Fiona

I can agree that the hype is, very off putting and I'm glad I got into them before the hype took over. I never really read a lot of reviews or critics or keep up with that stuff anyway - usually I just 'notice' it but don't read much about it anyway. I however, think the books are still very good and very much my favourite series that I've yet to read. I can still remember the feeling of utter excitement after I read the first book. The second book came out soon after I read that and the wait for the third I remember being excrusiating. I don't reckon they'd have been a hype without the attention from the readers/public already. Anyway - hype or no hype. It hasn't just got kids reading. It has got kids thinking. Okay, not about maths or Shakespeare but if you go on line and you read the theories and discussions all about Harry Potter - it's got a lot of people talking and I don't think that's cos of the hype. It hypes it up some more, but they're obviously enjoying it very much. If anything creates that amount of passion in people, then its a good thing even if they hype annoys you. It annoys me. I get really peed off every time I see another bloody advertisement for the Deathly Hallows in Waterstones. They have one on every other bloody bookshelf. The merchendise, the movie hype the critics the this and that. It's amazing to think how bloody hyped up it is. But to hell with it. I don't care if people say she's not that good of a writer. Isn't she? She's wrote a hugely popular, much loved and extremely good story. She may not be Shakespeare or Charlotte Bronte or Ian McEwan. Maybe she uses too many adverbs or ellipses or this that and the other. She however has woven an extremely intricate story and characters, magic and imagintion together and that's what makes a good book. Not how good the actual technical writing is - because I've read good writing and the story is absolute rubbish.

I forget, then remember and then I have to remember all the books I've bought and read etc. I've got 158 up so far. Soon I'll have to pay a subscription. :/

I don't think I have found any book disturbing yet. I have found some movies disturbing, but I think that is because I've been forced to face things I find disturbing in a more graphic manner. With books - you can always tone your imagination down! The Green Mile disturbed me - the movie. I read that bit in the book though and it wasn't as bad as seeing it on screen. That really made me feel utterly horrible after watching that - but had I read it I probably wouldn't have been so effected.

I loved this series - but I'm completely stuck on The Fiery Cross - it is just so slow and boring I can't get past the first 400 pages. My favourite books were Crossstich/Outlander, Voyager and Drums of Autumn. I keep re-reading my favourite bits. I'll have to attempt TFC again - maybe just read it in dribs and drabs.

Hazeltree - yeah Diana Gabaldon is a good example of someone who writes first person fantastically well. Her characterisation is spot on and I think that's important and hard to pull off. I do like first person, but as it's been mentioned here, it has to be really good. First person for me should be really detailed and intimate. First Person POVs who come across as flat provides no characterisation whatsoever. I've read more third person, but I think that's just because it is more common. I'm not put off my first person, or third person. I'm put of my present tense though - that's probably harder to pull off then first person because it always sounds so... false and to me - unrealistic. Other examples of books written in first person which I have enjoyed are the Sevenwater trilogy by Juliet Marillier and The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingswood. Those are the ones which come to mind straight away.

Yeah, that is bugging. I'm currently a little annoyed that I can't currently buy The Ruby and the Smoke by Phillip Pullman without Billie Piper's face on the front cover. That really bloody irritates me. I watched that on TV - and she really can't act that well, imo. So having her face on the front cover annoys me. Don't have anything against the actress - I don't know much about her apart from she seems quite nice - I just don't want her face on a book I'm reading. I hate books with photographs on the front cover anyway.

Yes - that bugs me too. Actually thinking of it, a lot of things bug me about some books. Pink covers, the 'a novel' thing and oversized author names. I don't think I go out of my way to avoid that as such, but it is a turn off. I don't really think I have amny books where the author is larger then the title, which probably means I do avoid them. I hate it with movies when they do that as well. I avoid Brad Pitt movies and Tom Cruise - I know there are other actors with big names out there as well - but their names are kinda different. They're not just actors. In fact, their name is often bigger then the film. I hate that. Just cos the author wrote it, or the actor is in it doesn't make it a good book or film - whatever.

