anisia

I think if I were to choose a favorite book...ever...The Three Musketeers would probably have a chance to win. I read it and reread it over the years, and I just never get bored with it.

Have a good 2013! I also loved The Count of Monte Cristo, one of my favourite books - but then, I just love Dumas.

I loved this so much, read it...last year or two years ago. This book reminds me of my school years...in a good way! Our literature teacher used to give us summer reading to do and this was on the list. It was one of the few summer when I loved most of the books there, including this one --- I haven't had a lot of time to read since I work weekends. But yesterday I started Freaks Like Us by Susan Vaught, then in the evening continued with The Handmaid's Tale. I'm very happy The White Road (Nightrunner #5) arrived earlier, so that will be my third book this week I think. I'm hoping to finish them all by Sunday.

Any encouragement is always welcome! Also, thank you and you've made me blush. There's a reason why I write very little personal notes, I'd be awful with real reviews! Although I always find it very odd that I can express myself in English and yet in my native language I wouldn't be able to write even a personal note. I haven't yet read too much of it (work got in the way!) but so far I like it. It reminds me a bit of Affinity by Sarah Waters...the atmosphere of the book maybe. I don't know, my mind went to that from the start,

I saw this on the Kindle Deal, now I'm sad I didn't get it. Sounds like such a good read.

I read the book before watching the movie, and yet I enjoyed the movie a lot too Ok, so maybe I was in my Leonardo DiCaprio phase () but I really do remember liking the movie - I want to see it again now.

Sounds very interesting; I used to want to be a doctor, even did two years of med-school, so I'd love to read something that gives you a bit on insight.

I read this a long time ago and remember enjoying it a lot

Very glad you enjoyed The Book Thief

Looks like you're having a good start!

Title: The Boy No One Loved Author: Casey Watson Book Description (Goodreads) "We're hungry," his brother kept repeating. :We're hungry, Justin. Please find us some food." Justin was just five years old; his brothers two and three. Their mother, a heroin addict, had left them hungry and alone, while she went to get her next fix. Later that day, after trying to burn down the family home, Justin was taken into care. Justin was taken into care at the age of five after deliberately burning down his family home. Six years on, after 20 failed placements, Justin arrives at Casey's home. Casey and her husband Mike are specialist foster carers. They practice a new style of foster care that focuses on modifying the behavior of profoundly damaged children. They are Justin's last hope, and it quickly becomes clear that they are facing a big challenge. Try as they might to make him welcome, he seems determined to strip his life of all the comforts they bring him, violently lashing out at schoolmates and family and throwing any affection they offer him back in their faces. After a childhood filled with hurt and rejection, Justin simply doesn't want to know. But, as it soon emerges, this is only the tip of a chilling iceberg. As a visit to Justin's mother on Boxing Day reveals, there are some very dark underlying problems that Justin has never spoken about. As the full picture becomes clearer, and the horrific truth of Justin's early life is revealed, Casey and her family finally start to understand the pain he has suffered. Personal Note Although I can read pretty much anything, this is probably the genre of books I tend to stay away from the most. I saw this through the Kindle deals and read the summary and a couple of reviews; I decided to try it because it's written from the point of view of the foster carer. I'm now glad I gave it a shot because as tragic as Justin's story is, I liked the fact that the book focused a lot on how the foster family has to adapt to having a new child in the house and how they adapt and learn from everything they go through with Justin. I feel weird saying it was a good book, just because of its topic, but I felt it was well written. I don't know if I'll read any more of Casey Watson's books, but I don't regret reading this one. Rated 3/5 (liked it)

Title: Jack Author: A.M. Homes Book Description (Goodreads) Jack is a teenager who wants nothing more than to be normal - even if being normal means having divorced parents and a rather strange best friend. But when Jack's father takes him out in a rowboat on Lake Watchmayoyo and tells his son that he's gay, nothing will ever be normal again. Personal Note A good read, although I wasn't overly impressed with this book. I liked Jack and I could sympathize with him through the whole book. It's a good coming of age story and it was nice seeing how Jack changes over the course of the book. I thought the impact his dad's announcement had on him, but also on the rest of the family was treated well, but I would have liked it to be explored a bit more. Rated: 3/5 (liked it)

