steffee

I read The Da Vinci Code and since I got both TDVC and Angels and Demons in the fancy illustrated editions as a Christmas present, I did try to read A&D too. But the story was exactly the same. I kept wondering if such-and-such would happen in A&D just as it did in TDVC (yeah, I know A&D was written first), thinking it surely wouldn't be that identical, but it did, and it was. So I gave up after a hundred pages and just looked at the pretty pictures. I did think that despite the "laughingly unbelievable" (to quote someone earlier in this thread) plots of both of them, TDVC, which I finished, was an easy read, and it did "flow" quite well. But whilst I am a big rereader, I couldn't imagine rereading any of Dan Brown's stuff because the story is spoilt.

She is.

I thought Mike Gayle was chick lit.

Oh, like Shopaholic Ties the Knot and stuff? Cool.

I'm surprised this thread doesn't have more posts than it does. Who writes the Undomestic Goddess then?

Yeah, I know that feeling, Kell.

Oh, that's it, Salem Falls is the one I couldn't get into.

Well, I didn't skim, I read the whole thread. I read My Sister's Keeper last year to see what all the fuss was about, and thought the story, and the ending, great. I then read The Pact, which I thought was even better (one of my favourite reads from last year, and it was last year I first read Lolita). I think then I either outgrew her as a writer, or picked a couple of dull choices (Vanishing Acts and another, can't remember, maybe Keeping Faith) because they were awful and I couldn't get through them. Have just bought Tenth Circle, but think if I ever do read it, it won't be for a while yet.

Haven't read any full novels but have come across one or two short stories (as Dr Mukti... is?), and read his PsychoGeography in the Independent, which is quite interesting.

and I meant the latter book.. ie A Short History of Nearly Everything Thanks, I thought you meant my post, since it was directly above yours, but wih only a few minutes difference in the times between posts, I figured you could have meant the post before mine. Anyway, yeah, reading a chapter or so at a time will be fine, I reckon.

Yeah I would say so, it's not a story where you can get lost if you take a long enough break from it. It's very educational, hope you enjoy it. Which book do you mean by the latter? From whose post, I mean? That applies to any of his books really.

Notes From a Small Island, and the others of that kind, such as Down Under and Neither Here Nor There are written as a journey across the UK (or Australia, or Europe) whereas Notes From a Big Country is merely a series of his newspaper columns put together to make a complete book, and as such it appears a little disjointed compared to the others. Also try his English language books: Made in America or Mother Tongue, which are very good, educational and very funny; and of course A Short History of Nearly Everything.

I haven't heard of most of the books or authors mentioned here in your book list / blog, Michelle, but read Velocity (by Dean Koontz?) earlier this year, my second Koontz, and thought it tedious to get through. Finished it only because I'd bought it in hard cover, and my first Koontz, Intensity, had been quite good.