I've read Raven's Gate - and I have the first book of the Alex Rider series ready and waiting to be read. I thought Raven's Gate was okay - not the kind of book you thing WOW at though. I'm not racing to by the next one, but I probably will read it at some point. Might see if I can get it from the library if I dare venture to the kids section without looking silly... hehe. The writing style felt a bit formulated and y'know... nothing original. In fact, it wasn't amazingly original to start with. The descriptions of people and stuff were all so stereotypical in a way. Like the mad red haired chemist guy with thick nerdy glasses. Maybe he was trying to portray the stereotype quite obviously to seem too weird but... And the way Dravin, was it? Well one of the characters pressed his hands together and rested his chin on his finger tips thoughtfully - it just feels a bit - unoriginal in style and predictable. Good story and entertaining though.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I can't stand books which have 'a novel' printed on the front cover - so I purposefully avoid them out of protest. Why do they do that? I try to avoid 'clever novels' too - there's a lot of them out there now though.

I think I read quite a few from that series - starting with that one. I think it was before I even saw the movie. The books were quite good and I can't remember which one bored me, causing me to stop. I'm not usually drawn to vampires and the like but it was a good book. I'd like to read it again, actually. Hmmm. It might have been Queen of the Damned or Vampire Armand I stopped at actually, I can't remember!

I even made a typo when trying to type typo. I used to be a pretty good typer, honest but it is this stupid laptop I'm sure. :/

Look at that nasty type... I meant EVER read not written. Obviously I could never write such a fantastic trilogy. Silly me.

Read read read read read read read read read read read read read read read read read read read read read read read read read read read read read read read read read read!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is one of THE best books I have EVER written. Great writing, great characters, gripping story and fantastic all the way through. It is so imaginative and brilliant. You don't need to be a fan of fantasy, I'm not a fan of fantasy as such... this is different. It is fantasy, but it is also um... based in this world too, but with a bit of imagination. It isn't all dwarfs and pixies rear up for a fight against evil war lord with a magic egg or whatever. It is so much deeper and better and the bestest of books ever to be written. READ!!!

Good thread! I would have said 'The Inheritance of Loss' but I've started it - would be interested in other people's opinions of it though who've read it.

That is the chair you need by your window. I absolutely want one!

That was sad, I felt the pain but I cried myself stupid at the very end of The Amber Spyglass more then I did when that happened. I love bittersweet endings like that. I gotta read that series again, but I'm too afraid now I know what's coming.

LOL yeah, perhaps I did. I don't like those kinds of things. Over marketing turns me off. I'm even getting a little bit annoyed at all the advertising about bloody Deathly Hallows. You can't turn anywhere in Waterstones without it being there. I have found, with many books I dislike though, that they have been hyped up a lot such as Labyrinth and that Mr Strange and Norrell thingy. I'm not a big follower of reviews and critics so when I hear of something through such avenues it has to be pretty hyped. Doesn't actually stop me from buying them though... I'm nosey.

Has anyone read her books? I love The Bronze Horseman and Tully, personally. Her others - Tatianna and Alexander and The Girl in Times Square I found a little too... erm how can I put it? Watery without much in between the pages? Like the stuffing had been knocked out and as if she was trying too hard to make people emotional. The Bronze Horseman though I loved. The characters, the story and the intensity of the emotions she made you feel. Sometimes I think she goes a bit overboard though and her style can seem a bit simplistic occasionally. And too much detail in other parts. I mean, you don't have to go into great detail about love scenes to get the point accross. It feels like the easy way out, to me. But despite minor complaints, I LOVED The Bronze Horseman. I felt she shouldn't have wrote Tatianna and Alexander, the sequel though or at least have not given it that ending... But I am eagerly awaiting The Summer Garden - the final book. It sounds good and I find her immensely readable. Although, a little tooooo sentimental at times. Tully was my second favourite of hers. I love the characters she creates - which is where this author excells I think, creating characters you care about.

I wonder if they would have had it not been plastered with Richard and Judy stickers? Ah who knows. Tis all personal taste. I don't get how people can't love certain books I adore either. Both my mum and I got past the first three pages with kind of expression on our faces and chucked it in the charity bag without even a crease in the spine.

