I'm sorry if there is another topic for this... let's talk about books. Which ones do you like? What are you reading right now?

Well, one of my favourite series is Harry Potter (I am near obsession). I also like the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. Some people say it's boring, and I do think they have a point... but it's the first fantasy series I've read and it will always be one of my favourites. I like classic books too, as well as nearly all genres, apart from teenage or pure romance. Basically, I'm a bookworm...

i loved light on snow, one child (heartbreaker at times, but a brilliant read!) and i've just finished charlotte gray, which i thought was brilliant, moving on to the last harry potter (wasn't sure whether to bother or not but i've got nothing else to read!) oh and another one that was good was 'child of my heart' which i read last year (another tear jerker )

Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.
Little House on the Prairie.
Tom Holt is funny and I like Robert Rankin too.
I also have every Chalet School book that Armada ever reprinted (61), unfortunately there are a few titles they decided NOT to print .

Anne McCaffrey at the moment, also Susan Howatch.

Anyone read The Kiterunner? Got to be my book of the year. fantastic.

I'm reading Cancer Ward by Alexandyr Solzhenitsyn. It's tough going, but it's good.

Also, I like the Dan Brown series.

Yeah, by Khaled Hosseini, right? I read it for a school book club, and I thought it was great. The ending was a bit of a letdown though, in my opinion.

Oh yes, Dan Brown... my favourite was probably Angels & Demons, though I still liked the Da Vinci Code too. But I find his style a bit... repetitive, after reading through four of them successively. They all have the same kind of storyline. But it's still a definite page turner.

On a musical theme try "The Piano Shop on the Left Bank" by T.E.Carhart ... utterly charming

Been reading some #### Francis books recently, The Danger is brilliant but I'm currently just starting Hot Money!

Whoops ok then Richard Francis

Agreed - wonderful book! One of my pupils gave it to me as a leaving present - I was very touched (my pupils would say I still am!!!!!!! But that's another story.......)

Yes, I loved The Piano Shop - got it out of the library just because it had an interesting cover - would like to buy my own copy sometime.

Push the boat out.. amazon have it for £6.39 (used from £0.98) !! lol

Lord of the Rings, closely followed by The Hobbit and The Silmarillion. Tolkien rules! Also Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, Harry Potter and the Narnia books (C.S. Lewis).

I loved The Da Vinci Code and couldn't put it down. Angels and Demons was equally good but I wasn't that impressed with Dan Brown's other books. My best recent read has to have been Alexander McCall Smith's The Two and a Half Pillars of Wisdom - wonderfully well written and hilariously funny.

Lord of the Rings - definitely brilliant. Dan Brown - yes I enjoyed the Da Vinci and Angels and Demons even though they left me feeling a little unsettled. I also enjoy the Brother Cadfael books - I'm only missing one from my collection now - I re-read them every couple of years. And at the moment I'm really enjoying the No.1 Detective Agency series. We have a second-hand bookshop just down the road so I always pop in there to buy my holiday reading - I usually come out with between 6-8 books for a total of under £10!! Not bad!

plus postage! no, I've already spent far more than my luxuries allowance for the last (several) months so i need to be good especially while I'm waiting to hear if they will give me income support.

LOTR - fanTAStic! & Tolkien generally

Terry Pratchett - I'm a big fan!

Dan Brown - good, but get irritated by his "historical facts" which aren't!

Narnia - the best ever.

HP - yep, pretty good, I enjoy them! (looking forward to borrowing the latest one...)

Um, lost track of what others have mentioned... will post some of my faves that haven't yet been mentioned eventually... just not tonight!

Yes, I forgot LOTR.... but although I love the story, and the world he created, I can never get to grips with his style. It is very outdated and I find it so tedious. Still I enjoy it. The Silmarillion on the other hand... well, let's just say that I bought the book three years ago, never got past the first page.

The Culture books by Iain M Banks (or is it his Iain Banks persona - can never remember which way round). Like "Excession", "look to Windward" and so on.
I love Dune, though it's a guilty pleasure. Also Elizabeth Gouge's (sp?) "The little white horse" - Potter fans might enjoy it. No magic as such, but a good mystery.

