Chimera

That might not be a very good idea Inver... From what I gather in other threads, you might find yourself to your chair reading for the whole week Wouldn't want to miss out on all the rest, would you?

It's quite unbelievable when witnessed from outside... Though to be honest I've been reading the posts (and the spoilers) and I'm quite sure I'd go as crazy as you all if I read it (Fortunately?) reading the spoilers probably has ruined the effect for me, so there's no point getting lost into them now...

Great! Grandmother recipes can't go wrong I've found a very simple recipe on the internet which I will try as well, but it doesn't look that good.

Good one, enjoy!

Oh, can I ask what your recipe is? I love tabouli but have no idea how to make a decent one at home. Last night I had a pasta/egg and tomato salad

Aside from babysitting and homework help I did as a teenager, my first real job was cashier/ sales person in a tourists shop. Could (should?) have been a disaster except for a few things: instead of the random junk souvenirs stall I ended in the bookshop, where I didn't have to convince tourists that they absolutey needed a miniature silicon copy of marie antoinette's shoes (not that most of them needed much convincing ); and the setting was the the palace of versailles Having my sandwich in the queen's gardens and walking through 'secret passages' to get to different parts of the palace definitely was a perk! What did I get from it? *thinks hard* Mainly the certainty that I didnt want to end up into sales.

You do both realise that there are two sequels to The Three Musketeers? They are Twenty years later and The Vicomte de Bragelonne, and well worth the read as well. But Monte Cristo is even better I think. Both your posts have made me realise I remember far too little about the Musketeers... I'll need to have a re-read sometime soon.

Awww I'm sorry if the lure is getting too much Though... no hope of what? Getting to end of your TBR pile? That would spoil the fun wouldn't it?

That site IS very tempting... there are some very good looking sets in there. Unfortunately it's UK only. By the way, not to tempt anyone or anything But have you all Jeffrey Deaver fans noticed that they have a collection of 10 of his books for 9,99

Love the 'white hair' one!

I'm a young woman who's left (run away from?) everything behind her for a forever extended stretch of humanitarian work in Honduras. And I'm the young man whom she's left behind and who comes to meet her every year in the airport in the hope that she'll stay more than 2 hours Pure, full blown angst...

Just wait until you've finished it... you'll be begging for more (and running to buy Twenty years later and The Vicomte de Bragelonne)! I read this long ago (I happen to have a crazy Dumas fan as a father - that stuff was pretty much spoon fed to us...). But remember absolutely loving it!

*runs to the calendar* Halfway through 2009? Already ?? That's just crazy! I've only read 12 books so far. Well, actually that's more than I thought I had, but still pretty disapointing. My mojo really has been disfunctional... any "as new" second hand ones available? On the plus side I HAVE been buying more than I read... so I have loads to look forward to!

Tomato and corn salad, a slice of ham, bread and a blackberry yogurt... I am now back at uni for 4 weeks and therefore have full control of what I eat (compared to home where my mum prepares full meals every night, and work where we also have full meals every day). I intend to make the most of it to lose a bit of weight

I LOVE those small bookshelves they have everywhere... very well designed and accessible. Michelle, could we maybe organise a BCF reunion there? Sponsorised by the hotel since we'd make so much publicity for them ?

Well, I have to admit there are some beautiful books in that collection of yours! I guess I feel like that because my dad has always been into collecting authentic classic books, furniture, decorations... and at times it's made me feel like I lived in a small 'museum'. I just want functional, colourful, comfortable, modern stuff now.

Weird... I find those bare hardback spines TOO classic I prefer my shelves to look colourful these days, and I love clever book covers such as those which reveal everything about a book without you noticing (the american version of HP for example).

Lovely poem! I have to say I had no intentions of taking part in this circle as I tend to think poetry just isn't for me but... this strikes a chord. And it's much more intelligible than those sonnets we were force to dissecate in school I thought it was a sad poem, or at least the melancholic "what could have been?" type... until I got to the last line. " And that has made all the difference." To me, this line turns the mood around: the poet is telling us that this choice of a path has shaped who he is/ what he now is doing and that it is (at least that's how I hear it), a good thing. Yes this past choice was difficult and sometimes he wonders if the other woudn't have been easier/ better. But at the end of the day, the one he took is the right one, because it took him where he is, and none other would have... Actually, I thought that last line also felt different when reading it... I'm not sure how to explain it, or what techniques if any are involved, but it doesn't really seem to fit in with the rest: it's more blunt, less poetic. Nearly as if it had been added there later/ by someone else. In fact it's as if the poet has just snapped out of his melancholic mood and returned to the reality of his current situation. "The end justifies the means", or the place he got to justifies the path he blindly chose to get there... It's warped logic of course, but in this case it makes perfect sense.

Oooh, great theme and list! May I add The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton (fiction about a true nomadic library project and the (non)necessity of books) ?