[Poppyshake's Reading Year 2013]

Bravo for the review of The War of the Worlds!  

I now have The War of the Worlds, The Islands of Dr Moreau and The Invisible Man nestling in my ereader for the last few weeks, waiting for me  . However, who knows when I will get round to actually reading them is a totally another thing.   

[Your Book Activity - November 2013]

This is one of my favorites... It's the book that made me really interested in Proust and made me want to read his books!

 

Yes, I'm really glad that I bought How Proust Can Change Your Life, as it has made me more interested in Proust's Swann's Way again.   I loved Alain de Botton's writing 

Sofi Oksanen was my 2nd Finnish author, after Tove Jansson (her children's and adult fiction). Tove Jansson is probably the only Finnish author you would hear of in the UK, and only then for the Moomin series.

I had a good chuckle about the 'full of beans' idiom   . We Brits tend to forget that English isn't the first language of everyone in the world   . I hope you will feel more rested and recuperated   .

[Poppyshake's Reading Year 2013]

Congratulation   . Wow - 98 books this year so far!   is in order, I think 

[Your Book Activity - November 2013]

Started How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain de Botton. The first chapter was How To Love Life Today, and I made remember how much I love the way de Botton writes. 

[Ready for a new author]

How about Gabriel Garcia Marquez? 

He has a wonderful style with magical realism, esp. in One Hundred in Solitude, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, and Of Love and other Demons.

[What are you eating just now?]

Malteser Teaser - lovely stuff! 

[Chaliepud's 2013 Reading Log]

Here are my new additions -

 

Stephen King - The Stand and Needful Things

John Steinbeck - Cannery Row, East of Eden, Of Mice and Men, The Pearl and The Red Pony (a very reasonably priced set from The book People)

Pushing The Limits - Katie McGarry

The Husband's Secret - Liane Moriarty

Girl, Stolen - April Henry (for Decembers RNIB reading circle)

A Dog Named Christmas - Greg Kincaid  (Thank you frankie!  )

Lost and Found - Jacqueline Sheehan (Thanks again frankie!  )

Daring To Dream - Nora Roberts

Marina - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Great haul!!

[What are you listening to? - 2013]

Orchestra Baobab

 

[Frankie reads 2013]

Have fun frankie   !

[Foxface]

Hell0 Foxface, and welcome to the forums 

[What are you drinking just now?]

A glass of very nice South African Kumala Merlot/Pinotage 2012, which cost me £3.99 at Home Bargains.  Now that is a bargain  , and very enjoyable too.

[Brian's 2013 Book Log]

I read a fantastic book on Zen called Zen Mind, Beginners Mind by Shunryu Suzuki when I had a particular interest in that tradition. If you haven't read it yet I would recommend it highly.

I hadn't read any of Batchelor’s books before, so I had a browse and then bought the ebook of Alone with Others:An Existential

Approach to Buddhism, as that sounded very interesting.

Thanks for the recommendation  .  I haven't read any of Shunryu Suzuki work either, so Zen Mind, Beginners Mind is now on my wishlist.

I'm very tempted to buy it soon, as The Hive has it at the best price at £8.77, and is in stock at the moment.  

[What are you drinking just now?]

Light Horlicks - it's great when you feel cold, and as if a cold is coming on. You pour boiled water on the powder, enough said

[Your Book Activity - November 2013]

I've started reading Girl, Stolen by April Henry this morning, and it seems okay so far.

Lisa See's Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - read up to page 68, good book, and I have to finish it for library reading group discussion on 27th.

[Hello!]

Welcome to the Forums Mila  .

 

You have a great list of 'classics' .

I hope you enjoy the forums.

[Speed readers?]

Hello Adam Stormblessed (and welcome to the Forums)

Blimey, 500 pages takes me 2 or 3....well, we are talking days rather than hours   . At that is when I'm really interested in the book. I think I'm also a slow reader, because I have to have the words sound in my head, I just can't skim read.

[Little Pixie`s Bookshelf 2013]

I did feel the series dipped a bit around books 9 to11 or so, and then perked up a bit. The phrase ` can I make a great sandwich or what` - with variations - seemed to be used a lot and started to annoy me.

 

I tend to think ` Those books will never be that cheap again ! Never ever ! ` and buy them, so well done on restraining yourself.

Yup, I was very proud of myself   , as they were hardbacks in good nick, at a few pounds each! Then I went home, and bought a handful of ebook 'classics' for approx. 80p each!  Oh well....I did try.....honestly  .

[Hello. I am new to message boards in general.]

Hello Rasool, and welcome to the Forums.

[Your Book Activity - November 2013]

I'm happy you thought it was worth it! You deserve a bit of light Wodehouse next

 

Yup, a couple of hours of Jeeves and Wooster was a pick-me-up  .

Purge was a good book, but wow  , it was a bit upsetting a few times in the book  . But worth it in the end.

[Brian's 2013 Book Log]

I'm sure I will come back to it at some point, I'm just not feeling it at the moment. I'm having to pick what I read very carefully at the moment because I'm struggling to get going with many books.

 

I've still managed to exceed my target of 70 books this year though

 

Yes, I can understand that, and The Plague is not the easiest or enjoyable book to read at the best of times   .  Congrats for breaking your 70 books target .

 

Edit: Liked your review of Buddhism Without Belief . I've been interested in Eastern philosophies (mostly Taoism and Zen Buddhism) for a few years. I use the term Eastern philosophies instead of the term Eastern religions with particular care, as I am a non-believer of any belief system. 

[Hello there !]

Hello Jonathan, and welcome to the forums. Hope that you enjoy the forums  .

[Willoyd's Reading Log 2013]

Great review of Portrait of Sepia willoyd  . It's in my TBR pile, as Daughters of Fortune was my first novel by Allende, and it was a cracking read. Same for Islands Under the Sea, that was a great book too .

 

[Athena's Reading List 2013]

I love to cook, so mostly don't use takeaway food that often. My weakness are desserts.... and chocolate... and biscuits  .

[A Book Blog by Books do Furnish a Room 2013]

Another good review .

I think that The Rector's Daughter by F M Major is somewhere in my TBR piles   . 

[Athena's Reading List 2013]

I've now read 124 books this year, I should be reading at least a couple more books before the end of the year, which means I'll surpass my stretch goal of 125! This is quite exciting .

Wow Athena, 124 books so far this year!  That is a very good rate books per week  . Congratulations at reaching your goal. 

 

Good review of the Dr. Phil McGraw - The Ultimate Weight Solution: The 7 Keys to Weight Loss Freedom book   . It's crucial to change bad food habits and eat healthily. But it is difficult to keep your diet healthy, all the time   . I am trying to eat healthier, as many of my extended family have type 2 diabetes and heart disease, and all my aunts/uncles on my mum's family have died of heart attacks, when they were quite young (in their 50's to early 70's). My blood pressure has been significantly reduced since I lost weight, so I should keep it healthy. But it is hard to keep my willpower not to eat fatty and high sugar food all the time. They taste so good!   

 

Where I live in the UK, there is a huge choice of 'take away' food shops, eg. Indian,  Chinese and Pizza/Burger/Fish and Chips etc.,rather than actually eating out in fast food restaurants. The food is not that expensive, but not that cheap either, but it is very convenient, so people don't have to prepare and cook their own meals.