Angury

I was referring to Willoyd when I said I agree with him - of course I agree with you as well!

Because I didn't 'get it' when I first read it and really just ploughed on because I don't like leaving a book half-finished. The result being that I finished the book with no idea of what I was actually reading. But yes, I agree with everything you've said above, Willoyd.

There are quite a few books I'd like to re-read - particularly books which I read when I was younger and didn't really 'get.' The only problem is that my family have never seen the 'point' in re-reading books (to be honest they don't see the 'point' in reading fiction either..) and despite disagreeing with them, I find myself very hesitant to pick up a book I've already read. Some books I would eventually like to re-read: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath Catch-22 by Joseph Heller ..so quite a few. I think when I was younger I used to read more for the plot and action rather than the words used, the writing style, the underlying meaning etc.

It's raining and horribly windy here. We had quite nice sunshine this weekend; I wonder if that will be the last of it for some time.. I was planning on going out and doing some shopping but with this weather I'd rather sit inside with a warm cup of coffee and a book.

To be honest, I didn't enjoy A Bridge of Clay as much as the other two books you mentioned. That's not to say it's not good - and it seems to have received a lot of excellent reviews. Zusak is without question a fantastic storyteller and the novel will grip you. I would recommend it. I just finished reading Moby Dick last night. It's not as difficult as people make it out to be. It is very well written, almost like poetry in the sections where he describes the whale. I know a lot of people complain that it feels like one is reading an Encylopedia about whales rather than a novel, but I really didn't get that feeling at all. The chapters on the anatomy of the whale don't read as dry textbooks - they are filled with beautiful metaphors and imagery, and these chapters very much integrate with the flow of the novel. I'm now about to read Don Quixote. I tend to go through episodes of wanting to read big novels, and Don Quixote stood out to me because of how famous it seems to be and the positive comments it attracts. Quite looking forward to it.

One of my favourite books. It stayed with me after I'd finished it. Glad you enjoyed it. I just finished reading Moby Dick last night. It's not as difficult as people make it out to be. It is very well written, almost like poetry when he describes the whale. I know a lot of people complain that it feels like one is reading an Encylopedia about whales rather than a novel, but I really didn't get that feeling at all. Would definitely recommend. I am now just about to start Don Quixote - I've heard a lot about this book.

I'm currently reading Moby Dick - not as dry as I thought it might be! What about yourself? I know you said you'd just finished reading Matt Cain.

I quite enjoyed The Luminaries. Not the best book I've read or the most exciting of plots, but I thought it was well written with an interesting concept. Looking forward to hear what you think of it - it does seem to divide opinions. I just started reading Moby Dick by Herman Melville a few days ago. It caught my eye after I saw a Youtube Video about how it's not as hard as people make it out to be and is in fact very deep, covering matters such as philosophy, spirituality and religion. I'm enjoying it so far. The writing is lovely but I can tell it's not for everyone. Just waiting on the dreaded chapters on the Encyclopaedia of the Whale that everyone seems to hate.

I wanted to revive this thread out of my love for Botton. Has anyone read Status Anxiety by him? It's next on my to-read list and would love to hear people's thoughts.

I agree with this. After a certain number, a list (for me) just loses its' significance. I'd rather have a list of 'Top Five Books' (with the writers' reasons why) rather than a ream of bullet points that go on and on and on.

There is a way you can get the ads to 'fit to screen' for mobiles/ipads etc so they don't take too much room (no idea how you do it for a forum, it's just a problem I've had with websites I've been involved with in the past). The ads don't bother me at all; there's not too many and they don't get in the way. It's just like visiting any other website for me to be honest. Anyway, I just wanted to thank you Hayley for your hard work.

That would be fantastic. I thought the episode yesterday was the best one yet. I also felt like Jodie was really able to capture the Doctors' persona in this one; she felt more like the doctor to me in this episode than in any of the previous. I enjoyed the storyline, I thought the multiple companions were used well in the plot and I thought the ending was done in a nice, not-cheesy sort of way. Also - I loved the character of Kira. She was so sweet.

Welcome to the forum Eliot. I look forward to hearing more about your reading!