I just started The Handmaid's Tale today Oh 26 was Raven's, I put mine to 50 this year...having a good start so far; then again, it is only the first week of the year Hopefully it will be read this year! My goal right now is to go through the books I already own and then move to the new ones. We'll see how long that lasts if people keep recommending me books

Title: Shadows Return (Nightrunner #4) Author: Lynn Flewelling Book Description (Goodreads) With their most treacherous mission yet behind them, heroes Seregil and Alec resume their double life as dissolute nobles and master spies. But in a world of rivals and charmers, fate has a different plan.… After their victory in Aurënen, Alec and Seregil have returned home to Rhíminee. But with most of their allies dead or exiled, it is difficult for them to settle in. Hoping for diversion, they accept an assignment that will take them back to Seregil’s homeland. En route, however, they are ambushed and separated, and both are sold into slavery. Clinging to life, Seregil is sustained only by the hope that Alec is alive. But it is not Alec’s life his strange master wants—it is his blood. For his unique lineage is capable of producing a rare treasure, but only through a harrowing process that will test him body and soul and unwittingly entangle him and Seregil in the realm of alchemists and madmen—and an enigmatic creature that may hold their very destiny in its inhuman hands…. But will it prove to be savior or monster? Personal Note Another excellent book in the Nightrunner series! Such a good twist to the whole story; I'm very curious about the next book and how Seregil and Alec will be able to look after the new character Lynn Flewelling introduced. One complaint I have is that I'm not sure what happened to Ilar - is he going to be a character we'll see again, or is he just gone? He seems to just not be mentioned in the last couple of chapters, which I found very odd. Very interested to see what happens next! Rated 5/5 (it was amazing)

Totally agreed! I loved this book so much. Sounds very interesting, I will have to add it to the TBR list! It's the same TBR list I'm hoping will get smaller by the end of 2013...good start

I've read a couple of Stephen King books, enjoyed them a lot Happy reading in 2013!

That's around how much I read this year, but in the last couple of months I've found a pretty steady pace of one book/week. Good luck with your goal! Haha, I've had Moby-Dick on this list forever, I even have a copy back home, which will never make it here because of it's size. Thank you, same to you! Yes, I think The Kite Runner will be read soon, I've had it recommended quite a few times! Good luck in 2013! I really hope to read all the Sherlock Holmes books this year...it was my last year's reading goal and I only read one novel. Good luck to you also!

Happy reading in 2013!

I'm doing the same with my first read this year --- I just went through all the books I've bought/received since moving here and...when did I acquire so many??? Because I don't have shelves, just a space/drawer under my bed, they were on three rows and I had forgotten completely about some of them. It's my resolution this year I'll try and go through most of them. Almost done with Shadows Return, I'll probably finish it tonight.

Happy reading in 2013!

All done I think! This year I feel very positive about reading and I hope to go through a lot of the books I have on the TBR list, as many of them have been there for a very long time.

