chesilbeach

Ah, but now, it wouldn't be the editor who said that, it would be the publisher and/or agent.

I'm watching the Pointless quiz show, and the category is yoga poses, and they've shown pictures of five poses and you have to name them - I've just got 'Warrior' because it was the one Penny teaches Sheldon in an episode of The Big Bang Theory!

Today was pretty much the same as yesterday … work was pretty good, and lunchtime reading was much better which made the afternoon easier. Treated myself to a couple of squares of chocolate when I got home, and it's a new flavour I've not tried before - milk chocolate with Cornish sea salt and lime… it's delicious, sort of like eating chocolate lime sweets but without the hard boiled sweet shell, but still getting that lovely tart lime taste in it.

Interesting, although I suspect it says more about how the role of the editor has changed over the decades.

I met him at work years and years ago … he's definitely a keeper, as I'd end up eating beans on toast or pasta every day without him!

Another coincidence … this was another of the albums I was listening to at the weekend. What with that and the simultaneous Big Bang Theory watching.

Hooray for The Guest Cat!!! Very pleased you enjoyed it, as it's always a bit of a worry going out on a limb and buying something on impulse for someone else if I haven't read myself.

Ah, but the hype doesn't count as I'd already been looking at it before you mentioned it!

I've got the paperback version as well, and I think it's just a page number issue with the Kindle. It looks exactly the same, doesn't have any mention that it's abridged, and if you go to the Notes section at the end and randomly click on a link, it takes you to it directly, and mentions page numbers up to page 838, and according to my Kindle, the Notes section is one page long, but it's massive! I think the page numbers on the Kindle will be distracting, but I'm convinced it's the full version of the book.

Wow, quite a few of you gave up on Labyrinth. I'm surprised, I remember it being a pretty easy book to read, and the pages flying by. Started Citadel today, and I'm really enjoying it. I'm about 100 pages in already.

Yes, Labyrinth is the first book. I read it on holiday not long after it came out, and it was not too long after we'd been on holiday to a villa near Carcassonne, where the book was set (and where Kate Mosse lived and wrote the book) so I felt that extra connection to the story because of it. It was such a beautiful walled city, and I had very fond and clear memories of visiting it. I think I read Labyrinth in a couple of days. Although I've put Citadel off for a while, I'm quite excited it's come out of the jar this evening.

Me too, and I'm not even a fan of books of collected letters. The descriptions of them in the article sound fascinating, and a real insight into the times in which she was writing and something of the people who would have influenced her and for whom she had affection. I really hope we get a chance to read them.

Have had a bit of a nostalgic time recently listening to lots of albums from when I was teenager. My latest download is Whitney Houston's first album, who I never really followed after that one, but it does include what is still my favourite of her songs, Saving All My Love For You.

I've just picked my next book from the Jar of Destiny and it's come up as Citadel by Kate Mosse. Despite the fact it's a whopping 705 pages, I don't mind too much, as the first two books in the trilogy were long too, but I remember them flying by as the plot races along, so did my reading. Quite pleased with this pick …

I think I'm just getting too old for new Disney … only managed about 10 minutes of The Princess and the Frog. On the other hand, I watched Cinderella again over Christmas and it was a total joy.

The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton Synopsis (from amazon.co.uk): A high-school sex scandal jolts a group of teenage girls into a new awareness of their own potency and power. The publicity seems to turn every act into a performance and every platform into a stage. But when the local drama school decides to turn the scandal into a show, the real world and the world of the theatre are forced to meet, and soon the boundaries between private and public begin to dissolve ... The Rehearsal is an exhilarating and provocative novel about the unsimple mess of human desire, at once a tender evocation of its young protagonists and a shrewd expose of emotional compromise. My thoughts: I first picked this book up a few years ago when it was first available in paperback, and was on one of those lists of books … best debut novels, or best summer reads, or something, I can't remember which. I looked at it a few times and had it in the back of my mind for a long time, but I didn't buy it until I saw the ebook on sale a little while back. I knew it was a gamble, as I wasn't sure about it when I'd looked at it initially, but I thought as it was on offer, I might as well try it. Unfortunately, I've had to give up after about 80 pages. The problem is, I don't know why I'm not enjoying it. The premise is interesting, although if I hadn't read the blurb, I still wouldn't know where it was going even though I'm almost a quarter of the way in. The story isn't staying with one particular character, and alternates between the high school and the drama school, but I just can't find my way into it. I'm sort of intrigued by one character, but even seeing where their story goes doesn't interest me enough to want to carry on. The problem is that my main reading session of the day is during my lunch break, and to read a book that I'm finding off-putting, spoils my lunch break and I feel a bit cheated. So, I think the problem is me, and probably not the book, but after 80 pages, I'm pulling the plug.

Ok, ok … you've convinced me! Next time I buy a book, it'll be this one.

Are you sure you didn't write it in and it just got accidentally cut off?

Now you're just trying to tempt me even more! I will definitely add it to my wish list then

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/02/jane-austen-family-letters-huntington-library I wonder if these will ever be published in a book or made available online? I would love to read them.

Snap! They show two episodes every day at 6pm, so it's something to entertain me while OH is cooking in the kitchen.

I have a good feeling about The Awakening of Miss Prim, Kay. I read a little bit in the shop before I asked for it for Christmas. I keep picking up The Mangle Street Murders in my local bookshop too … even before Steve's fantastic review of it. I'm sure I'll end up buying it soon, although I think I'll probably Kindle it rather than paperback.

Yes, he was a surgeon, so probably would have come from a well off family himself to be able to train as a doctor. Here's hoping that call from the library comes sooner rather than later for you, Kell!

I'm glad it wasn't just me then! I like old style most things, but I think the last Disney film I absolutely loved was Aladdin, and most of my favourites are the early ones, at least before the 1970s … so basically, before I was born!

I read some more of The Rehearsal today, but I have to say, I'm not enjoying it one little bit. I don't think I can face another lunchtime reading it and not getting any enjoyment from it, so I think I'm going to be abandoning it and picking another book out of the Jar of Destiny. Will write up some more thoughts in my book blog in a bit.