read anything by Susan Cooper or Penelope Lively and the only book I've read by Alan Garner recently was Thursbitch, which was a bit "meh" for me. Certainly, I find the bits about Diana Wynne Jones a lot more interesting, but then I am definitely A LOT more familiar with her work ;o)

For my TIOLI selections this month, I've decided to drop the 1977 Pulitzer Prize as there is nothing that I want to read from that year, beyond the play The Shadow Box by Michael Cristofer, of which I cannot find a single copy (a film yes, but not the play itself...)

I've also picked my "Stasia recommends" book: Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury and added the "multiple TIOLI readers category": I Shall Wear Midnight - Terry Pratchett. I could add almost any number of books to all the categories I've picked actually, but I'll stick with just these for the minute as I very much doubt I'll get around to everything otherwise!

#31: I hope you enjoy Dandelion Wine, Fliss!

Looking forward to it Stasia - I'd forgotten it was on my "to read" list!

#33: I can relate. I forget all kinds of books that reside in the BlackHole - until I go to add them again and find them already there!

;o)

Woo, another quiz! This time found on Suzanne/Chatterbox's thread:

On your nightstand now: Many!
LHS of the bed (library books & those lined up ages ago): Lavinia; Dandelion Wine; My Antonia; Medical London: City of Diseases; The Snow Goose; The Second Jungle Book & Peter and Wendy.
RHS of the bed (currently reading): Four British Fantasists; Death at Intervals; Diaries, Volume 1: 1939 - 1960 (Christopher Isherwood); The Three Legions & The Dubliners (although the latter has been there for ages, untouched)

Favorite book when you were a child: SUCH a hard one to answer - it was a shifting thing.
I had a small shelf where I kept all my favourites up until the age of 11 (when we moved), it included: Warrior Scarlet & Knight's Fee by rosemarysutcliff::Rosemary Sutcliff; White Boots; The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare; The Mouse and His Child by Russell Hoban; Charmed Life, The Magicians of Caprona & The Time of the Ghost - Diana Wynne Jones; The Little Princess; The Twits, The Magic Finger and The BFG by Roald Dahl; Anne of Green Gables and a probably a couple of others I can't think of off the top of my head. Oh, and I had a wonderful collection on nursery rhymes and poetry for children (still covered with crayon marks) and a complete collection of Grimms Fairy Tales that were too big to fit in the shelf.

Your top five authors: Another difficult one that varies a lot depending on my mood.
The two authors who are always there though are Jane Austen and Diana Wynne Jones. Probably Elizabeth Gaskell too.
The remaining 2/3 would then most likely rotate between Neil Gaiman; Evelyn Waugh; Somerset Maugham (for his short stories); John Wyndham; Douglas Adams; Christopher Isherwood; Hanif Kureishi; Nancy Mitford, but I'm sure I'll have missed someone else (this list does seem a tad male-heavy and I'm sure that's not actually very representative)...

I've a suspicion that Kazuo Ishiguro, Patrick Ness, John Steinbeck and Shirely Jackson may turn up on this list very soon too.

Book you've faked reading:
Genuinely, I really can't think of one. I'm actually quite honest about these things - unless it's due to a bad memory (I thought, for example, that I had read Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks, but from the comments of others, I don't think I can have done).

Book you're an evangelist for: Hmmm.
The Double Helix - James D. Watson
The Princess Bride - William Goldman
anything by Diana Wynne Jones and, apparently (given my recent comments) Warrior Scarlet by rosemarysutcliff::Rosemary Sutcliff

Book you've bought for the cover: I confess that I do do this sometimes, although there's usually another reason as well, for example, most recently, it was C - Tom McCarthy, which was also on the Booker Longlist.

Favorite line from a book: Many, many, many, I'll probably return to this one, but, in the meantime, Douglas Adams is always good for a quote (if not a very serious one):
"Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so."
"Today must be a Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays."
"The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."
"`Ford, you're turning into a penguin. Stop it.'"
"FORD: Six pints of bitter. And quickly please, the world's about to end.
BARMAN: Oh yes, sir? Nice weather for it."

Book that changed your life:
The Trouble With Lichen - John Wyndham - it's why I ended up doing Medical Biochemistry at University (if you've read the book, it's not for the obvious reasons, but because the idea of research as a career had never occurred to me at the time).
Also Pride and Prejudice and Charmed Life as they were the books that introduced me to their respective authors. I don't remember not being able to read, or I'd list the first book that made me fall in love with reading - as it is, I don't know what it could have been. Maybe Noisy Nora - Rosemary Wells or Dogger - Shirley Hughes

Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Soooo many, but I suppose, if I had to pick, it would probably be Persuasion. I just love it. It gets better every time I read it, but the first time you read any book is always the most special.

...bah, can't get any of the touchstones to kick in...

I do love seeing everyone's answers on the different book quizzes!

Fliss

Love the photos!

Hello Fliss, just had a look at your Stockholm photos on Flickr - wonderful views. All that city architecture, very different from my recent Norway trip photos, which contain some city stuff but lots more mountains and fjords.

Interested to hear your thoughts on Four British Fantasists - I've been wanting to read that. Unlike you, I've read almost no DWJ but all Alan Garner (except Thursbitch which is in the TBR). Still hope to try this book, as AG and SC were favourite childhood authors, and AG in particular for me stands the test of time. And maybe it will inspire me to try some more DWJ...

I read Four British Fantasists last year, Fliss, after seeing it on someone's thread and finding out my library had it. I had read all the DWJ, almost all the Susan Cooper, and the early Alan Garner--the stuff he decided not to write any more! Which of course is what I liked best. Never read any Penelope Lively. I agree--after the first third of the book, it gets really dry and academic, which it would, I guess, because I think it was the author's dissertation. However, especially in the first third, there was a lot of interesting information about the writers that I appreciated.

I hope you enjoy Dandelion Wine, which wins my award for most beautiful language in a book. Have you read the three books in the series prior to I Shall Wear Midnight? While you can read it for itself, there are a lot of referents to situations in the earlier books.

#38 Hi Genny - yes, my hotmail told me you'd added me as a contact on Flickr - I shall have to go over to have a look at your pics too (when I'm not in my local library which is closing in 15mins). I'm definitely going to have to visit Norway properly at some point as I've only visited Oslo...

Re Four British Fantasists, it may actually appeal to you a bit more than me as Charles Butler seemed to focus the most on Alan Garner (perhaps there's more to discuss?). Anyway, I'm a big advocate of DWJ, so yes, you must read more of her work! ;o)

#39 I thought I'd come across it on someone else's thread at some point (I was surprised, because I've had it wishlisted on Amazon for ages, but it seemed like such an obscure book - evidently not!). I completely agree that there was a lot of interesting information, but I did find it quite hard to focus for much of the book - I'm sure that a lot of what he said washed straight over me!

Anyway, it's encouraged to pick up The Dark is Rising series again at some point and Red Shift also, which I hadn't realised was another Tam Lin retelling (however loosely based). It's also given me DWJ pangs again, but I shall resist ;o) - it's far too easy for me to get stuck in a DWJ rut (yep, I've also read everything she's written and the vast majority of it at least twice, mostly more...)

Very much looking forward to Dandelion Wine then!

Re I Shall Wear Midnight - yep, Terry Pratchett is another author whose entire cannon I have read (except for The Unadulterated Cat, which I never seem to get round to). I was lucky in that I discovered him fairly early on, so I read most of them as they came out. I think he might be quite intimidating to approach at this stage otherwise!

#40 I haven't put a lot of mine on Flickr - had alread uploaded a lot to Photobox before I discovered Flickr, and haven't got round to deciding which I want to use properly. And now I've also started using Picasa. Photobox has been more about ordering prints and other photo products (books etc) rather than for making the photos viewable by others. At this rate, it will be a project for retirement (in 20 years!).

Someone in the UK read Four British Fantasists earlier this year too, as this is where I heard of it; sadly, none of the three library services I use have a copy.

Love your quiz answers -- I'm waiting for a leisurely moment when I can think it over...... I take these quizzes way too seriously!

#42 I think it might have been Heather (souloftherose). And it's not in my local library either :(

I tried searching Hackney libraries' catalogue last night - it has a joint catalogue with 11 other London boroughs, and apparently none of them have it, nor does Westminster. I think I'm going to have to give up on that one, I might fill in a suggestion form or two but I don't think in these times that the library is going to buy a book with a cover price of £30 unless others are going to be interested (probably not!).

Luci, what about asking them to check the University library system? Can you (we) access that?

I was just wandering by, but I got distracted and had to go and look this up!

The Senate House library has an online catalogue but a quick search suggests they don't have it. According to WorldCat, county libraries including Hertfordshire and Shropshire have it, so an inter-library loan might be possible.

Genny, WorldCat lists Newcastle University library as having a copy.

#47 That's interesting, but I've never tried borrowing from the University Library here - I've no idea if they let non-members use the library. When I run out of other things to read (!) I could investigate...

#42 etc on Four British Fantasists - the copy I had was actually an inter-library loan, not part of the Cambridgeshire system, so I do know there is a copy in the UK library system somewhere and I've just returned the book. I don't know if prices are universal across the library system, but it was only £3 to request it as an inter-library loan, so a lot cheaper than buying it!

#43 Thank you - and me too!

#41 Ah, you see I found Flickr first, so it has pretty much all my (thinned down) digital era photos (and even some old/B&W SLR scanned ones). I should probably put only the best ones up, but I like having everything in one place. I've also got a picasa account, but I don't really use it and I rarely print out photos these days (it seems a shame, but then I look at them online a lot more than I do the physical photo albums).

Book update will follow later in the day...

97) Four British Fantasists: Place and Culture in the Children's Fantasies of Penelope Lively, alangarner::Alan Garner, Susan Cooper and Diana Wynne Jones - Charles Butler
Goal 1 (non fiction); October TIOLI: Decade Challenge (2006) (replacing My Childhood in my non-fiction possibles list for the time being.)
(Sept 2010, Rock Road Library)

I think I've said pretty much all I wanted to about this already, in Msg30 & Msg40 above. An interesting, but fairly dry read that I probably would have got more out of if I'd read more of alangarner::Alan Garner's work (and more recently).