TBR List January 1st: 114 books 1. "The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" - Adams, Douglas 2. "Thanks for the Memories" - Ahern, Cecelia 3. "Little Women" - Alcott, Louisa May 4. "Counterfeit Son" - Alphin, Elaine Marie 5. "Money" - Amis, Martin 6. "Speak" - Anderson, Laurie Halse 7. "The Handmaid's Tale" - Atwood, Margaret 8. "The Infinite Book: A Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless" - Barrow, John D. 9. "The Demolished Man" - Bester, Alfred 10. "The House of Tomorrow" - Bognanni, Peter 11. "My Husband Betty: Love, Sex, and Life with a Crossdresser" - Boyd, Helen 12. "She's Not the Man I Married: My Life with a Transgender Husband" - Boyd, Helen 13. "The Children's Book" - Byatt, A.S. 14. "The Stranger" - Camus, Albert 15. "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell" - Clarke, Susanna 16. "Shōgun" - Clavell, James 17. The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games #1) - Collins, Suzanne 18. "A Tale of Two Cities" - Dickens, Charles 19. "The Paranoid's Pocket Guide to Mental Disorders You Can Just Feel Coming On" - DiClaudio, Dennis 20. "La Dame aux Camélias" - Dumas-fils, Alexandre 21. "P.S. I Hate it Here: Kids' Letters from Camp" - Falanga, Diane 22. "The Diary of a Young Girl" - Frank, Anne 23. "North and South" - Gaskell, Elizabeth 24. "The To Do List" - Gayle, Mike 25. "Rites of Passage" - Golding, William 26. "Black Like Me" - Griffin, John Howard 27. "Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World's Worst Dog" - Grogan, John 28. "Counterpoint (Song of the Fallen, #1)" - Haimowitz, Rachel 29. "Catch-22" - Heller, Joseph 30. "The Old Man and the Sea" - Hemingway, Ernest 31. "For Whom the Bell Tolls" - Hemingway, Ernest 32. "Assassin's Apprentice (Farseer Trilogy, #1)" - Hobb, Robin 33. "The Odyssey" - Homer 34. "The Kite Runner" - Hosseini, Khaled 35. "Les Misérables" - Hugo, Victor 36. "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame" - Hugo, Victor 37. "Point Counter Point" - Huxley, Aldous 38. "Never Let Me Go" - Ishiguro, Kazuo 39. "The Vanishing Act" - Jakobsen, Mette 40. "Ulysses" - Joyce, James 41. "Requiem for a Dream" - Jr., Hubert Selby 42. "Amerika" - Kafka, Franz 43. "Thinking, Fast and Slow" - Kahneman, Daniel 44. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" - Kesey, Ken 45. "Further Under the Duvet" - Keyes, Marian 46. "Life on the Refrigerator Door" - Kuipers, Alice 47. "To Kill a Mockingbird" - Lee, Harper 48. "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" - Levitt, Steven D. 49. "Moby-Dick" - Melville, Herman 50. "The Host (The Host, #1)" - Meyer, Stephenie 51. "Obedience to Authority" - Milgram, Stanley 52. "Gone with the Wind" - Mitchell, Margaret 53. "Melusine (Doctrine of Labyrinths, #1)" - Monette, Sarah 54. "Lolita" - Nabokov, Vladimir 55. "A Monster Calls" - Ness, Patrick 56. "The Time Traveler's Wife" - Niffenegger, Audrey 57. "1984" - Orwell, George 58. "The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To" - Pierson, D.C. 59. "Atlas Shrugged" - Rand, Ayn 60. "Under the Wolf, Under the Dog" - Rapp, Adam 61. "The Winslow Boy" - Rattigan 62. "Separate Tables" - Rattigan, Terence 63. "My Life as a Man" - Roth, Philip 64. "The Stranger Beside Me: Ted Bundy The Shocking Inside Story" - Rule, Ann 65. "Don Quixote" - Saavedra, Miguel de Cervantes 66. "Nausea" - Sartre, Jean-Paul 67. "Light on Snow" - Shreve, Anita 68. "Testimony" - Shreve, Anita 69. "We Need to Talk About Kevin" - Shriver, Lionel 69. "Of Mice and Men" - Steinbeck, John 70. "The Grapes of Wrath" - Steinbeck, John 71. "All-of-a-Kind Family (All-of-a-Kind Family, #1)" - Taylor, Sydney 72. "Now and on Earth" - Thompson, Jim 73. "Slaughterhouse-Five" - Vonnegut, Kurt 74. "The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance" - Waal, Edmund de 75. "Just a Geek: Unflinchingly honest tales of the search for life, love, and fulfillment beyond the Starship Enterprise" - Wheaton, Wil 76. "To the Lighthouse" - Woolf, Virginia 77. "The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil" - Zimbardo, Philip G. 78. "Romanian Journey" - Sacheverell, Sitwell 79. "Hide and Seek" - Rankin, Ian 80. "The Time of my Life" - Ahern, Cecelia 81. "This Book Will Save Your Life" - Homes, A.M. 82. "A Dance With Dragons: Dreams and Dust" - Martin, George R.R. 83. "A Dance With Dragons: After the Feast" - Martin, George R.R. 84. "Black Dawn" - Caine, Rachel 85. "The Social Animal" - Brooks, David 86. "The Woman in White" - Collins, Wilkie 87. "Thinks" - Lodge, David 88. "Strania calatorie a domnului Daldry" - Levy, Marc 89. "The Obamas" - Firstbrook, Peter 90. "It's Not About the Bike" - Armstrong, Lance 91. "The Sealed Letter" - Donoghue, Emma 92. "Scotland. The Story of a Nation" - Magnusson, Magnus 93. "The Sign of the Four" - Arthur Conan Doyle 94. "The Hound of the Baskervilles" - Arthur Conan Doyle 95. "The Valley of Fear" - Arthur Conan Doyle 96. "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" - Arthur Conan Doyle 97. "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" - Arthur Conan Doyle 98. "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" - Arthur Conan Doyle 99. "His Last Bow" - Arthur Conan Doyle 100. "The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes" - Arthur Conan Doyle 101. "The Lady and the Unicorn" - Tracy Chevalier 102. "Diary of a Hapless Househusband" - Sam Holden 103. "A Perfect Match" - Sinead Moriarty 104. "The Particular Sadness of a Lemon Cake" - Aimee Bender 105. "Anna Karenina" - Leo Tolstoy 106. "The Other Queen" - Philippa Gregory 107. "The Language of Flowers" - Vanessa Diffenbaugh 108. "You Had Me at Hello" - Mhairi McFarlane 109. "Freaks Like Us" - Susan Vaught 110. "Bridget Jones's Diary" - Helen Fielding 111. "Jack" - A.M. Homes 112. "The End of Alice" - A.M. Homes 113. "Londoners: The Days and Nights of London" - Craig Taylor 114. "The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared" - Jonas Jonasson

