Kylie

Harper Lee's sequel to To Kill A Mockingbird will be released in only a few more days! News outlets around the world have just published the first chapter of the novel. What do you think? Has it encouraged you to read more? I've preordered my copy and will start it as soon as it arrives.

Well duh, I knew that! The Finnish ones are nice, but I keep getting distracted by their large snozzes. I think all of the covers have good and part points. The only ones I particularly dislike are the Bloomsbury Adult Editions (2013). The colours are too bright for my liking, and the text is too large, and the pictures are too difficult to make out in the background. After looking at them all again (including the extra ones that I always knew were there ), my favourites are still the minimalist covers I mentioned earlier. I think my absolute favourites are the original MS Corley books. I like the retro look of the text at the top of the cover. It makes me think of old Penguin books. But I rather wish 'and' wasn't capitalised in each heading. My other favourite is the Risa Rodil edition. She(?) doesn't capitalise 'and'.

Thanks for the link! As excited as this book news makes me, part of me also wants to cry because there are yet more books that I want to read but will probably never have time too. I'd bet any amount of money that you've preordered the new John Banville.

I've merged this with the other thread for 2015 books, as some of them have already been discussed.

Definitely a long sentence, that one, and with big words! But I'd say it's fairly uncommon compared to the rest of the book, which is written in an easier style. Are you planning to read the rest of the series?

I say May-orca, for what it's worth. I hope you have a great trip, Janet. I love flying but my Mum hates it, so I'm threatening to make her drink a big glass of Baileys before we board a flight later this year (it'll send her to sleep within minutes ).

Yay! My memory doesn't always let me down, then. Aw, that was a sweet thought. Oh dear. I probably did read it then and just forgot! Very good!

Nope. I've only had my ginger boy. How are they different? I read that they have more attitude or something. Is that correct? I definitely want to rescue one. I'm not too sure about whether I should get a boy or a girl. I'll probably make a decision based on the recommendations of the people at the shelter. Don't you mean 'creepy'? Thanks! I'm sure it won't be difficult. I follow a few animal rescue pages on Facebook and I see a couple of cats every day that I'd love to have.

You better enjoy it. You gave it what? Don't keep me in suspense!

Aw, what a cute bear, Muggles!

Yeah, I've always thought it was a bit dodgy too. I don't think the writers did the math properly. I reckon Rory would read quite a few books per year (maybe around 100?). I'm sure there's at least 300 on the Rory Challenge list alone, and they're only the ones that happened to be mentioned, so she's certainly read many more than that! Thanks. I'll keep that in mind. It's episode 4 of season 2, so you shouldn't have too long to wait!

I looked no further than my TBR pile for this list, as I have a tendency to buy a lot of books by a particular author before reading even one by them. Like Athena, I've only included those for whom there are multiple books that I want to read. Even then, I had to make two lists in order to fit all of my choices! Fiction JG Ballard Wilkie Collins Philip K Dick Robert Heinlein Ursula Le Guin Stanislaw Lem Gabriel Garcia Marquez China Mieville Sarah Waters Jack Womack Non-Fiction Vincent Bugliosi Richard Dawkins Peter FitzSimons AC Grayling Christopher Hitchens Thomas Keneally HL Mencken Oliver Sacks Andrew Solomon Simon Winchester This list is a good idea, thanks Athena. I think I might link to it in my reading blog next year for when I put together my next priority reading list.

Hi, TDFN (I hope you don't mind me shortening your name!) Your reviews are fantastic. I hope you'll stick around for a long time and continue to contribute the way you have.

In other news, I'm having some work done to my house. The carpet that was here when I moved in is dreadful. It's a kind of hard-wearing 'blah'-coloured carpet. I think it was chosen because the people who owned the place before me rented it out to short-term tenants. Since then, I've acquired a cat who is fond of throwing up on it, and nothing I do ever seems to fully get the stains out, so I've decided to do away with it and get laminate (wooden) flooring. I can't wait to get it done, but of course there's a lot of work involved! I'm getting new flooring in my kitchen, dining room and lounge room. I had the kitchen tiles taken up last week, so now there's just the concrete base in my kitchen. I'm going to pull up the carpet myself to save a little money, but obviously I have to get everything out first. I've packed up all of my books downstairs and put them in the garage, and my ex is coming over tomorrow to help me move some of the larger pieces of furniture. Then I'll be able to start taking up the carpet. I have a lot of 'junk' that was just laying around making my place look very messy, so I've decided that none of it will be coming back into the house from the garage until I've decided whether I really need it. If it comes back in, it has to have a box or something to go into. The books were actually the easiest things to pack, and they'll be the easiest to bring back in because I know exactly where they all have to go. I even took photos of all of my shelves beforehand so I can ensure they go back in exactly the same spots. Lastly, I'm also going to replace my horrible skirting boards with some prettier ones (I think the flooring guys will do that for me) and then I'm going paint my lounge room all one colour (I haven't decided what colour, but it will be a shade of white or grey, probably). I haven't really done any home handiwork by myself before, so it will be interesting indeed! It's times like this that I really miss my Dad, because he would have come down to help move everything, and he would have painted, done the skirting and probably done the flooring as well. He was such a clever guy.

