[Show your bookshelf]

Marcia, that's a great shelf! I agree that it would look nice next to a bed.

[Tour de France]

Hi Pickle! I'm glued too. Well, we don't quite get to see the entire day's racing, but maybe about 4 hours live. Lots of late nights for me this month! I love it partly for the countryside and history lessons too. Do you get to see the French chef sampling the regions delicacies as well?

 

I'm hoping that Cadel Evans will get back-to-back wins. Go Cadel!

[Your Book Activity ~ July 2012]

Another month, another book!

 

I've read a little more of We, and I started reading The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time by Jeff Deck and Benjamin D Herson.

[The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett]

Thanks Chesil. I've merged the threads.

 

I think I'll bump this book up my TBR pile.

[Your Book Activity ~ June 2012]

I'm glad to hear you're enjoying Beyond the Deepwoods. I did my typical thing and bought a whole lot of books from the Edge Chronicles (over some time) but I haven't actually read any yet. I trust Michelle and Kell's good opinions, though, and now it looks like I can count on your good opinion too.

[What are you watching now?]

Just finished an episode of Gilmore Girls and am moving on to the Tour de France.

[Kylie's Literary Adventures in 2012]

Thanks Chesil...but now I'm embarrassed. I was just looking at my shelves again and realised it's not Sputnik Sweetheart I'm missing (that's sitting on my shelf, snug as a bug). It's actually Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. Same problem, different book!

 

I've edited my original post so I don't embarrass myself further.

[Kylie's Literary Adventures in 2012]

I finished reading Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children today. Awesome book! I didn't realise it was going to be left so wide open for a sequel, even though I knew one was in the works.

 

Now for my usual rambling...

 

<deleted incorrect anecdote>

 

Problem: I'm missing my copy of Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami. I looked everywhere for it a few weeks ago when I was cross-checking my library books with my online lists. I even pulled all the books out of several bookcases to see if it had fallen (read: pushed by Jasper) behind some other books. I'm slightly worried it accidentally ended up in a bag of books I gave to a shop, but I don't see how it would have ended up anywhere other than on my shelf.

[Your Book Activity ~ June 2012]

I'm about 3/4 of the way through Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. I love it!

[Steve's Bookshelf 2012]

Steve, did VF keep trying to steer you towards Jack Vance?

[Your Book Activity ~ June 2012]

The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price, Purveyor of Superior Funerals. What a fantastically curious title What's it like, what's it about, where did you get the idea of ordering the title?

 

I think I first heard of it when I read a view in a newsletter from an online bookshop.

 

The blurb reads:

In 1924, in the Welsh village of Narberth, undertaker Wilfred Price proposes to a girl he barely knows at a picnic. Almost instantly he knows he has made made a mistake - he does not love her. He thinks it will be easy to extricate himself, but a chance meeting at a funeral and the revelation of a long-held secret complicates his world beyond recognition.

 

I think it will be similar to books such as Mr Rosenblum's List and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I'm pretty sure the review I read even mentioned at least one of these books.

[Travel topic]

I love that you travel extensively in the US, Peace. I think too few people explore their own countries. I know that people here are always keen to get out of Australia for holidays and rarely travel around our country, or even around their own state! They have no idea about our own natural wonders and the fun to be had in our own backyard. I've travelled quite extensively around Australia but still have more to do. Of course there's plenty of overseas travel on my list as well. Much like books, there's never enough time or money to get through it all!

[Brian's 2012 Book Log]

Great review, Brian! I've read and loved Freakonomics, and I have Superfreakonomics on my TBR pile. I think all of the general comments you've applied to SF (excuse my laziness) can also be applied to F: fascinating topics, captivating writing style etc.

 

I seem to recall reading reviews that said SF wasn't as good as F. If that's the case, I expect you'll rate F a 5/5!

 

I've just remembered I have two copies of SF: a regular paperback and a special illustrated hardback that I bought for a song. I wonder if the illustrations will add much to the text? Damn, I want to go and read it right now!

[The Red House by Mark Haddon]

Maybe I would enjoy it more, then. The family dynamic was what bothered me about ASoB. I remember feeling that the story, specifically the family's problems and relationships with each other, were rather cliched and a bit dull to read about. A child's thoughts would be obviously be completely different.

[Poppy's Paperbacks 2012]

Yes! Steve was ever so good as to send it to me because I liked the sound of it from his review and hurrah .. I liked it lots It was sci-fi yes but it was Poppyshake friendly sci-fi so very enjoyable. Watch out for my review Kylie .. anytime in the next year

 

Great! I was afraid you might have already posted it and I'd just forgotten, so I put on my Sherlock cap and trotted over to Goodreads to find the book in your collection. I noticed you only added it a couple of weeks ago, so I trotted back here and checked your reviews for the past couple of weeks and realised I must not be getting forgetful in my old age. Now I'm thinking a change of career is in order; I'm good at this sleuthing/stalking business.

[Poppy's Paperbacks 2012]

Thanks Kylie I don't think there'd be a problem there with hierarchy now that Sylvia is running things and perhaps it's less lousy too

 

I must confess that I thought you were referring to Sylvia Beach above but I now realise you were referring to Sylvia Whitman (named for Beach). I would have known that already if I had read the book, of course!

 

I bought my first book in ages today .. just a secondhand book from a charity shop but even so I didn't intend it .. they sell secondhand furniture and I was looking for a bookshelf but there, amongst their books (I just glanced at them on the off chance you understand), was a great big housebrick called .. Sylvia Plath Letters Home .. and it was just £1. Oh happy day!

