Just finished "the Kite runner"

Have any of the rest of you heard of Libraries, thats where the bulk of my current reading comes from!

HUZZAH FOR BIGGLES!

Dantes Inferno ....... it's hot stuff

No, seriously, I finished reading a book called "The savage garden" can't remember who it's by but it's a new novel and there were so many quotes from Dantes Inferno that i had to read it for myself

just reading "Ship of Magic" by Robin Hobb, recommended by a best friend.
I wasn't sure if it was my type of book, but I am enjoying it

trouble is, it has a lot of pages, so I may have to renew it from the library!
and my mind is not on reading or much else

Just borrowed this from a friend, who recommended it very highly. Currently reading short stories by Guy de Maupassant, featuring a host of ladies of dubious reputation, rather good!

Must ask my friend if I can borrow that, she bought it in Poland and I really want to read it now, having visited some of the places mentioned. Ann Frank's Diary as well.
Last week I was reading Blitzcat by Robert Westall because my little cousin was reading it. Although it's aimed at younger readers I still found it interesting and enjoyed it
Also recently read Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death which was a really nice, quite light book

Ahhh; the Agatha Raisin & the Quiche...that was mentioned in English when we were doing detective stories. I couldn't really believe it...
I've just finished a book by Jodie Piccoult called Vanishing Act, which i thoroughly enjoyed. Am now reading Jane Austen's 'Emma' which, to my surprise, i am liking indeed!

Am starting Bridget Jones - The Edge of Reason. Happened to find it at a local bookfair in a local primary school. Got it for a dollar!

I'm on a hunt for "Wild Swans" by Jung Chang (I think)...

Going to the library today

I have read
The Kite Runner - fantastic a real tear jerker for me
The Island - another tear jerker
My Best friend's girl - good but not as good as the above two
Wild Rosemary thyme - awful don't read it!
A place called here - wierd but quite good actually

And now I've jsut started the devil wears prada! See the film already but the book seemed better than that even though I've only read the first chapter!

Yeah, I love Austen.


I've read that; it's very good.



I'm reading 'The Dark Tide' by Vera Brittain.

On another note, I realised the other day that I've spent over £30 in second-hand bookshops this month. Eep. I tend to go in and spend the same I would in a regular bookshop just because everything's individually cheaper.

Just done Dune. My dad said he didn't like it, but I thought it was great!

Good book... must re-read!


I haven't read the book, but saw the film and thought it was OK, but not anything to get excited about...

At the moment: 'Can you Keep a Secret?' by Sophie Kinsella

I'm still hacking away at the Bryson

I've got 'The god delusion' lined up after this one

Bryson is good!

Enid Blyton....

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera. Spiffy

QUAOAR

By Alan Halsey, Ralph Hawkins and Kelvin Corcoran.


Brilliant.

I've just read 'Backpacking' by Emily Barr

I read it while travelling the world to Australia and staying in five-star hotels so I was struggling to relate to the penniless 'backpack' culture a bit..... LOL!!!

Bryson IS fab. Having said that means I don't have an excuse for not having finished that book yet and finding it under my bedside cabinet! OOps I can't even remember what the one i'm reading is called.

The Wild Swans book I've been looking for doesn't seem to be read by me. The main city library had it in stock, but it wasn't where it said it was and another local library didn't have it in.

Lovers Make Moan by Gladys Mitchell.

It's a murder mystery set against an amateur production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. Gladys Mitchell is amazing, but very, very out of print...

That has got to be one of the best chicklit I've ever read.

Bryson rocks

At the moment: The Cloister and the Hearth- Charles Reade. It's really nice.

Just read: F F Bruce- the spreading flame

Would recommend: Anna Karenina, War and Peace, anything by Leo Tolstoy actually

Cold Comfort Farm is THE funniest book I have ever read. It's kind of a satire of Thomas Hardy and Jane Austen mixed together. It's hilarious. Everyone should read it.

"Jango" by william nicholson

and "the looking glass wars:seeing redd"

i'm reading many sequels at the moment , and the prequels to baoth these books are highly recommended.

I just read Twilight by Stephenie Meyers. I think thats the right author.

Leanne__x

All the Sophie Kinsella books are fantastic

I'm reading that at the moment.

It is very funny - I second your recommendation.

Finished it today, brilliant Might invest in some more of her books

The Shopaholic series by her is good

Think I will have a look and buy them, the one by her I have read is brilliant

She writes in a very similar style. Oh, and apparently Can you Keep a Secret is coming out on film...

