Athena

Philip K. Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Genre: Science-Fiction Format: Paperback Pages: 210 Synopsis (back of the book, ISBN 9781857988130): War had left the Earth devastated. Through its ruins, bountry hunger Rick Deckard stalked, in search of the renegade replicants who were his prey. When he wasn't 'retiring' them, he dreamed of owning the ultimate status symbol - a live animal. Then Rick got his big assignment: to kill six Nexus-6 targets, for a huge reward. But things were never that simple, and Rick's life quickly turned into a nightmare kaleidoscope of subterfuge and deceit. My thoughts: I read this book because my boyfriend recently bought the film Blade Runner on Blu-ray (which is based on this book) and I usually prefer to read the book first. It's not a very long book so a good choice for the read-a-thon (yesterday). I really liked the world and how it was described, the science-fiction elements which make it different from our world. I think the story is well written. I liked the characters though I didn't agree with a few decisions. There were several plot twists which I didn't see coming. One thing I am confused about, is something that happens in the last part of the book, near the ending. However I don't want to spoil it, so I won't. It seemed kind of 'too far out there' I guess, if that makes sense. Overall though I quite liked the book and am glad I've finally read a book by Philip K. Dick, who's a very famous science-fiction author. Now I'll have to buy some of his other books! XD Rating: **** (8/10)

My brother's girlfriend is a big fan of Baldacci, my brother has read some of his books too and likes them. I've only read two, when I was a lot younger I read one my parents own (Absolute Power I think it is, in Dutch), I quite liked it. I own a copy of The Christmas Train (in Dutch) which I liked a lot. Absolute Power and one other book by him are on my wishlist (I'd put The Christmas Train in English on there too but you can't have a book set as read as well as on your wishlist).

Awww . I'm glad the book shopping helped a bit, look forward to see your list later.

Sounds interesting, I've added it to my wishlist. Nice review!

Some of his books are on my wishlist, glad to hear you three enjoy his books! I might have to buy them sometime .

@ muggle You have a beautiful garden! We're having some warm days, inside though it's nice and colder so if we get warm, we can go inside. Normally we'd also use our pool, but it's broken unfortunately. I never use it a lot myself but it would've still been nice for everyone else (and possibly me if I got too warm and felt like swimming and braving the colder water). Only two days to go now, until uni is over! Tomorrow is my presentation. I'm having trouble anticipating of how I'll feel when it's over, I think I'll either be very ectatic or very tired. It also may take a little while to sink in, I'm not sure.

Great progress! Yesterday evening I read some more in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and have nearly finished the book. Hopefully in the next read-a-thon (in August) I can participate more fully. EDIT: In total I read 5 books (one of which was nearly finished). The total amount of pages is roughly 575 (I didn't keep track of where exactly I started and left off), I don't know the total amount of time I spent reading (not nearly as much as last time). I still enjoyed it, though.

Today I've read Philip K. Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, I'm about half way through I think. It's really enjoyable so far. In a few days, after I've finished reading it, we'll watch Blade Runner.

Good luck, Devi .

Thank you!

I'm glad to hear it !

Glad you liked the book, nice review !

So beautiful!!

x Sorry to hear your library will be closed. On the other hand, most of the books you borrowed are on my TBR, I look forward to hear what you think of them .

Today I've read: Truman Capote - Breakfast at Tiffany's (second half, total 158 pages) Roald Dahl - The Twits (87 pages) Not nearly as much as with the last read-a-thon so far, but I'm having fun reading, though. I'm only half participating anyway XD.

Roald Dahl - The Twits Genre: Children's Format: Paperback Pages: 87 Synopsis (GoodReads): How do you outwit a Twit? Mr. and Mrs. Twit are the smelliest, ugliest people in the world. They hate everything -- except playing mean jokes on each other, catching innocent birds to put in their Bird Pies, and making their caged monkeys, the Muggle-Wumps, stand on their heads all day. But the Muggle-Wumps have had enough. They don't just want out, they want revenge. My thoughts: I decided to read something easier after the last book I read, so I picked one of the shorter Roald Dahl books. Another great Roald Dahl book. I particularly liked the second part of the book and the ending. I love Roald Dahl's writing style and this was no different. Rating: **** (8/10)