 

Great find! As I recall, I stumbled upon this book at the book fair when Frankie was visiting. She was rather jealous of my find (as I was of many of hers) but then I think she managed to find herself a copy in a secondhand shop later in the visit (only Frankie could do that!) Do I have the anecdote right, Frankie?

 

Carter Beats the Devil is practically mutinous

 

Carter Beats the Devil grumbles at me too! I've had it for years.

[The Red House by Mark Haddon]

Ian, like you, I loved Curious Incident but was underwhelmed by A Spot of Bother. The Red House seems to be in a similar vein to the latter, so I might pass on it for now and come back to it at a later date.

 

I enjoyed your review, Lord Napsack.

[What are you watching now?]

Cricket! Australia vs England at Lord's. We never usually get these overseas games. It's quite a novelty watching cricket while wearing my winter woolies and huddling under a blanket!

[1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die]

Oh, and Arukiyomi, will your app be developed for the iPad? It would look so much nicer if it was bigger.

 

And is there any way of 'importing' the spreadsheet into the app so one doesn't have to manually edit every single book? Or at least, most books, given that I think at least half of them are on my combined wish list, TBR and read piles.

[Poppy's Paperbacks 2012]

You've just reminded me that I was watching a show about Stephen Fry's favourite gadgets last night, and I thought of you when the toaster appeared on the list. It wasn't in the #1 spot I'm afraid, but it's there nevertheless.

 

I don't think I knew you had read Mockingbird! Did you only read it recently?

[New to Fiction!]

Ive seen post on here, saying it ripped off something called battle royal & blade runner but haven't see or read those what do you think?

 

Battle Royale is on my TBR pile and it looks like a great read. It's a big, chunky book too. You might also like to look into Stephen King's The Running Man and The Long Walk, which are similar types of books/novellas. He wrote them under the alias of Richard Bachman.

 

Blade Runner is based on a book by Philip K Dick called Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which is supposed to be a great book. It's more adult than young adult though.

[1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die]

*squeals with excitement* Thanks for letting us know, Arukiyomi! I had just about given up on them releasing a new version this year (in keeping with their two-year updates). I haven't even been looking out for it - how remiss of me!

 

I can't wait to see the changes. Regarding a couple of comments on your blog (I'll comment there too), given the access that the 'denied' countries have to cheap online bookshops, we should get a good price. I don't actually own a hard copy of any of the editions. I wonder if now is the time to finally invest? At least I would have an up-to-date copy for 2 years!

 

I also wonder how we should interpret the publisher's comment (thank you for providing the link, by the way!) that: "This new update for 2012 includes 150 new images of original book covers and a complete list of major literary prize winners."

 

I think you have interpreted that as 150 new images of the same books that are already listed(?) Or could it be that there are 150 new books? But maybe they wouldn't want to give us excited folks that much information. And I assume that the 'complete list of major literary prize winners' is separate to the actual 1001 list? I doubt that the book's selection committee would agree that every prize winner should be included in the 1001 list.

 

Did you notice the short list of included books that they mention on the second page of the media release? What a tease? I don't know the list off by heart, but I'm pretty sure those books are all already on the list.

 

Another point you mentioned on your blog was people who complain about the 'moving target'. I understand that people who want to complete the 1001 list would be frustrated by the fact that it always changes, but it has been obvious for years that it is going to keep happening, so for that reason, I'm not sure why people would complain. I think those people should either stick with the core list (for those who don't know, that's the list of books that have appeared in every single edition of the book - currently numbering 714) or they should stick with the original 2006 list (or whatever edition they first discovered). There's at least one book that hasn't even been translated into English, so unless people are fluent in Korean as well, there is virtually no chance at the moment that most people will ever be able to complete the list. By the by, I bet many people are hoping that book—The Taebaek Mountains—will be removed.

 

Other exciting questions to ponder (if you're a bit strange, like me) are whether they might try to be more consistent in the types of books they include. There have been a lot of questions in the past about, for example, Shakespeare's plays, which weren't included. But I think there have been plays (I could be wrong), essays and the odd children's book included, but as I said, it has been very inconsistent.

 

I sincerely hope that they don't just tack on a dozen books that have been published in the past 2 years. That would make the list too top-heavy, and really, how many really important books have been published recently? Great books, maybe, but 'important' books, not so much. I would far rather see them revise past books. Maybe add more to the pre-1800s and revise the 2000s/2010s according to the passage of time; maybe some previously underrated books have risen to prominence while others have faded away. The same goes for the 20th century. There are probably authors with multiple books that could stand to have a few shredded from the list (however, I'm not in favour of specifying one book per author; otherwise, it should be renamed '1001 Authors...').

 

Hmm, I have given this way too much thought and may be a little too excited...

[Show your bookshelf]

Do you have updated pics of your shelves? Or should I go and find your past pics to drool over?

 

My bookshelves are looking a little less shabby these days, so I might go and finish fixing them up right now and take some pics tomorrow (with the natural light).

[Ben's Reading 2012]

Oh. Never mind, we'll see how I get on. Any others you've read/recognised on my new modules, Kylie?

 

Oops, I got carried with evil thoughts of WSS and forget to comment on the rest...not that I can comment on much, I'm afraid. I have about half a dozen on my TBR pile or wish list, but the only other book I've read is Frankenstein, and you already know how awesome that is.

[Ben's Reading 2012]

Rhys, Jean (1966; 2001) The Wide Sargasso Sea:

 

Loved, loved, loved this - more than Jane Eyre itself!

This is one of the one's I'm most looking forward to, I've heard it's fantastic.

 

I hated Wide Sargasso Sea at least as much as chesilbeach loved it.