Kell

I've been completely unable to find a list that goes past Thud!/Where's My Cow? However... Making Money is part of the Industrial Revolution series and should come after Going Postal Unseen Academicals is a Wizards/Rincewind novel and should come after The Last Hero* I Shall Wear Midnight hasn't been released yet (2010) but will be part of the TIffany Aching series (Young Adult) and comes after Wintersmith. * I've not read it yet (got it for Xmas) and it may turn out to involve the Watch or Death too, if so it could also be included after Thud!/Where's My Cow? and Thief of Time, but I think it's a WIzards book in the main.

Almost finished the blue sky in the lower left windowpane now.

I watched it on Boxing Day and enjoyed it, so I'm looking forward to the 2nd episode. "My" Doctor was Tom Baker - the best one! (Although I did like McCoy - he injected a little manic humour after the dour and pompous Colin Baker).

I'll be watching Triffids tonight - I've been eagerly anticipating it!

Finished the blue sky in the upper left windowpane, plus that section of the frame and the shooting star tonight.

We had Xmas dinner leftovers.

If I remember correctly, the name is purposely missing - it was written that way.

Stitched some more blue sky tonight - almost finished this window pane!

It's a special washable marker - you just rinse the fabric and it all fades right away (I just run it under a tap or even spray it with a plant mister for some projects). Some folks actually sew a grid on using thread or very fine fishing line (the latter is easier to pull out at the end as the stitches don't pierce the gridding thread and it just glides out). I never used to grid at all, but it makes things SO much easier, espcially with larger projects as it means you only ever have to count to ten - LOL!

I started reading Frostbitten by Kelley Armstrong last night. It's one of the books I have been DYING to read it!

THIS THREAD WILL OPEN ON 1ST JANUARY IT IS ASSUMED YOU HAVE READ THIS BOOK BEFORE READING THIS THREAD, THEREFORE SPOILER TAGS MAY NOT HAVE BEEN USED IN ORDER TO FASCILITATE EASIER AND MORE OPEN DISCUSSION This book is available cheaply from Amazon (please use the link at the top right of this web page) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury: Synopsis: Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness. Even so, Montag is unhappy; there is discord in his marriage. Are books hidden in his house? The Mechanical Hound of the Fire Department, armed with a lethal hypodermic, escorted by helicopters, is ready to track down those dissidents who defy society to preserve and read books. The classic novel of a post-literate future, Fahrenheit 451 is part of the Voyager Classic series. It stands alongside Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World as a prophetic account of Western civilization's enslavement by the media, drugs and conformity. Bradbury's powerful and poetic prose combines with uncanny insight into the potential of technology to creat a novel which, forty years on from first publication, still has the power to dazzle and shock. SOME BASIC QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER: 1. Who was your favourite character and why? 2. Was there a particular part you enjoyed/disliked more than the rest? 3. Was this the first book you've read in this genre/by this author, has it encouraged you to read more? 4. Were there any parts/ideas you struggled with? 5. Overall, was reading the book an enjoyable experience? QUESTIONS FOR FAHRENHEIT 451 BY RAY BRADBURY (from Reading Group Guides): QUESTIONS WILL BE POSTED THROUGHOUT THE MONTH 1. Why would society make "being a pedestrian" a crime? (Clarisse tells Montag that her uncle was once arrested for this.) 2. One suicide and one near-suicide occur in this book. One woman, who shuns books but loves TV and driving fast in her car, anesthetizes herself,; "We get these cases nine or ten a night," says the medical technician. Another woman, who cherishes her books, sets herself on fire with them; "These fanatics always try suicide," says the fire captain. Why would two people who seem to be so different from each other try to take their own lives? Why does suicide happen so frequently in Montag's society?" 3. Captain Beatty quotes history, scripture, poetry, philosophy. He is obviously a well-read man. Why hasn't he been punished? And why does he view the books he's read with such contempt? 4. Why do you think the firemen's rulebook credited Benjamin Franklin-- writer, publisher, political leader, inventor, ambassador--as being the first fireman? 5. Since the government is so opposed to readers, thinkers, walkers, and slow drivers, why does it allow the procession of men along the railroad tracks to exist? INFO ON THE AUTHOR (from Fantastic Fiction): Ray Bradbury, American novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and poet, was born August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. He graduated from a Los Angeles high school in 1938.Although his formal education ended there, he became a "student of life," selling newspapers on L.A. street corners from 1938 to 1942, spending his nights in the public library and his days at the typewriter.He became a full-time writer in 1943, and contributed numerous short stories to periodicals before publishing a collection of them, Dark Carnival, in 1947. His reputation as a writer of courage and vision was established with the publication of The Martian Chronicles in 1950, which describes the first attempts of Earth people to conquer and colonize Mars, and the unintended consequences.Next came The Illustrated Man and then, in 1953, Fahrenheit 451, which many consider to be Bradbury's masterpiece, a scathing indictment of censorship set in a future world where the written word is forbidden.In an attempt to salvage their history and culture, a group of rebels memorize entire works of literature and philosophy as their books are burned by the totalitarian state.Other works include The October Country, Dandelion Wine, A Medicine for Melancholy, Something Wicked This Way Comes, I Sing the Body Electric!, Quicker Than the Eye, and Driving Blind.In all, Bradbury has published more than thirty books, close to 600 short stories, and numerous poems, essays, and plays.His short stories have appeared in more than 1,000 school curriculum "recommended reading" anthologies.Mr. Bradbury's eagerly awaited new novel, From the Dust Returned, will be published by William Morrow at Halloween 2001.Morrow will release One More For the Road, a new collection Bradbury stories, at Christmas 2001. Ray Bradbury's work has been included in four Best American Short Story collections. He has been awarded the O. Henry Memorial Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America, the PEN Center USA West Lifetime Achievement Award, among others.In November 2000, the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters was conferred upon Mr. Bradbury at the 2000 National Book Awards Ceremony in New York City. Ray Bradbury has never confined his vision to the purely literary. He has been nominated for an Academy Award (for his animated film Icarus Montgolfier Wright), and has won an Emmy Award (for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree).He adapted sixty-five of his stories for television's Ray Bradbury Theater. He was the creative consultant on the United States Pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair. In 1982 he created the interior metaphors for the Spaceship Earth display at Epcot Center, Disney World, and later contributed to the conception of the Orbitron space ride at Euro-Disney, France. Married since 1947, Mr. Bradbury and his wife Maggie live in Los Angeles with their four beloved cats.They have four daughters and eight grandchildren. On the occasion of his 80th birthday in August 2000, Bradbury said, "The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and rushing to the typewriter because some new idea has hit me.The feeling I have every day is very much the same as it was when I was twelve.In any event, here I am, eighty years old, feeling no different, full of a great sense of joy, and glad for the long life that has been allowed me.I have good plans for the next ten or twenty years, and I hope you'll come along." OTHER NOVELS BY THE AUTHOR: 1957 Dandelion Wine (1957) 1962 Something Wicked this Way Comes (1962) 1965 Autumn People (1965) 1972 The Halloween Tree (1972) 1985 Death Is a Lonely Business (1985) 1990 A Graveyard for Lunatics: Another Tale of Two Cities (1990) 1992 Green Shadows, White Whale (1992) 1998 Ahmed and the Oblivion Machines: A Fable (1998) 1999 From the Dust Returned: A Family Remembrance (1999) 2002 Let's All Kill Constance (2002) 2006 Farewell Summer (2006)