I cry in quite a few books, although not too many... I cried at the end of Harry Potter book 5 and threw the book on the ground in bad temper, sulked for five minutes and read on. I still cry like a baby when I read that, actually. End of book 6 made me tearful, but more shocked then anything even though I was expecting it. I was ish expecting something to happen end of book 5 to that person, but wasn't expecting that. The Bronze Horseman by Paulina Simons made me cry like stupid. It was 3am and I was reading it and it was being so sad. I was right towards the end, Mum came in to have a go at me for still being up and go to bed. I was so distraught and emotional I completely over-reacted and yelled at her to get out and leave me alone because she was ruining the ending of my book! I was in a flood of tears by the end. ... and then the flaming author wrote a sequel and ruined a perfectly good depressing ending!

Mmph. They reccomended that crappy Labryrinth book, like Hell I'm reading anything off that list. Their book list always seems too womensy for my taste, nothing I fancy ever comes up. It's quite a good method of finding out which books to avoid like the bubonic plague, in my opinion.

No, I don't like it. It gives me headache to be looking at the screen and I swear it can't be good for you. Besides, I can't concentrate much. At uni, we had online journals which were very useful but I always found it harder to read those. I preferred to print it out if I could and read. I fear the day when books become electronic - or when we you know - get those hand held computery things. What are they? PDF? Something like that. I suppose it would save the trees though and if it was small and simple it would be alright. I definately think it'd be the way to go with newspapers as they get thrown out so often. It'd be much better if you could just remotely, or through your computer download your newspaper onto a special 'book reading' thingiemajigger. The only trouble with those is that it might run out of batteries... and they'd be expensive but a good idea I suppose in the long run?

A couple lately. I mooched Charlotte's Web a month or two ago and read it. I was planning to go to the cinema to see it, but my friends flaked out on me. Apparently it's too girly and kiddyish. Anyway, hadn't read it since I was about ten or eleven. I also mooched a book called Elidor of someone, which I read years and years ago. That's on my TBR I want to get Freckle Juice by Judy Blume just to see what it is like! I've still got my Roald Dahl and some of my Edind Blyton books, which I may keep to read again. Sadly I don't have Fantastic Mr Fox as that's my favourite. I must read the BFG again though, because I loved that book. I read it so often the gold binding stuff on the spine has rubbed off!

I should - I know I should. I have sometimes, but I'm so bad with taking books back I may as well buy them! Sometimes, I see a book in the library and get it out but don't really fancy reading it then so it goes on the back burner, that's my problem. Choosing my next book to read is a rather random process sometimes. My problem with libraries is that, they are often in hardback and I despise hardback. I'd much rather read paperback. The only hard back books I'll get is HP because I won't wait till it comes out in paperback! I do have some h/b but not many... it just depends on the size of the volume. I just hate reading them, they're so uncomfortable and heavy and bulky. And the library has 90% hardbacks... although my local (when I'm not at uni) library stocks p/b. However, my local library is also rubbish and seems to contain only the rubbish books. So...

I haven't really read many bio/autobiographies. I have read two written by Claire Tomalin - Samuel Pepys and Jane Austen, and I have her one of Mary W thingie (famous feminist, you know her.) I want to read her one on Thomas Hardy too when it comes out in paperback. I find her style very natural and she kind of makes it like a story, very intimate as if they're your friend and not some guy that exixted and 'here's the facts of his life very boring, innit?' like I have found some other autobiographies to be like... I want to read more though. I have read Piers Morgan's 'memoir' thingies which was more about the life of a tabloid editor then about Peirs Morgan as a person but nevertheless, very interesting. And I have David Blunkett's 'tapes' as well and it's actually very good and very interesting if a bit long. I want to read some by Antonia Fraser - I have Charles II and The Weaker Vessel. I think the biographer is quite important - a good biographer will be able to make anyone sound interesting through the use of their language. People who just jumble words together aren't very good. I find Tomalin insites a true interest in the person, and treats them like a living human being rather then some historical document.