chesilbeach

Well, I don't read much historical fiction, but I've just had a look under your avatar and seen you're reading a Bernard Cornwell book, and I know he writes historical fiction, so I'm going to guess it's one of his?

Science fiction?

I do love having someone read to me, but a lot of the time I'm concentrating on something else, so I have to listen to a story I already know, so that if I don't listen to a couple of minutes, I still know where I am in the story! I'm about three quarters of the way through and really loving Lindsay Duncan's narration, and I'm picking up some new little nuances in the writing I've not noticed before when I've read it myself.

Is it fantasy?

The Muppet Christmas Carol seems popular!!! I love that scene too, Kreader.

I needed an audiobook for today, but I've found that I can only listen to books I've already read, otherwise I lose the thread too often and have to keep rewinding, so I went for Pride and Prejudice which I can count it towards my English Counties challenge when I get sorted out (hopefully one evening next week ). Lindsay Duncan is narrating and I'm really enjoying her reading, although I wish she pronounced the "t" in Hertfordshire.

Absolutely! I've dug out The Muppet Christmas Carol for next weekend, and have set up my Christmas playlist of songs for car journeys

Oh, I am such an 80s girl - can I come too?

I don't think we're planning to read them together, so it'll probably be whenever we all get around to it individually, although some may choose their own book for the county.

Might be tricky to guess then! Female author?

Love Actually ... well, it's almost Christmas

It's one of the books for the English Counties challenge, so I've downloaded it to my Kindle. Looking forward to reading it.

Cuppa tea

I finished The Radleys today - loved it! So good, and I loved how their story was resolved.

And so the list is complete! Here's a link to the first post of the discussion thread with the book(s) for each county. Thank you all for joining in the debate, it's been stressful, challenging, frustrating, FUN!!!! Now, don't forget, you can choose to follow the list to the letter, pick and choose what you want from the list with some of your own alternatives, or completely ignore the list and make your own choices, but hopefully everyone will enjoy taking part in the challenge! I had another thought about how we could keep track of the books, and I thought that maybe if we went for Janet's suggestion that we set up a thread for each book, I could set up a single thread with a post for each county, and link to the book reviews in that post, and also link to any reviews of alternate books that people chose to read, so that we could keep it as a reference for each county for anyone else who wants to join in and get some additional inspiration as to books they could choose. Let me know if you think it's a good idea.

Hi Adam, welcome to the forum. You might like to have a look at some existing threads about reading rates What is your reading rate? and How many books a week / month / year?

Don't worry, Janet, I didn't take it that way, just being my usual apologetic self for being a bit lazy! Looking at people's responses for Worcestershire and adding my own opinion, I think The Well of Loneliness seems to have the most backing, although Kidsmum, you can obviously choose to read Black Swan Green for your own challenge. But, oh dear, I really don't know what to do about the Isle of Wight. I haven't read is myself although I've obviously heard of it, so I've been doing some investigation on the web into the setting. I know Wikipedia isn't always the most reliable source of information but on the Culture of the Isle of Wight page, it states "The island also features heavily in John Wyndham's novel The Day of the Triffids and Simon Clark's sequel to it, The Night of the Triffids." In addition, on the author Isabel Ashdown's website, she includes the book in a list of 10 books set on the Isle of Wight, saying "Locations include Sussex, Wiltshire, London and the Isle of Wight, where a successful colony has been established." I haven't wanted to dig too deep as I haven't read it and if I'm going to, then I don't want too many spoilers. I think the problem is that the Lawrence book is fairly obscure and not many of us have even heard of it, while the Barnes and Swift are both such recent publications that their "fame" may not last, and perhaps in 10 or 20 years, we might be choosing one of these as an obvious choice, or have forgotten about both? Having read other Barnes, I'd be happy to read another, but as willoyd has pointed out, that's not what we're supposed to be basing the choices on, in which case my only option would be The Day of the Triffids as the only book I've heard of in the list, and it's also the one that most people have gone for. I think the only fair thing I can do, is to put both England, England and The Day of the Triffids as an alternative, with a caveat that it is only briefly set in the IOW but that particular section is famously associated with it. Does that sound acceptable to everyone?

I'm about a quarter of the way in, and I love the short, sharp chapters, love the characters in the family and just the whole ordinariness of their life so far, while being so very, very different from everyone around them.

Sorry, been a bit neglectful over the last couple of days I had just thought of having my own thread - like your World Challenge, Janet - but seeing some of the comments here, rather than have a thread per book, why don't we have a thread per county? That way if people read alternatives to the main list, we can keep them all in one place and compare the books and their county associations. Just a thought. Anyway, I think we did have a consensus on a few of the counties - see the full list on the first post. We're just left with two counties now, Worcestershire and Isle of Wight: Worcestershire Black Swan Green by David Mitchell The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall Has anyone come up with any more suggestions? I did find a quote on Wikipedia that said that it is claimed that the county was the inspiration for The Shire in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, but that's a bit tenuous (and also this: "In the liner notes for J.R.R Tolkien Reads and Sings his The Hobbit & The Fellowship of the Rings, George Sayer wrote that Tolkien would relive the book as they walked and compared parts of the Malvern Hills to the White Mountains of Gondor"). I also found one of the M. C. Beaton series, Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham is also set in the county, but it's hardly a famous book, and is one in the middle of a series. Finally, we're back to the Isle of Wight! Can we narrow the list down? And/or should I just put a poll up and see what comes out top? Isle of Wight: England, England by Julian Barnes The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham Wish You Were Here by Graham Swift The Trespasser by D. H. Lawrence

I started reading The Radleys by Matt Haig today, and it's sooooo good!!

Sorry, I haven't been able to reply earlier, but ... is correct!!! Well done, Athena, over to you for the next one.

Oh, lucky guess! Next book to guess is ... Watch your step. Keep your wits about you; you will need them. This city I am bringing you to is vast and intricate, and you have not been here before. You may imagine, from other stories you've read, that you know it well, but those stories flattered you, welcoming you as a friend, treating you as if you belonged. The truth is that you are an alien from another time and place altogether.

Well, I'm going to guess it's Jeeves and Wooster, so I'll try the first book in the series, My Man Jeeves?

Is it P. G. Wodehouse? If it is, I have no idea which book as I've not read any yet!

I loved it too! Going back to the comments about the different editions - the single edition was the first, but I think there were some comments about how difficult it can be to read a single volume of such a large book, as it's a bit unwieldy, so the publishers then decided to release it as a three volume edition to make it easier to read. It's still the same story, just split up into three easier to hold books