Marie H

They may took a long time!! if I ever read the whole book....

I'm glad you do enjoy Marcel . Since you like French literature, I love some French classics, especially Emile Zola's L'Assomoir and Germinal. Very gritty stuff (poverty, alcoholism etc) but wonderfully done.

My advice is, as poppyshakes said also, for you to read Swann’s Way first, and see if you like his style and subject matter. Plus as these are chronological i.e. SW begins in Proust’s early childhood. It is a very meandering tale of his young life, and it is something that most people either love or loathe! Crikey, it is very complicated trying to follow which volume of Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past / À la recherché du temps perdu in sequence – it’s bad enough for me to find which title in French /English! I have to go back a few pages and re-read each time I go on a Proust reading. Hope you find a good Swann's Way edition, and enjoy it too .

Great book! . Helps if you understand quantum physics in one bit of the book, but it's not essential. I still don't get it re. quantum physics, but as Athena quoted to me when I was read the book, her QM tutor says "if you think you understand it, then you don't really"

Very true. Very, very true .

Oh, I bought A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian in a charity shop, when a (unknown) woman did mention that it was a good read . Marmite book, it seems. Maybe the unknown woman was Marina Lewycka in the Red Cross shop that day.... . I will have to read this book this year sometime.

Since I've read some of Alain de Botton's Proust book, it's spurred me on to get back to my Swann's Way (Merci Alain mwaa! mwaa!) . A Finnish translation of Swann's Way could be a good start for you to the Proustian task . Heck, I've only read 30% of the first book, and started that 2 years ago!

Good luck frankie!

I am trying to keep a record of the prices of books i buy this year. I've never done this before, so it could be an eye-opener!

It gives me hope - as Willoyd's 650+ and yours mega book figure . I find that only have approx. 200 treebooks in my TBR list . Could be "pride before a fall" coming up.... .

No, I just can't cope with the ethereal ebooks at the moment , I discovered I have 170 treebooks on my TBR list yesterday . Root 2014 Root Our Own Tomes is in LibraryThing, in the Groups section. (I am so ignorant/technophobic computer/internet links stuff, that I can't give you a directions to it ) . I find LibraryThing threads are not very user-friendly pour moi . Good for storing your books info, but not the same smallish community spirit as BCF. At least with BCF and LT/ROOT to keep me on the track of chipping at my TBR lists. Mmmmm, I wonder if this will work, or inspire me to more books .

Happy 1st Birthday at BCF Athena . And I agree with . This is a great forum to be a member of!

Thanks .

I hope it's good too!

Glad you enjoyed Hired Man . I have Memory of Love in my TBR list, recommended by quite a few of my library group. Hope you have a good year for your Around the World Reading Challenge.

Be warned with counting your ebooks - I thought I had approx. 60 on my Kobo reader, but when I actually counted them, there are nearly 140 *snort*!! Plus 30 something in the Kobo cloud ether, that aren't in the actual reader . I'm think that I should put just my paperback TBRs on my LibraryThing, just to remind me how bad I am at buying them, then never reading them . Then it will also limit the list to 200 (I only have the "free 200" so far ) I joined the ROOT - 2014 Read Your Own Tomes group this morning, for some extra moral support. Well, there are two chances of my making any effort of my TBR lists - slim chance, or fat chance !

Picked up Man Belong Mrs. Queen: Adventures with the Philip Worshippers by Matthew Bayliss from the library . It was Book of the Week on Radio 4 last week, though I hadn't listened any episodes. Synopsis is "As a bookish child with a posh accent, growing up on Merseyside in the 1980s, Matthew Baylis identified with the much-mocked Prince Philip as a fellow outsider. He even had a poster of him on his bedroom wall. Years later, as an anthropology student , Baylis learned of the existence of a Philip cult on the South Sea island of Tanna. Why was it there? " Sounds quite good .

Wow, you were busy in the read-a-thon Athena! Next time I think I might try a HP reading in the next months read-a-thon . I only started reading the HP series a couple of years, but I loved the first three, then lost interest in most of the following books . Watching the films recently, and i realised that the books were more complicated with different levels of plot, compared to the films.

The temptation is very strong! . But I must not buy any more treebooks, I could be crushed under the plies of books I already have . Re plot for Evanovitch books - they are exactly the same - granny goes to a funeral viewing, and tries to see the corpse usually, and they aren't without the fun without security specialist Ranger *drool*

I read the first 10 Janet Evanovich books, which were light and frothy, but good light reading. I think 10 paperbacks for £1 is the best bargain I'll get this year . Bought some ebooks yesterday : The Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein A guide to the good life:The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (sounds a bit oxymoron, doesn't it?) Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke Our Mutual Friend - Dickens (free ebook)

I'm only counting treebooks in my TBR lists too, as 56 ebooks are as light as a feather, and I don't trip over them either Ah, slight hitch with the TBRs again....

Oh... my... goodness.., I have just looked at your TBR lists, it was like being in Aladdins cave!! I was suddenly found the Room of Requirements at Hogwarts, for the most wonderful books . Happy reading Kylie . There were some great Oulipo books there, I found some of Perec's works last year, and have some TBRs of Borges and Calvino too. Great stuff