[Show your bookshelf]

It is my guest room .. especially waiting for Australian and Finnish guests   

I do read in there because there is a lovely daybed to sit on .. which you can just see part of in the pic (and it has a hidden bed underneath .. so TWO beds ) but I would like to get a little armchair and footstool for it one day so I can really get comfy with a book.

It's a lovely warm room .. sometimes too warm in summer but in autumn/winter it comes into it's own because it's so snug.

I could easily clear it of books ... if anyone needed the space for their purchases .. just saying  

 

You mean those books won't be available for your guests to take home? I thought that was my welcome gift to entice me to visit. 

[The Final Testament of the Holy Bible]

I have not read this book myself, but please note that this forum is for discussing books, not swapping ebooks (which is most likely illegal in your country as well as ours).

[Show your bookshelf]

Ooh, it looks so lovely, Poppyshake! Do you ever read in there? It looks like a lovely reading place with all that natural light.

[Your Book Activity - October 2013]

I finished Comet in Moominland by Tove Jansson and recently started The Dirt by Neil Strauss & Motley Crue.

[Most overrated?]

I've merged the new and existing threads.

 

I think The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is extremely overrated.

[Kylie's Literary Adventures in 2013]

I found Comet in Moominland and finished reading it today. A lovely, sweet book.

 

I'm also back to dipping in and out of Thinking in Numbers by Daniel Tammet, which I'm close to finishing. But now I'll mostly concentrate on The Dirt.

[Book Depository has free shipping, anywhere in the world!]

Has anyone else noticed that the Book Depository seems to be a lot slower in shipping out orders these days? They used to process my orders (even big orders of a dozen or more books) within about three days, but lately I've noticed that it takes about a week (just for one book).

 

I can't tell if this has been since they were taken over by Amazon, or whether it could be something else (just more users, maybe?)

 

ETA: Maybe I'm just overreacting. I just went through and checked a lot of my back orders, and only comparatively few take a week or more. I guess I'm just impatient for my book!

[Underrated series]

John Marsden's Tomorrow, When the War Began (well, it's kind of a big series over here, but it's definitely underrated around the rest of the world).

[Kylie's Literary Adventures in 2013]

Quick reading update:

 

I finished reading Inkheart, which was jolly good but not quite up to my expectations. I felt it was rather long for the relatively few events that took place. I was expecting it to be more fantasy-oriented (my own fault)...I thought it involved going to another world - not just talking about it. Still, a good book, and I'll continue with the others in the trilogy, but not for a while.

 

I started reading Comet in Moominland by Tove Jansson again, which I started reading several months ago but then put down (no fault of the book). I read a few chapters and then fell asleep with it in bed. When I woke up the next morning, I couldn't find it. Hmph. So while the search continues for my book, I've picked up another book that I've desperately wanted to read for a long time (Frankie will be very pleased): The Dirt by Motley Crue. I've heard so many awesome things about this book, and 30 pages in, it's living up to my high expectations. It's hard to put down! I have absolutely no interest in the band or its music, but you don't need to be interested in them to find this book incredibly entertaining.

[Back Story by David Mitchell]

Haha. Excellent.

[The last film you saw - 2013]

Yep, Kreader, that's the one. It was in colour though - and such glorious colour and a beautiful setting that I had to wiki it to find out where it was filmed (in Canada).

[Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.]

I've watched the first two eps. I thought it was pretty good and will keep watching.

[The last film you saw - 2013]

Some of the characters were a bit more cardboard than their book counterparts (and some of them were missing) but it was beautiful to look at and Saoirse Ronan was very good as the lead character.  [/font]

 

What? But the book characters were already cardboard! How could they possibly get cardboardier?

 

I've had a bit of a movie day. I watched Inkheart (I give adaptations a lot of leeway, but even with that, this one was pretty bad), all three Jurassic Park movies and The Trouble with Harry (Alfred Hitchcock).

[The Breakfast Club]

I've seen this a few times now. It's a great movie. Coincidentally, I was just reading this list of 15 Things You Didn't Know About The Breakfast Club.

[Read-a-thon - (2013-2015)]

I didn't read anywhere near as much as Athena(!), but I'm happy with how much I read.