98) I Shall Wear Midnight - Terry Pratchett
October TIOLI: Multiple TIOLI readers

It always surprises me that the touchstone for Terry Pratchett never seems to work, so I've linked him instead...

I was a bit nervous, after reading Making Money, that the Discworld novels were starting to get a bit tired (particularly after reading Nation - although that did reassure me that it wasn't just Terry Pratchett getting tired as I thought it was the best thing he'd written in years). Unseen Academicals was an improvement, but, with I Shall Wear Midnight, I really do think he's back on form again. Maybe it's a personal preference for this particular story arc - I always did like the witches books the best (aside from Pyramids, Mort and Reaper Man), but either way, this was a joy to read.

...and (duh duh, duh duh, duh duh, duh duh....), SPOILER WARNING He brought back Esk! Her complete disappearance from the Discworld is something that has bugged me for years, seriously, years! END OF SPOILER

I won't summarise the plot because I do think that, as ronincats says in Msg 39, it really helps to have read the other 3 Tiffany Aching books first - and if you've read them already, then you're probably going to read this one too. I will say that it's one of the story arcs that I've enjoyed the most and that I think they've improved as they've gone along.

What I found very interesting is that he's left quite a few open ends, one in particular involving my spoiler comment above, that I very much looks as though he's already got ideas for the next one... Which is good news for me!

I now shall return to Death at Intervals, which I haven't really made a dent in yet (I just wasn't in the right frame of mind at the weekend). ...and... I'm very nearly finished The Aeneid finally, so I'll be updating on that soon (although as I've commented on it as I've gone along, probably not very much). Still finding it a tad gory at the moment, but was interested that Virgil did have a word to say about the poor farmers whose crops were being torn up by all these fighting armies - I would have expected them to have been forgotten about in all the glory of battle...

...Ooooh, and I thought that the British amongst you would be amused that I went to the World Conker Championships on Sunday (the rest of the world will probably be thinking "huh?"*). Of course, it is a "World" Championship pretty much in name only...:




* This may help explain. A bit.

Lots to catch up on!

Re Four British Fantasists, I read it straight after my Alan Garner-fest earlier this year so that probably helped me when I read it. Now that you mention it, it was quite a Garner-centric book. And I borrowed my copy from one of the Hertfordshire libraries - didn't realise until now how rare the book was!

And reading it did make me want to read the complete works of DWJ, everything else Alan Garner wrote and reread The Dark is Rising series

#35 I've favourited the message with the quiz so I can copy it. I still haven't done any of the quizzes that have been going around. I always decide I need to think about it properly and then forget! The quotes from Hitchiker's made me smile though. I think Douglas Adams did the best one-liners ever.

#50 Another I Shall Wear Midnight fan. So glad you enjoyed it! SPOILER! And I was also very excited to see Esk again!

#51 Fliss, you always seem to do the most exciting things at weekends (that sounds sarcastic but it's not meant to be). How cool! Did you participate or just watch? We have a lot of horse chestnut trees in Tring and when I was younger we would collect bags full of them and then string them together to make a conker snake (kind of like the ones round the neck of the man in the photo at the bottom). I like them best when they've just come out of the shell and are all shiny. Maybe I should go and collect some this year?

I used to collect conkers, too...! Now, my primary use for chestnuts is eating them (when I find street vendors who roast them) and using them in stuffing!!

#53 Suzanne, I knew you could eat chestnuts but for some reason I had never connected that in my head with conkers before!

#51 very amused and envious! what fun!
#52 Shiny and just out of the shell is best. I can never resist picking up a few each year. I put one in the middle of the table at our staff meeting last week - my colleagues now know that I'm quite mad.
#53, 54 You wouldn't want to eat conkers (horse chestnuts) - not particularly edible for humans, though apparently deer and horses do eat them. Sweet chestnuts are the edible ones.

Mmm, roasted chestnuts! That reminds me of childhood (late 1960s and early 1970s), when we would shop in NYC before and during the Christmas holidays at the Herald Square department stores (Macy's, Gimbels), have lunch at Chock Full O' Nuts, and grab a bag of hot roasted chestnuts from a street vendor before taking the PATH train back to Jersey City. Memories...

I had never heard of a 'conker' before, Fliss. Thanks for the pictures and explaining link.

The World Conker Championship looks brilliant. I, of course, had also never heard of conkers before I came to England, and they were the cause of an early faux pas in my use of our same/different language when I had only been here a couple of months. A friend of my husband, whom I had just met, came to see us, bringing some beautiful shiny conkers (well, they were still boys, really, in their early twenties - I mean the guys, not the conkers!). He presented me with a particular fine specimen. I, having no idea what to make of it, not yet knowing its significance, said "thank you, that's quite pretty", and he walked off in a bit of a huff. Well, where I came from, "quite" meant "very", but here it means "a bit" and is generally a damning qualifier as in "that was quite a good book", meaning not really very good. It took a bit of clearing up, and I was never totally sure he believed me (we have now, alas, lost touch with him).

I don't think I've ever eaten roasted chestnuts, although I often see them for sale around Christmas. Maybe this year when I go Christmas shopping I shall try some.

It may be horribly un-British it admit it, but I could never see the point of threading a large seed onto a bit of string and trying to break someone else's seed with it. I expect that watching the World Championships is great fun, though.

There was some British children's writer.... William somebody-or-other who always had boys collecting conkers -- I remember thinking 'what the heck' -- being 13 I wasn't about to run to the dictionary, I did figure it out finally.......

I love the pix!!!!!!

#60 Maybe the Just William books by Richmal Crompton? William and his gang would definitely into conkers!

Hallo people, just checking in briefly as I've not been around much lately. I will fix my internet at home at some point and then I'll be back properly...

#60/61 Yep, I was going to suggest the Just William books too ;o) I never read them, but I think we had one as an audiobook when we were little...

#59 Mmmmm chestnuts mmmmmm. My Granny's house is surrounded by chestnut trees of both varieties, so I always associate roasting chestnuts with her fireplace (where we'd roast them).

Caty, re the conkers I'm shocked! We used to get very competitive about it all in my family ;o)

When I mentioned that I'd been to the "World Championships" to one of my mates, she told me that her husband has been putting away conkers ever since their daughter was born (nearly 3), for use in her later life. CHEATING!!!! Truly shocked! Anyone who's not familiar with the game - if you keep conkers a long time/on a radiator/soak them in vinegar, they harden and become very difficult to break. This is DEFINITELY cheating.

#58 Made me giggle! Silly boy ;o) Do you really use "quite" as equivalent with "very"? I never knew that! You're right - it's pretty damning in the UK...

#57 Always good to introduce a new sport!

#56 You're making me dribble now Darryl...

#52 - 55 It was great fun. Very silly with lots of dressing up. I've been asked if I'm going to actually enter the competition next year - I'm seriously considering it!

#52 "I think Douglas Adams did the best one-liners ever" - it is quite possible... Maybe paired with William Goldman in The Princess Bride...

I do the same with quizzes - I'll fall for them every time and spend far too long thinking about them (and then still think of something else 6 weeks later...)

Re the "exciting things at weekends", sadly, I don't think that's truly the case - but it's funny you should say that - as I drove out there on Sunday morning in the beautiful sunshine, I did think to myself that I should do this kind of thing more often. It was a really lovely day. Of course, this last weekend, I did almost nothing to make up for it... So much for my Wicken Fen photo taking plans. That shall just have to wait a few weeks now...

I badly need to catch up on book commenting at some point, but now is not the time, so, in the interim, here's what I've been reading since my last post:

99) Aeneid - Virgil
Goal 2 (Group read)
(Jan 2010, Cambridge)

Finally finished it! Comments to follow, when I've caught up on the group read...

In the meantime, my compiled comments to date are here, here, here, here and here

100) Shades of Grey - Jasper Fforde
October TIOLI: Single syllable title
(Jan 2010, Cambridge)

I've been very busy recently, so I interrupted my reading of Death at Intervals to read this as it's just a lot more amenable to reading at the end of a long day (this is always the problem I find with Jose Saramago's writing style - I enjoy it, but you do have to concentrate so as not to lose your place in the paragraph!).

Very enjoyable, as ever. I think I'm going to enjoy this series more than the Nursery Rhyme books (and I think he's gone as far as he can with the Thursday Next books).

Hey Fliss! I hope you are able to get your Internet back up and running soon. You are missed around here.

Glad you fit the Fforde in--I can't wait for the next book in the series! And congrats on wrapping up the Aeneid.

Congratulations on finishing the Aeneid!

Well done indeed on the Aeneid. I've not picked it up since July, when I was still on Book 2, I think...

#50> Have you come across Diana Wynne Jones: children's literature and the fantastic tradition. It's probably another dry read but you never know, Farah Mendlesohn is now researching Geoffry Trease.
And congratulations on finishing The Aeneid.

Hi fliss. Congratulations on finishing The Aeneid. I hope you enjoy Dandelion Wine. It's my favorite Bradbury.

#62 Love the pics of the World Conker Championship Some of the participants look very serious.
Is there a way to tell if the conkers have been tampered with?

Congratulations on finishing the Aeneid!

I thought Shades of Grey was the best thing Fforde's written so far. I didn't enjoy the most recent Thursday Next book as much as I enjoyed the earlier ones so I am a bit worried that he may have run out of steam there. But I'm still planning to buy the next TN book (I think it's due out in the new year). And he has a YA book released in November, The Last Dragonslayer

#67 I've seen the DWJ book and thought it looked interesting. Have you read it Kerry?

Edited because I can't spell Aeneid...

I really enjoyed Shades of Grey, so was disappointed that his next new book is going to be another Tuesday Next book -- haven't managed to get beyond the first volume in that series yet. Reminder to self: try #2 again sometime soon.