I think I'll be framing it and hanging it in Xander's room. I started on it last night (pics below). I didn't get much done, but I was rather tired after the festivities. I got part of the top-left window pane stitched.

I received 2 Charlie's Ark kits for Xmas from my Mum (Charlie's Falling Star and Birth Sampler), which I've been hankering to stitch ever since I first saw them. The first one I'm going to do is Charlie's Falling Star. I've never done a project this big before now, but I think I'm going to love it. It's on ivory 16-count aida and the stitched piece will measure 19.5cm x 19cm. I've already sorted out the flosses, so tonight I'm going to grid the fabric and start stitching as soon as Xander is in bed and see how far I can get!

The Discworld novels are all books set on a world that is flat as a pancake and carried on the back of 4 elephants who stand on the shell of a giant turtle called Gret A'Tuin. THere are well over 30 books set on the discworld now, but most of them can be broken into sub-sets, or series within the series. The "sub-sets" are: Witches Rincewind/Wizards City Watch Death Industrial Revolution Ancient Civilisations FOr a list in publication order, see HERE. For a chart showing the various sub-sets (not right up to the most recent novels though), see HERE. The Discworld does reflect the "Round World" in that various places/people resemble those on our world (Ankh Morpork is a mix of ELizabethan London and New York, the continent of XXXX is Australia, the Counterweight Continent is the Orient, etc). They are deeply satirical and incredibly funny and happen to be my favourite series of novels EVER.

Xander and I are watching Trumpton - he loves it as much as I do!

I sing it to Xander too.

I liked the UK one, but I LOVE the US version. There was only really the pilot episode that was a direct take of one of the original scripts, after that they made it their own and it's fantastic!

1. Xander and I are the only people on my side of the family who don't share their birthday with someone else in the family - and ours are 2 days apart! 2. I forgot my own birthday last year because Xander was just 2 days old and I was so wrapped up in him! 3. I don't like many Xmas songs all that much, but every year, without fail, I tune into the music channels and have all the Xmas music shows playing in the background to help get me in the Xmas mood. I've got The Vault A Very Classic Christmas playing right now - LOL! 4. Although I'm not remotely religious, one of my all-time favourite music videos is the one for The Power of Love by Frankie Goes to Hollywood - I think it's gorgeous. 5. I read at least two stories each and every day to Xander as I'm trying to instil a love of books in him. So far it seems to be working as he regularly gets his books out to look at them himself and brings his own choice of books to me to read them with/to him.

I'm hoping to get one or two of the books from my own wishlist: WISH LIST: Kelley Armstrong - Frostbitten (WotOW 10) Kelley Armstrong - The Reckoning (DP 3) Kelley Armstrong - Waking the Witch (WotOW 11) Kelley Armtrong - Angelic (novella) Kelley Armstrong - Tales of the Otherworld (collection) Brom - The Child Thief (illustrated novel) Christopher Brookmyre - Pandaemonium Philippa Gregory - The White Queen Frank Miller - 300 (illustrated novel) Alan Moore - The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (illustrated novel) Terry Pratchett - Unseen Academicals Terry Pratchett - Once More* With Footnotes Simon Scarrow - The Gladiator (Romans 9) Simon Scarrow - The Fields of Death (Revolution 4) A couple of those on my list aren't actually out yet, but of those that are, I'm sure I'll get a small handful - I always do. I then agonise over which one to read first! I'm currently reading I Am Scrooge: A Zombie Story for Christmas by Adam Roberts. Total Christmas meltdown!

I hate, hate, HATE so-called reality shows. I don't watch much TV as it is, but I refuse point blank to watch any reality shows. Especially if they're "celebrity" ones with a load of has-beens and wannabes.

That's OK - I've now merged the two threads.