princessponti

Hi MarkMark! Welcome to the forum!!! - keep us posted on how your doing with Jonathan Strange, you and Gyre can keep each other motivated I want to read it all again, it's great to visit that whole other world.

Hello!!! Mine arrived and I read it ...now my copy is up for grabs if anyone wants me to post it on... a Christmas gift of a Christmas Train - choo choo!! I have mixed feelings, I enjoyed the story, the titbits about the train, the journey, the quirky people Tom met; but I just didn't seem to grab a hold of Tom and really care about his plight, don't know why! .. Maybe I'm like Jenmck and he's just too familiar a character! I also found the writing style a little dry in places, like Baldacci was trying to squeeze in too many factoids in places which detracted from the action for me (but then, it seems that Pilgrim liked this, so as always it is just a matter of opinion!). On the other hand though, it really did make me want to ride the rails across the states, looks like an interesting experience!

you have an extra friend now x

The Decembers Early Reviewers list is up: http://www.librarything.com/er/list ...but it only appears to be for readers in the US, Canada and Iraq .poo.

It doesn't sound odd at all! The characters are very rich and complicated, it does take a while to figure them out, their motivations and quirks; it's one of the great things about the book. love your new avatar! he doesn't look so happy to have that gift though, I could take it off his hands! xx I'm wanting a new hobbes christmas avatar, cant' find one! never mind, maybe I'll just plop a santa hat on this one!

I totally agree Tammy! ..and Paula I'm so glad you're hooked!! It just reaches that one point and you can't put it down.. from the middle of the second volume I read it non-stop!

Thanks for this Fireball; I totally agree! People seem to see graphic novels as some lower thing that you should be ashamed of reading. I see the amount of work that goes into them, they really are an art form. I've just read the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (behind the times I know), and the amount of detail in the art work is incredible, it really adds to the story in a way that you wouldn't get with a 'real' book. When reading a traditional novel you have everything explained, but with a 'picture' book, you look at the images and notice things that make your brain tick over, it's strangely satisfying to see something in the background that lets you work out what might happen next! Love it!

A friend lent me Runaways, Volume 1: Pride & Joy by Brian K Vaughan today and I've read it already and really enjoyed it, so here I am recommending it as a good graphical novel to dip your toe in the water. Brian K Vaughan also wrote the Y: The Last Man series, which was great, and some of the later episodes of Lost, and this seems to be a somewhat lighter story, almost for a teenage audience (judging by the book itself, cover art etc). It is about a group of young adults that find out that their parents have been keeping a hideous secret from them. The first book deals with the scene setting, and the mystery of what the secret is and just touches on the action that I'm sure will follow. I sat and read it all in one sitting, probably for an hour (or a little less) and was fully immersed. It's a great break from heavy books! Linky: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Runaways-Pride-Joy-v/dp/0785113797/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196555220&sr=8-1

Aw, you guys

It always makes me cry!!!! Every single episode!!! ...I'm confused as to where everyone is up to; I've just watched Wednesday on E4... ? Very very good episode, just how Ugly Betty should be.

I've just read the title of this thread and it mad me feel sad. Used Books. I imagine them all broken in dark alleyways scraping around in bins for food. Cast aside. No longer wanted. Read once, their words roughly lifted from the page by an aggressive reader and then thown away, never to be picked up again. Never to be savoured, and loved, and cared for; never to know the tenderness of a real book lover. Let us find them and cherish them as if they were our own.

Yay!!! Keep in touch (again) - I like to join in! It's like reading it again!!! If you read up to the end of Chapter 22; that's the first volume of my three part set! You should mark it as a goal post! xx

Yay!! I loved that you enjoyed it!!! ...American Gods was a little to 'manly' for me (I don't know if that makes any kind of sense to anyone but me!!).. I would highly recommend 'Neverwhere' and 'Good Omens' though, oo and 'Coraline' if you fancy a childrens story; and 'Smoke and Mirrors' for short stories; actually, you should read them all!! Lol!! xxx

I'm sorry too! It's my favourite book, I can't help it!!! ...I've just framed some pictures of the picture book edition for my bedroom wall, so now I am surrounded by Stardust! It is a wonderful fairy story, I like the way it's very real, in an unreal world; I think fairy stories sometimes have the danger of becoming too twee. ..Have you not read Gaiman before?

Hello!!! Please blog your thoughts as you go along (if you have time!) - I'd love to know what you think! .. do you have the novel edition or the graphic edition? x

I'm like Mia, caution is the best option.. I put anything storyline specific behind the tags just in case, regardless of episode or season even! I hate to read a thread and accidently see something I don't want to!

I don't know what the official line is, but I would say anything that gives away the storyline.... did we miss one

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Further-Adventures-Search-Perfection-Blumenthal/dp/0747594058/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195984894&sr=8-2 This one has just been released!

I think he does! I'm sure he does... I was in the audience for the Jonathan Ross show he was on the other week I really want to go to his restaurant now!!! I'm sure he mentioned he has a book.

For me: Keanu Reeves (for wooing purposes), Russel Brand and Noel Fielding (to keep everyone entertained), and... hmm.. I suppose I should have another lady to balance it out, but this is a fantasy right? I wouldn't want competition (particularly with Keanu there)), so I'll go with Michael Palin to provide the after dinner speech

Poor Ainsley! I love his little wiggle when he shakes stuff in the pot

I think I went over the top - I sobbed for about an hour once I'd finished! I had to call Johnny at some ridiculous hour of the night for comfort!! ...incredible considering you knew from the beginning how it was going to turn out!!

...take it back and get the three part box set! Sooo much easier! I hope you perservere, it really is wonderful; I found it like walking into a whole new world. (hello! Hope you're well xx)

I've read it!!! I found the book broken down into three ordinary sized paperbacks while I was at Glastonbury and have found it sooooo much easier to read! ..by the time I was at the half way mark I just couldn't put it down! It is now categorised as one of my all time favourites, beautifully written. I've since read 'the ladies of grace adieu', Susanna Clarkes short stories, which complement the Jonathan Strange world perfectly; and I was lucky enough to see Neil Gaiman in discussion with Susanna Clarke in London a little while ago... love her now! Can't wait for her next one (I think we have a long wait!).

ooo...I've not tried Delia! ...maybe for christmas?