TammyRich
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Posts posted by TammyRich
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I bought an adult cover one this time and thought it looked so much nicer I thought I might start doing the same thing! I bet we are not alone! They will probably become semi collectable - what's the bet the first one is relativly rare?
Just looked on ebay - it's going at upwards from £14.99 with one at £49.99!!!
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Now that I've finished it, I'd like to know what character JK Rowling gave a reprieve to and which two died that weren't going to.....
I can't wait to see this when it's made into a movie. Thanks for the adventures JK Rowling!
I read somewhere on the Internet a post book release interview with JK saying that it was Mr Weasley that she gave a reprieve to! Must admit I thought he was going to be one of the 2 major characters who died.
I agree about the movie biz - it'll have to be really chopped down tho especially all that camping around in the woods.
Was rather miffed that Tonks and Lupin were killed "off-screen" too - I felt they deserved better than that. If JK was so determined to kill them off, she could have at least given them both a decent send-off.I agree - it was such a let down that he just came across the bodies.
A few hours on from finishing, I have a feeling that I only have a superficial understanding of all the details, and if I went into details, I may get confused. I feel that I may have to read the last few chapters again, to see if the details really do make sense.Does anyone else feel like this? Does anyone have anything they really didn't understand?
As I said earlier the wand stuff confused me with so many people losing their wands and getting other peoples. Exactly how do wands 'chose' people etc?
And I'm sure I read through a lot of the last chapter or so too quickly. Still that means something to look forward to when I inevitably read it again. One thing I did do was read bk 6 before hand to prepare myself so that all that stuff about horcruxes etc was fresh in my head.
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I thoroughly enjoyed it although it took me until about 10.00pm tonight (Sunday night). I started it 1.30ish Saturday - I wasn't so mad as to queue up on Friday night!
I am going to discuss it with joyful abandon as Michelle has warned people about spoilers above and there is another thread for those still reading it.
I didn't quite get my head around the different wand business and why the one that Harry had was the one that killed Voltemort (there you go Polka Dot Rock a bit of story line) but I expect if I go back and read it more slowly it'll make sense.
I got tearful when Percy arrived out of the blue and again when Fred got killed and a little bit when Hedwig was. Oh and when Dobby was...
Oh and wasn't the stuff with Kreacher becoming accepting of Harry so touching.
And as for Snape, oh how my heart leapt when I found out after all he had stayed loyal. I thought throughout most of the book he had really turned to Voldemort.
I bet the very last chapter will have loads of kids clamouring for more Potter books - just not Harry Potter!
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Well I have at least 3 Good News Bibles, 2 New Internation Versions, a Revised English Bible, an ordinary Authorised Version (also known as King James), a modern French translation and a modern German translation given to my husband who speaks both.
I have a copy of The Message/Remix which is the Bible translated into modern contemporary language. Interesting reading but not satisfactory for Bible Study.
Also got The Living Bible divided into 365 Daily Readings which took me a year and a half to read.
But my pride of place is a Authorised Version published to commemorate the marriage of HRH Prince Andrew and Sarah Margaret Ferguson 2nd July 1986! Beautiful Blue cover and silver gilt edged pages!
Got others around the place as well but those are the ones that come to mind first of all.
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I quite fancy myself as a bit of a writer but even so have lots of "how to" books and guides on writing and obviously The Writers and Artists Yearbook. Sometimes spend too much time looking at them when I should be trying to write!
Also Christian books which are the other non-fiction area I buy like by well known authors such as Philip Yancy. Also collect different versions of the Bible - boring I know but it's interesting comparing olde worlde Authorised Version and ultra modern versions (to me).
Oh and also craft books which come and go with the latest fad...
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:blush:It was called "Lust"! Bout a guy who can imagine anyone he likes and they'll appear and start stripping off and ... well you can imagine the rest. It's kind of a high brow comedy erotica sort of book and I didn't read the blurb on the back although I should have guessed by the cover picture of a courgette and two tomatoes strategically placed!!!!
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I caught my first one in a charity shop last week. I've been aware of bookcrossing for a while and keep meaning to do it but am not sure where I would leave one. I keep imagining that I will put it down somewhere and then someone will come running after me and say "you've left this" and I'll get all embarrased.
