Janet

Thanks guys. It's my 'bookworms' book for January - it's not my 'usual' genre but so far, so good.

I really enjoyed that, Ruth. Hope you do too.

I expect so. I, on the other hand, find I can't remember exactly what happened in books I read only a few months ago!

Blimey, Kylie - I'm in awe of your impressive To Read pile - although I think it would scare the socks off me to have that many books unread! How many books do you hope to read this year? Good luck.

The Physick Book... is excellent, Frankie. If you like that, you might also like The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent. I can't believe your 2010 blog is already on 4 pages!

Heather read it in 2007.

I've read the first five chapters of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo today (up to page 94) and I'm liking the writing style very much. I haven't read the designated thread at all, although I'm constantly amused by seeing on the main page of the forum a thread seemingly entitled "The girl with the Dragon". I want a dragon!

Are you not having a new blog for 2010? Do you want me to move your existing one back? ETA: I see you posted what you actually want in your other thread. I've moved it back and titled it Mac Reads (Started 2009).

Thanks. My daughter read it at school and she loved it.

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James The 'blurb' The new governess is in sole charge of two orphan children. Although they are both remarkably well-behaved, intelligent and affectionate, she becomes increasingly uneasy. Especially after she sees a stranger seemingly in search of something - or someone; a man whom she discovers is dead, like her predecessor. She must then fight a frightening battle for her pupils and against the forces of evil, a battle in which her victory will be even more terrible. I'd wanted to read this for some time, and when I saw the BBC were doing an adaptation on 30 December, I raced to try to get it finished - and managed literally 3 minutes before the programme started! First published in 1898, The Turn of the Screw tells of an unnamed governess who is engaged to look after two orphan children by their guardian uncle. He tells the governess that he wishes to have no input in their lives and that she must deal with anything that arises as she sees fit, without bothering him. At the house in Essex, she meets Flora and is immediately charmed by the child. The next day, she receives a letter, via the guardian, to say that Miles has been expelled from his school and is returning to Bly, and when Miles arrives he refuses to speak of his expulsion. If you like all your ends tied up at the end of a novel, then it's possible that this could leave you feeling unsatisfied. I've found it quite hard to put my feelings down on electronic paper, but I have to say that it didn't quite live up to my expectations and even though I did enjoy it, it hasn't made me want to rush out to buy any more of James's novels, although I have had Daisy Miller highly recommended to me, so I might well give that a go in future. Oh, and the BBC adaptation was rubbish, imho! The paperback is 120 pages long and is published by Penguin. The ISBN is 978-0140620610.

Today I spent some of my Waterstone's vouchers on: Once by Morris Gleitzman Dear Me: A Letter to My Sixteen-Year-Old Self by various contributors The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (

Aww, bye-bye DT. I cried at the Wilf bit - gotta love Wilf!

First book of 2010 is going to be The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, which is my first Book club book of the year.

'To read books purchased before 2010' Blood of Flowers - Anita Mirrezvant Too Close to Home - Lynwood Barclay Neither Here nor There - Bill Bryson The Man Who Was Thursday - G K Chesterton On Green Dolphin Street - Sebastian Faulks Stardust - Neil Gaiman As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning - Laurie Lee Inside the Whale and Other Essays - George Orwell Decline of the English Murder The Kraken Wakes - John Wyndham Howard's End is on the Landing - Susan Hill Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson The Glass Book of the Dream Eaters - G.W. Dahlquist Waiting - Hai Jin The Eye in the Door - Pat Barker The Ghost Road - Pat Barker Lolita - Nabokov The Lord of the Flies -William Golding The Third Man/The Fallen Idol - Graham Greene The Road - Cormac McCarthy King Soloman's Mines - H Rider Haggard The Dubliners - James Joyce Witch Child - Celia Rees The Bolter - Frances Osbourne The Senator's Wife - Sue Miller The Return - Victoria Hislop The Trespass - Barbara Ewing The Lion and the Unicorn - Tracy Chevalier Brixton Beach - Roma Thearne Black Swan Green - David Mitchell Three Men on the Bummel - Jerome K Jerome I am also going to attempt to read at least 4 of my 'Long term world challenge', and to finish my 'Reading Through The Decades' challenge. If I finish the latter, I have another challenge in mind!

