kay_loves_purple

Thanks, I'll be sure to look them up!

Noted. Will bump it to the top of the pile So: Having finished Wicked (review here), I'm now thinking of starting up Coraline. Will follow: next book in the ASOUE series (The Austere Academy) next book in the alphabet series (B is for Burglar) next book in the Percy Jackson series (The Sea of Monsters) (I plan to advance my series reading at least once per month, hence the choices above) The Female Quixote (since Roxi says it's brilliant ) Jodi Picoult's Mercy The Uncommon Reader ...and then we'll see

It's a huge list that I don't know if I'll manage to read it all by the next year -- but one can only try. Especially now that I have enlisted an 100+ reading challenge, I'll be doubly-challenged to read all that

Currently reading Wicked and Life of Pi so I'm not delving into it right away (but will, soon)

My challenge for this year is to get to read at least the vast majority of the books on my TBR pile: (in no particular order) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon My Sister's Keeper: A Novel by Jodi Picoult Deception Point by Dan Brown Beloved by Toni Morrison Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins Catch-22 by Joseph Heller The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford American Gods by Neil Gaiman Stardust by Neil Gaiman Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter by Adeline Yen Mah The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins Coraline by Neil Gaiman Lincoln's Dreams by Connie Willis Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safra Foer The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George The Vile Village (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 7) by Lemony Snicket The Ersatz Elevator (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 6) by Lemony Snicket The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton The Autobiography of Henry VIII: With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers by Margaret George Pompeii by Robert Harris The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror by Christopher Moore The Best Laid Plans by Sidney Sheldon The Sky Is Falling by Sidney Sheldon The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell The Austere Academy (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 5) by Lemony Snicket Ransom by Julie Garwood Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank The Liar by Stephen Fry The Hippopotamus by Stephen Fry Johnny and the Dead by Terry Pratchett Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama Shirley by Charlotte Bronte Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang Castaways in Time by Robert Adams Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey by Alison Weir Time Cat by Lloyd Alexander Bicentennial Man by Isaac Asimov I Married a Dead Man by Cornell Woolrich Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata The Pursuit of Happyness by Chris Gardner The Vulture Fund by Stephen W. Frey Zorro by Isabel Allende The Female Quixote by Charlotte Lennox Christmas Jars by Jason F. Wright In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner Witchling by Yasmine Galenorn Obsession by Karen Robards Kilgannon by Kathleen Givens The Book Thief by Markus Zusak The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette by Carolly Erickson Who Will Take This Man? by Jacquie D'Alessandro The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan Wag the Dog by Larry Beinhart If Only It Were True by Marc Levy The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett The Luxe by Anna Godbersen Are You Afraid of the Dark? by Sidney Sheldon The Bishop's Wife by Robert Nathan The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett The Host by Stephenie Meyer Lady of Kynachan by James Robertson Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig "C" is for Corpse by Sue Grafton This Charming Man by Marian Keyes The Phantom's Opera by Sadie Montgomery Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix Rememberance by Jude Deveraux The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, Jeffrey Zaslow The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits by Les Standiford Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson Nation by Terry Pratchett Paper Towns by John Green Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband, Danny Pearl by Mariane Pearl How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier A Fairy Special Gift by Gia Dawn The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks The Good Thief by James Buchanan The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing by Mayra Calvani, Anne K. Edwards Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo Before September Falls by Jesse Lee B is for Burglar by Sue Grafton My pretty pony by Stephen King, Barbara Kruger Mercy by Jodi Picoult What Would Jane Austen Do? by Laurie Brown Simulacron Three by Daniel F. Galouye

Oooooh, Romania is in there too :D I'm so curious what book will get chosen (I've no idea which of the Romanian writers have been translated into English, I'm guessing not very many) (speaking of translation, at one point I begun translating myself a book I very much liked but got bored after a few pages -- so if you really really find yourselves with no Romanian author to read, I can always (try and) finish my translation :D )

Breaking Dawn: I was probably the single person on Earth who was not disappointed by the ending :D ok, perhaps we were expecting a wee bit more complicated fight than we got but oh well. Cell: I agree with the end being quite anticlimactic (the "main "fight" being less than expected) and most of all the whole idea of reverse pulse didn't stood well with me. What I did like though was that we are not told the ending of the experiment Clayton did with his son so it was a cool ending even for non-believers like me Harry Potter: I've loved all HP books but Deathly Hallows (I had a huge list of complaints at the time, I don't remember them all nowm luckily I have them all written down on zee blog) -- the Elder Wand thingy sounded false (something wasn't exactly right), not to mention the whole thing -- I'm aware of the explanation but it too seemed forced at the time (at least to me) Atonement: you have no idea how much the ending troubled me! Have it been a real book I was reading (instead of an ebook) I probably would have flung it to the floor. It made me so upset and angry. Interestingly enough after a while I recognized the brilliance of the idea and now I'm okay with it And now to add a book of my own: Crusader Gold, by David Gibbins. It's about a bunch of guys who spend quite a bit of time and go through quite a bit of trouble to find a huge ancient religious symbol, made out of gold. So they go from one side of the Earth to another, decipher all sorts of ancient writings, and... after a while Um, what???? LATER EDIT: here's what I thought of HP and the DH at the time (including a list of things I didn't like with the ending hee hee). A blog is sometimes such a useful thing

The "Reading through the decades" one sounds great, and the Nobel prize one too. I just might think of starting up on one of them (or both) one of these days Phoenix, what Nobel prize books would you recommend?