Diana Wynne Jones as a title brings up nothing in either Camden or Islington library catalogues - my local's even less likely to have things like that and reservations are more expensive - 80p rather than free (Islington) or 45p (Camden).

#62 - I thought the whole point was to tamper with the conkers, with everyone swearing by their own bizarre ways of doing that?? Or is it just saving them from good years to use later that's cheating?

Yes, that was my impression too. (On conkers).

But really I want to say CONGRATULATIONS on finishing The Aeneid and await your final comments eagerly.

And now I'm back to add that it isn't the Just William books I was thinking of but the writer William Mayne -- they were oddish books and I would guess not easily found these days, at least not in the US. I can't even remember, looking at them all, which ones I have and haven't read, only that I liked and read a lot of them.

Hi Fliss! Just popping in to wish you a good day!:)

Hi Fliss - just checking in. Any joy with t'internet?

Just stopping by to say hi! I hope your internet troubles are resolved soon :)

Hi all - just to let you know I'm still alive ;o) I've been extremely busy at work recently and doing stuff most weekends, so, as I still haven't got round to sorting out the internet issues at home (thanks for the thoughts!), checking in here has had to be few and far between. Note to self: really must get round to fixing that internet - there's NO way I'm going to catch up on everyone else's threads at this rate!

Thanks for all the congrats on The Aeneid too - I think I've mostly commented on how I felt about it in earlier posts, but I will write a bit more when I've checked back in to the group read and organised my thoughts a bit better.

Also still owing an update on several books...

#73 sibyx, I'd not heard of William Mayne, even though a quick Wiki search shows he wrote quite a lot. I wonder if it's the kind of things The Haunted Bookshop near the Cambridge Market might have - they seem to specialise in Children's books...

#72, re tampering with conkers/cheating - well you're not wrong ;o) It's still cheating though (vinegar, putting them on the radiator, keeping them for a long time...) - just everyone was at it...!

#71 Luci, what a shame! Tell you what, as you're only in London, I could lend you one or two, as long as you promise not to lose them? ;o) They're mostly fairly battered, so you wouldn't need to worry too much about damaging them!

#70 Suzanne, I really enjoyed The Eyre Affair, but it has to be said, none of the sequels have really caught my fancy in the same way. I think it is largely because the first had the edge of being such an original idea. For me, Shades of Grey took longer to get into, although once I got carried away with it, I'll put it on a par with the former. Any idea when the next sequel is due, if his next is going to be another Thursday Next book (and yes, I find that a bit disappointing too - I think it's time to leave that series alone...)

#69 Heather - I'm with you on the Thursday Next running out of steam thing, definitely... The YA book sounds intriguing though?

#68 Hi VB. I don't seem to have got going with Dandelion Wine - I keep getting distracted by other books. I shall try to catch up on it this week - hopefully it'll catch my imagination.

Re catching the cheating at the conker championships, all conkers were provided by the organisers (can you imagine having to thread all those conkers?!). Re seriousness - well, it's a very serious sport, didn't you know?! ;o)

#67 Thank you Kerry, no I hadn't come across that - I shall definitely be on the look out for it. Diana Wynne Jones continues to be one of my favourite authors, even now I'm all "grown up" (hmmmm)

#64 - 66 thanks for all the Aeneid congratulations! I did limp a bit towards the end - I just found it all a little bit gruesome after a while (insert vivid semi visual memory of a man being split in half by an axe here)... Worth the read though! I now have Lavinia lined up to read next, when I finish Dandelion Wine.

#63 Thank you Stasia! It's all my own fault really - I just keep postponing doing something about it... It's on the list for this week though (and yes, at the moment, there are many "to do" lists...

How is Linda doing - I'm way behind on all the various threads and it's going to take me a little while to catch up with where she's at? Recovering well from her operation I hope?

Books to update:

101) Deep Secret - Diana Wynne Jones
(ages ago, Cambs)

I had DWJ cravings after reading that Charles Butler book and this is one of my favourites. I also needed to read something that didn't matter if I was half awake whilst reading it. I'm going to follow it up with The Merlin Conspiracy at some point.

102) Death at Intervals - José Saramago
October TIOLI: In Memorium
(Jan 2010, Cambridge)

What if death was a real being? What if she decides that she's had enough of the bad press and decides to stop for a while? Just in the country for which she is responsible. No one will die. Those hovering near death will continue to hover near death in half life. Hospitals and old people's homes will overfill. Undertakers will go out out of business. ...and then, when she returns to her role, she decides that it is maybe kinder to give those about to die a written warning of a week - in which to say their goodbyes and arrange their affairs. But is this really kinder?

An intersting idea, told in Saramago's gently humourous, but paragraph-and-punctuation-less usual style. I did enjoy this. Possibly more than Blindness actually, which never had me completely convinced (I did find it captivating and hard to put down, I did enjoy the style too, but I wasn't completely blown away as so many people appear to have been). Maybe I just have a bit more belief in humanity than Saramago seemed to and, in some ways (although not in others, admittedly), this does show less pessimism than Blindness. On the other hand, it is a less complete story - not that the ending feels wrong, it doesn't (and you can see it coming), just that the whole thing feels a little unfinished - as though there were thoughts that he hadn't completed.

103) Bliss - Peter Carey
October TIOLI: Musical book
(Jan 2010, Cambridge)

Bliss by Muse

When X awakes from a heart attack, he becomes convinced that he's died and gone to hell and his return to real life, and his own family, fail to convince him otherwise.

This is Peter Carey's first book. I don't know if this explains why the majority of his characters failed to completely convince me. Certainly, unlike in The True History of the Kelly Gang, which I enjoyed very much more, the characters are very unsympathetic (and, while I'm certain that there was a lot more to the Kelly Gang than the fact that they were outlaws, they were, nonetheless, definitely not virtuous - Carey humanises the legend very well). This was an interesting read and there are some wonderful moments (I have a quote I have to find and paste in here that I thought was just beautiful), but, for the greater part, it didn't really transport me away (which, when it comes down to it, is my main tell for a great book).

As I say, I very much enjoyed The True History of the Kelly Gang (enough that I then went out and bought a biography - which I have yet to read - I'm really not very good at non fiction outside work) and, off the back of this, I have several others of his books, so hopefully they'll work better for me.

I'll try to write comments on all the books I haven't updated on at home and upload them later if I don't get round to fixing the internet problem soon....

In the meantime, here's me at a Halloween party on Saturday, just to prove I'm still here...!

Thank you Fliss. I have DWJ's own books for the most part, it's the non-fiction books about her which none of the libraries in London seem to have.

OK, I'm scared. Very scared. (by the photo, I mean...)

I've no idea when the Shades of Grey sequel is due. Every so often I check the various Amazon sites to see when it's posted, but doubt that it will be listed until the next Thursday Next book is out. I would imagine 14/16 months at the earliest.

Great to have you surface here, Fliss. Looks like you've been fitting some good reading in with everything else. GET the INTERNET FIXED!

Ditto, what Roni said:)

#77 So sorry to hear the internet is still not sorted. But crikey! That photo is rather scary... What were you supposed to be? (Other than scary).

Re Jasper Fforde's publishing schedule a quick perusal of his website (which is very entertaining btw) gives the following release dates:

The Last Dragonslayer published Nov 4th - UK only so far. No plans for a US release (no idea why).

TN6: One of our Thursdays is Missing, published 21st Feb 2011 in the UK and 8th March 2011 in the US

NC3: The Last Great Tortoise Race, likely to be published Spring 2012

Shades of Grey 2: Painting by Numbers has a likely release date of 2014! (weeps)

I loved all the TN books except the most recent one. The current dates leave him with nothing coming out in 2013 so perhaps he will publish TN7 then?

I am echoing Roni & Bente: GET THE INTERNET FIXED.

2014????? WAIL.

Thanks for the reminder about Lavinia. I have to find a copy of that somewhere. The William Mayne's are fascinating and odd, I cant' wait for you to find one.

So what were you? Maybe you mentioned it and I missed it?

The late William Mayne (did he die last year/this year/before? I'm guessing 2009) has somwhat fallen out of favour here since he was convicted of child abuse, I think including children he came into contact with at meet the author events. I think there's something about it in Valerie Grove's memoir of Kaye Webb, editor of Puffin Books and founder of the Puffin Club - Mayne was a Puffin author.

I had some of his books but think I decided I didn't need to keep them when going through my children's books. I discovered that Faber Finds has reprinted a few the other day, but they're slightly pricy trade paperbacks. I don't know if your library stocks such books (one of mine had a Faber Finds edition of the wonderful No Country for Young Men by Julia O'Faolain.

Fliss, add me to the list of those who miss you.

Lovely people...

I know, I know, my internet still isn't sorted (sigh). I spoke to a spectacularly unhelpful person on the phone about it, but he just kept reeling off pointless instructions (for things I'd already tried) instead of listening to anything I was saying (grrr), so I gave up and I'll probably end up getting someone physically in person to look at it... Watch this space.

#85 & 6 I shall have to have a trawl of the library catalogue for William Mayne, although probably not immediately as I've bought quite a few books recently (bad Fliss) and really ought to make a dent in a few of them before I start borrowing new ones. Convicted of child abuse though? That makes me a tad uncomfortable about reading him...

#85 Lavinia was fun - particularly in that it takes the story on beyond the end of the Aeneid (I will be updating on this soon - I copied the group read thread into a text file, so I'll be able to read it away from the internet and comment properly.

I've had a busy few weeks, but I'm mostly free in the evenings this week, so I'm going to make it a priority to at least update my own thread, so I can peruse other people's when I do get internet access...

#84 Seconded!

#83, 81, 80 *Bows head in shame...*

#82 Oooh, thanks for all those dates Heather - good to know, if not what I wanted to hear!

