More reading time required

Yep, we're fans of this too. It's really rather funny.

Thank you for my challenges, Ben & Sarah. I look forward to them both.

A few days ago I finished Wolves of the Calla, and I'm now just carrying on with Fool's Quest by Robin Hobb. I picked up my free copy of Little Women (and Good Wives) the other day, so I might start with that one next, seeing as it's a Round Robin read.

We watched Defenders and The Punisher recently. Both are really good (though the latter very violent!).We probably also need to watch Iron Fist and Luke Cage to fill in some of the gaps though.

Challenges to me 1. Willoyd: Stalingrad by Anthony Beever 2. Madeleine: North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell 3.Chesilbeach: Wives & Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell 4. Karen.d: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott 5. Alexi: Skagboys by Irvine Welch 6. Chaliepud: Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell 7. Little Pixie: Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery 8. Frankie: East of Eden by John Steinbeck 9. Ben: Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy Challenges by me 1. Willoyd: Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett. 2. Madeleine: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson 3.Chesilbeach: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy 4. Karen.d: Salem's Lot by Stephen King 5. Alexi: Joyland by Stephen King 6. Chaliepud: 11.22.63 by Stephen King 7. Little Pixie: Life of Pi by Yann Martell 8. Frankie: The Running Man by Richard Bachman 9. Ben: Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

Ooh thank you. I had this one on my radar what with the recent tv mini series (that I've recorded but not watched yet) and the fact that i'm going to get a free paperback copy of it via Radio Times next week. I have it on Kindle, but I'm currently in a 'tree book' preference mode. Right, sorry for the delay all, here are my challenges: 1. Willoyd: Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett. I don't know if you are a Pratchett reader or not, but I saw this one on there and if you haven't read it, it's a good one to start with. 2. Madeleine: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I enjoyed this trilogy and hope you will too. 3.Chesilbeach: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. This has been on my radar since it won the Booker prize, but I've never got around to picking it up. 4. Karen.d: Salem's Lot by Stephen King. With you being at the point you're at with the Dark Tower series, this fits in nicely to link the two. 5. Alexi: Joyland by Stephen King. It's a very different to his usual style but i really enjoyed it. 6. Chaliepud: 11.22.63 by Stephen King. Sorry I seem to have gone onto a bit of a King tangent, but this is another atypical King book that I thought was brilliant. 7. Little Pixie: I was torn between 3 from your list but I eventually settled on Life of Pi by Yann Martell. I picked it up for free on Kindle several years ago, after being aware it had won the Man Booker prize in the past and it was a book that sort of really surprised and astounded me. 8. Frankie: Back to the King theme, but I really had to recommend The Running Man by Richard Bachman. If you've ever seen the film version with Arnie, be prepared to wonder what the hell they were thinking when they adapted it, as this version is so so much better (imo, of course ). 9. Ben: Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb. I'm just reading a new trilogy of hers after a long break and I'm remembering just how much I love her world. This was a fantastic opening book.

Ooh exciting, thanks guys. I'll have a look at suggestions for everyone else now.

Now I've sorted out my 2018 blog, I'd like to join in, if I may? My TBR list is at the start of my blog, albeit a bit messy at the mo - there's a limit to what you can do on a phone, but I'll sort it out. Books I'm already definitely reading imminently are the rest of The Dark Tower, the rest of Robin Hobb's Fitz & the Fool trilogy and at least one Wheel of Time so you might want to avoid choosing them. I'll look at everyone's lists tomorrow.

Open for business

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Read in 2018

Discworld re-read Also, now I've read the last Discworld , I want to do a Discworld re-read from start to finish. The Colour of Magic The Light Fantastic Equal Rites Mort Sourcery Wyrd Sisters Pyramids Guards! Guards! Eric Moving Pictures Reaper Man Witches Abroad Small Gods Lords and Ladies Men at Arms Soul Music Interesting Times Maskerade Feet of Clay Hogfather Jingo The Last Continent Carpe Jugulum The Fifth Elephant The Truth Thief of Time The Last Hero The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents Night Watch The Wee Free Men Monstrous Regiment A Hat Full of Sky Going Postal Thud! Wintersmith Making Money Unseen Academicals I Shall Wear Midnight Snuff Raising Steam The Shepherd's Crown