As far as I can remember Green Mile the book is precisely like Green Mile the movie, so if you liked one you're bound to like the other. As for me, the only movie I liked more than the book was Interview With a Vampire. Having liked the movie I was surprised to discover a different, worse Lestat in the book (or at least that's how it seemed to me back then). Truth be told I could never get into Anne Rice anyway (I've tried more of her books and never got to finish another), so it may be that it's just not my cup of tea.

My first Pratchett book was Thief of Time (part of the Discworld series but further along, closer to 20th) -- I was absolutely stunned by his wit and humor. While I have read many other books of his (Discworld or not) and liked them and been amused by them, none other amazed me in the way Thief of Time did (perhaps because I now knew what to expect of Pratchett's style, of course). Bottom line, if you think of getting into Pratchett, that is the very book I recommend. It did work for me (back when no one in my country, including myself, had never heard of him, so I had absolutely no idea who he might be, that he might be famous, that he might be appreciated, that sort of thing) Later edit: the interesting thing is that, while I have mostly forgotten all the other Pratchett books I read, I can still remember not only what Thief of Time was about but also many many details of it

Wow, interesting! I definitely have to re-read it! I almost envy you people who got to study the great English classics in school. The are so much more interesting than my national great classics I was saddled with in my younger days.

Yay, mine too!!! Which is why I hope he will write a really good sequel, worthy of the story so far PS (off-topic): Roxi, have you read Phantom by Susan Kay? If not, you absolutely must! It's the full story of Erik's life, and it is very good, I stayed up a few nights to finish it, it captivated me that much

I love many of Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber's musicals -- Phantom of the Opera, JCS, Evita, etc. Speaking of which, I have recently read he's planning a sequel for the Phantom of the Opera (called Love Never Dies), do you think it will be any good? (as for me, words cannot really express how curious I am about it, PotO being one of my favorite musicals ever )

I love reading challenges but I don't like those that ask me to list my books beforehand, as I want to be able to choose the books I read spontaneously (I have nothing against reading a set genre, it's the set list of books that I rebel against + I always have trouble deciding anyway, so it would be hard to get the list in the first place). If you happen to know of any challenges not requiring a set list of books please share a link

Ooooh, I love Vilette, for some reason it's one of my favorite books (despite the ending which I didn't quite like). I have read it so many times I have lost track, although I do remember it being a bit hard to read the first time around. I love all Bronte's books actually, having read them all (the only one I didn't like was Emily's Wuthering Heights, as to me both Catherine and Heathcliff seemed simply too evil for me to like -- then again, that was years ago, who knows how I'd see it all were I to re-read now). Actually, there is one more I remember nothing about (I mean, I don't even remember if I read it or not) it's Jane Eyre (I've seen all these movies they made after the book and I even had a record with the radio play when I was a kid so I do know all about the story and have known it ever since I can remember, which makes it harder for me to realize whether I have actually read the book or not). Anyway, that is about to change soon as I do have Jane Eyre on my TBR list Nevertheless, I can say for certain that I love that book too, as I do know almost everything there is to know about the story and I do love it (plus the Bronte's writing style so it's a sure thing )

I have read the book ages ago and probably loved it (being written by Terry Pratchett, one of my favorite authors), but I don't seem to remember any single thing about it (even after having read the blurb and your review) (I do remember a wee bit about Cohen, something like "he was a lifetime in his own legend" or something, but that's all there is to it :) ) I SO hate it when that happens

A mile above Oz, the Witch balanced on the wind's forward edge, as if she were a green fleck of the land itself, flung up and sent wheeling away by the turbulent air. Wicked by Gregory Maguire

It's very nice to meet them both

:) So sweet! PS The spotted cow is lovely too

That is a lovely Pleo you got there :) Also, I'm really curious to see what's the book about and if it matches up to the hype. I'm looking forward to see people posting about it around here, to make up my mind whether to read it or not. The collector's edition is very beautiful indeed, congratulations on such a nice gift

I have to agree about that too

Now with that I totally agree. I have thought about that myself and feel the same.

Having seen the movie first I've knew it all along that this is how the book will end -- probably that's why it didn't bother me at all

Wow! They look lovely! The ones with lemon on top are my favorites too I just bet they are yummy too