More reading time required

The first time I watched this, I found it boring and fell asleep after an hour. Hubby was determined to like it so repeatedly watched it until he 'got it'. It was better the 2nd time round, but it wouldn't feature in my top 10 films! It's way too long and bloated.

I remember quite liking it. Having said that, I probably skimmed through it quite quickly and didn't take note of the dialogue, just the storyline itself, which kept me entertained. However, a much better recent one of his is Time & Time Again. I really loved the concept of that one.

4 so far, though nearly finished my 5th (which is quite good for me these days). I've not managed any reviews yet though.

Wtf? I hadn't heard about this before. Now that is taking political correctness too far. It would be like completely banning the Agatha Christie book because its original name was 10 little n******. I still use the 'eeny meeny' phrase now when choosing things, and although I used to use the original word, if I was saying it out loud I would say "tigger" or "tiger" nowadays.

Ditto to the wind and the old office building - its very noisy. We're lacking the dry brightness though. It's a bit dull & showery.

Last night, I used the fact that my hubby wanted to watch The Flash as an opportunity to tear through the last third of The Alloy of Law (rather than boringly using that time to get washing up/clothes washing/making lunch chores out of the way, which is what I'd normally have done). Then I started the first of my library books: Swallows & Amazons by Arthur Ransome.

In no particular order: 1. Locke & Key by Joe Hill 2. Preacher by Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon 3. Maus by Art Spiegelman 4. Sin City by Frank Miller 5. Sandman by Neil Gaiman 6. The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman (so much better than the tv show) 7. Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson (if I can add this )

I really enjoyed the first trilogy so I'd be interested to read this.

I kinda thought that about the first one so I didn't really expect anything more of the sequel. I didn't pay to see it, I hasten to add - I waited til it was on Sky movies.

I'm really enjoying Further Back in time for Dinner. They've just covered the 30's.

Ah, I've not actually finished it yet. I should have added something at the end of two of those latter two books, which I've now done. So far so good though.

My dad has loads of books about Coventry (my home town) which are an interesting read as it has a lot of associated history.Though I mainly just look at the old photos.

Ok, I think that's about it so this post is now open for all.

Read in 2017 January ---------- The Unmumsy Mum by Sarah Turner Hurrah For Gin by Kate Kirby February ----------- The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson Swallows & Amazons by Arthur Ransome March -------- The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett Elantris by Brandon Sanderson April ------ Girl on a Train by Paula Hawkins May ----- The Killing 3 by David Hewson Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig Raising Girls by Steve Biddulph June ------- Rage of the Dragon by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman End of Watch by Stephen King July ------ Thinking About it Only Makes it Worse by David Mitchell The Gunslinger by Stephen King The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King August ---------- Moranifesto by Caitlin Moran The Waste Lands by Stephen King Doom of the Dragon by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman September --------------- Wizard & Glass by Stephen King A Short History of Everything by Bill Bryson October ------------ Fool's Assassin by Robin Hobb November --------------- December -------------- A Crown of Swords (TWoT7) by Robert Jordan

Also, now I've read the last Discworld , I want to do a Discworld re-read from start to finish. The Colour of Magic The Light Fantastic Equal Rites Mort Sourcery Wyrd Sisters Pyramids Guards! Guards! Eric Moving Pictures Reaper Man Witches Abroad Small Gods Lords and Ladies Men at Arms Soul Music Interesting Times Maskerade Feet of Clay Hogfather Jingo The Last Continent Carpe Jugulum The Fifth Elephant The Truth Thief of Time The Last Hero The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents Night Watch The Wee Free Men Monstrous Regiment A Hat Full of Sky Going Postal Thud! Wintersmith Making Money Unseen Academicals I Shall Wear Midnight Snuff Raising Steam The Shepherd's Crown