#79 & 85 Re the photo - I'm nothing in particular - the main intention was to be scary (and to finally use that mask, which I bought in Venice when I was 16 and have always loved because it makes my eyes look all poppy-outey). Apparently, I was even scarier without the mask (I painted my face white), but I thought I'd leave that ;o) I don't really tend to go in for specific things when I dress up, although I'm still rather proud of "Killer Bunny" (previous halloween), "Flying Pig" (initials party) and "Maggie Simpson" (cartoon characters)...

Book updates really will follow soon, but, to add to the list:

104) Lavinia - Ursula Le Guin
(Oct 2010, Rock Road Library)

To update.

105) Room - Emma Donoghue
November TIOLI: Title with 4 letters or fewer
(Oct 2010, Cambridge)

Wonderful. I think pretty much everyone in this group has read this book, so I won't try to descibe it as others have already done so much better than I can. What I will say is that, for such a dark subject, this is a very touching book that gripped me right from the beginning. Jack's point of view is utterly convincing - as is his difficulty in dealing with life outside Room and his muddled perception of the outside world.

October summary:

Pre-owned: 5 (1)
Borrowed: 1 (0)
ARCs: 0
New: 2 (0)
(re-reads in brackets)

...from UK (4), France (1), Italy (1), Portugal (1) & Australia (1).

Goal 1 (non-fiction): 1 (Total: 60%)
Goal 2 (group read): 1 (Total: 100%) - finished the Aeneid!
Goal 3 (to read list): 0 (Total: 50%)
Goal 4 (from Xmas): 0 (Total: 40%)
Goal 5 (TIOLI October): 6 (Total: 60%)

Best (new read) of the Month: I Shall Wear Midnight - Terry Pratchett - this is a close call, I may change my mind and alter it to Bliss - Peter Carey
Reviews: none yet.
Currently reading: Les Misérables - Victor Hugo; Dandelion Wine - Ray Bradbury and Travel Through Cambridge - David Berkley.

November TIOLI choices:

1) Book in alphabetical order:
Vilnius Poker - Ricardas Gavelis

Because I really need to get round to reading this at some point. It was an ARC from last year and it's hanging on my conscience (wow, just had a major "word block" for that word - could not for the life of me remember how to spell it!)

2) Book translated from the French:
Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

This is why I've only picked 4/5 books this month. I've been meaning to read it for ages, but to say that it's a tome is to make an understatement. It's massive. I'll be very surprised if I finish it this month, but it's worth a shot (and at least it will kick start me!).

6) Book with 4 letters or fewer in title:
Room - Emma Donoghue

A good excuse to finally read this!)

17) Time travelling:
The Homeward Bounders - Diana Wynne Jones

I've been wanting to re-read this recently anyway, so I thought I may as well add it to the list - it'll be light relief from Les Mis...!

Doomsday Book - Connie Willis

I've had this on my Bookmooch wishlist for a very long time (it keeps on popping up on the lists of people who won't send the the UK - grrr), but finally someone has sent it to me - woo! So, depending on how I'm getting on with Les Mis, I may add it to the list...

Oh, I hope you enjoy Doomsday Book after all that waiting for it, Fliss! I loved it.

Looking forward to it Stasia!

I forgot to add that when I was at the library on Saturday, I noticed a sign for Cambridgeshire Book of the Decade. Now usually, I'm very bad at reading things listed for prizes, but I thought that, being local, it would be an interesting one to vote on (closing date Mon 13th Dec anyone else who's interested/local). Typically, I've only read one of the books on the list (Ghostwalk) and most of them seem to be crime fiction (not my favourite genre), but I've bought a couple of them and we'll see how I do. The shortlist is:

1) The Cambridge Curry Club - Saumya Balsari - hmmmmm
2) Ghostwalk - Rebecca Stott
3) Case Histories - Kate Atkinson
4) The Water Clock - Jim Kelly
5) The Wild Places - Robert MacFarlane
6) Stuart a life backwards - Alexander Masters

I've had my eye on book 6) for a while (there was a dramatisation of it), but I'll probably leave it until last as, having seen the dramatisation, I'd rather read the others first.

Books 4) & 5) I'd never heard of - anyone got any opinions on them?

The only one I have read from the bunch thus far is Ghostwalk and I would not nominate it for anything. I barely finished it. Sorry I cannot help, Fliss.

I wasn't a big fan either Stasia, although I think that you and I are against the tide with this one. I did make it through to the end (and it did improve on me a bit) but, I thought it was incredibly slow moving - and one part of the plot that infuriated me beyond belief - I won't expand on that, because it's a spoiler and also a fairly controversial issue I don't want to get into here. Possibly the only reason it improved on me was that I was very interested in the historical aspects relating to Cambridge...

ETA, I'm not sure it's the most amazing selection of books to be honest, but...

I loved Les Misérables, but it certainly is enormous. I liked Doomsday Book a lot, too. Hope you enjoy them!

Nope, I'm with both you and Stasia on Ghostwalk. Not an utter waste of time, but nearly. Very tedious plod...

Kate Atkinson is an author I've yet to explore, however.

Hi Fliss! From the Cambridgeshire list the only book I've heard of, and own, is Stuart: A Life Backwards, which won or was shortlisted for a major award several years ago, if I remember correctly. I haven't read it yet, though.

I'm glad that you also enjoyed Room.

ETA: It was shortlisted for four awards (National Book Critics Circle Award (Autobiography/Memoir), Samuel Johnson Prize (Nonfiction), James Tait Black Memorial Prize (Biography) and the Whitbread Prize (Biography)), and it won two awards (Guardian First Book Award, Hawthornden Prize).

Hi Fliss - good luck with the Les Mis read, I'm planning on having another go at it early next year.

#95: I think you and I read Ghostwalk around the same time, Suz, for one of the TIOLI challenges, if I recall correctly.

I own Case Histories, I just have not read it yet. I think Catey purloined it from me.

The Water Clock is a crime novel, the first in a series of 5. I think the series gets better than this one.

I like Kate Atkinson, both her Jackson Brodie books and her others.

How disturbing about William Mayne..... sad too. Just sad.

I think Kate Atkinson is really good. I like the one set in Edinburgh with the eccentric private detective the best..... he might actually show up in two of them. I don't remember, off-hand of course, which one Case Histories is. Have to go look. A couple of them deal with some tough stuff.

I'm back after poking around -- yes this is one of the ones with Jackson Brodie. Some love her, some hate her.

Hi fliss. Good luck with the internet situation. I hope you do get a chance to read Doomsday Book this month. Or at least very soon. It's wonderful. I've read it multiple times. I cry like a baby every time I read the last 40 pages. And I don't usually cry when reading. Unless bad things happen to dogs. That always makes me cry.

#91, 99, 100 I echo the recommendations for Kate Atkinson. Case Histories, as I recall is the first of her books featuring Jackson Brodie, before the ones set in Edinburgh. Presumably this one is set in Cambridgeshire, though I don't recall the detail of the setting so much. Haven't heard of any of the other nominated books I'm afraid.

Hello fliss - good to see you again :-)

I haven't heard of any of the books in the Cambridge list except Case Histories which I have in my TBR piles and I'm glad to see recommended by so many people.

Here's a link to a review of The Water Clock I wrote a few years ago.

http://www.ciao.co.uk/The_Water_Clock_Jim_Kelly__Review_5374586

Hi all. Still alive, but having issues with getting the internet fixed and just a bit too busy at work to spend any time on LT (except, obviously, at the mo!)

Re Les Miserables, big indeed - it took 50 pages and 10 chapters just to describe the priest (Bishop Myriel) who turns Jean ValJean's life around! Well, I am enjoying it so far (about 1/5 of the way through), but it hasn't whisked me away with it yet. I think there's just a bit to much ambling involved. On the other hand, this is possibly one of the good things about it - the chapters I've enjoyed the most so far have been completely off the main plot line - in particular, Victor Hugo's description of returning to the site of the Battle of Waterloo. Very atmospheric. Also a scene between Bishop Myriel and the old Conventionist - a man who didn't vote for the execution of the King, but did vote for his exile.

The thing that I'm finding particularly riveting is that Les Mis, of course, begins around the period Jane Austen wrote (Captain Wentworth makes most of his money at Trafalgar) and also, of course, the Sharpe books ;o) - Bernard Cornwall may not be comparable, but he did do his research, so it's very interesting to now have the French side of things! It also puts the French Revolution into perspective time-wise for me. Absolutely fascinating.

Re Doomsday Book, I'm very much looking forward to it, but given the length of Les Mis, I'm not sure quite when I'll get to it! I'm coming towards the end of Dandelion Wine now though, which is my lunch-time reading, so maybe I'll bring it to work when I've finished that. To begin with, I have to confess, I really didn't see what everyone saw in Dandelion Wine, but it's definitely picking up for me now.

#95 Suzanne, the Kate Atkinson was one of the books I bought off the back of this as my mum is a fan and she does seem to be very popular. The only one I've touched so far though (due, again, to Les Mis) is The Cambridge Curry Club - the blurb of which, I have to say, put me off, when I looked at it closer as it's been compared to the Alexander McCall Smith books, which I have tried and just didn't get on with at all (although, amusingly, he was/is - not sure - writing a serial in the Telegraph - not a paper I usually read - in which my dad is mentioned - completely randomly and only in a character description, but still! Those on facebook, I put it in a note on my profile). Another argument against reading the blurb on the backs of books.

I've only read the first few pages (when I wasn't in a Les Mis mood), but it seemed to be mostly a list of places to identify - which I can, but that's not the point. You can't judge anything by just the first few pages though, so hopefully it'll develop. She's right that Mill Road is the heart of Cambridge though, rather than the colleges...

#96 Darryl, yes, Stuart a life backwards is one I've had my eye on for a while now, due, amongst other things, to at least one of those awards.

Re Room, I'm going to agree with absolutely everyone in that, for such a dark subject matter, it's a peculiarly uplifting book - mostly due to the viewpoint...

#97 Thanks Kerry. Going well so far! I'm definitely getting more out of it from having read other books set/written around the same period...

