lunababymoonchild

I absolutely love this and put it by for a re-read. I was so involved with it I didn't even realise that it was stream of consciousness!

I do enjoy this from time to time but like Meg there is only so much that I can take. I do enjoy landscape and portrait artist of the year but again, from time to time. I see sewing as a chore so avoid it like the plague but this, as you say, this is fascinating. I haven't seen a whole match yet either. My father hates it so I can only see it in bits and pieces but further in to the competition I will be watching more (she says!). I'm also following The Nevers and the odd episode of Botched. I should really be reading more!

I'm all caught up in Roland Garros (tennis) just now having not seen any last year. Have also been watching the snooker when that was on. I also like darts and carpet bowls - can be a lot more exciting than it sounds. I'm partial to Australian Rules football when I can get it but not seen any in years. We - my father and I - are following Murdoch Mysteries just now and I like The Great British Sewing Bee.

Wall to wall sunshine here and for the foreseeable future. It's hot too. Not my favourite weather but at least we can get out and about in it this year.

I'm not. I'm tee-total, I just don't enjoy it.

A Fever of the Blood is a Frey and McGray and it's book 2. I felt that it wasn't as good as the first book but it was interesting enough about witches and curses and madness and asylums all in 1800's Edinburgh and some of the action takes place in England near Pendle Hill on which took the place of the now famous witch trials. The pair chase Lord Ardglass from the Edinburgh asylum that McGray's sister is in to the aforementioned Pendle Hill. Along the way they get involved in physical violence and with witches. I guessed the end so it's not that mysterious but it's a good caper and well written and it also got me thinking, which is always a good thing - apparently eye of newt and toe of frog is witches code for different, secret, ingredients and their language has never been written down only passed down. I would still recommend it.

No such thing as a dumb question. I don't actually know if they should be read in sequence but that's what I will do.

There was a young lady from Billingsgay Who never had particularly much to say When she opened her mouth Her language went south

Currently reading Kraken by China Mieville

Restless and hot two children lay Plagued with uneasy dreams, Each wandered lonely through false day A twilight torn with screams. True to the bed-time story, Ben Pursued his wounded bear, Ann dreamed of chattering monkey men, Of snakes twined in her hair... Now high aloft above the town The thick clouds gather and break, A flash, a roar, and rain drives down: Aghast the young things wake. Trembling for what their terror was, Surprised by instant doom, With lightning in the looking glass, Thunder that rocks the room. The monkeys' paws patter again, Snakes hiss and flash their eyes: The bear roars out in hideous pain: Ann prays: her brother cries. They cannot guess, could not be told How soon comes careless day, With birds and dandelion gold, Wet grass, cool scents of May. Thunder At Night, Robert Graves

A Rose for Emily is a short story by Faulkner which is not stream of consciousness. It's available to read online but I'm not allowed to post the link.

William Faulkner is excellent but very difficult. I first met him in a group read on BGO of The Sound and the Fury. I may well have been the only one of the group that actually enjoyed it. I have read more since. Not all of Faulkner's are stream of consciousness, I don't know if you'd like to start there? Titles are not springing to mind at the moment although I'd say the short stories would be your best bet. I also eased my way into stream of consciousness by another BGO group read of Orlando by Virginia Woolf. Orlando is a very short book so may be ideal. I haven't read any more of her since.

There was a young lady from Billingsgay

A book critic once tried to write, In despondency he gave up the fight His mind was a blank His prose truly stank His reviews conjured nothing but spite

A book critic once tried to write In despondency he gave up the fight

Just bought The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula Le Guin on paper

Interesting, Brian. Thank you for your comments

I have read it and I absolutely loved it. Very different to anything at all that I have read and I will read it again.

An article on the subject of how reading paper books is actually better for you healthwise popped up on my Facebook page and I thought we might discuss it. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-05-01/a-book-you-remember-a-kindle-you-forget

Currently reading A Fever of the Blood (Frey and McGray 2), Oscar de Muriel.

I've been thinking about this which is why it's taken so long to reply! I think that, to me, a Classic book is the book that is the first of it's kind but as time goes on remains the best and defining book of the genre. So The Godfather, for example, was the first one to come up with the now classic 'it's nothing personal,it's business' and the kissing of the ring and the godfather as man in charge when it comes to mafia novels and now that there are lots to choose from Mario Puzo's version seems to be the most convincing. Similarly there were plenty of stories/ books about vampires before Bram Stoker wrote Dracula but his version seems to be the accepted description of a vampire. Anne Rice came along with a different, equally successful, definition but Stoker's is the accepted norm. Then there's the fact that no matter how many times you read a Classic book it's still good.

No. You need to select a library and then get a library card to sign in. I would think that membership would be restricted to the USA

Thank you so very much for your full reply, it does indeed answer my question. I'm always interested in how people manage to read so much more than I do because it's something that I aspire to. Last year I read more than I have ever (only 61 books in the whole year! ) and you are right, less TV watching and more reading would benefit me a great deal. I am my father's carer (he has Alzheimer's) so the TV has to be on most of the time because that's what he enjoys but I do get to leave the room for a while and my brother amuses him for the evening. I've never heard of subvocalisation before and realise that I do do that and as for aphantasia, wow! I do get very involved with the material I'm reading (which is why I don't read in waiting rooms when waiting for an appointment), to the extent it took me a long time to realise that the phone was ringing last week when I was reading Pickwick Papers - I answered it eventually and the other person wasn't bothered. I have heard of faceblindness before but not been in contact with anybody who has it. I grew up in a family of mentally and physically disabled people so I am familiar with autism and ADD somewhat more than the average (none of my family were ever diagnosed with anything so it's anybody's guess and I got used to things that I later realised as an adult that not everybody was used to) and my mother was very strict about noise, she said that a pen falling onto a carpeted floor sounded like a bomb going off to her - she said it was because her musician's ear (she was a music teacher) was so well trained but you never know. I'm so touched and grateful that you were willing to share that with me, that means a lot. Thank you.

I got this, thanks. It is the 6th.

The Pickwick Papers is Charles Dickens first book and was released initally in 19 instalments over 20 months in 1836. It was very successful and let the poorer parts of the population read something when the price of a book would be beyond them. They were also illustrated. Dickens was, at the time, unknown. The book version was released the following year. I have to admit that I struggled with this. I think my problem is that the book consists of a series of seemingly unconnected incidents and not a flowing story. I've read Bleak House and Nicholas Nickelby (Oliver Twist and The Christmas Books) so am familiar with Dickens' prose and story telling but I don't really like short stories (except for Thomas Bernhard's The Voice Imitator) and I struggled to see the whole book in this. It might have been easier for me to split it into the chunks that it was originally published in (listed on the internet), which is what I'll do in the future when I read it again. The prose is amazing and I read the full, unabridged and illustrated Wordsworth Classics copy, some 784 pages long. I didn't find it all that funny either, I have to say. I'm glad that it wasn't my first Dickens as this could easily have put me off.