I've also had this challenge ticking away over the past couple of years, but I've never thought to post it before. Many years ago, there was a BBC poll for the nation's top 100 books. I've combined that list with a few other Facebook "100 books you must read" for something I'm slowly chipping away at in an effort to become more "widely read". Some I have access to and some I don't, so the challenge will also be to track down those ones I haven't read - preferably without paying! AA Milne - Winnie the Pooh Aldous Huxley - Brave New World Alexandre Dumas - The Count Of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas - The Three Musketeers Alice Sebold - The Lovely Bones Alice Walker - The Color Purple Anna Sewell - Black Beauty Anthony Burgess - A Clockwork Orange Antoine De Saint - The Little Prince Anya Seton - Katherine Arthur Golden - Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Ransome - Swallows And Amazons Arundhati Roy - The God Of Small Things AS Byatt - Possession Audrey Niffeneger The Time Traveler’s Wife Bill Bryson - Notes From A Small Island Bram Stoker - Dracula Carlos Ruiz Zafon - The Shadow of the Wind Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens - A Tale Of Two Cities Charles Dickens - Bleak House Charles Dickens - David Copperfield Charles Dickens - Oliver Twist Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre Colleen McCollough- The Thorn Birds CS Lewis - Chronicles of Narnia CS Lewis - The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe Dan Brown - The Da Vinci Code Daphne du Maurier - Rebecca David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas Dodie Smith -I Capture The Castle Donna Tartt -The Secret History Douglas Adams - The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy EB White - Charlotte’s Web Emile Zola -Germinal Emily Brontë -Wuthering Heights Enid Blyton - The Faraway Tree Collection Eoin Colfer -Artemis Fowl Evelyn Waugh - Brideshead Revisited F Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby Frances Hodgson Burnett - The Secret Garden Frank Herbert - Dune Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Crime And Punishment Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Love In The Time Of Cholera Gabriel Garcia Marquez - One Hundred Years of Solitude George Eliot - Middlemarch George Orwell - Animal Farm George Orwell - Nineteen Eighty Four Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird Helen Fielding - Bridget Jones’s Diary Herman Melville - Moby Dick Iain Banks - The Wasp Factory Ian McEwan - Atonement Jack Kerouac - On The Road Jacqueline Wilson - Double Act Jacqueline Wilson - Girls In Love Jacqueline Wilson - The Story Of Tracy Beaker Jacqueline Wilson - Vicky Angel James Joyce -Ulysses Jane Austen - Emma Jane Austen - Persuasion Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen - Sense and Sensibility JD Salinger - Catcher in the Rye Jean M Auel - The Clan Of The Cave Bear Jeffrey Archer - Kane And Abel JK Rowling - Harry Potter series John Fowles - The Magus John Irving - A Prayer for Owen Meaney John Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of Dunces John Steinbeck - Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck - The Grapes Of Wrath Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness Joseph Heller - Catch-22 JRR Tolkien - The Hobbit JRR Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains of the Day Ken Follett - The Pillars Of The Earth Kenneth Grahame - The Wind in the Willows Khaled Hosseini - The Kite Runner Leo Tolstoy - Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy - War and Peace Lewis Carroll - Alice's Adventures In Wonderland LM Montgomery - Anne Of Green Gables Louis de Bernieres - Captain Corelli's Mandolin Louis Sachar - Holes Louisa May Alcott - Little Women Malorie Blackman - Noughts And Crosses Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Mitchell - Gone With The Wind Mario Puzo - The Godfather Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Meg Cabot - The Princess Diaries Mervyn Peake - Gormenghast Michelle Magorian - Goodnight Mister Tom Mitch Alborn - The Five People You Meet In Heaven Nevil Shute - A Town Like Alice Patrick Süskind - Perfume Paulo Coelho - The Alchemist Philip Pullman - His Dark Materials Raymond E Feist - Magician Richard Adams - Watership Down Roald Dahl - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Roald Dahl - Matilda Roald Dahl - The BFG Roald Dahl - The Twits Robert Louis Stevenson - Treasure Island Robert Tressell - The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists Rohinton Mistry - A Fine Balance Rosamunde Pilcher - The Shell Seekers Salman Rushdie - Midnight's Children Sebastian Faulks - Birdsong Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Stella Gibbons - Cold Comfort Farm Stephen King - The Stand Sylvia Plath - The Bell Jar Terry Pratchett - Guards! Guards! Terry Pratchett - Mort Terry Pratchett - Night Watch Terry Pratchett - The Colour Of Magic Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman - Good Omens Thackeray - Vanity Fair Thomas Hardy - Far From The Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy - Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy - Tess Of The D'Urbervilles Various - The Bible Victor Hugo - Les Miserables Vikram Seth - A Suitable Boy Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita Wilkie Collins - The Woman in White William Golding - Lord Of The Flies William Shakespeare - Complete Works of Shakespeare Yann Martel - Life of Pi