Books purchased in 2010 (Titles read in red!) Once by Morris Gleitzman £6.99- finished 14.01.10 Dear Me: A Letter to My Sixteen-Year-Old Self by various contributors £6.99 - finished 25.01.10 The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (£4.49 in paperback with a £10 spend!) - finished 06.04.10 (02.01.10 - Waterstone's) Cambridge School Shakespeare Macbeth by William Shakespeare - February reading circle book £2.00 - finished 03.02.10 The Chrisalids by John Wyndham £1.00 (16.01.10 - Bookbarn) Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant - March bookworms book £3.50 - finished 03.03.10 (22.01.10 - Asda) Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell £8.99 with Christmas money - finished 11.07.10 (25.01.10 - Waterstone's) The Crowfield Curse by Pat Walsh - £6.99 - finished 10.02.10 The Toymaker by Jeremy De Quidt - £5.99 - finished 07.02.10 The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson - £7.99 (these three BOGOF) Blacklands by Belinda Bauer - £3.50 (Went halves with my Mum!) - finished 15.03.10 (05.02.10 - Waterstone's) Cambridge School Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet - £3.00 Cambridge School Shakespeare: The Comedy of Errors - £2.50 (17.02.10 - Kim's Bookshop, Chichester) Candide - Voltaire - £1.00 - finished 17.03.10 The History of Mr Polly - H G Wells £1.00 - finished 29.03.10 (05.03.10 - The Bookbarn) Anna of the Five Towns - Arnold Bennett £1.99 - finished 16.04.10 (06.03.10 - Oxfam) Incendiary by Chris Cleave £1.39 - finished 17.06.10 (18.03.10 - Save the Children) Life's Too Short [Quick Reads] (true stories about life at work) - by various contributors - finished 19.06.10 The Perfect Murder [Quick Reads] - Peter James - finished 20.03.10 Traitors of the Tower [Quick Reads] - Alison Weir - finished 07.04.10 Buster Fleabags [Quick Reads] - Rolf Harris - finished 06.06.10 (20.03.10 - from Kell) 84, Charing Cross Road/The Duchess of Bloomsbury - Helen Hanff - £2.00 - finished 23 and 28 April (19.04.10 - British Heart Foundation Shop) The Enchanted Castle - E Nesbit - finished 03.05.10 The Wickedest Witch in the World - Beverley Nichols - 50p each (21.04.10 - Lion's Bookshop) Burning Bright - Tracy Chevalier - finished 31.05.10 (26.04.10 - from my Mum) The Earth Hums in B Flat - Mari Strachan - finished 08.07.10(28.04.10 - from the lovely Chrissy ) It's Not What You Think - Chris Evans - £4.99 delivered, but free as I had a gift card - finished 13.0510 (06.05.10 - Waterstone's online) The Quickening Maze - Adam Faulds - finished 09.06.10 (24.05.10 - Waterstone's) Cambridge School Shakespeare: King Lear - £2.76 - finished 21.06.10 (28.05.10 - Amazon Marketplace) The Lost Daughter - Diane Chamberlain (30.05.10 - Birthday present from mother-in-law) The Elephant Keeper Christopher Nicholson Tatty by Christine Dwyer Hickey - finished 05.06.10(30.05.10 - birthday present from hubby and children) Jonathan Livingstone Seagull by Richard Bach - £1 - finished 07.06.10 (06.06.10 - Ring 'o Bells charity bookshelf) The Secret Countess by Eva Ibbotson - £2.25 finished 29.07.10(10.06.10 - St Peter's Hospice Shop, Chipping Sodbury) The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp by W H Davies - £1 (12.06.10 - Charity Shop) Bloody Jack, Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary 'Jacky' Faber, Ship's Boy by L A Meyer by £4.22 - finished 27.06.10 (19.06.10 - Amazon) The Other Lover by Sarah Jackman - 30p (25.06.10 - Warminster Library sale) I'm Not Scared by Niccolò Ammaniti - 99p - finished 28.06.10 (25.06.10 - Help the Aged charity shop) Charlotte, Sometimes by Penelope Farmer - finished 14.07.10 The Children of Green Knowe by Lucy Boston Boogie up the River by Mark Mark Wallington - £1 - (02.07.10 - The Lion's Hospice Shop, Warminster) Lovely Green Eyes by Arnošt Lustig - 95p - finished 06.08.10(12.07.10 - Sue Ryder charity shop) Mr Rosenblum's List by Natasha Solomons - finished 11.08.10 The White Queen by Phillipa Gregory - finished 10.09.10(part of 3 for £10 offer - hubby had the third book! 31.07.10 - W H Smith) The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupéry - 50p The Lady in the Van by Alan Bennett 50p (06.08.10 - The Lion's Hospice Shop, Warminster) The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison - £1.99 - finished 14.08.10 (11.08.10 - Oxfam Bookshop, Romsey) The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham - £1.00 ( 13.08.10 - Bookbarn, Hallatrow) Cambridge School Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream - £1.49 The History of Love by Nicole Krauss - 1.99 - finished 30.09.10(19.08.10 - Oxfam, Rochester) Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte - £6.99 - finished 23.09.10 (19.08.10 - W H Smith, Bluewater) The Red House Mystery by A A Milne - £2.50 (27.08.10 - Shaw Trust Charity Shop, Bath) The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy - £1.00 (12.09.10 - The Bookbarn} The Help by Kathryn Stockett - £7.99 - Finished 30.11.10(Tesco 15.09.10 - free with another book (an Erica James for my Mum!) Trumpet by Jackie Kay - £2.76 (16.09.10 - Amazon Marketplace) Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert - £1.00 (12.10.10 - Ring 'o Bells charity bookshelf) The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart by Mathias Malzieu - £1.00 (21.10.10 - British Heart Foundation shop) A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry The Christmas Books by Charles Dickens (25.12.10 - my lovely 'secret' Santa) Hitler's Canary by Sandi Toksvig (25.12.10 - my Mum) Total new books acquired in 2010: 60 Number of these read: 39 Total cost of books acquired: £131.63

