Kylie

Hehe. I love the idea of putting Dead Man Walking on tables at weddings. I have no idea what it's about, but the title would surely give guests a chuckle, and perhaps make them feel sorry for the groom.

That's right. That's why I try to get out of going to parties whenever possible. The first real Christmas I was with my (now) ex, I visited his family soon after Christmas and was mortified when they gave me presents. I hadn't even thought to get them anything! And there were a couple of presents from other family members who weren't there. So I had to sit and open about 4 presents in front of half of his family while they just watched...and I had to keep apologising because I had nothing to give in return. They're lovely people and didn't mind, but I still felt terrible. So last Christmas I begged my ex to tell his family not to get me anything because I really couldn't afford to get them anything in return, but he refused to do it because he said they would want to give me something. I tried to explain that gift giving is meant to make others happy, but it would only embarrass me if we had a repeat of the previous year, but he wouldn't hear of it. He at least gave me the idea to make them some rocky road, so I was able to give them a small hand-made gift in return.

The Trial is certainly a unique book, and not a particularly easy read!

Oooh, it's beautiful! You're such a wonderful and creative decorator. I especially love the birdhouse...oops, I mean 'house for birds' (so cute!) I wish I could hire you to style my drab and boring house!

Aw, you don't owe me anything! Ooh, lots of exciting changes to your books! I can't wait to see pics when you've finished. I love that you've pillaged other bookcases so you can make your new one look the way you want. Oh gosh, that would have been a nightmare for me. There is no way I would have danced solo. And I wouldn't have given a damn if it made me look like a party-pooper because I would have been pretty annoyed with the person who tried to force me to do it. It annoys me when others don't consider that people have different personality types and might not be as comfortable in the spotlight. Sorry if I sound grumpy; I'm speaking from too much recent experience.

Oh dear!

Another thumbs-up for Treasure Island here. I haven't read Kidnapped yet but hope to get to it soon. I'm sure I'll enjoy it given how much I loved both Treasure Island and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Invitation to the Waltz sounds great. Olivia reminds me a lot of myself (except I would have found a way of getting out of going to the waltz altogether—what a nightmare!) Great review!

Happy reading in 2015, Vixen! I hope to see you around the forum a lot. I really, really loved Jane Eyre. I hope you do too! (I'm pretty sure you've finished setting up your thread, but if you wanted to add some more posts before others started commenting, let me know and I'll delete my post.)

Terrific review, Paula! I badly want to read to read this. After all, it's Murakami and it's about a library, so what's not to be excited about?

Hehe. Don't worry, there's still plenty of time to redeem yourself.

Winnie-the-Pooh is simply marvellous, isn't it? I think I read WtP when I was a child, but I don't remember anything of it, so when I read it a couple of years ago, it all seemed brand new to me. I utterly adored it and will re-read it many times, I'm sure.

Thank you both. I'm only a dozen pages in but already enjoying it immensely. Looks like I'll be adding the rest of the series to my wishlist! Hope you're feeling better soon. I can certainly see how Agatha Christie would be a good choice when you're unwell. I'm hoping to read about half a dozen of Agatha Christie's novels this year—I need to make a dent in the huge number of unread books I have of hers!

I hope you have a great reading year, Alexander.

I definitely have the PRO edition: I'll try sorting again. (Thanks for replying so quickly!)

I've read and loved the first Pippi Longstocking book, and I've seen the hilariously bad 1969 Swedish movie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHIS7WXrNqU&spfreload=10

I knew that your name meant Christmas, Noll, but for some reason I never considered it an unusual name. I guess I just thought it must be a 'typical' name in Ireland. I think it's an awesome name, and it's a shame you copped flak for it.

I really enjoyed Elysium too, Athena. I think the last movie I watched was Journey to the Centre of the Earth with Brendan Fraser. The least said about it the better. It was just so bad. I kept cursing myself for not changing the channel, but I was in such a 'blah' mood that I couldn't be bothered. So I just watched it and cursed.

Thanks for the info. I love talking about the software too! Unfortunately I can't find any options for filters in my software. In the Search menu, I only have the option to select different types of collections ('In Collection Status'). Perhaps it's because I use the Mac version, and maybe it doesn't yet have the filter feature. I'll have to look into this further on the BC website and forum. Thanks anyway!

I finished Ripley Under Ground today. It wasn't quite as good as the first book, but I think it would be impossible to top the brilliance of The Talented Mr Ripley. RUG was excellent though, and I've rated it 9/10. Ripley is such a wonderful character; in fact, he might be one of my favourite characters ever written. He's so diabolical! I've been inspired by all of the recent talk about Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce series to start The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. I'm meant to be getting ready to go out, but I couldn't help but open the book to read just the first line or two. I ended up reading about six pages before I tore myself away. Yes, I think I'm going to enjoy this!

I finished Ripley Under Ground by Patricia Highsmith today and started The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley.

Nope, haven't seen that show.

I must admit that I already knew most of the facts in the article. But one of the facts I didn't already know led me to discover another interesting fact. As the article mentions, the woman who was hired to design the Dragonfly Inn was a former porn star in real life. I looked her up on IMDB to see what else she had been in (non-porn titles!) and found that she had been in a recent movie called I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell with none other that Logan (Matt Czuchry)!

I enjoyed reading your stats, Gaia. I particularly love the graph that you included. How did you create it? I assume you had to sort the data to show only the books you read in 2014? I've never really been able to get my head around sorting into different folders. I went into 'View', 'Choose Folder Fields' and then chose 'Reading year', so I can view how many books I've read in each year, but how do you also do it by genre? If I add 'Genre' to the same list as 'Reading year', it just switches to genre and removes the reading year. Sorry that I keep asking you questions about the software.

I wish you a very happy and healthy year, Poppyshake, with lots of wonderful books. I love looking over your well-ordered lists and challenges. You've read a very impressive number of the 1001 books! I think I'm hovering around the 100 mark. I look forward to reading your reviews throughout the year. They always make me smile. And oh dear, you've already made me add two books to my wishlist (The Hen Who Dreamed and Mystery in White).