TBR list Austen, Jane - Pride & Prejudice Austen, Jane - Sense & Sensibility Austen, Jane - Mansfield Park Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey Barker, Clive - Abarat Barton, Beverly - The Dying Games Batchelder, Dennis - Soul Identity Beever, Anthony - Stalingrad Bradshaw, John - Cat Sense Bronte, Charlotte - Jane Eyre Bryson, Bill - At Home Burgess, Anthony - A Clockwork Orange Campbell, Ramsey - The House on Nazareth Hill Campbell, Ramsey - The Gruesome Book Campbell, Ramsey - The Height of the Scream Campbell, Ramsey - Alone with the Horrors Campbell, Ramsey - The Hungry Moon Campbell, Ramsey - Ancient Images Campbell, Ramsey - The Nameless Chaucer, Geoffrey - The Canterbury Tales Child, Lee - Jack Reacher series Ciccone, Derek - Painless Collins, Wilkie - The Moonstone Coyne, Matt - Dummy Defoe, Daniel - Moll Flanders Dickens, Charles - Bleak House Dickens, Charles - David Copperfield Dickens, Charles - A Tale of Two Cities Dixon, E - Fairy Tales from the Arabian Nights Donaldson, Stephen - The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant Donaldson, Stephen - The 2nd Chronicles of Thomas Covenant Donaldson, Stephen - The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant Eliot, George - The Mill on the Floss Eliot, George - Middlemarch Erikson, Steven - Malazan collection 1 Flaubert, Gustav - Madame Bovary Follett, Ken - The Key to Rebecca Forster, E M - Howards End Gaskell, Elizabeth - Wives & Daughters Gaskell, Elizabeth - North & South Hardy, Thomas - Far From the Madding Crowd Herley, Richard - The Penal Colony Hill, Joe - The Fireman Hobb, Robin - The Rain Wild Chronicles Hobb, Robin - The Fitz and the Fool Trilogy Homer - The Odyssey Hoover, Thomas - Life Blood Hoover, Thomas - Syndrome Hugo, Victor - Les Miserables Hume, David - The History of England Vol 1 Izzard, Eddie - Believe Me Jacques, Brian - Redwall saga James, E L - Fifty shades of grey Jordan, Robert - Wheel of Time Joyce, James - Ulysses Kay, Guy Gavriel - Tigana King, Stephen - Dark Tower Knowles, James - The Legends of King Arthur Littell, Johnathan - The Kindly Ones Lovecraft, HP - Omnibus 1 Lumley, Brian - Vampire World Lumley, Brian - Lost Years Lumley, Brian - E-Branch Lumley, Brian - Harry Keogh & other Weird Heroes Lumley, Brian - The Touch Mariani, Scott - The Shadow Project McCammon, Robert - Blue World McCammon, Robert - Boy's Life McCammon, Robert - Mystery Walk McCammon, Robert - The Wolf's Hour Melville, Herman - Moby Dick Meyers, Stephanie - Twilight saga Milton, John - Paradise Lost Mitchell, Margaret - Gone with the Wind Mock, Elizabeth C - Shatter (The children of man) Montgomery, L M - Anne of Green Gables Morris, Stan - Surviving the Fog Newman, Kim - Bad Dreams Newman, Kim - Jago Newman, Kim - Unforgivable Stories Paoline, Christopher - Brinsingr Partridge, Alan - Nomad Pepys, Samuel - Diary of Samuel Pepys Pratchett, Terry - The Science of Discworld 1 & 2 Pratchett, Terry - The Long Earth series Pullman, Phillip - Once upon a Time in the North Richardson, Samuel - Clarissa Harlowe (9 vol) Rothfuss, Patrick - The Name of the Wind Shakespeare, William - Complete Works of Shakespeare Simmons, Dan - Hyperion Smith, Clark Ashton - The Emperor of Dreams Smith, Clark Ashton - Out of Space & Time vol 1 Steinbeck, John - East of Eden Stephenson, Neal - Reamde Tchaikovsky, Adrian - Empire in Black & Gold Thackeray, William - Vanity Fair Tolkien, J R R - The Silmarillion Tolkien, J R R - The Children of Hurin Tolstoy, Leo - Anna Karenina Tzu, Sun - Art of War Verne, Jules - A Journey to the Centre of the Earth Verne, Jules - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Weeks, Brent - Shadow trilogy Weis/Hickman - The Second Generation Welsh, Irvine - Ecstasy Welsh, Irvine - Glue Welsh, Irvine - Porno Welsh, Irvine - The Secrets of the Master Chef Welsh, Irvine - Skagboys White, Neil - Fallen Idols Yekov, Kirill - The Last Ringbearer

Past year totals (since records began!) 2005 - 33 2006 - 53 2007 - 65 2008 - 90 2009 - 95 2010 - 107 2011 - 120 2012 - 50 2013 - 24 2014 - 27 2015 - 26 2016 - 25 2017 - 23 (Can you tell when I became a parent? )

I started Fools's Quest by Robin Hobb after being at a loose end upstairs for a bit, with my current book downstairs and my phone on charge.