Books read in 2006 - 20 Books read in 2007 - 30 Books read in 2008 - 40 Books read in 2009 - 65 Target for 2010 is to read 'more than' 40 books FICTION The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson - 10/10 A Clergyman's Daughter by George Orwell - 9/10 Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant - 8/10 Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome - 10/10 Blacklands by Belinda Bauer - 9/10 Candide or Optimism by Voltaire - 7/10 The Perfect Murder [Quick Reads] by Peter James - 7/10 The History of Mr Polly by H G Wells - 7/10 The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters - 8/10 Anna of the Five Towns by Arnold Bennett - 7½/10 Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier - 6/10 Tatty by Christine Dwyer Hickey - 9/10 Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach - 9/10 The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds - 9/10 Incendiary by Chris Cleave - 8/10 I'm Not Scared by Niccolò Ammaniti - 8/10 The Earth Hums in B Flat by Mari Strachan - 10/10 Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell - 7/10 Lovely Green Eyes by Arnošt Lustig - 6½/10 Mr Rosenblum's List - or Friendly Guidance for the Aspiring Englishman by Natasha Solomons - 10/10 The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison - 7/10 The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith - 9/10 The White Queen by Philippa Gregory - 8/10 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë - 9/10 The History of Love by Nicole Krauss - 8/10 The Help by Kathryn Stockett - 10/10 The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson - 9½/10 CHILDREN'S/YOUNG ADULT FICTION Once by Morris Gleitzman - 10/10 The Toymaker by Jeremy de Quidt - 9/10 The Crowfield Curse by Pat Walsh - 7½/10 The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier - 8/10 The Enchanted Castle by E Nesbit - 7/10 Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy by L A Meyer - 8/10 Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer - 8/10 The Secret Countess by Eva Ibbotson - 10/10 NON-FICTION A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby - 7/10 Dear Me: A Letter to my Sixteen-Year-Old Self by Various Contributors - 6/10 Traitors of the Tower [Quick /Reads] by Alison Weir - 8/10 84 Charing Cross Road/The Duchess of Bloomsbury by Helene Hanff - 8/10 and 7/10 respectively It's Not What You Think by Chris Evans - 9½/10 Join Me by Danny Wallace - 7½/10 Buster Fleabags by Rolf Harris - 8/10 Life's Too Short [Quick Reads] by Various Contributors - 6½/10 The Lady in the Van by Alan Bennett - 9/10 PLAYS Macbeth by William Shakespeare - 10/10 King Lear by William Shakespeare - 9/10 Total read = 46