I've also had this challenge ticking away over the past couple of years, but I've never thought to post it before. Many years ago, there was a BBC poll for the nation's top 100 books. I've combined that list with a few other Facebook "100 books you must read" for something I'm slowly chipping away at in an effort to become more "widely read". AA Milne - Winnie the Pooh Aldous Huxley - Brave New World Alexandre Dumas - The Count Of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas - The Three Musketeers Alice Sebold - The Lovely Bones Alice Walker - The Color Purple Anna Sewell - Black Beauty Anthony Burgess - A Clockwork Orange Antoine De Saint - The Little Prince Anya Seton - Katherine Arthur Golden - Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Ransome - Swallows And Amazons Arundhati Roy - The God Of Small Things AS Byatt - Possession Audrey Niffeneger The Time Traveler’s Wife Bill Bryson - Notes From A Small Island Bram Stoker - Dracula Carlos Ruiz Zafon - The Shadow of the Wind Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens - A Tale Of Two Cities Charles Dickens - Bleak House Charles Dickens - David Copperfield Charles Dickens - Oliver Twist Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre Colleen McCollough- The Thorn Birds CS Lewis - Chronicles of Narnia CS Lewis - The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe Dan Brown - The Da Vinci Code Daphne du Maurier - Rebecca David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas Dodie Smith -I Capture The Castle Donna Tartt -The Secret History Douglas Adams - The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy EB White - Charlotte’s Web Emile Zola -Germinal Emily Brontë -Wuthering Heights Enid Blyton - The Faraway Tree Collection Eoin Colfer -Artemis Fowl Evelyn Waugh - Brideshead Revisited F Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby Frances Hodgson Burnett - The Secret Garden Frank Herbert - Dune Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Crime And Punishment Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Love In The Time Of Cholera Gabriel Garcia Marquez - One Hundred Years of Solitude George Eliot - Middlemarch George Orwell - Animal Farm George Orwell - Nineteen Eighty Four Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird Helen Fielding - Bridget Jones’s Diary Herman Melville - Moby Dick Iain Banks - The Wasp Factory Ian McEwan - Atonement Jack Kerouac - On The Road Jacqueline Wilson - Double Act Jacqueline Wilson - Girls In Love Jacqueline Wilson - The Story Of Tracy Beaker Jacqueline Wilson - Vicky Angel James Joyce -Ulysses Jane Austen - Emma Jane Austen - Persuasion Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen - Sense and Sensibility JD Salinger - Catcher in the Rye Jean M Auel - The Clan Of The Cave Bear Jeffrey Archer - Kane And Abel JK Rowling - Harry Potter series John Fowles - The Magus John Irving - A Prayer for Owen Meaney John Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of Dunces John Steinbeck - Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck - The Grapes Of Wrath Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness Joseph Heller - Catch-22 JRR Tolkien - The Hobbit JRR Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains of the Day Ken Follett - The Pillars Of The Earth Kenneth Grahame - The Wind in the Willows Khaled Hosseini - The Kite Runner Leo Tolstoy - Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy - War and Peace Lewis Carroll - Alice's Adventures In Wonderland LM Montgomery - Anne Of Green Gables Louis de Bernieres - Captain Corelli's Mandolin Louis Sachar - Holes Louisa May Alcott - Little Women Malorie Blackman - Noughts And Crosses Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Mitchell - Gone With The Wind Mario Puzo - The Godfather Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Meg Cabot - The Princess Diaries Mervyn Peake - Gormenghast Michelle Magorian - Goodnight Mister Tom Mitch Alborn - The Five People You Meet In Heaven Nevil Shute - A Town Like Alice Patrick Süskind - Perfume Paulo Coelho - The Alchemist Philip Pullman - His Dark Materials Raymond E Feist - Magician Richard Adams - Watership Down Roald Dahl - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Roald Dahl - Matilda Roald Dahl - The BFG Roald Dahl - The Twits Robert Louis Stevenson - Treasure Island Robert Tressell - The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists Rohinton Mistry - A Fine Balance Rosamunde Pilcher - The Shell Seekers Salman Rushdie - Midnight's Children Sebastian Faulks - Birdsong Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Stella Gibbons - Cold Comfort Farm Stephen King - The Stand Sylvia Plath - The Bell Jar Terry Pratchett - Guards! Guards! Terry Pratchett - Mort Terry Pratchett - Night Watch Terry Pratchett - The Colour Of Magic Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman - Good Omens Thackeray - Vanity Fair Thomas Hardy - Far From The Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy - Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy - Tess Of The D'Urbervilles Various - The Bible Victor Hugo - Les Miserables Vikram Seth - A Suitable Boy Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita Wilkie Collins - The Woman in White William Golding - Lord Of The Flies William Shakespeare - Complete Works of Shakespeare Yann Martel - Life of Pi