Thanks. You know I generally like to stay home, but it's nice to go out and interact with people occasionally (not too often though! ) I did indeed get the correct cover for Murder on the Leviathan. I'm half-seriously thinking of contacting the publisher directly to ask them about the cover for the other one! Thank you for thinking of me. And of course I'll get one for you too if I ever find it! Thanks Muggles! I have a pretty chilled life, actually, so I have plenty of time to join the production. It just means even less time for reading. I've only read one Flavia de Luce book so far (the first one). I plan on reading the second one very soon! I love how she plots against her sisters but it never seems to work out.

I always get excited when people post replies on my thread. I read them straight away with the intention to reply to them a little later if I'm busy, and before I know it six weeks have gone by. Sorry for my late replies! It's hard being friends sometimes, but we're managing so far! Thanks for your kind words, although I'm really only the production manager because no one else volunteered for the job. We have a good number of actors wanting to be in productions, but it can be a bit difficult to find enough backstage people sometimes. Thank you all. The shows start in a month. I feel like I really haven't had to do very much yet! I guess because my job is mostly making sure that everyone else is on top of their own stuff. We have production meetings every couple of weeks, but they'll get more frequent probably from next week. The closer we get, the busier we'll get, obviously! We still need to source some of our biggest props and put the whole set together. That will happen in a couple of weeks. The first weekend of the show will be a big one for me, as we have opening night on the 8th of August and I'll be participating in the City2Surf (14 km walk) the next day.

Phew, thanks! I was afraid you'd say I had to actually be in America to plead the fifth, and then I was going to have to think up an elaborate story about how I flew to America to plead the fifth in my post, and then I came home again.

Great stuff, Gaia! Hopefully I'll get my database up-to-date enough one day so I can get this level of detail. I have too much missing information at the moment!

Kili is just so adorable. I'd like to get another cat in the next six months or so, and I'm hoping for a calico/torty.

Oh dear. I bought these a year or two ago because they were very highly recommended by a friend. Cool! Have you finished this yet?

Great review, Hayley! I'll be adding this one to my wish list.

Great review of Just One Damned Things After Another! I've never heard of it before, but the title is terrific and your review is excellent. But alas, it's another series! I'll be back to shake my fist at you (jokingly) if I end up adding another series to my wish list because of your review.

Great reviews, Bobbly, especially The Curse of the House of Foskett and Random Acts of Senseless Violence. I haven't read the latter yet, but I wish someone had forewarned me of the animal cruelty in the former. It was particularly distressing given my love of cats. I hope you enjoy your recent purchases. I loved A Walk in the Woods and The Guernsey Literary... Under the Skin sounds creepy indeed, but I remember Frankie rated it quite highly. I'm getting more and more intrigued by it. I really should bump it up my TBR pile!

Pontalba, am I allowed to plead the fifth if I'm not American? That's an interesting stat, Athena, thanks! I wonder what year they calculated it from? Like, is it the number of known books, back to the earliest published books? I would guess so. This reminds me (as so many things do) of a scene in Gilmore Girls, when Lorelai and Rory take a road trip to Harvard. Lorelai tells Rory that the libraries at Harvard hold more than 13 million books: RORY: Thirteen million volumes? I've read like, what, three hundred books in my entire life and I'm already sixteen? Do you know how long it would take me to read thirteen million books? LORELAI: But honey, you don't have to read every one of them. "Tuesday's with Morrie?" Skip that. "Who Moved My Cheese?" Just stuff you already know. RORY: Okay, but every kid coming to Harvard is inevitably reading books, and different books, and I want to be able to converse intelligently with each of them and I can't do that unless I read books, at least a few from every genre and sub-genre.

Hmm...that's a plot from something, isn't it? Was it a Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode (in which case, probably copied from something else)?