Melodious

My Eddie Loves nothing more than to snuggle at every opportunity.

Oooo I have Collapse by Diamond on my TBR and The World Without Us is sitting on my book shelf. How did you find it? This is the sort of area I'm interested in exploring more this year.

Brilliant idea Claire. All these jars look amazing

The songs are usually just background information about the ancient world. LotR is just a small part of a whole mythology he created. It can be a little mind boggling really. A poor translation can really ruin a book. I read The Master and Margarita a few years ago and even though I enjoyed it I think a lot of the humour was lost in translation. LotR is quite archaic in its language and quite rich so a good translation is necessary. It's great that you read books in English though

I love that show but I haven't listened in a long time now. Kermode is a boss.

I see him one week tomorrow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3KUbLEu0B0

Yeah Kay I tend to skip the songs too. The Road is a brilliant piece of work and one I want to re-read again soon. I haven't read anymore of McCarthy's work but the movie No Country for Old Men is great. Would you not read the Dutch translations? (I'm assuming you're Dutch here ) It must be wonderful to read a book in another language. If it's one thing we fail at in the UK it's languages.

Have you not read them? You could probably count the fantasy books I've read on one hand but LotR is something unique. The Hobbit is OK but its very different from it's sibling, one is a children's book and the other is a complete mythology. You're right, they were written many years ago but are still held as the benchmark for fantasy literature. Like any massive hit it comes down to appealing to people who wouldn't normally read that genre, the fantasy book to read for none fantasy fans as it were.

YES I'll tell you a secret though. all the best people are

I found this book a very hard slog. All my favourite characters weren't in it so it was really hard to be engaged with it. It just became something I 'had to get through'. I did read the first book of A Dance with Dragons afterwards but couldn't move on to the second. I think A Feast for Crows killed the series for me a little. At some point I'll have to look up a synopsis of every book to familiarize myself with the plot before I continue on. I know a few people who had similar problems with this book. I think Tyrion is everyone's favourite character, TV show or not

Great looking shelves there

Finished LotR. So much fun going back to it after so many years. I don't think I really need to review that book Just started The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. Only on the third chapter but it's OK. I don't think I've really come to the 'meat' of the novel yet so can't really give a strong opinion one way or another. I also got And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou. Just a collection of poems from a truly inspirational woman (or should that be phenomenal woman? )

That is such a great show. Very underrated. If anyone hasn't watched it I highly recommend checking it out.

My copy of 'And Still I Rise' came today. It's a short collection, only 100 pages. I'll let you guys know what I think of it when I'm done in the next few days.

I have a copy of The Bell Jar on my bedside table. One to get through this year maybe when my mood is better. Looking forward to your thoughts on it

I have the same anxiety over opening gifts in front of people. I think you said it best, its a spotlight kinda thing. I don't like to be the center of attention and where I feel every facial expression is being analysed. Thankfully I don't tend to get any these days unless they come through the post

Another classic

I know, 3 hours but it none of it is filler. My favourite is Yojimbo, I've seen it many times over the years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRHHhObYMKE

I read it for the first time three years ago and it certainly does live up to the moniker of 'classic'. Given all the garbage I was forced to read in high school I am boggled as to why we didn't study a book like Mockingbird.

Fiction: 1984 - George Orwell Non fiction: Cosmos - Carl Sagan

Classic

How cool are these posters? http://www.zazzle.com/planetarysociety/gifts?cg=196075458464599258 It seems NASA are also doing similar: http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2015/jan/09/winter-suns-nasa-vintage-travel-posters-newly-discovered-planets

Yeah but it's called Blade Runner not the title of the book and it's a great achievement of cinema but there is little that the two have in common.

I try and keep my TBR list short and nothing more of a reminder of books to look at when I'm in the mood for it's content. I'm not going to forget about wanting to read Orwell or Steinbeck so I use it to keep tracks on books that I may want to read but I'll forget about if I leave to my memory. I often delete things and I think my Goodreads TBR is only like 20 a very small number compared to many I see on here. I try and keep it to a min because I don't want to become obsessed with how large it gets and all the books I want to read and never will so I only have it as a loose guide. I will simply never make a dent in all the books I will want to read in my lifetime as I'm sure it is for all of us. Keep it brief, keep it loose that's my motto