My TBR list, alphabetically by author. Amazingly I haven't really added to it over the year, but it hasn't gone down all that much either! Alcott, Louisa May - Little Women (Kindle) Austen, Jane - Pride & Prejudice (Kindle) Austen, Jane - Sense & Sensibility (Kindle) Austen, Jane - Mansfield Park (Kindle) Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey (Kindle) Barker, Clive - Abarat x 3 Barton, Beverly - The Dying Games (Kindle) Batchelder, Dennis - Soul Identity (Kindle) Beever, Anthony - Stalingrad Bradshaw, John - Cat Sense Bronte, Charlotte - Jane Eyre (Kindle) Bryson, Bill - At Home (Kindle) Burgess, Anthony - A Clockwork Orange (Kindle) Campbell, Ramsey - The House on Nazareth Hill Campbell, Ramsey - The Gruesome Book Campbell, Ramsey - The Height of the Scream Campbell, Ramsey - Alone with the Horrors Campbell, Ramsey - The Hungry Moon Campbell, Ramsey - Ancient Images Campbell, Ramsey - The Nameless Chaucer, Geoffrey - The Canterbury Tales (Kindle) Child, Lee - Jack Reacher series x 12 (Kindle) Ciccone, Derek - Painless (Kindle) Collins, Wilkie - The Moonstone (Kindle) Defoe, Daniel - Moll Flanders (Kindle) Dickens, Charles - Bleak House (Kindle) Dickens, Charles - David Copperfield (Kindle) Dickens, Charles - A Tale of Two Cities (Kindle) Dixon, E - Fairy Tales from the Arabian Nights (Kindle) Donaldson, Stephen - The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant Donaldson, Stephen - The 2nd Chronicles of Thomas Covenant Donaldson, Stephen - The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant Eliot, George - The Mill on the Floss (Kindle) Eliot, George - Middlemarch (Kindle) Erikson, Steven - Malazan collection 1 (Kindle) Flaubert, Gustav - Madame Bovary (Kindle) Follett, Ken - The Key to Rebecca (Kindle) Forster, E M - Howards End (Kindle) Gaskell, Elizabeth - Wives & Daughters (Kindle) Gaskell, Elizabeth - North & South (Kindle) Hardy, Thomas - Far From the Madding Crowd (Kindle) Herley, Richard - The Penal Colony (Kindle) Hobb, Robin - Dragon Keeper (Kindle) Hobb, Robin - Dragon Haven (Kindle) Homer - The Odyssey (Kindle) Hoover, Thomas - Life Blood (Kindle) Hoover, Thomas - Syndrome (Kindle) Hugo, Victor - Les Miserables (Kindle) Hume, David - The History of England Vol 1 (Kindle) Jacques, Brian - Redwall saga James, E L - Fifty shades of grey Jordan, Robert - Wheel of Time x 8 Joyce, James - Ulysses (Kindle) Kay, Guy Gavriel - Tigana (Kindle) King, Stephen - Dark Tower x 8 Knowles, James - The Legends of King Arthur (Kindle) Littell, Johnathan - The Kindly Ones Lovecraft, HP - Omnibus 1 Lumley, Brian - Vampire World x 3 Lumley, Brian - Lost Years x 2 Lumley, Brian - E-Branch x 3 Lumley, Brian - Harry Keogh & other Weird Heroes Lumley, Brian - The Touch Mariani, Scott - The Shadow Project (Kindle) McCammon, Robert - Blue World McCammon, Robert - Boy's Life McCammon, Robert - Mystery Walk McCammon, Robert - The Wolf's Hour Melville, Herman - Moby Dick (Kindle) Meyers, Stephanie - Twilight saga x 4 (Kindle) Milton, John - Paradise Lost (Kindle) Mitchell, Margaret - Gone with the Wind (Kindle) Mock, Elizabeth C - Shatter (The children of man) (Kindle) Montgomery, L M - Anne of Green Gables (Kindle) Morris, Stan - Surviving the Fog (Kindle) Newman, Kim - Bad Dreams Newman, Kim - Jago Newman, Kim - Unforgivable Stories Paoline, Christopher - Brinsingr (Kindle) Pepys, Samuel - Diary of Samuel Pepys (Kindle) Pratchett, Terry - The Science of Discworld 1 Pratchett, Terry - The Science of Discworld 2 Pratchett, Terry - The Long Mars Pullman, Phillip - Once upon a Time in the North Richardson, Samuel - Clarissa Harlowe (9 vol) (Kindle) Rothfuss, Patrick - The Name of the Wind (Kindle) Shakespeare, William - Complete Works of Shakespeare (Kindle) Simmons, Dan - Hyperion (Kindle) Smith, Clark Ashton - The Emperor of Dreams Smith, Clark Ashton - Out of Space & Time vol 1 Steinbeck, John - East of Eden (Kindle) Stephenson, Neal - Reamde (Kindle) Tchaikovsky, Adrian - Empire in Black & Gold (Kindle) Thackeray, William - Vanity Fair (Kindle) Tolkien, J R R - The Silmarillion Tolkien, J R R - The Children of Hurin (Kindle) Tolstoy, Leo - Anna Karenina (Kindle) Tzu, Sun - Art of War (Kindle) Various - The Bible (Kindle) Various - LA Noire: The Collected Stories (Kindle) Verne, Jules - A Journey to the Centre of the Earth (Kindle) Verne, Jules - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Kindle) Weeks, Brent - Shadow trilogy x 3 (Kindle) Weis, Margaret - Dragonships series x 1 Weis/Hickman - The Second Generation (Kindle) Welsh, Irvine - Ecstasy Welsh, Irvine - Glue Welsh, Irvine - Porno Welsh, Irvine - The Secrets of the Master Chef Welsh, Irvine - Skagboys White, Neil - Fallen Idols (Kindle) Yekov, Kirill - The Last Ringbearer (Kindle)