Anyway I saw the bookcrossing sticker on the spine of the book and got all excited and bought it straight away. The book really wasn't my sort of thing at all!! Anyway I've put it on my swap list on ReadItSwapIt. Last journal entry for it was 2004!!
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Well I can honestly say I have never lost my reading mojo and never imagined there was such a thing! I always have a book on the go. It's the most natural thing in the world for me! I might give up on a particular book but I always find something else to read instead.
But I don't make myself read a set amount or anything. I just read a few pages or so depending on how much time I've got then settle down for a longer read at the end of the day before switching off the light.B)
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The ending of Jonathan Strange made me cry! Very unusual for me
The ending was very touching and beautifully done.
A query - exactly who was the guy with the thistle down hair?
was he
just a faerie with big ideas- I spent most of the book thinking he was John Uskglass then JU turned up for one scene - when he revives Vinculus in the presence of Childermass and I realised the guy with the thistle down hair was someone else
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I have just finished this monumentous book which took me a month to read as it is over 1000 pages long but deservedly so. The author Susanna Clarke could easily have made it into a series of books about the main two characters but so generously put them together into one engrossing, fascinating and highly imaginative novel.
Who else has read it and what did they think?
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Just want to put another vote in for these books. I wasn't sure I would enjoy them being set abroad and with characters with names in a different language and yet soon overcame this as I was caught up in the stories and the characters. They are what you might call easy reading and yet the crimes which the main character sets out to solve are not easy to guess. The books also include some tragedy as well and can be thought provoking. I have read 3 so far and there is an on going story through them so I would advise people to read them from the start to throughly enjoy them.
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I read the Bonesetter's Daughter a while ago and don't remember it being that long! Must have really enjoyed it that I didn't notice the length!
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Finally got around to reading Black swan Green and it is an excellent book. You really get to feel for the main character, Jason in the dilemas he faces, both those typical of many a teenager but also those individual to him in his circumstances. For those of us growing up in that era there are so many, 'I remember that!' moments although after a while they get a little bit irritating as he proceeds to mention his Casio again and again rather than his watch. Knowing the area I can tell you he is absolutly accurate in his descriptions of the landscape of Malvern and Worcestershire right down to the presence of a garden centre in the Woolworths in Malvern where rumour has it , in the book, that there is a secret tunnel!
Mitchell is excellent in his descriptions and his story telling and even manages to drop in a little reference to one of the character from Cloud Atlas. The book is in a completly different format to Cloud Atlas and is a bit like a boy half relating his story in a narrative form out loud to an audience and half in a journal at the same time.
My other thought as I finished it was that it concluded in a most satisfactory way with the main character coming out on top without any huge act of bravado or heroics. Which I appreciated.
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I am a great fan of Michael Crichton having read almost all of his books. Many of his books have been made into films including Jurassic Park, Lost World, Timeline, Rising Sun, Congo and Outbreak amongst others. He researches his subjects well and usually builds a great story around some scientific subject of potentially controversial or unlikely premise.
However I was not impressed with State of Fear one of his most recent books. Has anyone else read it and what did they think of it?
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I thought the Deathly Hallows sounded like a place. I bet it is the place where Harry has his final showdown with Voldemort - which is inevitable. I can only imagine the final defeat of Voldemort being a confrontation with him ending with some sort of 'duel' between the two of them.
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Another huge fan of Cloud Atlas here too. I got Black Swan Green for Christmas as greatly desired and will read it next - got it in hardback and am going away for a day or two so can't carry it otherwise I would take it with me. (how come it was available in pbk at the airport?)
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A Gathering Light - Jennifer Donnelly
Publisher: Bloomsbury
This is coming of age novel based around a real life murder of a young woman at the beginning of the twentieth century in North America. The discovery of a body in a lake is witnessed by 16 year old Mattie Gokey who is working at the hotel where the woman had been staying.
The story moves backwards and forwards between Mattie's life in a year before and as it leads up to the discovery, and after the event. We see Mattie coping with her life as she is torn between a desire to be a writer and having to support her family in the harsh farming environment of the time due to the loss of her mother. She finds, to her distress, that she has become the custodian of a set of letters belonging to the woman whose body is found in the lake and the same lady had previously asked her to dispose of them.
