poppy

Some are picking particularly long tomes .... Encyclopaedia Britanica, The Complete Works of Shakespeare, The Lord of the Rings. Think they're trying to put off the evil moment as long as possible

Reminds me of the song 'Grandma got run over by a reindeer, coming home from our place Christmas Eve, people says there's no such thing as Santa, but as for me and Grandpa......we believe.' Sorry, couldn't resist that I'm a bit of a sceptic when it comes to conspiracy theories too, but they make very interesting reading.

Welcome back GSH and Happy Birthday for the other day

'I think there's something a bit special about me, Miss Lightowler,' I said. 'I think I need to be a writer.' 'Don't be silly Daphne,' she said, not even looking at me again. 'You'll go to Tech and you'll be a typist.' Oracles and Miracles - Stevan Eldred-Grigg

Funnily enough, four of my favourite books are mentioned but the characters I like best are different. In 'Gone With the Wind' I best liked Melanie, in 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' I liked the narrator Chief Bromden and in 'To Kill a Mockingbird' I loved Atticus, the Dad. And in 'Winnie the Pooh' it's hard to pick a favourite, but I think mine would be Piglet.

I heard of someone getting their Vegemite confiscated off them in either some USA state or Canada, because it has added folate or something that is not allowed there. Can just imagine the poor person clutching onto their vegemite, tears running down their cheeks, pleading to keep it

Drunkard's Prayer - Over The Rhine

I love that poem too Merflerher. Wonderful use of words. Another of his I really like is: Inversnaid THIS darksome burn, horseback brown, His rollrock highroad roaring down, In coop and in comb the fleece of his foam Flutes and low to the lake falls home. A windpuff-bonnet of fawn-froth Turns and twindles over the broth Of a pool so pitchblack, fell-frowning, It rounds and rounds Despair to drowning. Degged with dew, dappled with dew, Are the groins of the braes that the brook treads through, Wiry heathpacks, flitches of fern, And the beadbonny ash that sits over the burn. What would the world be, once bereft Of wet and wildness? Let them be left, O let them be left, wildness and wet; Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet. Gerard Manley Hopkins

This is a beautiful poem Pontalba shared with us on another forum.( Hope you don't mind me borrowing it Pont ) It was originally written by Li T'ai Po and loosely translated by Ezra Pound. The River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter While my hair was still cut straight across my forehead I played about the front gate, pulling flowers You came by on bamboo stilts, playing horse, You walked about my seat, playing with blue plums And we went on living in the village of Chokan: Two small people, without dislike or suspicion. At fourteen I married My Lord you. I never laughed, being bashful. Lowering my head, I looked at the wall. Called to, a thousand times, I never looked back. At fifteen I stopped scowling, I desired my dust to be mingled with yours Forever and forever, and forever. Why should I climb the look out? At sixteen you departed, You went into far Ku-to-Yen, by the river of swirling eddies, And you have been gone five months. The monkeys make sorrowful noise overhead. You dragged your feet when you went out. By the gate now, the moss is grown, the different mosses, Too deep to clear them away! The leaves fall early this autumn, in wind. The paired butterflies are already yellow with August Over the grass in the West garden, They hurt me. I grow older, If you are coming down through the narrows of the river Kiang, Please let me know beforehand, And I will come out to meet you, As far as Cho-fu-Sa. By Rihaku.

Ok, second day at Bar Harbor Inn (still recovering from that last meal:thud:) Appetizer - Scallops wrapped in applewood Soup - Lobster Bisque Caesar Salad Fresh Maine Lobster Meat And another piece of Blueberry Cheesecake please

Listening to music, playing piano, guitar and singing (ahemmm ...with more enthusiasm than talent:blush: ), gardening, particularly old-fashioned and rambling roses; spinning and dying wool and knitting.

A very good point. Now why didn't I think of that? lol. That'll get them every time :eek2: Good to see guys secure enough in their own masculinity that they're comfortable doing that. Just so I don't get into trouble for going off topic .....I've discovered quite a few books that I always meant to read and have forgotten about. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and To Kill a Mockingbird are just two examples.

Hi ii (love the name) and a big Welcome

I've started reading fantasy which I've never really done much of before and am finding it very enjoyable. I'm really glad you feel that way about children's books, Wrath. I ended up being involved in a bit of a disagreement on another book forum about this subject. I've read a number of children's books as an adult, including The Wind in the Willows, The Secret Garden, Anne of Green Gables, The Railway Children and several others and enjoyed them all immensely ...in fact I doubt that I would have enjoyed them any more as a child. Those arguing against, felt that children's books are for children and it was showing a great deal of immaturity to even contemplate reading them when you're 'grown-up'. I think the older you get the less you worry about such things and those who felt self-conscious had insecurity issues.

Two books have stood out for me this year, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey and Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson. I loved the styles these books were written in and both were very moving.

Hi Lucie and a big Welsome

You're probably right and Enid Blyton was quite possibly a racist. But I think it's a pretty big leap to assume children are going to think that all coloured people are bad just because the golliwogs were naughty. Did you think that as a child or were you older?

I don't know if this happened overseas (I see no record of it on this list) but Enid Blytons books were removed from public and school libraries for a time in New Zealand. Her Noddy books were supposed to portray homosexuality (Big Ears and Noddy shared a bed sometimes) and they were supposed to be racist because of the Golliwogs. Her other books 'Famous Five' and 'Secret Seven' were said to show bad role models for children as the characters showed little respect for their elders.

Oh V that is so sad I think this is an absolutely beautiful book too and bought it again recently. The last time I read it would have been the late 70's and was amazed or re-reading it just how much of Anna's philosophy on life I had taken on board and agreed with. Fynn is such a lovely guy too and I loved the way the two of them would go exploring London late at night and all the wonders they discovered.

War and Peace. I also had Solzenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago which has probably quite mercifully gone missing.

Only $6.99 each. Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl, Incubus - Science and Joan Armatrading - The Collection. Joan Armatrading is amazing, had forgotten just how good she is.

PP, I'm reading 'A Traveller in Time' at the moment. Like you I read it as a child and it's one of those books that I always remembered as being very good but couldn't recall much detail. I can see why I liked it so much .... it's a strange feeling reliving the child you were. I even associated this book with certain smells, particularly lavender and thyme, and interesting to see they are mentioned.

If you can get a copy of the Errol Trzebinski book, you'll find she has a very interesting theory of who was behind the murder ....somewhat different from the White Mischief movie.

It was certainly a very fascinating story and quite politically motivatated if Trzebinski is to be believed. The book by Juanita Carberry was interesting in that she was staying at Sir Jock Delves Broughten's house (later accused of the murder)the night of Lord Errol's death.

This is probably not what you are after, but I have read several very interesting books set in Kenya during this time period. 'The Life and Death of Lord Errol: the truth behind the Happy Valley Murder' by Errol Trzebinski and 'Child of Happy Valley' by Juanita Carberry. Both of these highlight the decadent lifestyle of a group of British aristocrats and adventurers, living in the Rift Valley, involving drugs and promiscuity which lead to the murder of one of their group. World War I probably brought this to an end rather than the Wall Street Crash. Another set in Kenya is 'Out of Africa' by Isak Dinesen. All these are biographical.