I enjoyed 'The Little White Horse'. Apparently it was JK Rowling's favourite book as a child. Other books I have enjoyed are: William Nicholson's 'Wind on Fire' trilogy, 'Jennie' and 'Thomasina' by Paul Gallico, Alexander McCall's 'No.1 Ladies Detective Agency' series, and of course, Harry Potter.
Yesterday I got "Rhapsody" by Robert Ford and "The Piano Tuner" by Daniel Mason out of the library. Has anyone read them?

I LOVE lord of the rings, the hobbit etc too...but yeah, Silmarillion i just dont get, i got past the first page though...up to about page 3!

so my fave books...
Harry Potter (wooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
LOTR( )
um...Howls moving castle/castle in the air by Diana Wynne Jones
The Hex trilogy (hex, hex shadows and hex ghosts) by Rhiannon Lassister
and completely out of the blue...PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (hmmm weird i know!)

Same here with the Silmarillion....

SIlmarillion is hard. Took me a year to trundlee through it-must read again sometime

Dan Brown Books
Harry Potter
Lord of the Rings
Philip Pullman

Absolutely fantastic! This has been one of my best ever reads, its so moving but not boring with it. I'm a bit worried that the film might be a let-down though

I love Lord of the Rings and all that but out of interest what is the Silmarillion actually about ?Does it have a plot at all? If it does, i might try and inspire myself to read it!

I love Harry Potter books too!!! They absolutely totally rock!!! And I like Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman, To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee and The Curious Incident of the Dog At Night Time by Mark Haddock - they rock too!!!! And Molly Moon's Book of Hypnotism or whatever it's called is really good. And All American Girl by Meg Cabot rocks too!!!

I loved that too... are they making a film?

Oh yeah, I liked that as well... I didn't know they're making a film! I'll be quite interested in that, but it might turn out to be another ruiner of the original books...



Well, seeing as I've never read it I'm not sure, but it's basically what happened in Middle Earth before the story of the ring took place. There's meant to be stories about Luthien and Beren (the elf and the man who fell in love, parallel with Aragorn & Arwen) and stuff, but I'm not so sure about it.



Noughts and Crosses! That book (or those books) are fantastic. When I picked it up I thought it'd just be like a light children's read, but it wasn't like that at all. Have you read the second and third (Knife Edge, and Checkmate)? They're good, though I still prefer N&C.

Checkmate? Is that the next one? i didnt know it was out...

Man there are soooo many to choose from. I love loads of different genres, but my favourite author of all is Jane Austen and my favourite book is Pride and Prejudice. But I am also a big fan of Helen Fielding, Harper Lee, Hardy, Dickens, Charlotte Bronte and J.K Rowling.

NM

The Silmarillion is basically the ancient history of middle earth and is written as such. It is NOT an easy read, but very interesting IF that's the sort of thing you like. It has various stories... I haven't read them all yet. If you found LOTR hard going then I would think you'll find Silmarillion the same... if you like reading histories etc and love the LOTR, then it will give you a lot of background and understanding of the back story as it were of LOTR. If you're the kind of person who read all the footnotes in LOTR then you'd probably enjoy it. But it ISN'T a typical novel, and it's deliberately been written as history not as a novel, if you see what i mean.

Others who know more might be able to be more eloquent!!

My god this man's NAME has been edited????? Political correctness gone WAY too far people!!!

I didnt think LOTR was that hard but i think i'll pass on Silmarillion

John Grisham!

John Grisham!

John Grisham!

John Grisham!

It's automatically changed by the filter - certain words are even if they are part of another word. It's not moderators being ridiculous!

For any teachers out there the Gervase Phinn series are brilliant.
He is a school inspector and his stories are very funny. There are four books and the first is called The Other Side of the Dale.

Yes from what I heard they are!! I just think there is no way that they could ever capture the atmosphere of the books.

Oh has anyone read any James Herriot books? They are so funny - its his stories about when he was a vet.

