vodkafan

Your TBR is rather huge Hayley! I can recommend Diary Of A Nobody, it is a very funny book if you like Victorian things and have read a bit of that era . Of Mice And Men is a good "quickie" to get your numbers up!

Thanks Hayley. I will drop in on your blog and have a look what books you have on your list to inspire me!

OK I am open for business.

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The TBR Pile organised! Victorian authors, obscure works and classics The Poor Gentleman Hendrick Conscience Two On A Tower The Return Of The Native A Laodician A Pair Of Blue Eyes Jude The Obscure The Woodlanders Far From The Madding Crowd all above by The Mayor of Casterbridge Thomas Hardy Post Haste RM Ballantyne Autobiography Of Anthony Trollope Lady Anna Miss Mackenzie 4 above by The Way We Live Now Anthony Trollope Twelve Years A Slave Solomon Northup Letters Of Two Brides Balzac Birds Of Prey Charlotte's Inheritance Run To Earth A Novel The Doctor's Wife Lady Audley's Secret Mary Elizabeth Braddon Little Dorrit Charles Dickens The Mill On The Floss Madame Bovary Tess of The d'urbervilles Lady Susan Thoughts On The Education Of Daughters The Last Man Maria, Or The Wrongs Of Woman Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman The Perpetual Curate Equality Looking Backward 2000-1887 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The Picture Of Dorian Grey Oscar Wilde Nicholas Nickleby Charles Dickens The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow Washington Irvine Shirley Bleak House The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde The Moonstone The Woman In White Ruth The Importance Of Being Earnest Basil Les Miserables Mrs Oliphant Confessions Of An English Opium Eater Thomas De Quincey Testament Of Youth Vera Brittain Books set in Victorian times by modern authors Under A Cloud-Soft Sky The Singing Winds Shelter From The Storm Snow Angels Pure - Andrew Miller The Road To Samarcand Patrick O'Brian Reference works and 18th-19th century history, social history London The Biography Peter Ackroyd The Siege Of Krishnapur J.G. Farrell The Dictionary Of London Raj Lawrence James The Age of Revolution 1789-1848 The Age Of Capital 1848-1875 The Age Of Empire 1875-1914 Slavery A New Global History Jeremy Black Balti Britain - Ziauddin Sardar Asians In Britain 400 years of History Rozina Visram Random must reads Nice To See It To See It Nice Brian Viner It's A Small Medium And Outsize World John Taylor Connections Rules For Virgins The Life And Loves Of A She Devil The Passion Of New Eve The Haunted Hotel Ten Interesting Things About Human Behaviour Slave Girl Sarah Forsyth (autobiography) The Man Who Loved Only Numbers Paul Hoffman (biography of Paul Erdos) The White Mists Of Power Kristine Kathryn Rusch I Think I'm OK Undercover: The True Story Of Britain's Secret Police King Solomon's Carpet Barbara Vine A Far Cry From Kensington Muriel Spark Good Behaviour Molly Keane Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood One Day David Nichols Geisha Liza Dalby In The Heart Of The Sea Nathanial Philbrick Spycatcher Peter Wright Rivers Of London Ben Aaronovitch The Horse Whisperer Nicholas Evans The German Invasion Of Norway Geirr H Haarr Accidents In The Home Tessa Hadley Devoted Ladies Molly Keane A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry Lord Of The Flies William Golding Rebecca Daphne Du Maurier Untying The Knot Linda Gillard One of Our Thursdays Is Missing, Thursday Next First Among Sequels, Something Rotten, The Well Of Lost Plots, Lost In A Good Book, The Eyre Affair Jasper Fforde Life Of Pi - Yann Martel The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared - Jonas Jonasson Alone In Berlin The Terror Round the Bend Two Eggs On My Plate Oluf Reed Olsen Infidel Ayaan Hirsi Ali Nerd Do Well Simon Pegg Forensic Clues To Murder Brian Marriner The Voyage Out Virginia Woolf The Book Of The Dead The Serpent The Dragon Atlan The City all by Jane Gaskell Renoir My Father Jean Renoir Shopping, Seduction And Mr Selfridge Lindy Woodhead 7 Trips Through Time And Space anthology Night Watch Andrew m Stephenson At Home Bill Bryson Dorian Will Self SF Out Of Time-Five tales of Time Travel Strange Loops The Time Travel Megapack The Martian Way Isaac Asimov The Green Brain Frank Herbert The Steampunk megapack (26 stories) Viridis Lady Of Devices A Steampunk Adventure Steampunk Erotica Best New SF 25 Meeting At Infinity John Brunner Foundation Isaac Asimov The Naked Sun Isaac Asimov Of All Possible Worlds William Tenn The Makeshift Rocket Poul Anderson Life The Universe and Everything More Than Super-Human AE VAN Vogt