That would make a brilliant film!!!

It's coming out this year, but nobody seems to know when!

Looks like a trip to the cinema could be coming up then...

I know! I guess if it's out late 2007 in the US, it might not be here until 2008.

Sometime in the near future then

I love them all! Especially 'Can you keep a secret?'




I can't wait!

If you can't find it, I have one you can borrow.
Beverley.

I have just read Bill Bryson's Kid book on holiday. Very funny. My eldest was embarrassed on the beach when I chortled and guffawed out loud. She said people were looking at me and moved away
Also read "Skinny Bit*h", which is pro veganism and too extreme for me, but did make me think about what rubbish we eat.
I tried to read "The God Delusion". I say tried, I tried very hard, but I keep falling asleep after 2-3 pages, and also get annoyed at the sneering attitude. I don't mind people having a different opinion, but not being sneered at.
Just a 1/4 way through Jodie Picoult's, "The Tenth Circle".
Love Austen, and enjoyed Cold Comfort Farm very much. Wild Swans was heavy but so interesting.
Have read all Brysons books, including the science one. Also like Alexander Mc Call Smith.
Beverley.

Just read Sarah Waters' Night Watch and Coetzee's Slow Man. Am now reading Oscar and Lucinda and Amitav Ghosh's The Hungry Tide. Also reading Shakespeare's Two Noble Kinsmen. I'm trying to read Shakespeare's complete works and some of his apocryphal works. My Dad is helping me.

How can someone else 'help' you to read a complete works?

I *think* he posted somewhere that he was from the Far East, so I don't think his mother tonge is English.

That's not really what I was getting at, it sort of sounded like he'd read half and his dad'd read half etc. etc.

Sorry BB!

Have you tried the audio book version, read by Dawkins himself? I relative of mine found it less opaque, as Dawkins understands what he's saying and reads with the necessary pauses and emphases to ensure good delivery.

Oh, i took it to mean that his dad was helping him with the English ... Maybe not though

Howdy folksies!!!

Thanks for the interest in my language problems. Actually, although I live in the Far East, I'm quite at home with the English language. The trouble with Shakespeare is the language used by the Bard is not entirely comprehensible to me. My dad helps me with some difficult passages, particularly when Shakespeare goes into Greek mythology eg. the masque scene in Tempest. My dad also helps me with Middle English literature. Chaucer is quite OK for me because he wrote in the then London dialect. I just have to get used to his weird spelling (weird today but current in his time). But when I tried reading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, I found the poem totally befuddling. It's like reading a German poem, not that I've tried it. Dad tells me that it was written in the Lancashire dialect (if I'm not mistaken). London dialect is not so bad because it later became the dominant language of Britain - the English we know today - but the other dialects can be really tough.





I've read the God Delusion and I'm amazed at Dawkin's brilliance. The guy is highly intelligent and perfectly logical but he is so pugnaciously opposed to religion. It's like he's spoiling for a fight.

When my dad saw me reading the God Delusion, he got me another book so as to give me a balanced perspective. It's Francis Collins, The Language of God. Collins is the head of the largest genome research in the world. I have seen a video of a debate between Dawkins and Collins and for the first time, Dawkins was put in his place. hehe. Most of the people who debate on the side of religion tend to be a little weak in their logic but Collins was fabulous.

Dawkins argues against the existence of God and is opposed to religion as a terrible evil. Collins shows that religion need not be a 6-day creation, flat earth, sun rotating round the earth kind of belief. He argues for evolution as true and still allows for faith.

Quite an interesting read. But I must confess I find Dawkins a better writer. Very very witty. Collins is more a real scientist. A bit boring at times.

Well, I'll get hold of the language of God then and have a gander at that.
The spoling for a fight bit makes sense, it is so off-putting. I rarely don't finish a book, but this may be one of the few.
Beverley.

Hi,

Has anyone seen the video of Dawkins talking about his God Delusion at some American university? He was frightfully belligerent especially at question time.

You should see the video of his debate with Francis Collins. Collins really put him in his place.

There is also a video of a talk between Dawkins and the bishop of Oxford. Dawkins was more respectful and the bishop was quite a bright chap. I think Dawkins can only be nasty when people hold on to views that go against evolution and stuff like that. Once people believe in evolution and scientific things like the bishop and Collins, Dawkins becomes totally effete.