I loved The Silmarillion. I suppose the way it's written is quite difficult - sort of a cross between the Viking Sagas, Le Morte d'Arthur and the King James Bible. Even so, it's a must for any LOTR fans as it fills in so much of the background history and mythology of Middle Earth.

Anyone else read The Rlue of Four (Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason)? It's in the same vein as The Da Vinci Code only better!

I love the Shopaholic books by Sophie Kinsella. I'm currently reading her new one The Undomestic Goddess - they're laugh out loud, feel good girly books. On a musical note An Equal Music by Vikram Seth is very good.

not read the shopaholic series but 'can you keep a secret' by Sophie Kinsella is REALLY good!

Yeah i've read that too, it was great. They're supposed to be making that into a film actually, hope they do! You must read the shopaholic ones because they are even better!

Catch 22..such a well written and fantastically funny book..one of the best books ever written.

1984....THE best book ever written!

Pride and Prejudice..loverly girlie novel!

Robin Cook and Michael Palmer books..medical thrillers...like reading an episode of ER

Dan Brown's books...guilty pleasure

Harry Potter..other guilty pleasure

Romeo and Juliet...lovely story..Shakespeare can be bit hard going though

have read one james herriot book, great!
harry potter
the wind on fire - william nicholson
discworld
the deptford mice - robin jarvis
narnia
the hobbit
will be reading lotr

like some teenager books too, confessions of georgia nicholson, catherine robinson's aswell (she's my music teacher! if anyone's heard of her)

I've read a lot of the books mentioned so I won't bother saying them again...but All Quiet On The Western Front, a lot of Adult Fantasy/Magic books, they're great.....I've read lots of books....I love it!

I've read three Shakespeare's...they're fantastic: A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice and Macbeth...great!

A Midsummer Night's Dream is soooooooo boring. We had to read it in English last year. Give me Macbeth anyday, at least it has some murders. Far more "Gripping". But if I had my way, I would burn every Play "Shakespeare" ever wrote, as I don't really like any of them. Plus I don't believe that he actually wrote half of the stuff. This is going to sound really unpatriotic, but I really do believe that he didn't write them.

Of Shakespeare's, I've read, Macbeth(year 9 sats), A Merhcant of Venice (gcse cwk) and Othello (alevel)

Didn't love them, didn't hate them. Just ok!

No, I don't think he did - can't remember where, but it said somewhere that most of the story for his plays were taken from old folklore, real life stories or other tales. I don't really like Shakespeare either...

Shakespeare is okay... I don't like MacBeth (too creepy!!!) I don't mind A Midnsummer Night's Dream and I like Romeo and Juliet!! The Tempest is okay as well... but it's way to confusing... I've read the Georgia Nicholson books!! Well the first few, they're wicked!! What is it with her and random french stuff... has anyone read Checkmate by the way? Can you tell me what happens please because I like spoilers!!

Snap, Sbhoa, I like those authors too. I am also a really big fan of good, well-written children's sf/fantasy fiction. Favourite authors include: Lois McMaster Bujold, Diana Wynne Jones, Phillip Pullman, William Nicholson's trilogy, John Wyndham, Christopher Pike, Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Freda Warrington, Douglas Adams, Mary Stewart, Ben Elton.

Anyone else read 'I like it like that' by Claire Calman/ Its soooooooo good!

Ooh, so many to choose from.
Patricia Cornwell and Kathy Reichs (Pathologist-murder-crime stuff)
Robin Cook and Dean Koontz (medical thrillers)
Ben Elton, Mike Gayle and Nick Hornby (real-life funny)
Bridget Jones (well, Helen Fielding) and Sophie Kinsella (funny girly candy)
Dan Brown - enjoyed the DaVinci Code but not read any others yet
Rule of Four - better than DaVinci but didn't like the ending!!
Alice Seabold's The Lovely Bones is a good read, but thought provoking....that's all for now

Mike Gayle rocks too! 'Much Ado about nothing' and 'Romeo and Juliet' are ok, but 'Midsummer night's dream SUCKS!...nearly fell asleep at the Globe because i was sitting behind a pillar and couldnt see the stage!
The lovely bones is SO freaky....