 

I finished Inkheart in the early hours of this morning.

[Read-a-thon - (2013-2015)]

I read Roald Dahl's The Magic Finger yesterday (it's very short!) and I've read around 100 pages of Inkheart.

[Read-a-thon - (2013-2015)]

I have a free weekend, woohoo! I won't be reading *all* weekend, because I desperately need to catch up on some sleep and housework, but I'm definitely going to be part of this!

[Frankie reads 2013]

Your thread is so entertaining, Frankie (just caught up with the past week). 

 

I *hate* how Goodreads has integrated Facebook so much that it's such a pain if you want to log in via email instead of FB. I use FB a lot, but I don't want it integrated with everything else in my life!

 

BTW, have you seen my thread lately? I've added all of my book fair books.

[John's Books Read 2012 / 2013]

Wow, that's quite a lot of reading, John, even for two years! Somehow I get the impression that you like horror. 

 

ETA: Doh! Frankie beat me to it.

[Kylie's Literary Adventures in 2013]

Kylie, that sounds like an amazing experience . When I go to the Dutch book fair, I sometimes end up taking my boyfriends' trolley and adding some of my stuff to it (because mine is overflowing by that point). I've never gone around more than once, though. The thought has never occured to me (although it'd mean standing in line twice, though, and remembering what you've just bought)!

 

I have an edition of 1001s Book You Must Read Before You Die, it's very pretty so I can imagine buying two different editions (that price is awesome too, BTW) . I recently bought Julie & Julia myself at the Dutch bookfair, I haven't read it yet though but I liked the film based on the book. I recognise some other authors and a few of the titles but I haven't got those myself nor read them, so I can't really comment on those. I have to admit, some of the titles do intrigue me. I look forward to see your fiction haul.

 

I think you and I would have a great time together if we want to a book fair, Athena! We would have to take maybe several trolleys though. Is your BF a big reader too?

 

Luckily the line at Canberra moves very quickly, so that isn't too much of a problem, but I did once buy the same book twice in one day! I always go through my books before I buy them to make sure that I *really* want them (sometimes I just get carried away by the excitement of it all and put books in my trolley that I don't want particularly badly). So anyway, I once put back a large hardcover autobiography, thinking that I shouldn't get it because I don't really like hardbacks. I bought the rest of the books and then went back in for more. I was then excited to find a smaller paperback version of the same autobiography, so I snapped that up. I think it was only when I got home that I realised I hadn't actually put back the hardback like I thought I had! 

 

The 1001 Book is definitely very pretty! And yes, it was very hard to resist the second edition when I saw how cheap it was. Even when I combined the prices for the two editions, it still came out at only around one-third of the price that it would have cost for just ONE edition! And they both look practically brand new.

 

I knew that Julie & Julia was also a movie, but I've never been particularly interested in watching it or reading the book (maybe because I don't like cooking, although I know that it's more than about cooking), but I must admit that the cover for it was so lovely that I just couldn't resist. I've obviously been hanging around Poppyshake too long! 

 

Kylie, your book fair sounds fantastic! 

 

We have the revised and updated 2010 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die.  Gorgeous, Hardback.  HEAVY!

 

Yes indeed! I have the paperback versions but they are still very heavy!

 

Oh, I forgot to mention that the place we were staying at in Canberra was on the third floor, and there was no lift! Usually I take my books into the hotel room at the end of the day so I can 'play' with them (catalogue them, look at them etc) but I figured I wouldn't be able to because I didn't want to even attempt lugging them up so many stairs. But then my BF said he was going to take his up, so I couldn't leave mine behind! OMG, it was so hard getting those books up the stairs. I had two canvas bags full of books and my trolley, which was full as well. Initially I tried dragging the trolley up the stairs on its wheels, but it just didn't work, so I had to carry the damn thing all the way up! And I'm already very unfit. I'm sure it would have looked pretty funny to anyone watching. The things we do for books!

[Kylie's Literary Adventures in 2013]

Here are the fiction books I bought at the book fair. Those with an * are books that I already own but wanted/needed another edition, sometimes because the copies I already had were hardbacks or trade paperbacks (both of which I try to avoid), or saw prettier editions. 