Currently Reading: "Magician" - Raymond E. Feist I'm using the Goodreads rating system: 1/5 - didn't like it 2/5 - it was ok 3/5 - liked it 4/5 - really liked it 5/5 - it was amazing January 1. "Shadows Return" - Lynn Flewelling, 522 pages, 5/5 2. "Jack" - A.M. Homes, Kindle edition, 3/5 3. "The Boy No One Loved" - Casey Watson, Kindle edition, 3/5 4. "Freaks Like Us" - Susan Vaught, Kindle 4/5 5. "The Handmaid's Tale" - Margaret Atwood, 324 pages 5/5 February 6. "The White Road" - Lynn Flewelling, 385 pages 5/5 7. "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" - Lewis Carroll, Kindle 4/5 March 8. "Cavalerii florii de cires" (Ciresarii #1) - Constantin Chirita, Kindle, 5/5 9. "Castelul fetei in alb" (Ciresarii #2) - Constantin Chirita, Kindle, 5/5 10. "Roata norocului" (Ciresarii #3) - Constantin Chirita, Kindle, 3/5 11. "Aripi de zapada" (Ciresarii #4) - Constantin Chirita, Kindle, 5/5 12. "Drum bun, Ciresari!" (Ciresarii #5) - Constantin Chirita, Kindle 5/5 13. "A Dance With Dragons 1: Dreams and Dust" - George R.R. Martin 5/5 April 14. "A Dance With Dragons 2: After the Feast" - George R.R. Martin 4/5 May 15. "Trandafirul Alb" - Constantin Chirita, Kindle 4/5 July 16. "Supernatural. Night Terror" - John Passarella 3/5 17. "Swallows and Ice Cream" - Robert Fowler, Kindle 3/5 18. "Looking for Alaska" - John Green, 4/5 August 19. "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" - Lewis Carroll, Kindle, 4/5 20. "A Tale of Two Cities" - Charles Dickens, Kindle, 4/5 September 21. "The Vesuvius Club" - Mark Gatiss, 4/5 22. "Calatorie in Romania" - Sitwell Sacheverell, 4/5 23. "The Sign of Four" - Arthur Conan Doyle, 4/5 October 24. "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" - Douglas Adams, Kindle, 4/5 25. "The Wish List" - Jane Costello, 4/5 26. "The Need to Know Guide to Nutrition and Healthy Eating" - Tim Shaw, Kindle, 3/5 November 27. "A Note of Madness" - Tabitha Suzuma, 4/5 December

I collect them too...and yet I always cook the same things over and over again. My plan in the last few months has been to try one new recipe every month, but that still doesn't explain why I have so many books and magazines!

I think I followed everyone! I hadn't realised some of the series I started years ago actually had more books.