Hi Athena! I've been good thanks. Since this forum has been up and running again I've found increased motivation to read more and get back to writing again. It's so nice to be back. What about yourself? How's your reading going?

What are people's thoughts on the new doctor? I've been watching the new series with an open mind and was actually quite surprised by how much I've enjoyed the episodes so far. Not a fan of having so many companions, but I feel like the new doctor's personality works really well. I also think the episodes so far have been done very well; interesting plot lines which keep you hooked to the end. Just hoping for a bit more characterisation of the doctor.

I'm working Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Years Eve & New Years Day this year. I'm actually really happy for about this because 1. I don't do anything for Christmas or New Years Eve so I'd rather be working than sitting at home doing nothing. 2. I'm really interested to see what sort of things turn up to the hospital during these bank holidays. Should be exciting!

I was so thrilled to hear that the forum was coming back. This is probably one of the few forums that I check regularly and feel like I'm part of a community. I updated my log to include the books I have read in the past year; there was a bit of a gap at the start of the year when I was a bit busy with my job, but I've made up for that in the past few months. I'll write a few reviews of the books I've read more recently in the next couple of days.

A fascinating to-read list as ever, Monsieur. I wish you a happy 2018 filled with joyous reading and captivating books.

What an incredibly insightful post. Your review makes me want to reread the novel and see the protagonist from an entirely different point of view.

I agree that USS Callister was fantastic but the rest didn't really live up to the previous seasons. The ideas behind the episodes were thought-provoking as always, but I felt like the topics weren't explored as cleverly.

I love a squeaky clean new thread. I can't believe it's 2018 already. Back in 2017 I created my first ever Reading Diary on this forum and I found it immensely useful. Not only was it fascinating to see what books I had read and what I had thought about them (boy did that bring some nostalgia) but it also gave me an overarching view of the direction of my reading interests. I've decided to continue my Reading Log into the next year, but this time with an added Writing Log. My aim is to write everyday, and I hope documenting the word count on this thread will give me some motivation. At present I am working on a fictional novel, which I have no aims to publish - it is purely an opportunity to flex my writing muscles. However, now and then I enjoy writing essays & articles which I will document in this log. Bring on 2018!

Writing Log Current Projects 1st Novel (Chapter 6) 2nd 'Draft' Novel (Chapter 2) Goals Aim to write for at least fifteen minutes each day. Progress November Chapter 5 completed; to re-review.