#98 I hope Case Histories works better for you than Ghostwalk Stasia!

#99 Good to know. It's good for me to challenge my boundaries a bit too - I usually avoid crime novels like the plague.

#100 Also good to know - Edinburgh is one of my favourite places in the UK - I'll have to find it to read when I'm up there next year...

#101 No joy with the internet so far. Once I think I've solved one thing, something else crops up and I've had a series of extremely annoying call centre phone calls - almost to the point at which I'm ready to say to myself that I don't need the internet at home anyway *takes a deep breath to calm down*. I'm sure I'll sort it out in the end though....

Doomsday Book will definitely be on next month's reading list if I don't get round to reading it this month...

#102 Wooo for recommendations!

#103 Hallo Heather!

#104 Thanks for that link Luci - I shall peruse...

No book update this post and, clearly, I haven't got round to updating my comments on the books I've read, but I have a completely free weekend coming up, so maybe something will happen ;o)

Hope everyone is well and I haven't forgotten any of you - I'm probably going to have to forget trying to catch up with everyone's threads, but I shall peak in to the top of them soon!

Which ISP do you have? Are you committed like me (much harder to change from cable as I don't have a BT line any more) or can you threaten to take your business elsewhere?

Committed to a mix of BT & Orange unfortunately. On the other hand, it's not just been the line that was the problem, the router also went caput the other day...

Argh, makes my DSL problems look simple in comparison. Condolences, but it's nice to see you back!

About the only McCall Smith books I like by now are his Isabel Dalhousie ones. A friend sent me the latest Scotland Street book, The Importance of Being Seven, but I haven't read it yet. Didn't like the Corduroy Mansions book, which I assume is the one that mentions your father in passing -- favorably? unfavorably??

Incidentally, I'm on FB; if want, PM me with yr full name and I'll seek you out & friend you. (I have made myself unfindable... )

I've been reading a book set in late 19th/early 20th century France, Gilded Youth, which is very good. One of the three people in the group bio is Jeanne Hugo, Victor's granddaughter, so there is a lot there about Victor, including his gargantuan funeral which shut down Paris. Apparently, when the coffin had arrived at the Pantheon, the tail end of the procession was still waiting to set off, miles away!! Alas, have read neither of his magnum opi (opuses? opera?) but enjoyed some of his poetry when I was younger.

Hey, Fliss, sorry to hear your internet connection problems are continuing. I hope to read Les Mis some day--it's one of those distant goals. I'm on FB as well.

Sympathies for the ongoing internet problems.

I read (or more accurately slogged my way through) Les Mis several years ago. I loved bits of it and drowned in other bits. I would like to reread it one day but I will probably invest in a decent edition with notes first.

The beginning of the book with the Bishop who turns Valjean's life around is one of my favourite parts.

#108 Suzanne, re the internet I'm sure it's largely my fault for not getting it sorted properly right from the get-go! The line should now be fine and I've got a new router, but it now appears that the wireless card isn't compatible with the shiny new router - argh!!

Re Alexander McCall Smith, I'm probably not being very fair to him as I only really gave the first one a go. I just don't feel a big incentive to give him another try as yet. The Corduroy Mansions book is indeed the one where my Dad gets a mention - although actually, I don't think he's in the actual book, just in one of the character descriptions online. But yes, it's quite sweet, given the fact that he doesn't know him - probably something to do with his job however, which is wine related...

I'm also only findable to "friends of friends" on fb, but I spotted that you're there on Darryl's friend list, so I've sent a request ;o)

Gilded Youth sounds like it could be a very good follow up to Les Mis - I'm going to wishlist it!

#109 I _will_ sort the internet thing this week, I _will_!!

I'm finding that Les Mis is one of those books that doesn't whisper at me to pick it up much, but when I do, it does completely absorb me, so worth the read.

Are you searchable / friends with Rachael, Darryl or Heather on fb?

#110 You see the many, many character descriptions of the Bishop just started to irritate me after a while (beyond the meeting with the Conventionist) - I was dying for the story to get going! I think Les Mis does suffer a bit from being just so very long with lots of meandering about the story (even if, as I said above, that does lead to some of the better bits). My edition does have a lot of notes - and useful ones rather the pointless kind that you always seem to find in Jane Austen novels etc - but this again makes me lose pace with the story... I don't think it's going to make my favourites list, even if I am enjoying it when I actually pick it up.

106) Dandelion Wine - Ray Bradbury
(Cambridge, Jan 2010)

A sepia tinted memory of a childhood summer, filled with anecdotes and character freezes. I enjoyed it, but it did take a few chapters to whisk me away into the spirit of the book, possibly (as I mentioned earlier) because my childhood bore absolutely no resemblance to this one and, above all, this is a nostalgic book. However, there is a great sense of time and place - very evoacative.

I've brought in Doomsday Book as my next lunch time read - going well so far!

Aha, Suzanne, you befriended me as I typed!

#111: I hope you enjoyed Dandelion Wine. I loved that one. The follow up book did not do much for me though.

I puzzled over the name for a few minutes, and realized that with Darryl as a mutual friend you could only be one person... d'uh. A bit slow on the uptake, I can be sometimes...

ETA: Do you know, now that I'm aware of your birthday -- I know EXACTLY where I was and what I was doing on that very day?? Eerie...

I'm intrigued, will have to see if I can find any of you in Facebook later. Or you can find me from my bookbag reviews, links from Reviews on my profile - both entries for that name on FB are me, but one account is a mistake - I kept trying to log into FB under my most used email address. (Go for the one with a picture - my dad, Mike, Danny and a very newborn Conor).

Hi flissp, long time no see. I just read your summertime thread 'bout five minutes ago. Yep, that's how on the ball I am. Re- festivals and the like. Have you been to Colorado- specifically Telluride? They have some great ones there. Personally, I like the Blues and Brews and the Jazz festivals. I started going back in the days of the hippies and the Deadheads. It was a dropout, Mother Nature kind of place for a bit. It still has some of that but it's blended with the jet set now. Think Oprah. Not quite Aspen though.

The Blues and Brews usually has blues, some rock, soul, and even some gospel. You can stay in a hotel or camp in the surrounding areas. That's nice if the weather doesn't go pissy. At night some of the musicians from different bands will end up in various bars doing impromptu sessions with musicians they haven't played with before. Interesting things happen at some of these.

Here's a link to the 2011 site. I don't think the lineup if finalized at this time.
http://www.tellurideblues.com/

I did enjoy reading about your 2010 festival experiences.

Back again (said Nora, with a MONUMENTAL CRASH!)... Well, temporarily anyway. Still no internet at home - I'm hoping my brother in law will be able to sort it out for me at Christmas. Fingers crossed. Work has been ridiculously busy recently too (it's the pre-Christmas thing I suppose). This is a good thing, but a leetle bit stressful. Things are easing up a little bit now though, so I reappear!

#113 Re Dandelion Wine - I did in the end Stasia, although it took me a little while to see just why - maybe because my childhood was very different and it's a very rose-tinted-memory type of book. It definitely sucked me in in the end though...

#114 My birthday should obviously be memorable to everyone ;o) I'm curious now - I hope you were doing something enjoyable! Your Manhattan LT meet up photos look like you had fun - but you must get someone else to take the photo next time!

#115 Hi Luci - and found you!

#116 Hi VG - me too! You're officially more on the ball than I am at the moment - I haven't read anyone else's thread in over a month. Something I intend to rectify over Christmas and maybe a little bit next week...

I have been to Colorado, but only Denver and Boulder - and not for any length of time. You definitely whet my appetite though. The only US festival I've actually heard of is the Burning Man one, which looks like it requires a pretty high level of organisation, but maybe one day. Telluride sounds great - I'm definitely going to investigate further. My mate in Chicago (the one whose wedding I went to earlier in the year) is one of my festival buddies (they're getting thin on the ground these days), so I can definitely see a potential US festival trip at some point in our future!

Festivalling is one of my favourite things to do - it's a very sad thing to me that these days, it's incredibly hard to round anyone up to actually join me (mostly due to babies and hatred of camping), which is why I keep on going to these day events. Maybe when the babies are a bit older!

I had a big ticket booking session the other day though, so I've got lots of musical/theatrical plans for the next few months already lined up - looking forward to it. ...and I went to see Frank Turner (link to one of my favourite of his songs) twice last week. Overkill perhaps? It was semi-unintentional in my defence. This is a man I've been following live for ages (in my top 10 live acts) - since his 2nd Cambridge gig - and he tours relentlessley, so I've seen him many times. Mostly bands like that that I follow disappear into obscurity, but he seems to have suddenly become very popular over the last year and was playing Brixton Academy (which holds about 100x as many people as that first venue) on Sunday, so I booked tickets before realising he was also finally playing the largest venue at home too... Obviously I then had to buy a ticket for that... He had no voice for the Cambridge one on Monday, but strangely I actually enjoyed it more, despite the better accoustics at Brixton. Ah, I haven't been to nearly enough live music recently!

Plans for holiday reading will be posted shortly (and a very belated summary of November), but in the meantime:

107) Doomsday Book - Connie Willis
November TIOLI: Time Travelling
(Nov2010, Cambridge)

It arrived in time! ...and I enjoyed it immensely. Looking forward to reading more of her stuff in the future, if I can actually track any down.

Set in an Oxford of the (near) future where time travel is a common part of history research, one professor takes advantage of the absence of his head of department over Christmas to send a student back into an unstable period of history (prior to the Black Death). Not long after she is sent back, a dangerous epidemic emerges in the present day and Oxford is quarantined, including from the past. This sounds very doom and gloomy, but the characters are wonderfully light hearted. I enjoyed this very much.

108) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J. K. Rowling
(Jun2007, Cambrige)

A reread as I went to see the film of the first part with my parents (it's tradition, it's tradition!) and had to finish the story off.

109) My Ántonia - Willa Cather
(Nov2010, Cambridge Central Library)

I picked this in the library for one of the Stasia-based TIOLI challenges, but have only just got to it.

