Kylie

Am I right in thinking that he carved the swastika into his head himself? You have to wonder what goes on in the heads of women who form relationships with murderers in prison. Haha. Yes, it was Eleanor & Park we were going to read, but I'm happy for you that you received Landlines. Yay! I'm glad she's finally watching the DVDs. Thanks Kay. I had a much shorter list of priority reads last year (probably about half a dozen) and I didn't read most of them, so it's probably pointless for me to do it again, but I'll try to keep a closer eye on it this year.

Great review of Cat's Cradle. Despite owning a copy of the book and seeing it mentioned on various lists over the years, I've never actually known what it was about. It sounds great!

The sad answer is yes, my TBR pile is too big to read in my lifetime. It's kind of depressing to think that if I didn't buy another book for 60 years, I still wouldn't be able to get through the books I currently have (never mind the fact that I would also be missing out on reading anything that is published over the next 60 years!) And of course, that's assuming that I live to a ripe old age. However, that's based on the average number of books I've been reading for the past couple of years. If I could triple that reading rate, I might have a shot (and I did once read over 100 books in one year, so it's doable if I can be disciplined).

Ripley Under Ground is the second book. I would definitely recommend it if you liked The Talented Mr Ripley. It has only referred back to the first book a couple of times, when a relative of Dickie Greenleaf appears, so as long as you remember the character of Tom Ripley well enough, you probably don't have to re-read the first book (but why wouldn't one want to take any opportunity to re-read such a brilliant book? )

Like Poppy, I would have to agree with To Kill a Mockingbird. It is the only book that I can't imagine anyone not liking (although I'm sure there are some crazy people out there who dislike it, just to be difficult ). I do love the idea of Pride and Prejudice for a lovely, romantic choice, but like Poppyshake said, some men might not like it, and I'm not sure about people who haven't read too many classics; they might not like the style of writing. For a slightly more twisted choice, you could go for Wuthering Heights.

I read about 50 pages of Ripley Under Ground. Ripley is such a naughty boy.

When you first joined the forum, Chaliepud, I had trouble for ages trying to remember not to include the 'r' in your name. In fact, I'd be willing to bet there are a few posts by me around the place where I did call you Charliepud. Curse you for forgetting the 'r'!

I'm glad you were able to interpret my post, Emelee, because I just read it back and it made no sense to me! Instead of saying 'But are all those people in the car?', I meant to say 'But what are all those extra people doing in the car?' I don't know how I managed to leave out so many words! LOL. I'm in favour of moving to a country where kids don't have to be taken along on holidays. Luckily I don't have kids anyway, so I don't have to worry about that. In fact, I'm thinking of going on a reading holiday some time this year. I've been wanting to do it for ages. I want to go somewhere quiet, preferably where there's no TV, and I plan to leave my computer and iPad at home and just take along stacks of books and do nothing but read for a week. That sounds wonderful, Poppy! I was talking to my Mum on the phone today and she was making fun of me because apparently I used to take a book with me everywhere (well, I still do), even when we went out at night-time and there was no chance that I would be able to read in the dark. I told her that one must always be prepared!

Emelee, I love that picture of the moon. It looks like a fragile glass sphere that could be easily shattered! How cool would it be if we could see the planets so close to us?! That picture of all of the galaxies has long been my favourite picture. I'd love to buy it in poster form one day. Oooooh! I absolutely love those vintage posters! Thanks for sharing, Melodious! I'm going to bookmark them for sure. I've love to have a few of those on my wall! Speaking of cool astronomy gifts, I love this necklace, which comes with 10 interchangeable nebula designs. You can also get them as bracelets and rings.

Aw, you're welcome!

I like Todd in True Blood, but I thought he was an odd choice because Terry in the books is a Vietnam veteran, as far as I can recall. I'm not sure if he has the same past in the show, but I'm pretty sure Todd Lowe was born well after the Vietnam War, just like me. He's still really good in True Blood though, and I think they make him look a bit older. I never got past season 3 of True Blood for some reason. I really need to start it all again and watch it through to the end.

Ooh, so much fun! I know what you mean about it being fun to just spend time with your books.

I love the book lover's holiday. But are all those people in the car? The driver could kick them out and have more room for books!

Thanks James. Usually books stay on my TBR pile for years before I get around to reading them, but I was so impressed with the Erik Larson book I read last year that there's no way this one is going to stay unread for long! Don't feel bad! I'm sure Kay understands as well as anyone about having so many books to read and so little time. I noticed the small print in the book too. That reminds me...I'm overdue for an eye checkup and new glasses! I opened the book randomly when I got it and found a letter that Orwell had written to Victor Gollancz, which I thought was really cool, although I must admit that the only thing I know about Vic is that his surname is used for a sci-fi publishing imprint . It was a well-written and insightful letter, which bodes well for the rest of the book (that's a rather silly thing to say, isn't it? Would George Orwell ever write anything that wasn't well-written and insightful?) Thanks Signor! I love keeping my lists updated. (Except when I get really behind...then it becomes a chore ).