To-Read Fiction • Abe, Kobo - The Woman in the Dunes • Bukowski, Charles - Tales of Ordinary Madness • Bulgakov, Mikhail - The Master and Margarita • Byatt, A.S. - Possession • Calvino, Italo - If One Winter's Night a Traveller • Camus, Albert - The Plague • Catton, Eleanor - The Luminaries • Christensen, Kate - The Epicure's Lament • Eliot, George - Daniel Deronda • Dostoyevsky, Fyodor - Demons • Dostoyevsky, Fyodor - The Gambler and A Nasty Business • Dostoyevsky, Fyodor - The Idiot • Faulkner, William - As I Lay Dying • Gide, Andre - The Immoralist • Hall, Sarah - Daughters of the North • Hall, Sarah - Haweswater • Hardy, Thomas - The Return of the Native • Hesse, Herman - Journey to the East • Hesse, Herman - Narcissus and Goldmund • Hesse, Herman - The Glass Bead Game • Jelinek, Elfriede - Greed • Johnson, Denis - Train Dreams • Kavenna, Joanna - Come to the Edge • Lish, Atticus - Life is with People • Morrison, Toni - The Bluest Eye • Nabokov, Vladimir - Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle • Nabokov, Vladimir - Pale Fire • Nutting, Alissa - Tampa • Quincey, Thomas de - Confessions of an English Opium-Eater • Remarque, Erich Maria - All Quiet on the Western Front • Sartre, Jean-Paul - The Age of Reason • Singh, Khushwant - Train to Pakistan • Thackeray, William Makepeace - Vanity Fair • Thomas, Michael Ford - Suicide Notes • Zweig, Stefan - The Royal Game Medicine, Psychology & Anthropology • Bateson, Gregory - Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution and Epistemology • Brewer, John D. - The Public Value of the Social Sciences: An Interpretive Essay • Cantacuzino, Marnia - The Forgiveness Project • Carel, Havi - Health, Illness and Disease: Philosophical Essays • Cooper, Rachel - Psychiatry and Philosophy of Science • Diamond, John - C: Because Cowards Get Cancer Too • Gifford, Fred - Philosophy of Medicine • Kahneman, Daniel - Thinking, Fast and Slow • Kleinman, Arthur - The Illness Narratives: suffering, healing and the human condition • Kleinman, Arthur - Rethinking Psychiatry: from cultural category to personal experience • Laing, Ronald D. - Wisdom, Madness and Folly: The Making of a Psychiatrist 1927-57 • Levi-Strauss, Claude - Myth and Meaning: Cracking the Code of Culture • Mishler, Elliot G. - The Discourse of Medicine: Dialectics of Medical Interviews • Ofri, Danielle - What Doctors Feel: How Emotions Affect the Practice of Medicine • Osler, William - A Way of Life: An Address to Yale Students, Sunday Evening, April 20, 1913 • Perry, Sarah - Every Cradle is a Grave: Rethinking the Ethics of Birth and Suicide • Phillips, Adam - On Kindness • Reynolds, Richard - On Doctoring: Stories, Poems, Essays • Selzer, Richard - Letters to a Young Doctor • Sigerist, Henry E. - Medicine and Human Welfare (Terry Lectures) • Skultans, Vieda and Cox, John - Anthropological Approaches to Psychological Medicine • Sontag, Susan - Illness as Metaphor • Storr, Anthony - The Integrity of the Personality • Svenaeus, Fredrik - The Hermeneutics of Medicine and the Phenomenology of Health: Steps Towards a Philosophy of Medical Practice • Tallis, Raymond - The Black Mirror: Looking at Life through Death • Woolf, Virginia - On Being Ill Philosophy • Alain de Botton - Status Anxiety • Aristotle - The Art of Rhetoric • Aurelius, Marcus - Meditations • Burton, Neel - Plato: Letters to my Son • Dewey, John - How We Think • Jaspers, Karl - Philosophy of Existence • Kierkegaard, Soren - The Concept of Anxiety • Merton, Thomas - Thoughts in Solitude • Radhakrishnan, Sarvepalli - Indian Philosophy Volume II • Russell, Bertrand - The Analysis of Mind • Tallis, Raymond - In Defence of Wonder and Other Philosophical Reflections • Wittgenstein, Ludwig - Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus Literature & Writing • Prose, Francine - Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them • Eagleton, Terry - How to Read Literature • Eagleton, Terry - Literary Theory: An Introduction • Huxley, Aldous - Literature and Science • Midgley, Mary - Science and Poetry • Thomas, Francis-Noel - Clear and Simple as the Truth: Writing Classic Prose Other • Atkinson, Charles Francis - Art and Artist: Creative Urge and Personality Development • Bevan, Aneurin - In Place of Fear • Debord, Guy - The Society of the Spectacle • Orwell, George - Down and Out in Paris and London • Rosseau, Jean-Jacques - Confessions • Tolstoy, Leo - What is Art?

Angury's Reading & Writing Log 2018 Currently reading: Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett Books Read in 2018January If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino (3/5) The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (2/5) May Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann (4/5) June The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy (3/5) Ada, or Ardor by Vladimir Nabokov (4/5) July Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family by Thomas Mann (4/5) Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham (4/5) August For Two Thousand Years by Mihail Sebastian (2/5) The Fountain Head by Ayn Rand (2/5) September A Heart so White by Javier Marias (3/5) A History of Psychiatry: From the Era of the Asylum to the Age of Prozac by Edward Shorter (3/5) Indian Philosophy: Volume 2 by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (4/5) October The Graduate by Charles Webb (2/5) The Edwardians by Vita Sackville-West (3/5) The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (3/5) November The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (4/5) Life after Life by Kate Atkinson (4/5) A Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak (3/5) Moby Dick by Herman Melville (4/5) December Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (3/5) White Noise by Don DeLillo (3/5) The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (4/5) Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett (3/5) Man at Arms by Terry Pratchett (4/5)

Anyone watching the new season?