Jim Burden reminisces about his Nebraskan childhood and the Bohemian girl, Ántonia, whose family arrived in Nebraska the same day he did. It's a wonderfully evocative book, beautifully told.

I picked up O Pioneers! from the library when I went to return it, so that will be next...

I'm still chugging away with Les Miserables, although I seem to have got stuck at Waterloo (which, according to Hugo, Napoleon lost because he was becoming a bit too much of a rival for God!). I'm sure I'll emerge out the other end over Christmas, although wheher or not I'll finish it by the end of the year, I don't know. I have Catch-22 plans and many others and it's going to take a while to get through. I'm also currently reading Magic Street by Orson Scott Card, which was an LT recommendation which I'm very much enjoying.

There! Nearly up to date (just need to comment on the books before this point... Oh and catch up on everyone else's threads... Hmmm. Maybe not nearly...)

November update:

Pre-owned: 2 (1)
Borrowed: 1 (0)
ARCs: 0
New: 2 (0)
(re-reads in brackets)

...from US (3), UK (1) & Ireland (1).

Goal 1 (non-fiction): 0 (Total: 60%)
Goal 2 (group read): 0 (Total: 100%)
Goal 3 (to read list): 0 (Total: 50%)
Goal 4 (from Xmas): 0 (Total: 40%)
Goal 5 (TIOLI November): 2 (Total: 50%)

Best (new read) of the Month: Room - Emma Donoghue
Reviews: none yet.
Currently reading: Les Misérables - Victor Hugo; Magic Street - Orson Scott Card and Travel Through Cambridge - David Berkley.

...a very slow reading month... But I imagine it'll pick up in December!

Glad to see you checking in, Fliss! I hope you BIL gets the Internet at your home up and running so we can see you on a more regular basis!

Hi Fliss! I hope that your Internet crisis is resolved soon.

Hallo again, Fliss! Well, in 1977, I was in between grade 10 and grade 11 at my high school in Belgium. It had been a VERY boring summer. July 2 was a friend's birthday (we are still in touch, all these decades later, although she lives in Stockholm, has a daughter the age we were then...) and we decided to celebrate it a day early, which was also Canada Day. We hung out at her place and watched Virginia Wade win at Wimbledon before hitting the local bar for some Stella! So, inadvertently, I was toasting your arrival as well!

Hope your Internet woes are resolved...

Hi both - so do I! Will certainly be trying to catch up again now that work and play have calmed down a little bit anyway...

I've just been taking a look at the December TIOLI page, so here's my selected reads for December (bit of a late start...):

1) Book with an animal on its cover:
The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov - because it's been on my TBR pile all year and all last year... I was going to put Last Chance to See on as well, but much to my surprise, despite being a book about animals, there isn't an animal on the cover...

4) Old & Only (on shelf over a year, only book by that author):
A Kestrel for a Knave - Barry Hines - I must have had this on my shelf for about 10 years - it's my Dad's and I picked it up after seeing "Kes" (Ken Loach's film adaptation). Surprisingly, despite the fact that I've got loads of unread books, most of them are by authors I've already got other books by. I may add Dune to the list, depending on how I'm going (given that lots of this month's selections are fairly big and I'm still reading Les Mis.

5) Sentimental Favourites:
The Loon's Necklace - William Toye - there are so many of these, but most of them are fairly well known (can I include The Witch of Blackbird Pond do you think anyone?). This was given to me (and probably my sister, but I've appropriated it) by my Aunt and Uncle when we were small and it's a beautiful book:



6) ER or ARC:
Vilnius Poker - Ricardas Gavelis - yes, it's on here again! I may get round to it...

8) Thinster challenge (140 pages or fewer):
The Small Hand - Susan Hill - picked this up last month - Susan Hill is always good for a ghost story!

10) Book on the TBR list all year:
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte - maybe ;o)

14) Book by a Nobel Laureate:
The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck - another from my "to-read-this-year" list...

#121 Aha! Yes, my mum had lots of comments at the time about how I should be called Virginia (shudder and thank goodness my parents had more sense!) - of course it's Canada day - I'd forgotten! Thank you for the inadvertent toast ;o)

Actually, I was born by Caesarean section (as I was the wrong way up), so the reason I was born on the 1st (and not the 7th when I was due - 7/7/77, or the 30th which was possible) was that the doctor delivering me thought that it would be a nicer looking date!

ETA: how wonderful still to be in touch with that mate - I hope you've explored Stockholm fully as a result?! Actually, I think you may have mentioned her when I was there earlier in the year?

Actually, because the colours are nice, I feel like it and we've been having a lot of fire alarms at work recently (don't ask me why!), here's a picture of the penultimate one:

Have never made it to Stockholm, alas... The last time I visited her, she was still living in Goteborg; the last time we managed to be in the same place at the same time we were both in London.

Yes, that was a narrow escape, namewise!

"Yes, that was a narrow escape, namewise!" - the close shave still sends shivers down my spine ;o)

Well, I'm going to recommend Stockholm as somewhere you'll enjoy when you do get round to visiting, maybe on one of your next whistle-stop-tour type thingys!

I've realised that I forgot to add The Cambridge Curry Club as a book that I started to read, but one that didn't pass the 50 page rule. I really did want to like it, but it just didn't capture me and the story was all over the place - I frequently had to recap just to check whose point of view we had switched to. Clearly I didn't make my goal from Msg91 - trying to read all those Cambridge based books by the 13th, but I can safely say that the two I've read I wouldn't have voted for. I've also got Case Histories though, so I do plan to read that soon... I've heard better things about that one.

Hi Fliss. Some good reads completed and more good ones lined up there.

I'm having a chuckle at the birth date conversation: I was due on Cup Final day, and my mother always says she was very impressed with my restraint and wisdom in arriving a few days late so that she was able to have an undisturbed afternoon in front of the TV and watch the match.

Hope you get the internet access sorted soon.

The alternate name my parents were considering for me was Adeline..... (one of my grandmothers). On the whole I think I am OK with Lucy! I might like Adeline now, but I think I would have loathed it as a child and teen.

#127 Hi Caty - well I say that was very thoughtful of you! ;o)

#128 I actually have a school friend called Adeline - and she used to get very frustrated with people pronouncing her name wrong (I think she's given up at this point). Mind you, her first name was nothing to her middle name...

I have fond associations for Lucy, so I like it as a name very much.

I also have always liked my own name - it may be a bit of a mouthful, but it means happiness which is something I've always liked. Of course my most common nickname (you wouldn't believe some of the nicknames I've had over time) is always being misheard as Phyllis. Can you imagine?!

Good to see you back and posting again. I loved Kestrel for a Knave when I read it earlier this year, one of those books you never seem to pick up even though you know it's going to be a good read.

Some very old fashioned names seem to be making a comeback, especially for little boys, so Phyllis might be the next hot name for girls, you never know.

I was going to be a Jennifer. A less Jennifer-like person than me I cannot imagine.

#132 How about Jenny, Stasia?

#131 NOOOOOOO!

#130 Good to be back, albeit inching my way in - only to discover that there's ALREADY a 2011 group... Looking forward to Kestrel for a Knave. Now I just have to find it. I think it's at my Parent's...

Also, I'm going to have to alter my "Thinster" challenge as, much to my surprise, The Small Hand is actually longer than 140 pages...

110) Magic Street - Orson Scott Card
(Nov2010, Cambridge)

Found deserted by an overflow pipe in a part, Mack Street always knows that he is different from everyone else. Strange things happen in his dreams until he learns to control them, but things are about to get even stranger.

Focused around the life of changeling Mack and his unusual family, this is an enjoyable read, based on the squabbles of Oberon and Titania, King and Queen of the fairies. Not remotely sappy, in case you're worried, Orson Scott Card describes the community the Mack lives in well enough that it truly does come to life. A fun read anyway.

OK, here's my first thread for next year - absolutely nothing in it for the present, I'll put in a few goals at the weekend...

#117 Yay! Flissp is back :-)

Glad you enjoyed Doomsday Book. Willa Cather has only just sprung on to my author radar from another of her books Stasia recommended a few weeks ago. I've tried to mooch a copy of My Antonia but I'm still waiting to hear back from the owner of the book.

What were your thoughts on the film of HP7? I'm considering that and the latest Narnia film as Christmas holiday treats.

#134 Aah - 2011 thread! Do I post there to say I found you? Do I wait until 1 January 2011 to post and say I found you? Do I get horribly confused and end up posting on the wrong thread by mistake?

#135 Thank you for a lovely welcome Heather!

Me to with Willa Cather - Stasia is a very good influence ;o) I hope you manage to find a copy of My Antonia soon.

Hmmm. HP7. Well... I think that the next one is lining up to be the best of the lot. By which I mean that there are some very good bits in HP7, but it does drag in places - but then so does the book... I think it will be a good Christmas treat.

My mum wants me to go to the new Narnia film with her too, so we'll probably go to that over Christmas too. I've been less convinced by these. I think that the child actors are very good, probably better than a lot of the HP cast, but the films really are over long. I mean, the Narnia books are all very short - I just don't see the point in bolstering them out and trying to get in every little bit in (and actually, they still alter the story line). Surely, they would have been better focusing on the action? I also can't quite forgive them for forgetting the less well known Narnia stories, instead of the same old ones that they always do. If they were going to make The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe longer, then why didn't they have a Magician's Nephew prelude? It would have given the story more depth and could have been covered pretty quickly too!

Right, I'm going to get off my soap box about that now, because I can probably go on for ages...

Re the 2011 thread, Heather, I shall leave the decision up to you ;o) At the moment it's just a place hold, but I'm going to go over there and put in a few (mostly empty) goals in just a moment...

