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Jules

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  1. Oh right! I got the wrong end of the stick there. :oops:
  2. I saw a "discussion" (ahem) about this forum on another, and decided to check it out. Quite a few of your new members are from the same site as me, and obviously had the same idea.
  3. Lol, different strokes, as they say. Those were the two that played a part in driving me away from King Of course, everyone has their favourites! Insomnia was a strange one for me - it's the only King book I've changed my mind about! I hated it on first reading it, but many years later I went back to it and really enjoyed it. :? Desperation I found genuinely chilling. Not many King stories scare me, but that one did!
  4. I loved the His Dark Materials trilogy. I found them exceptionally well-written for children's books, dealing with major themes. The "anti organised religion" theme worked well for me personally. The first book was the best, then the second. I liked the last one the least for some reason, maybe because I hated the ending (too sad for me!) :oops: I did not enjoy the small book Lyra's Oxford - I found it an expensive waste of time. It took the story nowhere new IMO. I was expecting much more of it. I have read a couple of his Sally Lockhart novels, set in Victorian London, which are completely different but also very good. I own the other two but have yet to find the time to read them. I have also read a couple of his other books, which I found extremely disappointing. I think one was called The Broken Bridge(?). To be honest, they read like they'd been written by another person entirely. Perhaps they just go to show how Pullman has improved as a writer, as I think they were his early works.
  5. I have to disagree with Acesare* when she (? Hope I got that right!) says to avoid It. This seems to be widely seen as one of King's most impressive books. It's certainly one of the most popular. I found it chilling (already hating clowns helped with this) and King does some of his best character work with the children who then return as adults to fight the evil. He portrays their relationships and loyalty wonderfully. I would definitely recommend this one! Some of my other favourites (I have all of King's works except his newest one) are: Firestarter The Shining Rose Madder The Eyes of the Dragon The Dark Tower series Desperation The Stand The Talisman Needful Things Insomnia. I didn't care for: Cujo The Dark Half Bag of Bones Black House The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.
  6. I'm so glad to have found this thread - The Wrong Boy was absolutely wonderful! I read it last year and it is one of my favourite books of all time. What Beverley said about this was spot on; it really is an emotional rollercoaster. It has moments of hysterical comedy, and moments where I was reduced to tears. It is such a clever book, showing how an ordinary, well-balanced boy's life falls apart due to an innocent childish moment. Misunderstanding piles onto misunderstanding in a way which I would love to have found far-fetched, but could imagine happening only too well. The ignorance of some of the so-called professionals who deal with Raymond is staggering. One of the worst examples of this is when the young Raymond childishly misreads the word "therapist" and is branded some kind of sexual deviant. I wondered why one of the recommendations in the front of the book said: After reading this book, I know why. Still, I don't want to make this book sound wholly depressing - it was also wonderfully funny. I too liked how the book was constructed using Raymond's letters to his idol (fans of whom will find many in-jokes). The only thing that marred this book slightly for me was the unlikely ending, which was very contrived. But after all that Raymond had gone through, he fully deserved this conclusion. I can't recommed this book highly enough - it's a wonderful novel.
  7. I've read and enjoyed two of Stroud's Bartimaeus trilogy, The Amulet of Samarkand and The Golem's Eye. (I haven't yet read the last one.) Both are very good, though I enjoyed the first slightly more. He does remind me of Pratchett in his use of hilarious footnotes (something which Terry doesn't use nearly as much as he used to - bring them back, Terry!) from the sarcastic Bartimaeus. I'm looking foward to reading Ptolemy's Gate. I've also read a couple of Stroud's other books for young adults. The first one I read was called The Leap, and I wholeheartedly recommend this - it's excellent. On the strength of this, I then read another of his which involves teenagers camping out in a castle. I'm not sure of the title, it might have been something like The Keep, but I was very disappointed and sold it on eBay! But Stroud has certainly redeemed himself in my eyes with the Bartimaeus trilogy.
  8. I've read nearly all of Koontz's work, and I agree that it is quite variable in quality. A lot of my favourites tend to be his older books. My favourites include: Intensity Watchers Strangers The Door to December Sole Survivor Lightning Sorry to those who liked it, but I absolutely loathed The Taking. It's the worst book I've ever finished. It really did bore me, with its multi-page descriptions of rain, and it never seemed to actually get anywhere, before its complete cop-out of an ending. Perhaps I just missed the point! :? I also couldn't get into Icebound (gave up halfway), Demon Seed and the ones about Christopher Snow. I currently have three of his books on my TBR pile - Velocity and the two Frankenstein books.
  9. About Rincewind - exactly! It's funny the first 100 times, but after that... I haven't read Thud because I always wait for the paperbacks, but it sounds very good.
  10. I agree with quite a lot of this, Kell. My first taste of Pratchett was an extract from Mort given away free with SFX (sci-fi) magazine. I loved it so much I went straight out and bought the book. I knew I would love Pratchett when I read the line about someone "eating a meat pie with no thought for personal safety" (not exact, but you get the idea!) I then decided I'd better read them in order, but I didn't really enjoy the first two as much as Mort. My favourites are generally the City Watch ones. I love Vimes, and especially the exchanges he has with Vetinari - I adore Vimes' polite insolence which Vetinari lets him get away with because he admires him. Whilst I like the character of Death, I find the books where he is centre stage the least enjoyable - I'm not quite sure why. :? Whenever anyone asks me about my favourite books, I never think of the Witches books, but actually the double act of Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax is hilarious (Magrat is slightly too annoying though). Anyway, my absolute favourite at the moment is Going Postal. Now I think I've wittered on enough for one post!
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