Better late than never! Read in 2017 January ----------- Fall of Giants - Ken Follett The Catcher in the Rye - J.D Salinger The Girl in the Spider's Web - David Lagercrantz The Fires of Heaven - Robert Jordan February ------------ March -------- The Winter of the World - Ken Follett The Monogram Murders - Sophie Hannah Revival - Stephen King April ------ Finders Keepers - Stephen King Bazaar of Bad Dreams - Stephen King May ------ Edge of Eternity - Ken Follett June ------- July ------ Bones of the Dragon - Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman Secret of the Dragon - Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman My Booky Wook 2 - Russell Brand Trigger Warning - Neil Gaiman August ----------- Emma - Jane Austen Lord of Chaos (TWot6) - Robert Jordan Preacher: Gone to Texas - Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon Preacher: Until the End of the World - Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon Preacher: Proud Americans - Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon Preacher: Ancient History - Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon September --------- Preacher: Dixie Fried - Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon Preacher: War in the Sun - Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon Preacher: Salvation - Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon Preacher: All Hell's A-Coming - Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon Preacher: Alamo - Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon November -------- The Long War - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter December --------- Revolution - Russell Brand

In an effort to finish off the year, just a few quicky reviews: Emma by Jane Austen As I think I said in the book activity post, I didn't really get on with this. Not a lot seemed to happen and it made me think that Jane Austen is not for me! There were some interesting aspects of the story but it may have been a combination of reading it over a long period of time and trying to skim through it so I kept getting confused with all the characters & this may have made me enjoy it less. Maybe I'd like the film version better. 2/5 Lord of Chaos (TWot6) by Robert Jordan Ok, so I can't really remember what happened in this one now. I know it was enjoyable when I was reading it, but perhaps not as compelling as earlier volumes as I kept having long sabbaticals from reading it. 3/5 Preacher (volumes 1-9) by Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon A re-read inspired by the tv version I was watching over the summer. It had been a good few years since I'd read this, so I decided to revisit it and see how close it came to the show (conclusion: a lot had changed, but it shared the same spirit of the comic). This is a hilarious (albeit sick & wrong) story about a Preacher of a small town called Jesse who gets "possessed" with the power of Genesis - a creature born from the relationship between an angel and a demon. If it sounds weird, it is! There are a multitude of intriguing supporting characters such as his old girlfriend Tulip, an Irish vampire called Cassidy and a boy aptly named "Arseface". There are so many times where you don't quite believe what you are reading, but it is a truly entertaining read. However, if you are religious in any way, I would suggest avoiding this as you may find it rather blasphemous. 4/5 The Long War by Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter Another one where I can't really remember what happened now but I know I enjoyed it. The Long Earth series is no Discworld but they are entertaining enough, and the fact that it took me only 2 weeks to read (which was very good considering last year's reading pace) shows that it kept my attention. 4/5 Revolution by Russell Brand Some interesting ideas were put forward, but I doubt any of it would actually happen! 3/5

I made the mistake of going into the library with my daughter today. Whilst I was in the kids section I looked across and saw Swallows & Amazons and as I'd never read it, decided to borrow it. Then whilst I was at the automated machine, I saw another book I wanted to borrow, The Versions of Us, then turned around and saw Elantris by Brandon Sanderson, so of course I had to get that as well. Libraries - dangerous places I tell you!

I love Kate Bush's music. I recently decided to complete her discography and it's all very good. I've never thought to watch her videos though. I've seen a few back in the day, but I don't know all of them.

Sorry to hear you're having a wretched time of it and sad news about your friend.

I finished The Shepherd's Crown (review to follow when I finally get round to putting a new thread up ) and started The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson.

I've only got 41 pages left of The Shepherd's Crown left. Back in the day I would have just raced through the rest of that at bedtime, but now I'm older and tireder, if I try to do that now, I end up waking up with a book falling on my face several times before I eventually give up.

Just finished watching Apple Tree Yard. Really enjoyed it