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Hayley

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Everything posted by Hayley

  1. Well that's the perfect excuse to buy another book . I'm excited for those now! I'll prepare myself for some choppiness when I start that one then. Kraken was the book that actually drew my attention to the author, I'm pretty sure originally I saw it in one of those 'if you like this author, then you'll like this one...' lists, where he was compared to Neil Gaiman.
  2. Excellent! I definitely agree that there shouldn't be a ton of reading, I wouldn't be able to do that either. Adding poems and short stories would make that much more manageable. That sounds good to me! If fewer than ten people have challenge suggestions by next week then participants can suggest a second challenge. Alternatively, if a lot of people want to make suggestions, we can change the format slightly and do the poll in rounds. I will be back soon with my challenge suggestion
  3. I am always willing to talk about Victorian literature . I do think the concept sounds interesting, I'll have a think about joining in! Although, you are right about the 'countryside or city' category; I'd find it more difficult to think of an example that is not set in the countryside or city. And popular at any point in history is also extremely vague. Technically anything that we can still get in print could be in that category. Unless you'd like to set up a Victober-style group read here just for the forum? We could set up a poll for the categories. I would definitely be up for that .
  4. Thanks it is a nice feeling. It didn't really feel right here without my books! Oh you've read a lot of them! What did you think of The Kraken and The Scar? They were both really impulse buys from a charity shop, I'd only vaguely heard of the author before. I've been saving The Dance of the Serpents because I don't want there to be no more left to read in the series, and it's so long until the next one! it's been really good exercise! I'm glad you pointed that out because First Among Sequels shouldn't be on that pile, I've already read it! I always enjoy Jasper Fforde books, so I'm already very confident that I'll love The Fourth Bear
  5. Mike Smith from Aberystwyth Was a fan of PG's Psmith When he read his new book A deep breath he took
  6. Thank you! I am glad because I have more . I unpacked another box earlier, so have added to the mount TBR: I thought I’d feel quite daunted by the physical size of my tbr pile, but I’m actually just really excited to read them all . It’s nice having them all (well nearly all, only a few left to go) out and in the same place!
  7. Hello, welcome to the forum . Are there any features you prefer in science fiction, or do you just want recommendations of anything that's considered a classic?
  8. That's high on my wish list! Yay! I've only got about 20 pages left of Botanical Folk Tales and I definitely want a novel, rather than more short stories, next. I might read the next Septimus Heap book
  9. Weirdly, after the above conversation, I had an email about a sale at The Works and this was the first thing on the list! Portapuzzle Standard Jigsaw Accessory - For 1000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzles from £12.00 | The Works So apparently you can get flat ones as well as rolled up ones!
  10. You just don't really need to include the word year at all, because it doesn't add anything to your understanding of the sentence.
  11. I am really looking forward to that one! Oh wow, I might have a look for that too!
  12. Now that meteorological autumn is here for the northern hemisphere, and the autumn equinox is nearly here, does anybody have any particular books they've been saving for autumn? Or books you plan to buy? I had a 25% off voucher for Waterstones, so I treated myself to The Haunting Season: Ghostly Tales for Long Winter Nights, which will be out on the 21st October and is probably not going to be saved until winter (although, having seen the size of my TBR list, it might be). I'd also like to read Classic Victorian & Edwardian Ghost Stories this year, which I ran out of time for last year, and Bone China by Laura Purcell .
  13. 'We start at midwinter, when most plant life is dormant'. Botanical Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland by Lisa Schneidau and (because, unusually for me, I'm reading two books at once) 'Whenever I am unable to walk, climb or sail away from the world, I have learned to shut it out'. Silence in the Age of Noise by Erling Kagge
  14. Well that sounds lovely . It's been quite a while since I read A Month in the Country, but the main thing I remember about it is that charming, rural atmosphere. To be honest, I remember that far better than I remember anything about the plot!
  15. Apparently (I think maybe we spoke about this before on here??) the translations of the Arabian Nights can be hugely different. It's the main reason I couldn't decide which one to get! (as well as the fact that not all of the stories are included in various editions!). It must be incredibly difficult to translate the sense of a description and the flow of the prose as well as just the words. You must have to be an exceptionally good writer yourself, I think, to translate well.
  16. Yes, we'd just cut out the words 'the year' in modern English, so it would say 'I was born in 1638' . 'could not fail to' means you can't not do something. So the men can't not feel strongly exited, therefore they do feel strongly excited. I hope that helps!
  17. Ooh thanks for that! Honestly, Boogie the dog is really selling it to me
  18. I was tempted by The Salt Path after I read an article about Ray and Moth, which sort of summarised the journey they took and how it ended up being a book - it's just not the kind of book I usually read. Your review hasn't really convinced me to try it but I'll definitely look up 500 Mile Walkies (which I didn't know was the inspiration for their trip, I don't think that was mentioned in the article).
  19. The base of Mount TBR… I was checking the name of a book on Goodreads today and realised I’ve only read 12 books so far this year. Although I don’t feel like I’ve been reading that much less than usual, I suppose I’ve just had a really busy year. I am absolutely going to use it as an excuse to have extra autumn reading time though.
  20. I really am! I’m so glad I saw your post about them! Thank you. I think we’re past the initial horrible shock of it now at least, so it is getting better. I started the great book migration yesterday, with just two of the boxes. The only book storage I have right now is a technically not a bookcase, it’s a display cabinet - but it was £20 in the heart foundation and the perfect width, so I decided I could just replace the glass shelves with more solid ones and it will be perfect (downside being that I still don’t have the shelves!). The bottom part of the cabinet already had wooden shelves though, so I’ve started with that and I’m using it for ‘work’ books (some are still fiction but they’re books I’m likely to need for teaching/research). The shelves are deep enough for two layers of books but I’d like to avoid that for as long as possible, so things are easier to find! I also definitely want to make a physical tbr mountain before I shelve the rest of my books
  21. This isn't just funny, it's also good practical advice Me too, I think Dante's Inferno was my favourite one . Although it's weirdly made me want to try Don Quixote...
  22. I haven't done a jigsaw for ages but it's something I think I would like! I had an email from The Works with some really pretty ones for sale recently too. That is a big downside of them. I think you can buy a thing that allows you to roll up a partially finished jigsaw, but I don't know how well that works. It would be very disappointing if you spent ages making progress on one and it broke when you rolled it up!
  23. (This one is kind of more clever than funny but I didn’t want to interrupt the Limerick thread for it ) I thought other people might also enjoy these book summaries
  24. It’s not as big as a bell pepper (although maybe they’re different sizes, I’m not sure), but they are sweet peppers. They’re about the size of the palm of my hand. We haven’t tried it yet but it looks lovely!
  25. Thank you! I saved one for my dad too, he also liked it We also had our first pepper today! I love being able to pick and eat things straight from the garden - I definitely want to plant more edible things for next year. I just need to work out what will be best for the limited space we have!
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