Kell

And it's pretty awesome, I have to say - I have it already. I'm hoping the saxophonist will go through tonight - he was brilliant - so smooth!

Nah, I think they'll stick with the same narrator - Edie's had her episode of narration.

I ADORE NCIS! I've seen right up to the finale of season 6 and it's explosively good stuff! I have a bit of a thing for the NCIS boys, GIbbs, McGee and DeNozzo. That said, I like Ziva and LOVE Abbey - she's totally rockin'!

Hi Maggie! First off, congratulations on the publication of your latest novel and on being our latest featured author. I have two questions to ask you: 1) Do/have you base/d any of your characters on people you know? If so, was any one person transcribed directly into a character or are they mnore composites of several different people? Or are they all completely made up? 2) What would be your number one piece of advice to an aspiring writer? Thanks.

I've also yet to hit NZ on the Olympic Challenge, and to my knowledge I've never read a Kiwi author to date (although I may have unwittingly done so!). I'll look forward to catching some work from this quarter of the globe.

I agree - Stavros Flatley wasn't nearly as good 2nd time round, BUT they were one of the funnier variety acts and the show is about variety. I also agree about the opera / flowers thingy - she was absolutely dire. I'm sure that if the queen wants to listen to opera, she'd rather listen to someone who is actually good at it and not have to watch some ponce arranging flowers at the same time! X-Factor, I believe, was supposed to be about more than just singing originally, but it became another "Pop Stars" clone very quickly. I hope she DOES pull out as she has no right to be in the final - her semi-final performance was very poor to say the least - bad choice of song and bad performance of it - she should be ashamed to stand up next to the other contestants getting through with them like that! And you're right - the public always seem to either vote for the children or the sob-story/beast-to-beauty story, rather than talent. Last year, that dancing laddie was pretty good, but La Scala (the string quartet lassies) should have won it - they were awesome with a capital A!

I'll actually be able to put several of these to the test shortly as I just bought a couple of the "Great Adaptations" books with dvds. I've already seen and read Pride and Prejudice (book way better than the Keira Knightly tosh), but I've also now got Jude the Obscure and Vanity Fair to read and watch at my leisure.

Dale requested one tonight again. He loves them!

Yes - normal length episode.

For anyone looking forward to the final episode - it is nothing short of EXCELLENT! A terrific end to the season - I can hardly wait for the next one!

Sue Son (the violinist) should have gone through instead of Susan Boyle - she gave a FAR better performance in the semi.

The Princess Bride - it's extremely faithful to the book with minimal changes - the action, humour, style and spirit of the book is kept intact and the casting and performances were nothing short of inspired. They really did the book credit.

Kids are particularly impressed to get their very own cake-in-a-mug made specially for them in 5 minutes. Even better because they can help make it as it's so simple and quick!

I completely agree! They need more variety. Last year it was a dance act that won, so I'm fully expecting one of the singers to win it this year. However, I think what would be an excellent idea is if Diversity and Flawless got together and did an act like a dance off - it would be otally awesome and they would win it for sure coz they would blow the competition out of the water if they teamed up! I really hope Susan Boyle DOES NOT win - I think she's the weakest of the finalists to be honest and although she has a lovely voice, I don't believe she deserves a place in the final. If she hadn't been an older, frumpy lady she wouldn't have got through in the first place - if she'd been a skinny, pretty 19-y-o, they would have said, "We've seen it before - sorry!".

I got really annoyed by the camping-forever-and-ever-and-ever nonsense n the last book. If they had cut most of that (which, in my opinion, was just not required anyway), the book would have been less than half the length and far better. I was rather disappointed by the last book to be perfectly honest.

No need to spoiler - one word - CAMPING - LOL!

LOL - about 4 or 5, with a whole bunch more planned.

Of course x-stitch is cool!

If you've seen the American remake of the film, you haven't seen it at its best. Go back and see the original Japanese one - it's far more chilling - as is the book!

You had mis-spelled "Pleasant" in your title - perhaps you typed the same into the search box, which would be why your thread would be the only one that came up (I've corrected the spelling and added the author name to the title of the thread now). I've read the first book and enjoyed it. Haven't yet got round to the next one though...

There are a bunch of "quick reads" released each World Book Day and a lot of those are good. I've only read a handful myself, but I've heard good things in general. Yuo can find the list of 2009 Quick Reads HERE, along with the entire back catalogue of all the other Quick Read releases.