Seeing Further: The story of science & the Royal Society edited by Bill Bryson

The pink Eric Taylor music theory book published by the AB, and Nick Drake's biography.

Engineering: A Beginner's Guide by Natasha McCarthy (I knew her when we were both philosophy students at St Andrews.)

Have been doing a bit of reading from that too

also on with Jane Eyre (on the Kindle) and The Report (in paperback).

Just finished Allison Pearson's wonderful 'I Think I Love You' that Bag lent me.

Musical autobiographies recently. Have just finished Unfinished Journey by Yehudi Menuhin, and started My Young Years by Arthur Rubinstein (this last one recommended by violin teacher).

finished The Report and read The Auschwitz Violin last night

what's next........

Biography of Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Have just read Stella Gibbons Westwood, and re-read The Great Gatsby.

Have started The Fort - Bernard Cornwell, was lent it by someone from work, not sure if I'll read it all though

Pemberley by P.D. James. I'm so glad she is still writing into her 90s but I have to say this book isn't one of my favourites. I love Jane Austen - as, apparently does P.D. James - and this is a detective story involving the Pride and Prejudice characters after the marriage of Elizabeth Bennett and Darcy. Interesting idea but very difficult to pull off successfully.

I'm back in an Ian Rankin phase - just finishing off The Hanging Garden, and I have A Question of Blood waiting.

That's interesting becaause I read it a few weeks ago and loved it. I thought she caught the spirit of Pride and Prejudice very well indeed and some of her writing really mirrors Jane Austin's style. At the same time she has comblined the detective story side of it in a way I thought seamless. I count it as a success but my partner has refused to read it, saying it has to be an anti-climax.

Having just watched a ghastly DVD version of Jane Ayre I am contemplating reading The Wide Sargasso Sea - a similar literary genre, I suppose, to Pemberley. But I can't remember who wrote it. I just heard it read on BBC radio years ago and don't remember much about it.

I am currently wading my way through Middlemarch. I have always found George Elliot a bit of a mouthful and never got round to reading Middlemarch before. My kindle says I am only 5% of the way through!

The Wide Sargasso sea is by Jean Rhys. I read it a very long time ago but remember finding it very interesting. It is written as the story of the "mad wife" and how she came to be locked in the attic. As the character isn't really developed in Jane Eyre I think there was very little chance of stepping on Charlotte's toes (so to speak). It was dramatised on the telly a few years ago. I thought they did a good job, though I generally find that the best TV adaptations are of the books you only have the vaguest recollections of!

Good luck with Middlemarch. I thought I ought to read some George Elliot so I slogged my way through both Mill on the Floss and Middlemarch. I found them both very hard going, though, of the two, Middlemarch was slightly more engaging. I've just sent both of them to the charity shop as I definitely won't be giving them a second go.

I am between books at the moment, I bought The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht to read on holiday but haven't got very far with it. Anyone read it?

Do stick with it; personally, I've always been a fan of Mrs Garth - all that high thinking and plain living, but it's full of wonderful characters.

Me too, Middlemarch is a great if big book. I reckon George Eliot's best too. (Some of her others like Daniel Deronda are a bit heavy going). Good luck - do persevere.

No, have got to the end of chapter two, hard going, so it will be on it's way back to colleague tomorrow. Can't get into the Val McDermid either.....

The Age of Endurance - Arthur Bryant.

Sustainable Transport and the Environment by Unite the Union, available to download here.

Do androids dream of electric sheep? by Philip K ####. Stumbled across this in a charity shop last weekend. What a great find.

OK, I can't believe I offended the censors with that one, so if anyone is curious, here is the amazon link for this book.

I'm also reading that! (among other things - I am a"multiple reader" for whom the Kindle is ideal. So also:
- South Riding (for the third time)
- Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury (for about the fourth time)
- The Hare with Amber Eyes (which I'm finding tedious)
- Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving - a wonderful writer, I would recommend A Prayer for Owen Meany, it is jawdropping!
- God is not Great by Christopher Hitchens
- The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obrecht
- The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan
- Deaf Sentence by David Lodge

Is that all????

