Polka Dot Rock

I had a 'How Babies Are Made Book' which had a squidgy cover that was meant to be a baby suspended in amniotic fluid I kid you not! And it was hardback, to keep in topic *ahem*

Mind you, not as much as I had a crush on this here book: You can't tell from the picture, but it's all pearly and shiny. Beautiful.

That's the one I love how it's all fabric-y and embossed and just lovely to hold... Dear god. Do I have a crush on a book?!

Ah yes, that is really beautiful. I love exquisite hardbacks... *sigh*

Ah, the best cure of all...

Oh, and in the film, Rhys Ifans makes for a very foxy Dobbin

I think the film is really good - I watched it last night, again! It was very unfairly bashed by critics, criticising how they'd edited the story. Well, it's over 800 pages long! How else would they fit it into two hours?? I think it's an excellent interpretation of the novel: it's so beautiful to look at and Mira Nair captures the decadence and 'gloss' of Thackeray's world. Reese Witherspoon's portrayl of Becky got some 'tut-tutting' but I feel some critics forgot that Becky's scheming side is only really apparant in her thoughts, not her behaviour. I remember watching the BBC series, but I wasn't particluarly enamoured with it. After reading the novel, I think Mira Nair's film is much better.

Update: I've posted a review of Vanity Fair in the Review Room

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray (1853) "Vanitas Vanitatum! Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?" The blurb:

In Saturday's Guardian, Sue Arnold reviewed Claire Tomalin's Thomas Hardy biography. She also had a problem with inappropiate readers: :mrgreen:

I know this is off topic, but Hello again PrincessPonti! I was wondering where you'd gone for so long - nice to have you back!

Aw, thanks PP

Ooh, forgot to mention a couple that I haven't read but heard good things about: Frank Miller also re-invented Batman, in The Dark Knight Returns and did it so successfully that Chris Nolan pinched most of his stuff for the film Batman Begins, lol. I've flicked through the first one, and it looked really impressive. Neil Gaiman is amazingly prolific and I know his graphic novel series The Sandman is hugely popular. I really want to read them, but am afraid of how much it's going to cost me! There's loads! Might try the library for them...

I'm here!! Finally... Well Princess Ponti is VERY good with the whole graphic novel genre, I have to say But here's my 'two-penneth worth' anyway, lol: The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman is just FANTASTIC. It's so utterly wonderful and just an incredible achievement. It's not always the most comfortable read at times, but it's not violent or graphic at all (like some graphic novels can be). I think some people who haven't read it see the people-as-animals concept a bit weird, but it works amazingly well, as it allows Spiegelman to explore the Holocaust in a more depth than using human figures. Once you've read Maus, you'll never think quite the same way about comics! Blankets by Craig Ringwalt Thompson is very good - probably a good starting point for the uninitiated (although I insist on everyone reading Maus *nudge nudge*). It's a thick book, but the beauty of graphic novels is that it takes at least half the time it takes to read a novel, lol. BTW: on Amazon, you can take a look inside it. Handy. Back in the day, I started with a series called Gloom Cookie by Serena Valentino. Now these are great graphic novels, particulary if you love a bit of fantasy reading (and I know a lot of people on the forum do!). The different stories within are all great, and the love story/triangle is really moving. It really appealed to my inner goth! I haven't read the Volumes from Vol 4 onwards, but I'm getting around to it. Alan Moore is a legend, even in the serious literary circles, mainly for his reinvention of traditional comic book themes (such as Superheroes). I'm still waiting for Watchmen(written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons), so I can't personally recommend it, but I know all of his work is very loved and respected so definitely worth a look (also V for Vendetta, From Hell and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, to name the most famous). Now, although not for the very faint hearted (and I'm definitely faint hearted!), Frank Miller's Sin City series are great. My favourite is Sin City: That Yellow 'person of dubious parentage' (if you've seen the film, it was the storyline with Bruce Willis and Jessica Alba). The weird thing with Sin City is that for all their grittiness and outrageousness, they're frequently heat-wrenchingly moving. On a completely different scale, there's more to Raymond Briggs than The Snowman! I'd heartily recommend When the Wind Blows (about an elderly couple caught up in a nuclear fallout. Funny but very tragic) and Ethel and Ernest (Briggs' biography of his parents - really beautiful). I'm at work so I can't remember everything, but hopefully that was helpful And PP, I think you should definitely give Persepolis (by Marjane Satrapi) a go - it's such an easy read, and despite the subject, it really isn't intense at all. I think it's probably the best example of what graphic novels can do.