OK, I've been doing some comment updating (although there are still some pending). To avoid any trawling, I'll reproduce them here:

90) The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
(original msg)

Unfortunately, I don't think I can write about this. I just can't think of anything useful to say. I've always enjoyed reading David Mitchell and this was no exception. Unexpected in that the novel changed direction completely a couple of times and really didn't follow any course that I could have predicted. This is a good thing, although I'm not sure that all the paths completely convinced me. All in all, an enjoyable read, but I'm going to stick with Black Swan Green as easily my favourite of his books.

I must get round to Ghostwritten - I don't know why, but I never seemn to pick it up, despite being his only book I've not yet read.

91) Baba Yaga Laid an Egg
(original msg)

Divided into three sections, a story within a story, this is an unusual book and, again, wasn't at all what I expected. Baba Yaga appears in many guises - the author's mother; a group of friends including a frail old lady who wants to, but can't, die; a young, needy woman...

The first part concerns the author and her relationship with her mother. We then head off in a completely different direction following three older ladies who decide to go on holiday together, visiting an expensive spa. The final part, "written" by a friend of the author's mother (met earlier in the first part) delves into the myth of Baba Yaga, analysing the two previous parts. This is where the book gets a little odd and, to be quite frank, less enjoyable. The analysis and expansion on the many guises of Baba Yaga is both fascinating and, to be honest, a bit over lengthy. I wanted to enjoy this bit more - I was certainly interested - but it was just a little bit too analytical. I loved the idea of the author essentially analysing her own story for us, but it just became a little too dry and, well, detailed - to the point where I started to switch off a bit. The sign off, however, was nicely chilling.

102) Death at Intervals
(original msg)

What if death was a real being? What if she decides that she's had enough of the bad press and decides to stop for a while? Just in the country for which she is responsible. No one will die. Those hovering near death will continue to hover near death in half life. Hospitals and old people's homes will overfill. Undertakers will go out out of business. ...and then, when she returns to her role, she decides that it is maybe kinder to give those about to die a written warning of a week - in which to say their goodbyes and arrange their affairs. But is this really kinder?

An intersting idea, told in Saramago's gently humourous, but paragraph-and-punctuation-less usual style. I did enjoy this. Possibly more than Blindness actually, which never had me completely convinced (I did find it captivating and hard to put down, I did enjoy the style too, but I wasn't completely blown away as so many people appear to have been). Maybe I just have a bit more belief in humanity than Saramago seemed to and, in some ways (although not in others, admittedly), this does show less pessimism than Blindness. On the other hand, it is a less complete story - not that the ending feels wrong, it doesn't (and you can see it coming), just that the whole thing feels a little unfinished - as though there were thoughts that he hadn't completed.

103) Bliss
(original msg)

When Harry Joy awakes from a heart attack, he becomes convinced that he's died and gone to hell and his return to real life, and his own family, fail to convince him otherwise.

This is Peter Carey's first book. I don't know if this explains why the majority of his characters failed to completely convince me. Certainly, unlike in The True History of the Kelly Gang, which I enjoyed very much more, the characters are very unsympathetic (and, while I'm certain that there was a lot more to the Kelly Gang than the fact that they were outlaws, they were, nonetheless, definitely not virtuous - Carey humanises the legend very well). This was an interesting read and there are some wonderful moments (I have a quote I have to find and paste in here that I thought was just beautiful), but, for the greater part, it didn't really transport me away (which, when it comes down to it, is my main tell for a great book).

As I say, I very much enjoyed The True History of the Kelly Gang (enough that I then went out and bought a biography - which I have yet to read - I'm really not very good at non fiction outside work) and, off the back of this, I have several others of his books, so hopefully they'll work better for me.

105) Room
(original msg)

I think pretty much everyone in this group has read this book, so I won't try to descibe it as others have already done so much better than I can. What I will say is that, for such a dark subject, this is a very touching book that gripped me right from the beginning. Jack's point of view is utterly convincing - as is his difficulty in dealing with life outside Room and his muddled perception of the outside world.

106) Dandelion Wine
(original msg)

A sepia tinted memory of a childhood summer, filled with anecdotes and character freezes. I enjoyed it, but it did take a few chapters to whisk me away into the spirit of the book, possibly (as I mentioned earlier) because my childhood bore absolutely no resemblance to this one and, above all, this is a nostalgic book. However, there is a great sense of time and place - very evoacative.

ETA: Harry Joy's name!

Interesting comments, Fliss. I haven't yet read the books by David Mitchell that I bought in London, Cloud Atlas and number9dream, but if Black Swan Green was your favorite I'll have to get that as well. I thoroughly enjoyed Death at Intervals, too. You'd probably also like The Stone Raft, which is similar in humor and style to that book. I received Bliss from a Club Read member, but I'll probably put off reading it until 2012 or later, but I will look for The True History of the Kelly Gang. I'm glad that you liked Room, which made my top 10 list for 2010; I'm now of the opinion that it should have won the Booker Prize this year instead of The Finkler Question.

Congratulations on surpassing the 100 books mark!

Hmm, should I really rush to read Baba Yaga laid an Egg? I only got about 10 pages in before I realised I should concentrate on my 1010 challenge books.
I'll be reading Peter Carey's Oscar and Lucinda early next year as I'm expanding my 11 in 11 NZ category to a Down Under one so I can squeeze in a few Australian writers.

Baba Yaga Laid an Egg interests me. Thanks for the review, Fliss!

Hi fliss! Welcome back. Still no internet at home? Boo.
So glad you liked Doomsday Book and Dandelion Wine. The first time I attempted to read Dandelion Wine, at age 13, I only made it through the first few chapters, called it strange, and gave up. I'm very glad I gave it another try.

#138 Thanks Darryl. I definitely recommend David Mitchell in general and Black Swan Green in particular. Although many people rate Cloud Atlas as his best, it also seems to divide people quite a bit and I can see why as it's basically several stories (from different points in time, including the future - which, imho is the weakest one) told simultaneously. It's definitely worth persevering with if you don't get straight into it though.

I'm adding The Stone Raft to my list right away - I do enjoy his writing style.

Re Bliss, it's definitely worth the read, but yep, I'd recommend The True History of the Kelly Gang much more. I've got Oscar and Lucinda lined up for next year too, so I'll keep you posted on that.

I was trying to remember who actually won the Booker just yesterday, (I had some mates over for Christmas bruch and we were discussing potential Christmas presents), so thanks for the reminder! It's funny, but that's the one I've heard least about. I'll probably have to read it at some point just to see, but of the 3 longlist books I've read, Room is definitely my favourite (and is currently loaned to another of the Christmas brunch crowd!).

#139 Hmmmm. I did enjoy it (Baba Yaga laid an Egg), but I admit that this was mostly due to the middle part of the book, which I thought was wonderful. It's definitely an odd one.

As I mentioned to Darryl above, I've got Oscar and Lucinda on my list of books to read next year (actually, I should head over to my new thread and add that next), so we shall have to compare notes!

#140 Thanks Stasia

#141 Hi VB! Nope, still no internet sadly and we may end up going to London for Christmas at my sister's - heavily pregnant + husband who has only just passed his driving test, not being very encouraging for them to drive out our way given all the snow that fell at the weekend (and sub zero temperatures since that mean it won't melt), so I'll probably have to get someone in to take a look, instead of haranguing my brother in law... Gah.

I'm on the look out for To Say Nothing of the Dog now ;o)

OK. Books. No more updated reviews/comments yet (those'll probably have to wait for the holidays now), but some new reading:

111) The Silent Gondoliers - William Goldman
December TIOLI: Thinster challenge
(Feb 2010, Cambridge)

S Morgenstern's description of how the gondoliers of Venice came to be silent rather than singing to their wares ;o)

This made me happy. I'm definitely going to have to reread The Princess Bride at some point next year.

112) The Loon's Necklace - Elizabeth Cleaver
December TIOLI: Sentimental Favourites
(Jul 1977, Hammersmith)

Ha! This was mine and not a joint sisterly copy after all! ...and the Loon sent me special wishes through my Aunt & Uncle ;o)

This is a rather beautifully illustrated retelling of the Canadian Tsimshian legend of how the Loon got his beautiful plumage. An old man, who has lost his sight can no longer hunt for his family and an evil Hag takes advantage of this. So he asks the Loon for help and in return for his sight, gives him his necklace.

Made me feel all warm and fuzzy. Not sure it counts as a full book, but I'm sure Les Mis will be able to spare a few pages to be donated to even things out!

The sad thing is that I've never seen a real Loon. One day I will rectify this.

As I mentioned above, we had several inches of snow at the weekend (having missed out on the rest of the country's driftloads over the last couple of weeks). The place where I work is looking rather pretty at the moment:



...it may be a pain to work out of town sometimes (for example when trying to drive to work on poorly cleared roads), but it definitely has its positives...

Oooh and for anyone who was going to join me reading Seamus Heaney's Beowulf early next year, I've set up a group read here.

I just read about French Passions at the the Institut français and wondered if you have heard about it. http://beattiesbookblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/will-self.html

Burning Man! That's a wild one. I've never worked up the courage to go. Now I'm probably too old. That nudity might give me fits and conniptions. More mountain music festivals in the US. Heck, you might not even like mountains. Anyway, there's the Taos Solar Music Festival and a rather new one, the Taos Mountain Music Festival. I have to admit I'm unfamiliar with Frank Turner. It seems he's had an interesting career. Have fun with your 2011 festivalling.

Very nice snowscape there!!

No snow here; just chilly enough to snow, if it weren't sunny. Well, you follow my reasoning, I hope!

Re loons -- you really need to hear them, rather than see them. Loons in person (???) are underwhelming; it's the sound of the loon echoing across a quiet lake that is really eerie and compelling. Hmm, maybe we should all rent a 75er cottage around Lake Muskoka next summer?

#142: Thanks, Fliss. I didn't realize that Mitchell has "only" written five novels. Apparently several of the themes in Ghostwritten, his first novel, appear in number9dream and Cloud Atlas, his second and third novels. My local Borders has Ghostwritten, so I think I'll read that first before moving onto his other novels.