And I thought I had ADD when it came to books, with sometimes 3-4 on the go.

That really was a good find, karslima... I've had it on my list since finding out it was the basis for Blade Runner and something of a Sci Fi cult classic.

I'm quite picky (quirky?) about what scifi I like, though. I only recently discovered C.S. Lewis's sci-fi trilogy and I'm having trouble locating books 2 and 3. May have to resorting to getting another kindle and hoping that it's 3rd time lucky.

Sharpe's Fortress.

Confessions of a Radical Industrialist: How Interface proved that you can build a successful business without destroying the planet by Ray Anderson and Robin White

The shining - Stephen King, was a recommendation by someone from work.

Sharpe's Prey.

Lonely Planet Guide to Finland by Andy Symington and George Dunford

Mmmmm! Are you planning a trip? (envy envy)

I wish. Late last year my parents forwarded to me an email from my uncle asking them to keep the month of August free for his son's wedding, which happens to be taking place in Luumaki, Karelia. All I've heard since then is that the wedding date is most likely to be the August bank holiday weekend, which clashes with another family do on the other side. In any case I haven't received any invitation to my cousin's wedding. Plus I have no idea whether I will be able to afford any holiday this year (or ever again, given my sporadic employment record of the last few years).

Are you working your way through all the Sharpes? I enjoy them very much, though when I'm reading them I have to replace Sean Beane's accent in my head with the London accent he's given in the books. I also find that I tend to sing the music from the TV series an awful lot while I'm reading them

It's good, haven't read a Stephen King before, will probably be reading another though

I am indeed reading the Sharpe series from Book 1. Quite a few I have read before, but passed them on, so I'm now buying new paperbacks from Amazon (many costing just 1p plus postage ) and thoroughly enjoying them!

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

Well, thanks to the above encouragement I am now at 17%. I've bought the BBC VHS recordings (by mistake as I was supposed to order DVD's) but I am not allowing myself to watch them until I have finished the book.

I am also re-reading a childhood favourite "Wind in the Willows." It is a family joke that this is the only book my brother has ever read - and that he didn't even finish that! Well I decided to reread it after a trip down the motorway - haven't done any motorway driving for years - made me feel distinctly toadish.

Will the censorbot get me if I utter the words "poop poop"?

Darcy's Diary. Utterly scrummy comfort read, goes well with box of tissues, lemsip and a hottie. I refuse to get better until I've finished it.

Now as far as Sharpe's Rifles. This book was written by Cornwell to "set the scene" for the TV series.

Somewhere there is a reel-to-reel ( ) recording of a four year old Cyrilla reciting 'Ducks' Ditty', which for some reason I took it upon myself to learn.

Having read the original book by the time I went to school at 4 1/4, my school career started to nosedive from the moment they ignored my mum's information that I could read and they gave me, 'Look, John, look. See the ducks. See the little ducks.'

I never really recovered...

I read WitW for the first time as an adult, and I couldn't help but wonder if Mole and Ratty were gay, given how much time they spend staying over at each other's houses...

Aww, Wind in the Willows lovely book, another one to add to the 're-read' list

I also enjoyed Jan Needle's Wild Wood which is an interesting reworking of Wind in the Willows - from the point of view of the inhabitants of the Wild Wood...

Stories like that make me even more grateful for the reception teacher in my Worcestershire primary school, recognising I could read she got books from the library van just for me, without making it obvious to the class.

Nothing at the moment. I am a tad too sozzled to be able to focus on words....

Happy-Bag x

Going to start A Thousand Splendid Suns soon. I'm told it's very sad and it made the person I borrowed it from cry. Don't know if I'm looking forward to that or not.

Sharpe's Havoc.

Sharpe's Eagle.

Had a parcel in the post from Amazon on Friday. I opened it last night (I did know what it was) and am planning to sit down this afternoon....

'The Viola in My Life: An Alto Rhapsody' by Bernard Zaslav



There's a CD inside the front cover!!!

What Colo(u)r Is Your Parachute? A practical manual for job-hunters and career-changers by Richard Nelson Bolles

Sharpe's Gold.

Sharpe's Escape.