Welcome to my 2018 reading experience, Ah, last year was terrible for reading. But, I am still here! So no big changes in format for this year, no reading challenges just a mass of books on my TBR to get through, mostly carried over unchanged from previous couple of years. And I still haven't mastered the link thingy yet , so reviews are found buried in the following pages: sorry if that is confusing to anybody. (k) denotes kindle ebook ® denotes book read primarily for research purposes keeping the same simple rating system this year: 1/5: I didn't like it 2/5: It was okay 3/5: I liked it 4/5: I really liked it 5/5: It was amazing! Books Read in 2018 January Night Lamp Jack Vance (re-read) To Live Forever Jack Vance (re-read) S.T.A.R. Flight EC Tubb 2/5 The American Henry James 5/5 February A Ticket To Oblivion Edward Marston 2/5 Destination Void Frank Herbert ABANDONED March The Serpent Jane Gaskill 3/5 April May The Watchmaker of Filigree Street Natasha Pulley 4/5 The Way We Live Now Anthony Trollope 3/5 Wyst- Alastor 1716 Jack Vance 4/5 (re-read) June Ready Player One Ernest Cline 2/5 At Home Bill Bryson 3/5 July Jamrach's Menagerie Carol Birch 5/5 Under The Eagle Simon Scarrow 1/5 Son Of The Tree Jack Vance 2/5 August The Historian Elizabeth Kostova 3/5 Coster Girls & Mudlarks Belinda Hollyer (edited) 4/5 The Newgate Calender G T Wilkinson 3/5 September The Siege Of Krishnapur JG Farrell 3/5 The Gray Prince Jack Vance (RE-read) 3/5 Night Frost R D Wingfield 1/5 Night Lamp Jack Vance (re-read) The Book Of The Dead John Lloyd, John Michelson 3/5 October The Languages Of Pao Jack Vance (re-read 4/5) Mayhem Sarah Pinborough 4/5 Mortal Engines Philip Reeves 3/5 Little Women Louisa May Alcott ABANDONED November Pure Andrew Miller 4/5 The Rivers Of London Ben Aaronovitch 4/5 Alone In Berlin Hans Fallada 4/5 A Christmas Journey Anne Perry 1/5 December The Jesus Incident Frank Herbert (and someone else) ABANDONED

I find this piece of music really hypnotic at the moment. Can't understand a word of course but I like the sound of her voice.

Sounds like they would not ever be able to make them fast enough for you Kylie!

Congratulations finishing your first novel. It must feel good! I am not there yet. To answer your questions; I am old fashioned and I like a good slow build up in a romance and it has to be set against a plot of something major and life-changing going on , where two characters are thrown together by circumstance. Ideally they won't even like each other at first. The attraction between the characters has to make sense. For me I like any sex to be used sparingly and with discretion; I don't like it too graphic. These are all just my opinions and preferences, of course.

Not seen any but I have heard a lot about this series again lately. The USS Callista episode of season 4 is supposed to be very very good

The first film I watched in 2018 was The Martian (again). It's great until the silly bit at the end. Big Son had not seen it and was watching it under protest.

So the new lady Doctor has arrived?

Was there a Doctor Who Christmas Special and I missed it? We were so busy playing boardgames we watched no telly at all, and I have only just thought about it....

It was a copy of plot of the first Star Wars film in 1977....didn't see the point. I am first to admit I am very hard to please with films nowadays. I won't watch Superhero movies for the same reason.

I decided after being duped into seeing the last one that I will never watch another Star Wars film...

A South Korean supernatural horror The Wailing. I am sure a lot of the cultural references went over my head but it was OK.

I finished Orphan Black. It got a bit improbable at times but it was fun.

I just watched the last episode..for me this is going to be the definitive version. I really like Matthew Macfayden and Hayley Atwell is a revelation. I cannot imagine Emma Thompson in the same role, although I have not seen the film version. I will have to read the book now as soon as possible!

Hi Poppy yes a new BBC remake. I have never seen any of the other adaptions or read the book, so I don't know what to expect and am enjoying watching it unfold. The actors all seem very well cast. You can still get episodes 1-3 on BBC I-player if you want to catch up and bingewatch..

I am really enjoying Howard's End. The characters and plot are so interesting. The Mr Wilcox character in particular fascinates me. His pronouncements are very logical and convincing and yet I wonder if he completely believes what he says and does or is playing the part expected of him in his place in society. We caught a crack in his composure in episode 3 .

I have been reading but lots of other things going on so I have completely forgotten the last half a dozen titles I have read...I don't stack them all in the same place when I have finished with them so they are spread all over the flat and some in the locker at work. Had a mini purge and took about 20 unread books to the charity shop this week.

Watching : Howard's End, The Apprentice (very boring this year, not really bothered if I miss the rest) Blue Planet II (amazing!) Orphan Black (half way through season 4, will have finished all 5 seasons by xmas) That's the most TV I have watched all at once for many years

I watched David Lynch's Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me film last night. So weird. I have never seen any of the Twin Peaks TV series, new or old . Not sure what to make of it.

I saw this: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/man-transracial-white-florida-filipino-rachel-dolezal-philippines-ja-du-adam-a8053731.html And then I saw clearly what my problem has been all my life. I was born poor but I am in the wrong body. I always knew that I should have been a millionaire. Someone help me please!