~Andrea~

Oh I loved The Seance. It's beautifully written, gripping, haunting and chilling. JH is such a good writer. I'm looking forward to his third novel, Asylum, coming out this summer.

Started listening the The House at Pooh Corner read by Alan Bennett yesterday.

Chrissy's advice (as always) is on the money. Maybe you could try the book of a film you've loved? I'd also maybe go for some novellas (I'd recommend some classics such as 'Of Mice and Men' or 'Animal Farm') or some short stories, since you say you struggle with the time it takes to finish something. I definitely recommend hanging round on the forum for a while as it's a great place to pick up recommendations. It's so great to see a post like yours creedxx1 Good luck and do keep us posted with your progress.

Exercise (for me that's usually walking or swimming but a good workout in the gym often does wonders) Camomile tea. Cleaning.

Hope you enjoy it Steve

I love Robin Hobb. I've only read The Farseer Trilogy so far but will start the live ship trilogy this year I hope. Wow your books are lush. You must be thrilled with the signed one.

I finished 'The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year' audio book the other day. At the beginning I quite enjoyed it, it was a bit different, sometimes humourous and I was interested to see where the story would go. By the end though, I felt it had become so ridiculous I couldn't wait for the silly thing to end. I didn't really engage with or like any of the characters - although towards the beginning I thought I would. Nobody was very nice in it, and most people seemed pretty selfish. For the most part I couldn't really sympathise with the main character and several things didn't ring true for me, like I was glad when the book ended. From an audio pov I thought it was well read by Caroline Quentin, although I did think Alexander's accent seemed to change throughout the book.

Thanks everyone. I hope you enjoy it Kidsmum.

I finished Flowers for Algernon last night. This is the story of Charlie Gordon, a mentally retarded adult who becomes the subject of an exprimental treatment to increase his intelligence. The experiment succeeds, but its long term effects are not known... What a brilliant book! The older I get the more it takes for a book to impress me, even books I loved when I was younger disappoint on a re-read (Is that because the older you've got, the more you've read, and the higher your standards get?) Anyway - this book did! It was a gem that is definitely going on to my favourite books of all time list. I just loved the character of Charlie Gordon, and the changes in his character through his written progress reports are really well done. It's quite a sad, poignant story, without being overly dark and depressing. I don't normally give ratings to the books I read, but if I did this one would get 10/10 PS Thanks to all the folks who egged me on to read this

Yes I read it last year. It wasn't what i was expecting either. It's very quirky. I found the early part of the book difficult to visualise in my head because it was so alien. But I did really like the book. My final thoughts are here: http://www.bookclubforum.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/9591-andreas-books-2012/?p=300622

If only he'd had an editor...

Ugh Hugo is so long-winded isn't he? If I could go back and re-read Hugo for the first time I would definitely go abridged. His skill as an editor seem to be inverse to his skill as a writer! That said, he is worth persevering with - you just have to skip read the boring bits (and it's not all dull - just sections of it like the battle of waterloo bit)

Hey welcome back Abby. Nice to see you

Yay you loved The Beach. It's a real favourite of mine. I also read Ugly some years back and found it an amazing book that stayed with me a long time. It's really disturbing but so amazing how she pulls through it all. I found myself rooting for her all the way through. It also struck me that all the kind people, and all the kind actions stood out like bright lights against such a dark background. I thought you neve know how a small kindness you show someone in a day could be a real highlight in someone's day or even in their life.

I got the last 3. Doh - definitely should have got number 1!

Thanks Athena

Well I've put down Wilfred Price for a bit as I'm not in the right mood for it and I've picked up Flowers for Algernon, which so far is great. I was so tired last night but didn't want to put it down and kept reading 'just one more section'. That's a good sign

That sounds brilliant Paula - I've added it to my ever growing wish-list

It's interesting that you say that as it's a book that gets raved about, yet I started it once years ago and couldn't get on with it. I always felt I ought to give it another go, but perhaps my initial instincts were right. I think I probably will try and read it again some day, but I'm not in any particular rush. Out of interest, what was the narration like?

No - I'm afraid I'm not very far into it at all. I'm kind of finding it a bit depressing, all the death and the potential for unhappy marriage that I imagine will come. It's putting me off picking it up to be honest.

A small standalone red brick cottage with a thatched roof. A banana, a lamp, a book, feed it the banana green on the outside, white on the inside. nothing. Oh dear - the last one's not so good

I know - I can't believe I only just found out too!

I love the sound of The Tenderness of Wolves based on your review. It's going on my wish-list.

Last night I started reading part two of Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain. I think, since I'm reading it in separate parts (one per month over four months) I'll also review each part separately, otherwise I'll have forgotten about part one by the time it comes to April.

Grrr - me too! I was just going to reply to bits of your post when I started tearing my hair out. Was going to mainly say - The Mill On The Floss!! Ugh! I totally sympathise having had to study it for A Level