"The Element" by Ken Robinson. (This man was introduced to me by anacrusis)

One a day?!
You getting any singing in, stetenorve?

A little!
May have to slack off with the reading soon - 2 more choral Evensongs with the Bishop present, tenor solos in Crucifixion, and a guest slot as tenor soloist for Rotherham Choral Society's Messiah coming up.

The Story of Charlotte's Web: E.B.White and the birth of a children's classic by Michael Sims

'To Kill a Mockingbird' by Harper Lee

Another one that's on my 'to read' list

Almost finished The Shining, a very, very good book

The White Lioness by Henning Mankell -one of the Inspector Wallender books. Possibly more intense than other Wallender stories as the Swedish police are drawn into the political scene in 1990s South Africa.

Takes my mind off the forthcoming piano exam!

Yes - it's quite harrowing at times. But very worth the read.





Have you read it / begun it yet? Would you recommend it?

It's not politically correct to say so, but I didn't enjoy To Kill A Mockingbird nearly as much as I was supposed/expected to I think because we were required to read it when I was 13 or so, and at that age I was just determined to disagree with what people expected of me I should probably reread it...

Finished A Thousand Splendid Suns. I really, really enjoyed it - one of those books I carry around with me just in case I've got a few moments to read a bit more - but I didn't cry; in fact I felt he told the story in a very non-emotional way. I've passed it on to my daughter to read - see what she thinks of it.

Am now reading a bit of light fiction before I go back to my pile of books waiting to be read.

Haven't been on this thread before. Some useful ideas. Unfortunately only have brain capacity for light reads at the moment, so I'm on Under the eagle by Simon Scarrow

I can understand that - that was how I felt about Shakespeare, although now I am middle aged I finally 'get' Shakespeare. I was given To Kill a Mockingbird as a birthday present 18 months ago, read about 90 pages and put it down because I wasn't that gripped by the mystery around Boo Radley (it all makes sense later in the book). I only picked it up again this week because I was stuck in bed with a heavy cold. Once I got back into it I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Sharpe's Company.

My goodness, how many more of them can there be???

8 more after this one!

I am still Middle Marching. I am now up to 30% of the way through and it is beginning to liven up a bit. I have taken the advice of other posters who encouraged me to continue and I am determined to get to the end.

Good for you, I've got some Dickens on my Kindle that I WILL read! Attempted them in paperback a few years ago but the tiny print and doorstop thickness of the book put me off so I didn't get very far.....

Not much of The Shining left to read, will probably finish it tonight

Yes, it's worth continuing. I think the first third is the worst bit to get through, partly because of all the characters. In the end, I wrote them down on an index card and kept it in the front of the book, to be added to as I came across yet more characters. It's much quicker to look up who's who than flipping back through the book. (That might sound a bit OCD, but I was reading it for an OU course; if it had been for any other reason, I don't think I would have finished it.)

Me, I'm a big Middlemarch fan. I didn't really expect to be but I got hooked and I re-read it from time.

I also have a copy of the Masterpiece Theatre TV adaptation of it, which I thought was rather good.

Middlemarch I like. Mill on the Floss is my worst ever book closely followed by large sections of far From the Madding Crowd (both these were school books, reread both since but opinion not changed).

I am rererereading all the Anthony Trollopes and my vast array of P.G. Wodehouse.

I haven't read Middlemarch (yet) - from the sound of what everyone says about it, it sounds like one of those books with so many characters that it could easily be extended to become a soap opera, is that about the size of it?

I thought the same thing the first time I read South Riding, which was when I was still at school, and I'm now reading it for the third time. There's only been a handful of books I've ever done that with - another is Ray Bradbury's Smething Wicked This Way Comes which I'm also reading for its thrd time round. But there are usually a couple of decades in between readings.

Do any of you read books a second or third time?

I also like audiobooks (particularly now that I've found you can get them on the Kindle), and I'm listening to one I had recently read as a paperback and I'm disappointed. Not in the reading, which is superb. But it's The Algebraist by Iain M Banks, a very dense thick paperback, and I am sure the notes from Audible didn't say it was abridged (I don't want to buy abridged versions) and I know there are several scenes, almost whole threads, which have been omitted, and it's an iritation, becasue I know the end sections of the book won't really make sense without them.

I do; loads. I'm far more likely to turn to something I've already read, and I have to make a deliberate effort to try something new. In fact the only two new books I can think of that I've read recently were Mr Rosenblums List and Wolf Hall (and I'll be reading the sequel to that as soon as it's out). It must be more than this but these are the only 2 I can think of off the top of my head. I must read more new books!

As far as re-reading goes, the ones that leap out from my shelves are - all of Jane Austen, a lot of Dickens, Vanity Fair, Cold Comfort Farm, the Mapp and Lucia books, certain Hilary Mantel and Muriel Spark and Georgette Heyer if I'm in the mood (if I get started on one of hers I usually have to read all the ones I have, which is quite a lot).

