Madeleine

We were on holiday somewhere in the UK a few years ago and driving along I could see the cars up ahead swerving to avoid something, I assumed it would be a cyclist but when I got nearer I could see it was a pheasant! Dim thing was wandering around in the road completely oblivious of all the cars avoiding it. Hitting the rabbit must have been awful, I hit a sparrow once which flew down and I couldn't swerve round it so hoped the car would clear it, sadly it didn't, I felt terrible.

Yes Craig did seem more erratic than usual. Must admit Danny had me swooning a bit, like Darcey

Oh yes that one's a bit depressing to say the least....

I think Azkaban is my favourite.

Jacket

I thought Edd Byrne was quite good when he did one of the charity shows. Rylan Clark - why???? the man is like a tailor's dummy!

I'd like to go to a festival too, my local area has one but most of the events tend to take place during the day which means days off work which aren't always practical, or they're in the early evening, or just sell out really quickly! There is a big book fair in London but I think it's only for those in the book trade.

I would imagine Robert Powell would be a good narrator, he has a lovely voice.

I've also started reading the Harry Hole books, in no particular order, partly because they've been issued in the UK out of order ie the early ones have only been published here in the last couple of years or so. I must admit I didn't fancy Cockroaches (not the most inspiring title) but it sounds quite good, a change from freezing Oslo! I think the translations are pretty good too.

Looked them up and realised that I have seen the film version of the Relic, years ago. I didn't know it was based on a book.

Authors

That's horrible about the pheasant but it sounds like you couldn't do anything. I hope your cold gets better soon Athena.

Sunny and warm today, with quite a warm wind. Just taken the dog out and there were a few dragonflies flying around too, lovely.

Yes it wasn't much of a tango was it! Still, so far none of them were truly terrible, not yet anyway!

Logic

I remember it took me a while to get into Lorna Doone as well, I found it dragged for a while and thought the language was a bit "flowery". It did pick up though - I'd just been on holiday in the Exmoor area and so it helped reading about the various locations.

Just ordered 2 books from Amazon - "The Trysting Tree" by Linda Gillard, and "Who buries the Dead?" the latest in a series of historical mysteries by C S Harris, and I've also ordered 3 historical mysteries by Tessa Harris from a mail order book company.

I always find I'm starving about halfway through the programme, does it have this affect on anyone else?

Room

Yep definitely that nip in the air now, still nice and sunny though.

Holiday

I've never heard of them I'm afraid!

You've summed up the power of reading perfectly, especially for children. I hope your son enjoys them when he's old enough, and wants to go on similar expeditions!

Me too ie only read WiW but would recommend it.

I recently finished (last Thursday) "The Magician's Assistant" by Ann Patchett, which I've had for ages and finally read as a book of the month on another book forum (I've had it for so long that I couldn't find my copy in all the book piles, and had to order a cheap used copy from Amazon marketplace ). The story mainly concerns the assistant, Sabine, who is in mourning after the magician, who's also her husband, dies suddenly and she finds out he had a family whom she knew nothing about it - he'd always told her that his family died in an accident when he was young; in fact he has a mum and 2 sisters alive and well and living in Nebraska. He cut all contact with them when he was 18, although once his magic act became successful he started to send them money regularly, but they only knew of him through watching his TV appearances. His mother and 1 sister visit Sabine in LA to see where he lived, and then invite her back to Nebraska, where she finally discovers the truth about his life and background, and why he moved away from it all. I enjoyed this part of the book much more than the first section - it's split into distinct sections - although the dream sequences were a bit annoying, and at first I found Sabine a bit of wimp, but her character developed more once she became involved with his family, and overall it was a fast-paced, well-written read, which I quite enjoyed - 7.5/10