 

I bought 70 books in all (including non-fiction), and my BF bought me The Little Book of Cats, which is about various cat-related items at the British Museum. I think this total may be the smallest number of books I've ever bought from the book fair, but that's not to say that there weren't many more that I wanted - I was just being a bit more sensible this time.

 

Martin Amis The Information

Kate Atkinson Case Histories

*Margaret Atwood The Year of the Flood

Greg Bear Blood Music

Elizabeth Bowen Eva Trout

*Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451

*Angela Carter Wise Children

Michael Chabon The Mysteries of Pittsburgh

Agatha Christie A Caribbean Mystery

Agatha Christie Appointment with Death

Agatha Christie Evil Under the Sun

Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot's Christmas

Agatha Christie The Mysterious Mr Quin

Agatha Christie Partners in Crime

Agatha Christie Spider's Web

Agatha Christie The Unexpected Guest

Jean Cocteau Les Enfants Terrible

Michael Cunningham A Home at the End of the World

Louis de Bernieres Red Dog

Fyodor Dostoevsky Notes from Underground

*Daphne du Maurier Rebecca

Gillian Flynn Gone Girl

Dawn French A Tiny Bit Marvellous

*Stephen Fry The Liar

Stephen Fry The Stars' Tennis Balls

*Neil Gaiman Smoke and Mirrors

Ricky Gervais Flanimals

Kerry Greenwood Phryne Fisher #5: The Green Mill Murder

Kerry Greenwood Phryne Fisher #15: Death by Water

Kerry Greenwood Corinna Chapman #2: Heavenly Pleasures

Kerry Greenwood Corinna Chapman #4: Trick or Treat

Kerry Greenwood Corinna Chapman #5: Forbidden Fruit

Stephen King 11.22.63

*Hugh Laurie The Gun Seller

David Malouf The Complete Stories

Spike Milligan The Compulsive Spike Milligan

Margaret Mitchell Lost Laysen

Nancy Mitford Pigeon Pie

Tea Obreht The Tiger's Wife

*Francois Rabelais Gargantua and Pantagruel

Craig Silvey Jasper Jones

*Betty Smith A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

*JRR Tolkien The Fellowship of the Ring

Voltaire Candide

*Kurt Vonnegut Cat's Cradle

Kurt Vonnegut Sirens of Titan

HG Wells The Country of the Blind and Other Selected Stories

HG Wells Mr Britling Sees it Through

Scott Westerfeld Leviathan #2: Behemoth

 

 

[Live Music]

I don't mind that early Nelly song either. Poppyshake, you must have looked so cute in your plaits!

 

I'd love to see Regina Spektor too.

 

I just bought a ticket to see Franz Ferdinand in Sydney next month. I'm so excited! They haven't been out here for many years, and I've always regretted not going to see them when they were last here, but I wasn't much of a concert-goer then and was too scared to go by myself. Now I'm a 'seasoned' concert-goer and will have no probs going by myself.

[Tomorrow, When The War Began by John Marsden]

Thanks Tim! These are such bargains for such awesome books! I think everyone should go and buy them right now.

[What are you watching now? - 2013]

Too many interesting shows - too little time! 

This autumn, I will be watching.....

Revenge s3

Breaking bad s1- (never seen it before)

Orange is the new black

Big Bang Theory s4- (so behind, but catching up)

Homeland s3

Modern family s1- (behind here as well)

Scandal s1- (here as well)

Castle s4- (and of course here too)

Plus a new Swedish shows.

 

Also going to check out American Horror Story, Covert Affairs, Bates Motel and more to see if they are worth following.

 

I will also be watching Revenge S3 and Breaking Bad S1 (which I've also never seen before). I also want to check out Orange is the New Black (I only heard about it today, when I was reading about another new critically acclaimed show called Masters of Sex).

 

I have watched all of the first season of Bates Motel and thought it was awesome! I hope you enjoy it too.

[Poppyshake's Reading Year 2013]

Oh dear. The Sound and the Fury sounds dreadful. But Absalom, Absalom! sounds much nicer. Pity I only have the former on my TBR pile. Is it written like that all the way through, Poppyshake? Or are there actually some passages I would be able to make sense of?