Books purchased in 2010 Once by Morris Gleitzman �6.99- finished 14.01.10 Dear Me: A Letter to My Sixteen-Year-Old Self by various contributors �6.99 - finished 25.01.10 The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (�4.49 in paperback with a �10 spend!) - finished 06.04.10 (02.01.10 - Waterstone's) Cambridge School Shakespeare Macbeth by William Shakespeare - February reading circle book �2.00 - finished 03.02.10 The Chrisalids by John Wyndham �1.00 (16.01.10 - Bookbarn) Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant - March bookworms book �3.50 - finished 03.03.10 (22.01.10 - Asda) Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell �8.99 with Christmas money - finished 11.07.10 (25.01.10 - Waterstone's) The Crowfield Curse by Pat Walsh - �6.99 - finished 10.02.10 The Toymaker by Jeremy De Quidt - �5.99 - finished 07.02.10 The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson - �7.99 (these three BOGOF) Blacklands by Belinda Bauer - �3.50 (Went halves with my Mum!) - finished 15.03.10 (05.02.10 - Waterstone's) Cambridge School Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet - �3.00 Cambridge School Shakespeare: The Comedy of Errors - �2.50 (17.02.10 - Kim's Bookshop, Chichester) Candide - Voltaire - �1.00 - finished 17.03.10 The History of Mr Polly - H G Wells �1.00 - finished 29.03.10 (05.03.10 - The Bookbarn) Anna of the Five Towns - Arnold Bennett �1.99 - finished 16.04.10 (06.03.10 - Oxfam) Incendiary by Chris Cleave �1.39 - finished 17.06.10 (18.03.10 - Save the Children) Life's Too Short [Quick Reads] (true stories about life at work) - by various contributors - finished 19.06.10 The Perfect Murder [Quick Reads] - Peter James - finished 20.03.10 Traitors of the Tower [Quick Reads] - Alison Weir - finished 07.04.10 Buster Fleabags [Quick Reads] - Rolf Harris - finished 06.06.10 (20.03.10 - from Kell) 84, Charing Cross Road/The Duchess of Bloomsbury - Helen Hanff - �2.00 - finished 23 and 28 April (19.04.10 - British Heart Foundation Shop) The Enchanted Castle - E Nesbit - finished 03.05.10 The Wickedest Witch in the World - Beverley Nichols - 50p each (21.04.10 - Lion's Bookshop) Burning Bright - Tracy Chevalier - finished 31.05.10 (26.04.10 - from my Mum) The Earth Hums in B Flat - Mari Strachan - finished 08.07.10(28.04.10 - from the lovely Chrissy ) It's Not What You Think - Chris Evans - �4.99 delivered, but free as I had a gift card - finished 13.0510 (06.05.10 - Waterstone's online) The Quickening Maze - Adam Faulds - finished 09.06.10 (24.05.10 - Waterstone's) Cambridge School Shakespeare: King Lear - �2.76 - finished 21.06.10 (28.05.10 - Amazon Marketplace) The Lost Daughter - Diane Chamberlain (30.05.10 - Birthday present from mother-in-law) The Elephant Keeper Christopher Nicholson Tatty by Christine Dwyer Hickey - finished 05.06.10(30.05.10 - birthday present from hubby and children) Jonathan Livingstone Seagull by Richard Bach - �1 - finished 07.06.10 (06.06.10 - Ring 'o Bells charity bookshelf) The Secret Countess by Eva Ibbotson - �2.25 (10.06.10 - St Peter's Hospice Shop, Chipping Sodbury) The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp by W H Davies - �1 (12.06.10 - Charity Shop) Bloody Jack, Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary 'Jacky' Faber, Ship's Boy by L A Meyer by �4.22 - finished 27.06.10 (19.06.10 - Amazon) The Other Lover by Sarah Jackman - 30p (25.06.10 - Warminster Library sale) I'm Not Scared by Niccol� Ammaniti - 99p - finished 28.06.10 (25.06.10 - Help the Aged charity shop) Charlotte, Sometimes by Penelope Farmer - finished 14.07.10 The Children of Green Knowe by Lucy Boston Boogie up the River by Mark Mark Wallington - �1 - (02.07.10 - The Lion's Hospice Shop, Warminster) Lovely Green Eyes by Arnošt Lustig - 95p (12.07.10 - Sue Ryder charity shop) Total new books acquired in 2010: 41 Number of these read: 28

REVIEW OF 2009 Total books read - 65 Some cracking reads this year. Books rated 9 or more All These Lonely People [Quick Reads] by Gervase Phinn - 9

Well done!

Just finished The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. A good job too, as the new BBC adaptation is starting in about 4 minutes! ETA: The BBC adaptation was dreadful - I have up half an hour from the end!

My mistake - wrong book/film! It was Emma I wanted to slap - sorry! I didn't get past about chapter 4 of that book! The recent BBC adaptation was good though.