I've been getting curious about The Miniaturist. The lovely cover always catches my eye, and I believe it's had good reviews. I look forward to reading your thoughts on it, Janet and Chesil.

Happy reading, Laura!

I'm interested in reading more works by southern US authors, but I'm afraid I don't really know of any set in the period you're interested in. I once read an excellent article suggesting numerous titles by southern authors, but they're much more recent books. If you're interested though, I can try and dig up the link.

Goodreads should never have changed that label to 'want to read'; it's too confusing. There should be a distinction between books on your TBR pile and books on your wishlist. Their label incorporates both.

I know, it's getting quite long, isn't it... At one point last year when I was adding another book on the list, I got a notice saying the post is too long... That's actually why I moved the Aussie book list and others to a different place, and then decided to eventually go for a separate wishlist for fiction and non-fiction. Ahh, I thought your wishlist was usually in one post, but I didn't want to say anything because I thought I must have been wrong (not that I'm ever wrong, of course...) Do you think you thought the book was based on a Nick Hornby book because.... of the name... Nick? LOL. Maybe! I haven't checked the website lately, thanks for that! Why did they put poor Jason in the background again. What a humble, lovable gentleman Maybe he wanted to hide the shirt he was wearing. (Just kidding, the shirt really isn't that bad.) You know, I've actually been meaning to go and look at the website because I haven't been keeping up with their book list for 2014. I need to add the new titles to my FTBC challenge list! I'm such an idiot! When I read your FTBC list, I felt slack because I hadn't sent you the book list lately and I thought you'd had to do it yourself because I thought the list looked up to date. But when I read your above comment, I realised I'd gotten confused when reading your list. Do you want me to send you the list? I like typing it up for you, but I know it can be fun to do it yourself too. Let me know. It's books that I don't feel all that keen to read anymore, but which I haven't had the heart to dispose of. I'm pretty sure that at this stage, my parents have more books than I do, which is really freaky!! Ah, OK. Do your parents read the books that you have at their place? Radar's the cutest. He's like, so cute! I always saved his pictures on my computer when Augusten put new ones up on his FB feed, but then of course my computer crashed. I lost so many doggy pictures, in general, it's not funny! It's rather sad. You might want to look into getting a Pinterest account (it's free). You can basically add any pictures that you find around the Internet (or upload images you've scanned yourself), and other people can view your pics. You could have a doggie board, or even multiple doggie boards. The images are kept online, so if your computer ever crashes again, you don't need to worry about losing your doggie pictures! You, too, my dear friend! And once more: it's so awesome to have you more around here, it's been like Christmas! Funny that, what with it being Christmas and all... On the day that we were originally commenting on each other's reading lists, I had a dream about us and books! But I can't remember if you were actually in the dream or if I just thought about you during it. There was a train platform that had a book sale of secondhand books, and I (or maybe we) looked at all the books but couldn't find anything of interest. Then the next day I was there (definitely by myself this time) and there was another secondhand sale, but I think the books for this were provided by the train station, and not the commuters, like the previous day. This time I found LOADS of great books that were on both of our wishlists But I had a dilemma because I knew you wanted these books badly, but I wanted them too and wanted to keep them for myself. I think I decided that I would keep them and you could borrow them. I'm not very generous!

