Ben

Recently started a book sent by Hodder to review, and so far it's fantastic. It's The Good Father by Noah Hawley. I'll post the synopsis below: Synopsis: Dr Paul Allen is a well-respected man. He lives a comfortable life with his second wife and their family. Until the night when a knock at the door blows his world apart: a hugely popular presidential candidate has been shot, and they say the young man who pulled the trigger is Paul's son. Daniel, the only child from his first, failed marriage, was always a good kid and Paul is convinced his quiet boy is not capable of murder. Overwhelmed by a vortex of feelings, Paul embarks on a mission to understand what happened and why. Following the trail of his son's journey across America, he is forced to re-examine his life as a husband and a parent, and every decision he ever made. Okay, so I know it's odd to recommend it when I'm only about two thirds of the way through, but you should pick this one up.

Sexy new 'classics' shelf. Can tell I'm applying myself to this challenge.

Oooh you've got me excited for this revelation now. Yay, glad to hear it, better get cracking then.

Reading Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier at the moment and I must say I'm enjoying it very much so. Synopsis: After a whirlwind romance and a honeymoon in Italy, the innocent young heroine and the dashing Maxim de Winter return to his country estate, Manderley. But the unsettling memory of Rebecca, the first Mrs. de Winter, still lingers within. The timid bride must overcome her husband's oppressive silences and the sullen hostility of the sinister housekeeper, Mrs Danvers, to confront the emotional horror of the past. Anyone else read this before?

It's another lengthy effort that needs the time dedicated to it. Fortunately I now have that time. Perhaps not but I'll give it a very good shot.

Ahh, The Three Musketeers is definitely one I want to get around too, thanks for the recommendation. I started The Count of Monte Cristo a couple of years ago but due to the length and other things going on at the time, I never made it through to the end. With the summer months giving me plenty of time, however, I should manage it this time. Ah, Jules Verne! Adding to the list. Haha, I only aim to please.

Watched Just Go With It earlier starring Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler amongst others. I'm not sure why I watched it, but spotted it on Sky Movies any time and thought why not. Was quite enjoyable, a decent light-hearted comedy which had me laughing enough times to justify the almost two hours I spent watching it.

All the Dickens on the list. I'm excited to read more by him. As for The Scarlet Letter I've read that before, just forgot it from the list. Gulliver's Travels is ready and waiting on TBR so I'll swing around to it eventually I'm sure. Good luck with your exams, you'll love the feeling of relief when you're finally done.

It's right up there on my list, Andie, don't you worry about that. I've wondered about reading this for a while now, so it's great to hear you recommend it. It seems like it'll be a bit of a challenge with the size of course, but then again at some point I'm wanting to tackle War and Peace so length needs to be ignored. As for the Austen books I'm most certainly going to read more of them very soon.

Ah, I just had a good start to the reading year that's all, the pace will inevitably slow down at some stage. Aha, it wasn't that long ago that I resigned myself that my TBR pile would never go down because I too buy books quicker than I read them. However, I had a new resolute attitude that comes with the start of the year, and as a result decided to give it one more shot.

Okay, so with summer pretty much upon me due to now finishing my first year of university, I have decided it’s about time I set about reading some classics; some of the books I should read. Now, as there are a lot to be choosing from, I’ve decided to put this over to the lovely forum members - you decide. Should I read Dickens, Wilde, Tolstoy, the Bronte sisters?* If you had to recommend classic books that you felt every person should read what would they be? I’m throwing myself wholeheartedly into this during summer, so it will most likely dictate something like 95% of my reading. So, folks, hit me with your best recommendations and decide my literary journey for me this summer. Currently Reading: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Summer 2012 Classics Progress: 4. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. Thoughts. The Count of Monte Cristo. - Alexandre Dumas. To Kill a Mockingbird. - Harper Lee. Thoughts. Catch-22. - Joseph Heller. Thoughts. Possible TBR Pile (Will pick and chose from this list). *Asterix indicates 'need to purchase.' Bold indicates read. Austen, Jane: Mansfield Park Austen, Jane: Northanger Abbey (K) Bronte, Anne: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Bronte, Emily: Wuthering Heights Dickens, Charles: A Tale of Two Cities Dickens, Charles: Bleak House (K) Dickens, Charles: A Christmas Carol (K) Dickens, Charles: David Copperfield (K) Dickens, Charles: Hard Times* Dickens, Charles: Oliver Twist (K) Dostoyevsky, Fyodor: Crime and Punishment Dumas, Alexandre: The Count of Monte Cristo Eliot, George: Middlemarch* Hardy, Thomas: Far From the Madding Crowd Hardy, Thomas: Tess of the d’Urbervilles (K) Hardy, Thomas: The Woodlanders Hardy, Thomas: Under the Greenwood Tree Heller, Joseph: Catch-22 Homer: The Iliad (K) Hugo, Victor: Les Misérables (K) Huxley, Aldous: Brave New World (K) Joyce, James: Ulysses (K) Lee, Harper: To Kill a Mocking Bird (K) Maurier, D. Daphne: Rebecca Marquez, G. Gabriel: One Hundred Years of Solitude (K) Orwell, George: Animal Farm Steinbeck, John: The Grapes of Wrath (K) Steinbeck, John: Of Mice and Men (K) Stevenson, L. Robert: Kidnapped Swift, Jonathan: Gulliver’s Travels (K) Thackeray, M. William: Vanity Fair Tolstoy, Leo: Anna Karenina (K) Tolstoy, Leo: War and Peace* Trollope, Anthony: Chronicles of Barsetshire.* *To give you some sort of idea of what I’ve already read, I’ll post a list below (I’ll probably have missed some): The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Dracula by Bram Stoker. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. A Room With A View by E. M. Forster. A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence. Treasure Island by R. L. Stevenson. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by R. L. Stevenson. Tom Jones by Henry Fielding. Pamela by Samuel Richardson. Oroonoko by Aphra Behn. Turn of the Screw by Henry James. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe.