#146 Yep, there are reoccurring minor characters throughout all his books (not the same ones) - although I had a long enough gap between reading Jacob de Zoet... and the others (bar Ghostwritten, which, as I mentioned, I've yet to read), that I didn't pick up on any in it (although I have my suspicions as to who they'd be. I think I need to reread Cloud Atlas to double check...

#145 Ah yes, the old blind man was responsible for the loons new happy sounding song - as before it had the necklace, it sounded sad.

75er cottage around Lake Muskoka sounds like an excellent idea to me! ;o)

#144 To be honest, I doubt I'll ever make it to Burning Man either... Mountains I love however, so I shall investigate both your suggestions!

Re Frank Turner, to be honest, I'd be surprised if you had heard of him. His music and lyrics are very, well, English and he was pretty obscure here too until about this time last year. It just happens that Steve Lamacq (a radio DJ who I grew up listening to, who is now on the BBC's alternative music station, 6music - see the link) has been a bit of a champion and played him on his show fairly early on. As I may have mentioned, Frank Turner tours a lot and going to gigs is one of my favourite things to do, so I got a chance to see him very early on. His music is mostly fairly simple, but he can be a great lyricist (the link I put in msg117 is one of my favourites).

I trust you'll be festivalling also in 2011?

#143 Thank you Kerry, no I hadn't - I'll take a look right now...

Hi Fliss! Far behind on your thread I can see! Love the photos:)

#136: I saw HP7 last Friday and have to admit I liked it. I agree it dragged on a bit in some places, but so did the book and I think that if the film did not drag on, you would lose some of the sore and isolated feeling you get from the book. A friend of mine (who has not read the books or even seen all of the films) said she enjoyed the film and it was quite entertaining. She was never bored, because there was something happening all of the time. But at the end she still felt that a lot had happened, but still nothing had happened because they were sort of back at the beginning (difficult to explain in English).

I wish they could make movies out of the other Narnia books, too! Hopefully, they will produce the Silver Chair next, though I have heard rumours otherwise. it would be nice if this series was "complete" too! I remember watching the old BBC production on TV when I was younger! they used to air it around Christmas and Easter. Haha, loved it!

Fliss: Are you particularly going to be on the West coast. There are tons of music festivals in the East as well. Chicago has smaller music festivals all summer. I missed the beginning of your conversation, so I was not sure what your parameters are.

Fliss, have you ever been to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival? It's a two week (or so) celebration of the music of Louisiana, which is far different from the music you'd hear anywhere else in the US. I went every year when I was a student at Tulane in the late 1970s to early 1980s, and it was always a blast, with multiple music tests, plenty of beer, and tons of killer Cajun and Creole food. I think that everyone who likes music festivals should make it there at least once.

#142 - yes, it's probably safer for your sister to stay in London. Good luck with the computer. Enjoy To Say Nothing of the Dog. It's the only not sad book of all the time traveling historian books.

Music Festivals? Have you ever been to the Bethlehem Music Festival ( in Linda/Whisper1's town, Bethlehem, PA) International music, great food, cute town - over something like 8 days. 14 days? I haven't been in a while. The Falcon Ridge Folk Festival is small but always good. There is some throwback to 60's nakedness going on there (My friend Darren's favorite part of the festival)
My friends daughter goes to Burning Man every year. She loves it. She described it to me as more of an ecological art festival. She said it was very intense.

#148 Hallo Bente! Not as far behind as I am on most people's threads...

I did enjoy HP7, but I'm expecting HP8 to be much better - just because there's a lot more action in it ;o) (and I completely followed what you meant!)

Maybe one day we'll have a Horse and His Boy or Silver Chair film, you never know!

#149 Nope! Actually, I have no current US plans at all, although I suspect that there will be a conference over there at some point next year. My main reason for being in the West coast this year was my mate's wedding - he and his wife live in Chicago. The US is somewhere I seem to keep ending up, irrespective of any plans and I love festival-ing, so it's always good to know of any in advance.

The mate in Chicago is one of my festival buddies (a thinning crowd), so I'm hoping that I may be able to encourage him and his wife into meeting up somewhere else for this kind of thing (I like Chicago a lot, but I've been there several times now and want to explore new places!).

Actually, the next US city I have my eye on is New Orleans. A colleague has just moved back there and succeeded in whetting my appetite in a major way before he left. It's a place I've always wanted to visit anyway and he also knows the Chicago mate as they used to work together in Seattle. Science is very good for travel!

....so #150 very timely Darryl! I have heard of that, although I've never fully investigated. Hmmmmm plans for next year's holidays (rubs hands together in glee!)

#151 The snow seems to have melted a lot over the last couple of days, so my sister and brother in law plan on coming out to Cambridgeshire after all (I think she'd much rather have Christmas if she has the choice). We usually do a fair bit of travelling about at Christmas, so she's used to it ;o)

Nope, never even heard of the Bethlehem Music Festival. I'm afraid my festival going to date has mostly been limited to the UK (with a few exceptions - I have a knack for just randomly happening on festivals of all descriptions when I'm on holiday) - but then we are spoiled for choice and it can get very expensive after a while. I'll put it on the list for future reference though!

...actually, maybe I should really make a proper list...!

113) The Spook's Nightmare - Joseph Delaney
(May 2010, Cambridge)

Next installment in a rather good children's series. I'm amazed it's taken me this long to get round to this (as you can see, I've had it since May), usually I fall on new installments of series I'm reading the minute they're published.

I'm a big fan of the slightly sinister in children's books ;o)

In case anyone is wondering, the Spook is the 7th son of a 7th son and thus has a reduced susceptibility to dark magic - it is his role to fight The Dark in The County (a post apocalypse West Country (UK) from what I can tell). The stories are told from the point of view of Tom Ward, his apprentice - also the 7th son of a 7th son, although not your typical defender of the light.

Great fun and a quick read.

I like the Joseph Delaney series myself :)

Happy Holidays, Fliss!

Merry Christmas Fliss!

Merry Christmas, Fliss!

Happy Christmas, Fliss!

flissp, we're communicating at message in a bottle speed. I kinda like that about the internet and discussion board formats. I'm horrible with IMing and email. In # 147, you asked, "I trust you'll be festivalling also in 2011?"

Right now I don't have anything set in stone. I'm sure I'll find something to attend. I usually do. Maybe I'll go catch Phish somewhere. I've had people tell that's something I'm supposed to do before I die.

*puts this post in a bottle and tosses it into the sea*

Hi fliss. Was your BIL able to fix your internet?

Happy New Year!

Oh dear, this is hopeless. I am soooo out of date...

#158 Nope, VB, my brother in law didn't really have a chance to take a look unfortunately. I've emailed a computer bloke my mum recommended (didn't want to phone over Christmas), but I still haven't heard back yet (grrrr). I'll give him a ring in just a moment probably actually... MUST get this fixed, it's driving me up the wall. I'll be back in touch a bit better when I go back to work on Thursday (took an extra couple of days off).

#157 VG, I kind of like the message in a bottle speed - it's much easier to keep up with at the moment! ;o)

I've not got any set in stone plans for festivalling this year either yet - bar the Edinburgh Fringe of course. Phish hmmm? I've not heard of them (will trundle off to invesitgate shortly...)

*puts response into bottle and returns it to the sea...*

...and, VERY belatedly, HAPPY CHRISTMAS/HOLIDAYS AND NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!! I'm going to head over to the new year's thread now, but I'll be back over here in a couple of days to sum up my year's reading properly - everything in it's right place... (name that tune)

A December 2010 summary (not a lot to update, to be honest):

Pre-owned: 4 (0)
Borrowed: 1 (0)
ARCs: 0 (0)
New: 0 (0)
(re-reads in brackets)

...from US (2), UK (2) & Canada (1). Didn't manage to finish any of the books from my list of goals and only 2 of 7 TIOLI books. Sigh. An unproductive month reading-wise! (But not at all work-wise, so it all swings in roundabouts...)

Best (new read) of the Month: My Ántonia - Willa Cather (but only just really)
Reviews: none
Currently reading: The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov; Les Misérables - Victor Hugo; Last Chance to See - Douglas Adams and Travel Through Cambridge - David Berkley.

SUMMARY OF 2010

Goal 1 (non-fiction): 6 (Total: 60%)
Goal 2 (group read): 10 (Total: 100%)
Goal 3 (to read list): 6 (Total: 50%)
Goal 4 (from Xmas): 2 (Total: 40%)
Goal 5 (TIOLI July): 3 (Total: 60%)
Goal 5 (TIOLI August): 7 (Total: 70%)
Goal 5 (TIOLI September): 5 (Total: 71%)
Goal 5 (TIOLI October): 6 (Total: 60%)
Goal 5 (TIOLI November): 2 (Total: 50%)
Goal 5 (TIOLI December): 2 (Total: 29%)

113 "books" read (some are grouped together as one book, but it all evens out), of which:

pre 1900 : 4%
1900 - 49: 7%
1950 - 99: 42%
2000 - 10: 47%

UK plus Ireland: 42%
US incl Canada: 42%
France: 4%
Rest of world: 12% (Mexico, Croatia, Denmark, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Australia, Argentina, Chile & Nigeria)

"Children's": 29%
Graphic novels: 4%
Re-reads: 14%
ARCs: 4%
Posted reviews: 8%

Comments pending:
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Aeneid
Lavinia

I will come back to comment on these, mostly for my own benefit (as I don't suppose anyone will read the comments at this point!) - I don't like to leave things undone!

Five favourite new reads of 2011: (in no particular order)
Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
Maus - Art Spiegelman
Room - Emma Donoghue
The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson
The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter

I need to write some comments for Hedgehog myself, will be interested to see yours.

I know what you mean about not leaving things undone - I was adding book reports and updates to my 2010 thread for ages after the New Year had begun.

Your 'rest of world' statistics are slightly better than mine - I really hope to branch out more beyond UK & North America in 2011.

Good luck in finishing off this thread, and happy reading in 2011!