~Andrea~

Very interesting question Chrissy. My take is this: The witch represents evil in that world. The Emperor s judgement on evil is to give it over to itself, so that if you choose evil, then you are also at the mercy of it.

After saying Laura should go before, I think its a shame she went on a week when other people around her performed worse, and actually some of the things she said made a lot of sense. When she criticized she was right (suggesting Knightsbridge was a bad place to look for the truffle). I think Stella and Liz both did worse but had a much better track record. I was surprised at Liz sniping at Stella about the boardroom back in the house. It was a little bitchy. She should expect the boardroom to get heated and not bitch about it afterwords. Still, the right person went. Haha I actually have a soft spot for Stuart. Yes he can be an idiot but he has some redeeming qualities and is very entertaining.

I agree about the battle of Waterloo. I think Hugo should have written two separate books - one a history book of the period, and another the novel. He obviously wanted to do both and did it all in one work, a mistake I feel.

I've quoted what I've read and bolded the bit that came as a shock :-o I never dreamed Carolyn Keane was a fake identity lol.

Well this book is certainly taking a long time to read. My copy is 1230 pages long and I am at about 520 so far. I think it's going to keep me going until Christmas and I am sorry to say I am beginning to struggle. While I kind of love this book (the main narrative is great) there are so many digressions and bits of over-detailed waffling that I find myself losing patience (That said the boring bits are not as bad as those in The Hunchback of Notre Dame). I will definitely finish this book, but just wanted to vent some of my frustrations. Has anyone else found it similarly frustrating?

I can't believe Laura is still in! She really needs to go. Did you see the way she completely ducked out of the decision of what crisps to make? All she does is moan and be negative! Shame she's avoided the boardroom by being on the winning team so many times.

No - it but makes it popular, which is the point.

I've only recently discovered Maupassant and have to agree his short stories are great! I'm also a huge fan of Daphne Du Maurier and must have read all of her short stories by now. My favourite is probably The Blue Lenses. I've also been reading some Chekhov short stories which are really good too.

Alex's apple pie line was the funniest thing I'd heard all day. Laura should have gone - he was dull not to bring her in with him. I was kind of sorry to see him go, because he was very entertaining and likeable, not that I think he would have gone all the way.

fair enough. You know I totally agree with all of that. How funny that we have essentially the same opinion and yet I loved it and you hated it

Thanks Laura, I just caught up with it on iplayer, along with all of this weeks Apprentice. I'm glad Paloma went. I think Liz will go far, not sure who will win though yet.

I'm on page 235 and the story is really picking up pace. I've also got next week off work, so hoping to make good progress

Great idea Maureen Hmm - I didn't really find this part to be very significant and read it without much thought. Perhaps it's significance will become clearer later in the story. I'd be interested in other thoughts on this. I suppose the bishop was surprised because he expected the revolutionary to be anti-authority, and hence anti-God. Actually he turned out to be someone who beleived in a greater good - justice, which demostrated that their hearts were much more closely aligned than he first thought. He probably stole the silver because he had so hammered the idea of being 'owed' something by society into himself, and so desired revenge on all mankind, that he saw the silver as an opportunity for just such compensation and retribution. Why did the mercy affect him so much? He had been treated incredibly unjustly and that resulted in an unswerving desire for revenge. Then When he himself treated someone unjustly, to be met with uncompromising mercy totally devoid of any such need for revenge, it was a complete revelation to him, and spoke deeply to his own heart and conscience.

Oh I did The Mill on the Floss for A Level and absolutely hated it. Good luck with War and Peace

Totally agree. I am not embarrassed that I've not read a particular book. There a thousands of books in the world, many of them considered 'great'. I'm not going to get round to reading them all. So what?

Ooh you're reading War and Peace. That's one book I really do want to get around to reading. I am impressed that you are able to juggle so many books at one time. I normally stick to one at a time but have been known to have 3 on the go before now. How are you finding White Teeth?

Eep it's the 2nd of November and I'm only on page 180 of Les Mis (Nov reading circle) Only another thousand or so pages to go

I definitely thought the right person went. It's a shame her team won last week else I'm sure she would have gone then. Wish I'd watched You're Fired though.

Yes but Heathcliff was never intented to be likeable. The hateabliity of Heathcliff was what made the book so enjoyable for me. I liked that the book made me react to a character with such abhorrence. It's truly of it era (romanticism), in that it causes an emotional reaction in the reader. To me that makes the book a great success.

Well I'm really enjoying Les Mis, however I'm only on page 98 (of about 1200 eek ) and not long to go to the reading circle. I won't post my thoughts here (I'll save that for the reading cicle) just my numerical progress. So - not even 10% through yet. At this rate I'll be finished some time in December Actually the story is picking up now so I'm hoping my reading pace will too.

Those are terrible!! The only one to raise a smile was 35. Guess the problem was they gave a poor choice to begin with.