Ben's Reading Blog is back upon for business. .. and I've got ideas for it as well. So, with university over with I can now finally concentrate on working on reducing my 'to be read' pile, which despite reading forty-two books this year so far, hasn't really shrunk as much as I would have liked. Within the next five months I'm renewing my efforts to achieve a good dent in these unread books. I also have another plan, and that is a 'classics' challenge, as even though I'm young there are a lot of classic novels that I feel I should have read by this point as an voracious reader and a student of English literature. Now, I'm not sure whether I'll be making a new thread for this, or whether I'll just make a post on here for recommendations, but I've decided that the good members of the forum will be the people that decide where my literary journey for this summer goes. In any case, I'm excited for the fact that I can let myself go to the wonderful world that is my books, and I hope to take up more discussion with you lovely people soon.

That handshake thing just amused me, was like he was trying to unnerve him. In all fairness though, he's been without a shadow of the doubt the best player in the tournament; he's kept a wonderful temperament and showed us all some utterly sublime snooker throughout the championship. I'm also very pleased to hear him entertaining thoughts of carrying on after he's had a break, because when he's playing like this he can definitely keep winning tournaments - maybe even world championships.

Argh well I'm not going to say I'm totally disappointed with the first two sessions of the final today, as Ronnie leads 10-7, but I feel he should already have the title in sight and be a little further ahead. Ali's been pretty poor tonight but as the commentators were saying, to get out of the session just 5-4 down will feel like a fantastic result for him. He's showed exceptional grit and determination to stay within touching distance - makes for an interesting final day.

I did yes, thoroughly enjoyable stuff - we all like to see the big centuries but it's the tactical battles that are enthralling for me. He's done a good job winning 17-12 and with Ronnie 15-9 up, I can see the other final place being booked up quickly tonight. Should be a fantastic final.

I don't blame you for not wanting to watch Peter Ebdon, he's just so slow. You pretty much like all the players I do, aside from I haven't got much of a love for Judd, prefer someone like Higgins. I've got a tendency to show some support for Shaun Murphy too, there's something endearing about him. Ronnie most certainly is a genius, but sometimes supporting him can just be too much for the nerves. I quite like Ali, as I'm not keen on Judd I think his comments didn't really bother me too much. Aha, yeah it's looking unlikely that Stephen will pull it out but you never know.

Yeah it's mostly down to his mindset in all fairness, he gets bored very easily while playing and then his game understandably just falls to pieces. He's been admittedly much better since he started seeing a sports psychologist, and it's reflected a lot in his play - particularly this season where he's been great.

Oooh we have another person to talk snooker with. Ronnie's always been my favourite and I've honestly thought in previous years in this tournament that he's never looked like going the distance; mainly because I've never believed that he can keep his head in the right place and stay enjoying his snooker long enough to actually win the tournament. Whenever he's come up against someone very good in the latter stages of this tournament I've always worried, but his snooker has been fantastic and I honestly think he'll go the whole way if he can stay playing the way he has. I'm very excited to see him try.

Well I have to admit when Ali Carter went up 14-7 tonight that I thought it was pretty much all over, but Stephen Maguire has done magnificently to claw himself back to 14-10. I'd still fancy Ali to come out on top in the final session but it's made it much more interesting indeed.

Makes perfect sense.

Make that 11-5, six in a row to finish out today's session. I was a little worried at first when Stevens got himself back to 5-5 but it's been all The Rocket from then on in, and he's looked in championship winning form. I'm fancying a Carter vs. O'Sullivan final here, a repeat of '08, and it should be fantastic. I can't believe how easy he makes it look - apparently in an exhibition match he swapped hands every shot just for laughs.

Semi-finals heating up nicely then. I was disappointed Ronnie couldn't capitalise on winning the first four frames against Matthew Stevens, eventually coming out 5-3 in the lead. They resume in about ten minutes. As for the other game, Carter's really starting to pull away into a lead now at 10-6. I think the next couple are important for Maguire otherwise he'll find it hard to come back into the match.

It will indeed, Amazon saves all the books you've purchased or downloaded on any device, and makes it available across all the Kindle application options.

When the white landed in the jaws and snookered him, I was just like, seriously?!

Bet you got a bit worried towards the end of that one.