OK, I have to revert to using colours to answer all of your points. Frankie and Kylie Woman you be freaking me out! LOL! No, it's not because I want you off my back It's because I want to read the book!! I promise you =) Well in that case....hurry up and read it! I forgot to say in my post in your new reading log that I also love your TBR pile! Whichever book I could come up with, you would have a copy of it. You have a real library all to yourself I was thinking the exact same thing when I was going through your list! How cool would it be to live together and share all of our books? We would have such an epic collection. Rivers of London is one of those books that I really, really want to read! Great to hear that it's Fforde-like, that's always a compliment! And you know, this is one of the first mind readings you did: I've thought about having to bump up the Fforde books on my TBR, too! I've had the TN books for years and I loved the first novel, so why am I stupid and not reading the books already?! Haha. Well, I wouldn't call you stupid, but you should definitely read some more Fforde! I think I've only read the first four Thursday Next books so far, and the series was getting better and better with each book, so imagine how much you're going to love them! I'm not much better...I don't think I've read a single JF book since I got my cat, which I named after Jasper Fforde, 4 years ago. I don't know if I even knew that Fforde already has four different series.... Holy crap By my count, yes. There's 7 Thursday Next books, 2 Nursery Crime books, 1 Shades of Grey book (with another to come in 2016) and 3 Dragonslayek books (with another one to come next year). So much Fforde goodness for us to look forward to! Non-fiction. Autobiographical writings! Here's what Amazon says: Cool, the Neal Cassady book sounds awesome! This is another freaky coinky dink: I also thought for a very, very long time that it's a pretty recent book. I was pretty astounded when I actually read the blurb and found out it wasn't so. It was probably you who made me think it was a recent book. I got mine secondhand somewhere, I can't remember where. There's a cheap copy of the book at BookDepo, if you're interested? Not a very fancy edition, though. Oh dear, it's 36% off Thanks, but ewww, I don't like that copy. There's a nice Penguin edition that isn't too much more expensive. But hang on, why are you linking to books and encouraging me to buy them?! You're supposed to be helping me to buy fewer books, not more! Is this some sort of conspiracy? Why are you trying to make me buy books only 5 days into the new year?! You are so naughty! I shall resist the temptation. And another freaky thing: I swear, just one or two nights ago I just started thinking about the novel, all of a sudden, and thought I should get to reading it this year. You're freaking me out Mwahaha. So you haven't yet realised that I can read your mind? Good. It's definitely going to be difficult one, but I'm not that sure about the creepy. I'm so fascinated by it! Yeah, I believe someone suggested it as a possible group read. Would you be interested in it this year? Yes, I would most definitely be interested in reading House of Leaves this year! And yet another freaky: when I was going through your TBR I saw the title Rebecca and I thought if I should ask you if you wanted to read it together at some point, but then I thought maybe later. Your mojo's going so great, I don't want to possibly scare it off with group reads. I'm also up for reading this together, if you want. Don't worry about scaring off my mojo—I am going to chain it to me so it can't go anywhere. How manyeth freaky I don't know: I've been thinking about the exact same thing! I read most of them one year and then was waiting for new novels in the series, but when I got one, I'd kinda forgotten some of the main events and I thought I need to re-read the series from the start. Has she finished with the series already? I mean if I started re-reading them and then got to the new ones I've not read, would it end there, and I wouldn't have to fear about her writing yet a new one again and having to then, again, re-read the whole series. Yep, as Gaia said, she's finished with the series. I don't think I'm going to bother buying the last one or two books (I found the ebook versions anyway, so I can read them if I want). I'm definitely not going to re-read all the other books again. I just don't have time for that! I might just read the summaries on Wikipedia to refresh my memory, and then get straight back into it. Hey yeah, that's an idea! I'd forgotten about Dorothy Parker =) I should get around to this, too! I'm full of good ideas. Short bursts? Are you talking about farts. I knew that you were going to make some sort of comment like that! Cheeky!

Sookie is hilarious, isn't she? I love it when she rambles. Remember the episode when she has to cook a meal at the Inn for Lorelai's grandmother and parents? They point out that she has a rip in the back of her shirt, and then she goes into this elaborate explanation (with funny actions) of what happened to her in the kitchen. I'm glad to see that she's become very successful since GG.

Culled some emoticons. I have a longer wishlist at the Book Depository, but that's not complete either. I don't add all of the books I want because then my wishlist would be never-ending. I just try to keep it small. I kept a tally last year, for the first time, and then I just copied it across to this year's blog, but I'm not sure that I'll keep it...yeah, I'll probably delete it when I read my first 2015 from the list. It's pretty awesome software. You can download a trial version for free if you want to check it out and see if it's suitable. Heh, I knew you'd appreciate it. Thanks! I'll have you know that my TBR pile stands at 1995, not 1996, thank you very much! (And now it's at 1994 because I've read one book so far this year.) Actually, I think it was originally 1996, but then I had to recalculate some numbers and I was able to reduce it by one, so you must have seen the original total before I changed it. I can't believe I managed to stay below 2000 books last year. I really didn't think I could do it, so I'm not surprised at all that you might have assumed I would be over 2000 by now. And now I'm determined to never go above 2000 books (ha, I remember saying that when I was nearing 1000 books!), but it's going to be very difficult. That's not a silly comment about the current price being higher than the purchase price. I just meant that I wasn't sure if I was explaining things properly. I've never been good at that! When I used to have to show people how to do things at work, I would just always get blank looks when I finished explaining the process.

Coincidentally, Goodreads has just posted an interview with Alan Bradley. If you're interested in reading it, you can find it here.

I received another book in the mail today: In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson. This is the second and final book I ordered in 2014 (therefore it doesn't count as a 2015 acquisition ). Given how much I loved The Devil in the White City last year, I absolutely cannot wait to read this. Here's the synopsis from Goodreads: The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history. A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the ‘New Germany’, she has one affair after another, including with the suprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance—and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler’s true character and ruthless ambition. Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period, and with unforgettable portraits of the bizarre Göring and the expectedly charming—yet wholly sinister—Goebbels, In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity. The result is a dazzling, addictively readable work that speaks volumes about why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin, and Europe, were awash in blood and terror.

Yes, that's it, thanks! Here's an image of what I was talking about (for some reason I thought the operator sat higher up ).