Athena

Nice presents!! Happy belated birthday ! I hope you had a fun day.

Those are some interesting statistics, julie ! You get a gold star from me too . I haven't met anyone (that I know of) who frowns at ereaders. I know people who prefer them, and people who prefer paper books. But no one who frowns at people who use them.

I can see why people would want age certificates on books, or at the very least a mention of the amount of violence/swearing/sexual references, etc. I wouldn't mind the latter for myself. Maybe that sounds odd, but I'm put off by a book that has any the aforementioned elements in spades (is that the right expression?).. I don't mind a bit of ie. violence but it shouldn't be too much. As for children, in their case it's more of a necessity. There are some books that I own that have an age rating on them (mainly children's books, really), but at the very least warnings should be given for the topics I mentioned, or perhaps a very global age rating for certain children's books. Our library had an age rating (back in my old town), they had A, B and C categories for three different age categories. A was books to read to a child, I believe for 8 years or younger, B was for 8-12 and C was 12-16+. If I remember correctly. I kinda read everything, myself XD, without paying attention to the categories (I could understand it all at that age). I don't remember ever reading a book that was violent, that had sexual references or a lot of swearing. But maybe the library screened these books for it, I'm not sure. These books were all meant as children's or teenager's books (this of course was before the whole YA paranormal got popular). Of course in the case of adult books, some of them do have inappropriate things for children in them. As I said I wouldn't mind a brief description on the book detailing these if present. I guess though for that to happen you need to have an organisation who reads all the new books that come out. There may be websites detailing this information (ie. the link given earlier), best thing to do as a parent so far is to either read the book yourself (or part of it) or look on such a website, ask people who've read the book, etc. I'm not a parents but that's what I can think of, at the moment. For myself I do try to read reviews (ie. on GoodReads) and if they say the book has a lot of swearing, I decide not to buy the book.

I get that too! So I know what you mean .

I liked the third one the least as well, though I still rated it 5 stars. The story is very different from 1 & 2, it's more vague if you ask me. I did like it, and I was eager to see what happened (though I don't like certain parts of the ending), but it just didn't seem as nice as the other two.

@Chloe (risingdawn) That's really nice! Are you still confused or is it a bit better now? You're making me eager for a reread XD even though I didn't read them that long ago relatively speaking and I kind of told myself I should read more of his other work first. Do you know what you'll read next? Hope you enjoy the rest of the book . @Diane (Inver) The Story of Us sounds interesting! I look forward to read your thoughts once you've finished it.

I would think that the average is higher in ie. my country, though I'm not sure. I know some people who read often, I know quite a few people who read now and then (when they have the time, ie. in the holidays). I don't know many people who never read at all, then again I don't have tons of friends so it's not at all representative (I was one of the few people who read a book at university though while I was waiting for classes, everyone else usually turned up late and chatted the remaining time away). The US seems more focused on other forms of entertainment. We don't have that as much here, to my knowledge (but then again my knowledge is limited). To be honest, other than the people I know, I wouldn't really know what goes on in most people's heads. I do know that television and games also take up some time of the people I know (depending on who we talk about, of course). For me, I love reading the best, though I would watch more television and play more games if I had the energy (and thereby possibly reading less). I do think it's important to show children how fun reading is. I was taught this at my primary school, I don't know though if primary schools these days still give the same attention to reading (or even whether it was just my school). My siblings like to read too, though I've always been the most passionate about it. My parents encouraged our love for reading, they read books themselves too (they don't have that much time for it today unfortunately). Maybe these days some younger people see reading as old-fasioned? I'm not sure.

I've finished reading Susan Hatler - Love At First Date and am still reading J. R. R. Tolkien - The Hobbit. I'm about two thirds of the way through, I hope to have it finished today. The old-fashioned writing style is bothering me less now because the story's so good. I'm eager to find out what happens next.

Sorry to hear you didn't like it, I hope your next read will be more enjoyable.

Sounds good! I've got both books, they are split up into two parts (part one and part two). I hope you enjoy it .

Welcome here! I agree, I like that there are lots of free titles for the Kindle (and ereaders in general). Not all of them are good though presumably. I try to read reviews before I download a free book (as with a paid for book), otherwise I'd end up with lots of perhaps-crappy free books.

Welcome here .

I'm glad he's safe at home!

You have a few books there that I've read / that I own / that are on my wishlist. I look forward to read your thoughts once you've read them!

I've finished reading Susan Hatler - Love At First Date. It was pretty good, entertaining and easy to read. Some of it was predictable but other things were not, which I enjoyed (I don't want everything to be predictable but it's nice and relaxing to have some predictability). The writing style was nice, it's a lot easier to read than The Hobbit (which is written a bit old-fashionedly). What's nice is that this book (Love At First Date) is connected to My Last Blind Date, in the sense that some of the characters overlap. This book was written before My Last Blind Date, I read that first however because I didn't know this at the time. So for recommendations I think it'd be best to read this one first since it's chronologically first and you might spoil bits of it if you read My Last Blind Date first. Rating: ***** (5/5) I'm still reading The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, I'm about half way through. My reading is going a bit slower because I haven't been feeling well and because I'm also spending some time on book sites, among other things.

I haven't been able to access GoodReads for the past hour, but will have to check those recommendations out sometime!

7500! That sounds amazing .

It's snowed here a bit too, more snow up north in the country. They predict it will be cold and snowy for the next few days, bah.

I sometimes feel ashamed to be reading a certain book in public, I know I shouldn't be, but I'm sometimes afraid that people will think less of me because I'm reading a certain type of book. I read more complicated books and less complicated books, of various genres. Like Karen, I like to read a chick-lit book now and then. Imo people should read what they want. I'm sure that there are people out there who judge others by what they read. Generally, for me, when someone is reading a book, I'm interested to know what kind of book it is (ie. in the train I try to sometimes glimpse a title or author).

I liked that film, though I prefer the book. There were a couple of scenes in the book that aren't in the film, that I think would've explained certain things a bit better.

I've wishlisted it too.

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it!

A Game of Thrones is on my TBR list, I've had it for several years and saw most of season one of the TV series on TV, thought it would be a good idea to finally start reading it! The downside though is that the series as a whole is not finished yet and I don't want to read too many unfinished series in one go (things may get confusing). I'll have finished the Wheel of Time series in a while though (one book left to read, waiting for paperback release) so maybe then . I'm glad to hear you're really enjoying it! I think I'll enjoy it too, I mean, a lot of people are very positive about it so hopefully I'll enjoy it too when I get around to reading it. I hope you can find some more time to read soon, it's not nice to make slow progress (well imo).

Hey, I didn't join until this year so I don't know you, but welcome back anyway!

Hey Karen, I only joined this forum this year so I don't remember you, it's nice that you're back anyway though! It's nice to meet you . I hope you will have fun here, just like you had before you left.