Nollaig

Yuss! So do I!!!

Granted, but it means you have way less time to sleep and you slowly go insane due to exhaustion and lack of sleep I wish I had wings so I could fly!

I do that same LOTR marathon every Christmas I can't find my copies of the dvds now though :S

I'm now 334 pages into a book I started yesterday, and I'm hoping to knock another chunk out of it before bedtime. Is this a reading-mojo I see before me?

That's horrible! Someone else reply to Dimitra's, I wasn't even born in the seventies so *shrug*

Granted but you accidentally irrevocably damage it in your excitement and become reknowned world wide for ruining it I wish I could go into space!

Ack, that was a nice comeback. Granted but..... sheesh I can't do this without being mean. Um. Supermodel. All I can think about is superficiality, floundering money-based friendships and relationships and drug abuse. Oh I know - granted but they make you wear the most utterly ridiculous clothes and hairstyles ever invented I wiiiiiiiiiiiiiish Pooh Bear was real (As a friendly bear, not an actual bear!)

Granted but you travel back in time, squish the first life form on earth and thereby eradicate not only yourself but all life on the planet. Okay that was harsh, I feel guilty now. I wish........... okay I'm going to make this tough to corrupt, that will be my aim! I wish for world peace.

All the best men are gay or taken. Derren is apparently both. Darn. I didn't know that.

Granted but all your movies are z-movies with z-actors which nobody watches so you make them at a loss. I wish I could make a new scientific discovery!

Awww poor Mac

Belle is my favourite princess for everything Mac said except looking hot in the yellow dress as I hate yellow, but I'll replace that with having brown hair and greenish eyes. Everyone knows brunette is better unless you're a pixie or fairy (contraversial!) and green eyed people are smart. S'troo, I have green eyes I'm KIDDING, before anyone launches into an attack on little ole moi

To Kill A Mockingbird was a great adaption, Gregory Peck absolutely nailed the character of Atticus. In the novel he's not quite as overtly central, but you get the feeling the whole time that he's the man, and in the movie Peck just steals the show.

Aw man this book just made me tear up, it's funny how small things can really get to you. This is from Too Close To Home by Linwood Barclay, don't read it if you haven't read the book. It's not massively important, but it is a spoiler.

I'm the same as BookJumper - occasionally it works but it worked better when stress was made up of homework and boys at school. Books just don't cut it over finances and employment. Still, when I do manage to switch off and disappear into a book, it's pretty cool. I do find a certain safety in books where their situation is far far worse than my own, like waking up from a nightmare and realising things really aren't THAT bad

He also wrote No Time For Goodbye, which got pretty good reviews on here, barring the ending if I recall. I own it but haven't read it, I struggled to get into it so I was taking a real gamble on his second book, (it was between Too Close To Home and that new Stephen King collection of short stories) and I definately made the right choice!

I'm so glad I bought the newer Linwood Barclay book, Too Close To Home, as it's BRILLIANT! The tagline is the best thing I've ever read, I actually laughed in the shop when I read it - 'What's more frightening than your next-door neighbours being murdered? Finding out the killers went to the wrong house....' I don't think it's meant to be funny, but various lines by Jim Cutter (the story's narrator) really made me crack up. It's very well written, so much so that I'm still up at nearly 5am, nearly 200 pages into the book!

Yeah, so have I, given that I own three copies of it and studied it in university after it was already a favourite of mine, and I can tell you, there is no in the novel. Additionally, and when Janet says I trust her. If anything it's a reinterpretation of the novel, not something that stays true to it. That's in no way a comment on the quality of the movie as an independant interpretation, but with changes like that it is NOT true to the novel.

I hate people who think they're special coz they've got kids. I was walking on a busy pavement on a pedestrianised street, and this chavvy mother chose to have a go at me for being on her way in the pavement, instead of stepping onto the street which is specifically people-only. Any normal person would step off the pavement when there simply isn't room - I did several times while walking along it. I said it to her too, 'I had no where to move, does your child's legs not work on roads?' She looked like she was about to kill me though so I performed a disappearing act into the crowd

Thank you Janet, for verifying what I already knew to be true by seeing the trailers. No it wasn't, I knew that without even seeing it,

I don't have channel 4 so someone will have to tell me.

Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper Synopsis from Amazon: (Very helpful, Amazon. Not.) I started reading Over Sea, Under Stone tentatively, knowing last time I tried was over 15 years ago and that I didn't like it then. Boy am I glad I decided to give it another go! I fortunately didn't remember a single thing about the story, and starting it I had no idea that it loosely ties into some Arthurian legend (Cornwall - shoulda figured) but once I realised where it was going I was hooked. Admittedly I'm immediately sold on anything associated with Arthurian legends, but even if you're not this is still a pretty charming book which I think will appeal to a wide age group. It starts out very similarly to a traditional Enid Blyton-esque British treasure hunt story, but it is far more detailed, carefully laid out, mature and even more realistic than anything Blyton wrote. (On a scale of Blyton to Tolkien, I'd rate it just left of centre, leaning more towards Blyton.) Either way, while it's clearly a children's story, it certainly had me captivated from the very first chapter. The characters aren't exactly the the deepest souls in the literary spectrum, but we can forgive that when it is in essence a children's adventure story. There is virtually no magic and little direct allusion to legend (I have heard this first book is very out of sync with the remaining four, Over Sea, Under Stone being the most grounded in reality versus the magic and lore of rest of the saga.) However, the settings are beautifully described, the characters are traditionally black and white and it's easy to get caught up in the successful if not formulaic approach Cooper uses. One of the best things about this book is the realism. None of this famous five, 'our cousin's family owns a whole island' business, just good old fashioned exploring and stumbling upon something exciting. The treasure map and clues are intelligent, the events are a little over the top, but nothing extraordinary unlikely (apart from, of course, the treasure) not all your questions are answered, and never is there any magic. This meant that in the end, the absolute icing on the cake for me was Uncle Merry. What a wonderfully understated character - merely a guardian and guiding body throughout the book, (at one point, I suspected him of being an agent of the Dark!) However, just when you get to the final pages and think maybe legends are just legends, Barney has a sudden realisation that casts a whole new magical light on everything, especially Uncle Merry, and paves the way into the fantasy world of the remaining four books. Delightful, simple read which will appeal to the adventurous child in anyone. I'm looking forward to seeing how the series develops! 8/10

I'm going to back Chesilbeach's suggestion of Oscar Wilde And The Candlelight Murders, I read and adored that book! Historical Fiction featuring Oscar Wilde and his friends, it's a murder mystery/thriller, very easy to read, slightly Victorian in it's writing style and quite funny in parts!