There are authors I've re-read several times in the past but, looking at the shelves again, realise I haven't looked at for years, eg Mary Wesley and Barbara Trapido.

And, thanks to Stetenorve, this week I've been re-reading Sharpe

But, following this thread I think it's time to break out Middlemarch again

Yes, and sometimes even more. I think I have read Joanna Trollope's "The Choir" six or seven times - not for any great literary value but because I like the story and the characters. I have read several of her books several times. But she is far from the only author I re-read. Some books are like friends - you just want to keep seeing them again.

Ooh, I love these! We've worn out our original copies and I grab any I see in the charity shops to replace them. Also have the DVDs of the television series they did ages ago. Love them.

Have tried Wolf Hall and didn't get anywhere with it. Do you recommend I give it another go?

I know some people didn't like the way that it wasn't always clear who was speaking - the use of 'he' was often ambiguous - or the way it jumped about in time a bit without making it clear that was happening, but I loved the way the characters were written, particularly Cromwell, and for me that outweighed any slight confusion, till I found it just didn't matter any more. (So yes, I would recommend having another go )

I remember the Mapp and Lucia series - it was Geraldine McKewan (sp?) and Prunella Scales, wasn't it? I think I might look for the DVDs too

Try 10th time! I think it's actually becoming a negative thing though, because these days I only read when I really want to relax and often I'm too lazy to find something new when I can reread something I already love... but that being said, over the course of this week off from school, I am determined to read Great Expectations and hopefully get some way through The Mill on the Floss

Me too. I don't actually care if it's a negative thing, I want to read stuff I like and I don't care how many times I read it

edit- more boringly, An Introduction To Error Analysis by John Taylor

Finished The Shining, now what?????

I don't care how many times I read stuff I like, but sometimes I think it might be preventing me from finding more stuff that I would like And I remember that error analysis book... now there's something I would rather not reread

*gloom* I could probably do with reading a book on error analysis. I went to have a chat with my friendly local statistician this week, and was sure that they only reason she wasn't laughing at me is because she is friendly and nice...

Does anyone have any suggestions for entertaining, lively stuff that doesn't cost too much in ebook form. Doesn't need to be especially recent. My Christmas-present-to-myself Kindle is getting a lot of use, what with me travelling so much for work, but I'm finding it a bit too easy to spend more money than I should via one-click!!

Not that this'll make you feel any better, but I really ought to have known that error analysis stuff by now, except that I did computers in university and so i learnt programming but not how to deal with errors.

Typing in "free kindle ebooks" into Google seems to throw up some links? No idea if they're any good..

Amazon have thousands of free books for Kindle on their website, lots of them are classics but there are a lot of more recently published books for free too. Try their top 100 lists for a start

manybooks.net have loads of free ebooks too. You can search by author or genre if you want to narrow it down a bit.

that's useful to know, thanks thouston

Have just borrowed The Wind in the Willows from the library

Look on ebay. There are quite a few people selling big bundles for a very small amount. And I mean thousands of titles for just a small number of pounds.

I don't know if this is entirely legit, but they are always there, so there must be some loophole. I got some, and the ad said there were no copyright infringements (it lied) and maybe that's enough for eBay to allow it to stay.

Sharpe's Sword.

Sharpe's Enemy.

Do you look at their Deal of the Day? I have bought loads that way - usually only have to wait a few days before one comes round that I really like.

I recently read "Flowers for Algernon". Unusual but did like it, even if it is a bit sad.

I listened to A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving as an audiobook last year, and my mother-in-law has just about finished reading it on my recommendation. I thought it was just jawdropping. You have to reasd it through the to the very last page.

The Hunger Games

Finished Sharpe's Honour - on with Sharpe's Regiment!

Good book on with the second of the trilogy now

Am I the only one who didn't like that book? I suppose the storyline is entertaining enough, but the characterization is so bland... there's much better children's literature out there IMO.

The Folding Star by Alan Hollinghurst. I've been reading my way through his novels since I discovered him last summer (when I read The Stranger's Child. He writes so beautifully.

The Castrato and his Wife by Helen Berry. This book focusses on the life of Italian castrato Tenducci during the 1760's. It also describes the lives of castrati and society's reaction to them. Fascinating reading.

Probably not, and yes, there is better children's literature around but I enjoyed it

Sharpe's Siege (but not enjoying it so far ).

I haven't read this one. Is it this particular plot that you don't care for?

"Guns of August" by Barbara Tuchman. Thought I knew loads about WWI but was so wrong. It's about the lead up to and the first month of the war. French soldiers in red pantalons; tommies ready to fight whoever was put in front of them (French or German); the insecurities of Kaiser; the reason Turkey joined the Axis; Joffre begging the BEF to fight for their country's honour if not for France and John French finally agreeing after successive retreats; the 1870-1 war in everyone's mind, etc etc etc. Truly amazing and highly recommended