Then watch Bright Youngs Things instead, PP. It's Stephen Fry's film of Vile Bodies (he had to chang the title for American backers). I love it, it's brilliant and it's also my 'totty' film as there's lots of fine young British actors in it! :D Can't go wrong with a bit of Stephen Campbell Moore, James McAvoy and David Tennant (even if the latter does sport a very dodgy tash in it). The lovely Emily Mortimer is in it, too.

Thank you Lilywhite *chinks tea cup*

Hey PP! You asked for recommendations so here are mine, if you please: * Vanity Fair * Vile Bodies * The Time Traveller's Wife * We Need To Talk About Kevin * Rebecca (one of my absolute favourite novels) * Atonement

Noooooooooooooooooo, Michelle!! Where would I go to keep my sanity whilst at work??

What audio book was that, Kell? I'd love to hear him read a Dickens - he was so good in Bleak House, I can really imagine it. Oliver Twist, perhaps - I'd like to hear Burn Gorman's interpretations of Fagin and Nancy, lol.

For anyone who's interested, the Radio Times are giving away another free Doctor Who audiobook with this weeks' issue - it's Part One of The Stone Rose (terrible pun, but the blurb sounds quite good). Part Two will be given away with next week's RT. (I'm cross-posting this to the Doctor Who thread in Music/Film/TV room)

I've been listening to the Doctor Who: Feast of the Drowned audiobook that came free with the Christmas/New Year Radio Times, lol. It's actually really good, David Tennant reads it so that's a simultaneously authentic and bizarre experience!

I am rather fond of hardbacks as Precious Things, but I only have about 6 I think. I only really get them as gifts or as a very rare indulgent treat. The vast majority are all paperbacks (and believe me, it's vast, lol). Hardbacks can be a bit cumbersome 'tho: Alan Bennet said that one of his readers told him that reading the hardback version of Untold Stories in bed was like being trapped under a cupboard!

Do you ever find that when you really, really should drink a pint of water (i.e. when you're really, REALLY drunk), you never actually drink the damn thing? Funny that!

Oh. My. GOD! I wish there was a smilie with its jaw dropping to the floor, 'cos that's me, right now. He's such a hero! Singin' in the Rain is my absolute favourite film.

From January 8th to April 22nd (Continuing Blog can be found here) Alongside this blog, I have also taken up both the Doorstep Challenge and the Classic Challenge - novels that are part of these are indicated by the corresponding colour (occasionally, a Classic is also a Doorstep, so this noted by an asterix) Read Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi (9/10) Vanity Fair - W.M Thackeray* (8/10) Wicked - Gregory Maguire (7/10) The Night Watch - Sarah Waters (8/10) The Girls - Lori Lansens (9/10) Restless - William Boyd (3/10) One Good Turn - Kate Atkinson (10/10) Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert (6/10) The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon (8/10) Poppy Shakespeare - Clare Allen (5/10) Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood (8/10) Disobedience - Naomi Alderman (9/10) The Tenderness of Wolves - Stef Penney (9/10) Currently Reading A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens By the Bed The Book of the City of Ladies - Christine de Pizan (trans. Rosalind Brown Grant) How Novels Work - John Mullan TBR Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood Mansfield Park - Jane Austen Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen Sense & Sensibility - Jane Austen Villette - Charlotte Bronte* The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop - Lewis Buzbee Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes (trans. Edith Grossmann)* No Name - Wilkie Collins* David Copperfield - Charles Dickens* The Woman Who Walked Into Doors - Roddy Doyle Jamaica Inn - Daphne du Maurier Julius - Daphne du Maurier The Mill on the Floss - George Eliot* The Crimson Petal and The White - Michel Faber The Big Fat Bitch Book - Kate Figes Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons Goodbye to Berlin - Christopher Isherwood Finn Family Moomintroll - Tove Jansson Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones The People's Act of Love - James Meek Suite Francaise - Irene Nemirovsky (trans. Sanda Smith) Franny & Zooey - J.D Salinger Anna Karenina - L.N. Tolstoy* On Order Watchmen - Alan Moore Want Nightwood - Djuna Barnes Will & Me: How Shakespeare Took Over My Life - Dominic Dromgoole This Is Not a Love Song - Karen Duve Then We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris Howards End - E.M Forster The Odd Women - George Gissing Carter Beats the Devil - Glen David Gold The Golden Notebook - Doris Lessing Affluenza: How to be Successful and Stay Sane - Oliver James The Cement Garden - Ian McEwan Valley of the Dolls - Jacqueline Susann Last Orders - Graham Swift The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova Re-Read Nights at the Circus - Angela Carter Wise Children - Angela Carter Unless - Carol Shields On Beauty - Zadie Smith Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh