Chrissy

Thanks Poppy, it's a vladstudio one entitled 'Socotra'. I fell in love with the picture and looked up Socotra, discovering that it was an island that is very isolated and through the process of speciation, a third of its plant life is found nowhere else on the planet. How cool is that? The tree is a DragonTree ~ and dragons happen to be one of my favourite mythical beasties.

I am quietly confident that my sabbatical taking mojo may be ready to spend some time with me! I am looking forward to reading 'The Song Of The Quarkbeast', and carrying on with our lovely Jennifer. I have concluded that Jasper Fforde genuinely likes women and therefore gives us some fab heroines. 'Coffee At Luke's' was a great dip in and out of book. I could read a chapter / essay in a short sitting, and I think it helped not to spook my mojo when it wavered a week or two ago.

1) The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde Mr J Fforde is such a brilliant writer, and doesn't hold back with his often surreal imagery and concepts in this YA book. Magic, loyalty, destiny alongside temperamental magicians, kings and politicians. The heroine, Jennifer Strange sits at the centre of the mounting chaos that surrounds Kazam, an employment agency for the magically inclined. Visions are being received, and expectations and greed make all sorts of people do mad and bad things. Jennifer navigates all with aplomb, understanding and a dry wit. Whereas the Thursday Next series made me want a Dodo as a pet, now all I crave is a Quarkbeast. Damn you Mr Fforde! 2) Coffee At Luke's edited by Jennifer Crusie Whitegold had mentioned reading this and I immediately had to have it! (Hey, don't y'all judge. I know I'm not alone in impulse book buying). It was such an enjoyable read. A collection of essays that discuss and analyse among other things Lorelai and Rory's relationship, Emily Gilmore in all her glory, marital bliss and eating. It is equal parts witty, interesting and takes us to the heart of this popular series.

I finished 'The Last Dragonslayer' by Jasper Fforde. Fans of his Thursday Next & NCD books will know the quality of his at times surreal writing. Descriptive and fascinating, TLD is wonderful.

Porridge or fruit of late, although some mornings it's porridge and fruit.

It's a sickness we all have, you are not alone (200+ on my Kindle, and I daren't even count the number of books on my TBR shelves).

I don't format ours before using them, as generally the software on them is useful for unhindered use of the sticks. The flip side is that unless something is a impediment to me with this kind of thing I generally leave it as it was, a computer laziness of sorts.

Julie, I think your husband may be one to keep! What a lovely surprise.

Congratulations on the move! I hope you and your wife are happy in your new home.

It's a shame that you have been unable to express what you feel about this book Andrea! Your review may be damning, but it is brilliant written. Great stuff.

'Mistress Masham's Repose' dropped into my letter box today. It's a near perfect 1979 edition (original price 75p). I have got further into 'The Last Dragonslayer' whilst at the hospital today - loving this book - loving Mr Jasper Fforde!

I suddenly remembered this thread today, and had a shuffle around at NASA (as you do!), and found this sparkly colourful photograph, and thought I'd pop the link on here. With a raised glass (or in my case, a mug) to our gone but not forgotten astronomically minded Raven, I give you Starburst Galaxy .

What a gorgeous, gorgeous cat! He and Molly are just darling. He was such a cutie, and the roof pic made my heart race just looking at it! Oh Poppyshake, what can I say? So sorry. Molly probably feels a little bewildered without him. But she will be ok. I know our fella did when his sister died last April. But now the relationship he has with us has been redifined, and he gets our undivided and incredibly spoiling attention (thus my 4 am starts nowadays!). Big hugs. X

Ok, when I don't want to hear something I can stick my fingers in my ears and sing "La, la, la, la!". What the heck to I do when my fingers automatically click a link and I see all the goodies? What's the vision equivalent of "La, la, la, la" ?

Welcome back Amesy.

On my (ye olde worlde) kindle you just click 'create collection' on the Menu page. Once you have your collections sorted, go to your first book and 'right push' the navigation button. This brings up options including 'add to collection' which you click, this takes you to your home page where all the folders are, and at each stop you can 'add to this collection'.

Finished 'Coffee At Luke's' last night. What a lovely book to read. I would most definitely recommend it to fellow Gilmore Girl fans.

That is WONDERFUL! Thank you so much for posting that Chalie. My goodness, how much time that must have taken to make! The filmaker MUST be a book lover. The settling down at the end is just so sweet,.

My kindle has the following; Miscellaneous Fiction Non Fiction Young Adult Sci Fi & Fantasy Husband's Books (it's my kindle, but I collect for him too!) Read (but not yet archived) Currently Reading & To Be Read (bumped into and out of as my mood takes me) Classics, Myths & Legends

All my kindles books have been cheapies or free too HoneyGirl. I feel the same way you do about the costs, and the fact that paper books cost to be produced, whereas once the book has been 'uploaded' it costs very little, so why the expense? I still buy proper books as much as I used to, so despite my husband hoping that the kindle would help ease the book shelves, but that hasn't happened just yet.

Anything that throws me in Harry Potter I always put down to Elf Magic ~ it covers a whole multitude of things such as missing pockets and dubious happenings! lol

I'm coming to the end of 'Coffee At Luke's' and have thoroughly enjoyed it. It's been so interesting to read theories and opinions on The Gilmore Girls series. 'The Last Dragonslayer' has taken a back seat while I have been working my way through it. I hope to have both finished by the weekend, if my week doesn't get any busier than it currently looks to be.

I have seen this book mentioned many times, and was always intrigued by it. Now you have convinced me to actually get hold of it. Not sure whether to thank you or not! 2012 looks like it may be as book buying heavy as 2011.

I have Blacklands and Darkside on my TBR pile, and will hopefully get to both soon. Your review of Darkside has made sure that I stick with the first one if I feel the same way about it as you do, as a stepping stone to this one. I have read and enjoyed The Graveyard Book a few times, and although somewhat macabre at times, I love Neil Gaiman's writing, and can definitely recommend some of his other books (Neverwhere, American Gods etc).

I would think that if you know that you will be reading excerpts of your diary to a group then you would (consciously or unconsciously) write the entries differently, or would read them out perhaps placing the emphasis / meaning in a slightly different place to alter it's meaning. Human nature would surely make that the case. Or at least - it would for me.