Happy new year everyone!

Fool's Assassin by Robin Hobb 5/5 Oh how I've missed reading Robin Hobb. It gave me a warm glow inside. I'd stupidly skipped the Rain Wilds series as I'd read a bad review, but I definitely need to go back and sort that out, I think. A Crown of Swords (TWoT7) by Robert Jordan 3/5 It took a while to get going but once I was reading more regularly, I got more into it. I'm starting to lose track of all the characters a bit, but I'm just about managing to follow. I'm looking forward to getting into some new material once I hit the halfway point of book 8!

Doom of the Dragon by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman 4/5 Decent finish to a fairly good 'quadrilogy' . Wizard & Glass by Stephen King 5/5 This is my favourite of the series. Roland's back story is very moving. A Short History of Everything by Bill Bryson 4/5 It took a while to get through (mainly as I only read it at occasional work lunchtimes) but I found it fascinating. My most favourite thing was the bit about the dandelion plant: The dandelion was long popularly known as the 'pissabed' because of its supposed diuretic properties, and other names in everyday use included 'mare's fart', 'naked ladies', 'twitch-ballock', 'hounds-wee', 'open arse', and 'bum-towel'

The Gunslinger by Stephen King 3/5 A slow and intriguing start to the series. Still one of the best opening lines to a book series. The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King 4/5 Oh, and this is where it really gets going. Moranifesto by Caitlin Moran 3/5 I can't really remember much about this, but I'm sure I found it funny! The Waste Lands by Stephen King 4/5 Not the best of the series, but I do love the scenes with Blaine.

Rage of the Dragon by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman 3/5 Book 3 - not bad End of Watch by Stephen King 2/5 Both enjoyable and disappointing. It all got a bit fantastical which didn't really fit what happened in the first two books. It was pretty sad at the end though. Also, it recapped the stuff that had happened in Mr Mercedes and I was struck down by the scarily similar comparisons to the recent terror attacks - the car driving into crowds and the bomber in a concert full of youths. Thinking About it Only Makes it Worse by David Mitchell 3/5 Some interesting articles in Mitchell's own imitable style.

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson 4/5 This was a very interesting premise. I liked the feistiness of the lead woman. Girl on a Train by Paula Hawkins 4/5 I found Rachel very frustrating but it was a story that kept me gripped all the way through. The Killing 3 by David Hewson 3/5 I read this because I missed it when it was on tv and it's still yet to appear on a streaming service. I quite enjoyed it but it was definitely more confusing to keep up with the characters than if it was on tv. I'm not sure if the ending was the same too. The intro seemed to infer it wasn't. I'd still like to see the tv interpretation too. Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig 3/5 As someone who's suffered with ill mental health in the past, I could very much empathise with the feelings he had in this, but as a self-help book, there are not many practical advice of getting better in this. It just seems to happen for him. Raising Girls by Steve Biddulph 3/5 This was a practical book about how to handle the various stages of raising a daughter. There is some reasonable advice in here but by the time Ellie gets to the age that it'd be relevant, I'll have probably forgotten it!

The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson 4/5 I enjoyed it, but it probably didn't help that I forgot all the workings of allomancy and what happned in the Mistborn trilogy. There were some good characters and interesting baddies. Swallows & Amazons by Arthur Ransome 3/5 Enjoyable enough but quite a fluffy and lightweight story. The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett 3/5 A story evolves into three different parallel strands based on a tiny change in the main thread. Very cleverly done.

The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett 5/5 So this was it. The last Discworld. I don't think I've ever read a Discworld book so carefully. I mean, I still read it quick, but I didn't skim through it with my usual speed. Anyway, it was great, but it was witty & amusing rather than riotously funny like his earlier books. I liked the premise of the elf trying to redeem herself, but the whole thing was quite brutal in a way. After the 2nd chapter, I cried. This was based on what happened in the chapter - the loss of Terry Pratchett and on what had happened earlier that day IRL - a conversation about us maybe having to make a tough choice about our 11 year old cat who had gone completely incontinent. (A few days later we took him to the vets and found out he had bladder crystals. All this required was a change of diet - he went on the most expensive cat food ever and now has a new lease of life ) I felt better about the book by the time the 'credits rolled' then I felt sad again at the end reading about all the potential stories we'll never get to see.