Truman Capote - Breakfast at Tiffany's Genre: Literature Format: Paperback Pages: 158 Synopsis (GoodReads): Meet Holly Golightly - a free spirited, lop-sided romantic girl about town. With her tousled blond hair and upturned nose, dark glasses and chic black dresses, Holly is a style sensation wherever she goes. Her apartment rocks to Martini-soaked parties and she plays hostess to millionaires and gangsters alike. Yet Holly never loses sight of her ultimate dream - to find a real life place like Tiffany's that makes her feel at home. Full of sharp wit and exuberant, larger-than-life characters which vividly capture the restless, madcap era of 1940s New York, Breakfast at Tiffany's will make you fall in love, perhaps for the first time, with a book. My thoughts: My version of the book also contained three short stories, named House of Flowers, A Diamond Guitar and A Christmas Memory. I bought this book because I'd heard good things about it. I've read In Cold Blood, another book by this author, for school, and from what I remember I liked it. Breakfast at Tiffany's I liked the overall plot, but there were so many references and metaphors in the writing that I didn't understand. It was a bit difficult following the plot because of all the things that I didn't understand. I presume many references have to do with the US back in the 1940s but I don't know much about that, what brands there used to be, what phrases people used, etc. Also the main character was referred to several times with different names but none of them his own. To me it's confusing when on one page a person is called X and on the next page they refer to him as Y. I'm not talking first and last name, but nicknames. This confused me sometimes, I was confused as to who they were talking about. All in all I liked the story but the writing made it really hard to follow, I had to concentrate hard and skip over many things that I didn't understand. The accents bothered me a bit too sometimes, I presume that's how they talk in certain parts of the US, or such, but I find it difficult when officially the grammar is incorrect etc, or when it's hard to understand. I liked the descriptions in the writing, when they weren't references or metaphors I didn't understand. The descriptions I could understand, they were nice to read, they were well written (this applies to all four stories). There are also quite a few words in all stories, that I don't know (I think words that aren't used much these days). I don't really get why the story gets such high praise, to me it didn't seem more special than other things out there. But maybe I'm missing something. House of Flowers This was a nice short story and I found it easier to understand than Breakfast at Tiffany's. There seemed to be a bit less references in it that I didn't understand. What I did find confusing was the location, it seemed to be French names but then it turned out it was in the US. It doesn't matter a lot for the story or anything but this confused me a bit. Also I'm not sure what year the story took place as this wasn't mentioned anywhere. This was quite a good story. A Diamond Guitar The comment I made about accents applies here too. The time it happens isn't known but it doesn't seem that that's very important. I enjoyed this story. A Christmas Memory This was interesting, though I don't totally get who lives in the house and who gives each other presents. Also how can you be cousins when one person is quite old (relatively speaking) and the other quite young? General wonderments: Why do they write Halloween as Hallowe'en? Anyway.. overall I liked the other three short stories better than the main story. Rating: ** (4/10)

That's some amazing progress! I hope you enjoy Flowers for Algernon!

x It was a forums to do with gaming, mainly to do with modding games (editing ini files, making new graphics for a game), the main focus were the Command & Conquer games (Westwood, EA) though other games were welcome too (ie. there was also a big section on Battle For Middle-Earth). Here's a link to Revora, however I should say that the forum is a lot different these days, to me. I've been a moderator there, an admin and a leader. I was also Hosting Manager for a while, so anyone who had a mod and wanted web space and a subforum on the forums, could apply for it. I would then arrange everything so they can use their forums and web space. On a few occations when there was a crisis (ie. a hack, many spam bots, database crash) I helped fix the forum and websites. My boyfriend was also an admin (and moderator) there, so we often worked together on things. He makes a mod for Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge called D-day (real time strategy, D-day is a World War II mod, it contains many units from pre-WW2 to post-war, land, sea & air units, atm eight playable countries, several non-playable ones, five time frames and total war and unholy alliance game mode, new terrain, new maps. My boyfriend likes things to be historically accurate so everything is done with a very high accuracy). He's been working on this for a long time (it's the longest running RA2: YR mod)and I help him with it now and then (in fact he's working on it right now ). I left the forums (and quit my jobs there) when I broke up with my ex (it was through my ex that I heard about these forums), I felt it was the time to go. My jobs felt like a chore there, I didn't enjoy it anymore. My boyfriend is no longer admin there either, he also quit (his project is still on there though as well as the subforum). He's more active on Project Perfect Mod (PPM) now. Thanks for your kind words ! I do think we are a great fit for each other. I feel very lucky we found each other. Funny thing perhaps, I actually met my ex in Rome. My school was on a school trip there (in the 5th year, everyone cof that year can pick out of a few destinations, where to go), I was with my grandparents because the school's programme was too busy for me. I wanted to spend a day with the people from school though so we tried to find them (they gave us the wrong hotel number so we couldn't phone but we did have a programme). I remember waiting near a church, they were supposed to be there. I waited for a bit of time, then they showed up. That's when my ex started talking with me. We became friends and he introduced me to several forums (and the games, I hadn't heard of the games before). Anyway, I'm very happy with my boyfriend. The long distance thing can be difficult sometimes, but it's always a lot of fun when we are together. I really enjoy spending time with him. Can you tell I love him . I wouldn't like to go on a date with a stranger either! I much rather get to know them on a friendship level first. For me, liking someone as more than a friend comes after I get to know them, I think. I would be very nervous too so I understand you'd feel that way. @ moving books Wow, that's a lot of books! I can imagine moving might be difficult if one has a lot of books. When I move out, it should be interesting to see how it goes, I own quite a few books (though not 30000!). Mainly though I'll be worried about things being damaged and whether I'll like the new place and get used to it. It took me quite some time to get used to this house so I think moving in a few years might take me a bit of time too (although this time it'll hopefully be because I want to, not because someone makes me). First though I'll move into another area of the house, though my stuff will stay in my room. The space we're going into is likely needed for my boyfriends' stuff (he has no where else to store his stuff). We'll be doing it up a bit this summer. I'm hoping there'll be a bit of space left so I can at least have a couple of books there (like a TBR-soon) and there should be a desk and chair for me. I look forward to have my boyfriend here all the time and have all his stuff here (atm some of it is in boxes so I haven't actually seen everything, not that I have to XD, but I'm curious ). However we have to sort out some issues first, to do with finance and rules of immigration and what not. x x Good job!! Sorry if this post was rambly! This is your thread frankie so I'll now "thread" away quietly and let you talk again .

I haven't read Les Misérables yet (it's on my shelf) but if there would be such a group I might be interested in being a part of it.

Welcome here !

Sounds like you had some great experiences, frankie !

That's great, frankie !

Great progress for most people ! I haven't read a lot yet today because I worked on uni stuff and we did some food shopping. Once I'm done browsing the forums though I plan to read some more.

Sorry to hear you couldn't read much. I'm glad to hear though you're enjoying 44 Scotland Street , I own a few books that are part of that series (books 3, 4 and 6). I aim to buy all of them before I start reading the series.