The book is part murder mystery, part coming of age as she is forced to face dilemmas beyond her years, part romance and part historical fiction.
I read it really quickly over a matter of days which is unusual for me. I was totally absorbed by the world that Mattie lived in and really felt for her and many of the other characters in the book. It was well written and although labeled a coming of age book I do not think it is purely for a teenage market or even aimed at it. Highly recommended.
Winner of the Carnegie Medal
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I've read both of those books. They are the sort of books that stay with you for a while afterwards. Does make you think about how 'selfish' people can be - especially in extreme conditions.
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I have asked for this from my hubby for Christmas. I really hope he gets it for me. If not I'm off to the library. I loved Cloud Atlas. I would say it was the best book I read this year.
Hubby grew up in rural Worcestershire and would have been may be a year or two older than Jason. I think I would have been a bit younger and know the area having visited mother-in-law there. But I read an excerpt in a Saturday newspaper and it read brilliantly and I am sure I will enjoy it. Unfortunatly OH doesn't read novels or fiction so he won't appreciate it.
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Because I'm a member of RISI I have books from them hanging around the house but there are also books I've picked up in the past and old faves around. Sometimes my choice is because something's just arrived in the post, sometimes it's cos I've picked it up and glanced in it while tidying and it's grabbed my fancy, sometimes it's cos the author/title has been recommended or I've become hooked on an author and I'm reading the next in the series. All sorts of reasons and mood can have a lot to do with it. It also can affect whether I give up on a book. Since becoming member of online forums I think my reading habits have changed and affected my choosing.
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Sure am. I haven't got a freeview box and I was real upset when I heard it was on BBC Three. Then my hubby pointed out to me that it was the Beeb pushing their digital services to make everyone want to get Freeview boxes. Having seen the above I checked the BBC website and hurray it looks as though they have given into pressure and are showing it on terrestrial as well but not making such a big thing of it. It is on BBC2 Wednesday at 9.00. Phew! although a guy at work was going to record it for me.
I always thought Capt'n Jack was rather cool in Dr Who and this looks good. It was such fun in the last series of Dr W looking out for a mention of Torchwood in every episode which most of the time they did.
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I loved this book too and will also count is as the best book I have read this year. I agree that the number of different writing styles showed Mitchell to be such a talented writer. He is so imaginative in creating such a variety of worlds and I was especially impressed by his futuristic world and the post apocalyptic world which took a bit of getting your head round due to the colloquial dialogue used to tell the story. I was not expecting the stories to start going backwards again and was so delighted when they did as I had been frustrated when they had cut off in the first half.
I will definitely read him again. In fact I keep requesting his latest book Black Swan Green on ReadItSwapIt website. It is set in the 1980s and the character is exactly the age I was at the time. I read an extract in the Guardian and was impressed. I also think it is on the Booker long list.
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I have read both Silverfin and Bloodfever and prefer Silver altho it did take a while to get to the real story. Bloodfever seems to go on and on with lots of extra bits being added on. As far as I perceive James doesn't yet seem to be developing any sort of suave, sophisticated, characteristics altho he is still young maybe it may come out in the 3rd book. Higson's writing involves a lot more detail and a time I wondered it teenagers would find it a bit tedious going.
I like the character of Alex Rider and find myself feeling genuinlly sorry for him being without family and few friends and the fact he keeps getting hauled away from school. The stories are quite original and fast paced and I prefer Horowitz's writing.
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Has anybody read the young James Bond series by Charlie Higson and Alex Rider books by Anthony Horowitz which start with Stormbreaker (of which a film has just been made). What did you think of them - the characters, or the writing, or storylines - whatever interested you.
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
in Horror / Fantasy / SF
Posted
I've read this book - and it took me a month!!! But it was worth it. I think Ms Clarke was really generous to put so much into one book when she could have had the story as a series of books - there is so much in there. It is touching and moving and stirring and spooky and clever and inspired writing all in one. Very original and with humour and mystery as well. So much packed in. Persevere, persevere!