chesilbeach

There's two criteria's for buying an expensive ebook for me - firstly, pre-Kindle, would I have bought the book in hardback because I was desperate to read it, and secondly, is it cheaper than the hardback edition? If I can answer both questions with a "Yes", then I'd be happy to pay the money for it. Incidentally, the cheaper than the paperback also works in my buying decisions. I think the whole way books is marketed is wrong, if I'm honest, and don't see why publishers still insist with hardback only editions for 6-12 months, then cheaper paperback editions - an old fashioned way of marketing, especially with the advent of ebooks, but if they're going to stick to that then I'll stick to my criteria. I'm also a believer that I'm not buying the physical object of a book, I'm buying the work of the author. Whether I buy a hardback, paperback or ebook, it took the author the same amount of time to write it, the same amount of time to edit, and is part of the cost of marketing it, so the only thing different about the digital version, is that it doesn't cost the publisher anything for the raw materials of physically printing a book, and that should be reflected in the cost. As this is not a massive proportion of the cost of publishing, if the hardback edition was £14.99, I'd be happy to pay £11.99 for the ebook, but unless it's an author I desperately want to read, I'll wait for the paperback edition to be published and the cost of the ebook to come down. What bugs me more, is when the paperback edition is released and they still don't reduce the cost of the ebook, or the paperback is discounted by the seller, and the publishers set the price of the ebook higher than the book version - I'm not prepared to pay more for an ebook than a physical book!

Or at www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/e/barbara-erskine - always a good resource for the chronology of publications

Finished Northanger Abbey today, and started How To Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran, but need to make a start on Mr Tilney's Diary as it needs to go back to the library soon and I didn't have it with me at the time, so I'll have to put Caitlin aside for now.

I want to read My Animals and Other Family* by Clare Balding, so looking forward to your review (*not My Family and Other Animals - I think someone else has already taken that title )

If I was given the choice, I'd definitely pick Iveta and Aliona next year and leave out Karen based on the first two weeks - if only for Aliona's love of chocolate pudding and custard which has been well documented on It Takes Two! I even saw her post a photo on twitter of a slab of chocolate cake with custard with just one word tweet to accompany it, "Breakfast" How could I not want to keep her on the show after that! I think they only people who might have come close to Jill in the past were Alesha and Kelly but both got the jive quite early on in the competition, and I think it's one of those dances that is better if you've had chance to build up the knowledge of how to "get" the technique of dancing, which is why Jill's was so much better by the time she danced it in the final. I can understand why you don't like Denise, I guess I never really watched her on shows like The Big Breakfast, so I only know of her rather than having seen her in anything in particular. I love a journey too (there is no other word, is there? ), and hope there might be one or two dark horses who've started out middle of the road who might produce a surprise or two in the future! I think it can be quite difficult for non-showbiz people to come into a programme like Strictly, as they're not so conscious of the cameras and how they need to be "on" more of the time, and it takes a while for them to relax. I only know a few of next weeks dances, but theirs isn't one of the ones I know unfortunately. So far, there's a couple of quicksteps and a tango, but not sure what else everyone will be dancing, but it is a Hollywood theme week (oh goody ) The problem with the latin dances, is that they do tend to be about showing off the female dancers, and when the male celebs aren't brilliant dancers, the females use their own dancing to try to detract from the men, and give them a chance to regroup during the routine to be able to get them into the next section of the dance, so it often makes them look like they're hogging the limelight, but you're right in that Ola tends to be one of the biggest culprits of this! I think Dani will improve every week, and I think Vincent will bring the best out in her. I'm coming round to Nat a lot more - this week particularly, as I said it was when even she couldn't stop herself from laughing when she was trying to say how brilliant Michael was, I saw a whole different side to her, and she made me giggle too. The height difference with Colin and Kristina can be overcome - I think there's about the same difference between Nicole and Matthew Cutler, and they were World Champions, so it's just got to be down to technique, which looks like it will come based on his first two dances. Dances I know so far for next week are Jerry & Anton and Richard & Erin have Quickstep, and Sid & Ola have Tango, plus Denise & James have a ballroom, but that's as much as I've found out so far.

Personally, I think they're being more realistic with the scoring, and it looks like Darcey is going to score lower than Alesha on average - I haven't looked at it in detail yet, but my feeling is that Alesha was nearly always the highest scoring judge, particularly in the early stages of the competition, and particularly more ge.nerous to the poorer dancers. I think Darcey is being a more objective judge at the moment which is why the scores might seem low

I haven't seen the spoilers (although I've seen a couple of celebrity tweets about their dance next week giving away the fact that they got through) but I genuinely like all the contestants this year, and I'll be sorry to see any of them go. I think my least favourite would be Nicky and like you Kay, I think his professional is not doing him any favours, along with wardrobe - that outfit last night was awful. I suspect the Westlife fans will keep him in for a while. I quite like Jerry too, but if she finds herself in the bottom two, I can't see the judges saving her, and as much as Johnny is a legend in our house, I suspect he might be bottom two material too, although I really like Iveta, coming in at such short notice and she just seems lovely. I think I'm one of the few not bothered by Denise - lots of people I've seen have taken umbrage at the fact that she went to stage school and has been in musicals, saying she's too experienced, but she's certainly not the first celebrity with those credentials. I always it balances out against other things - she doesn't have the fitness of sportspeople, or the built in fan base of popstars. I like her sense of humour too, and I love following her and James on twitter - they make me laugh. If they get to the final and dance that jive again, with the extra experience and technique she'll have learnt over the series, that could rival the legendary Jill Halfpenny's jive. I agree with you about Louis & Flavia, they still seem to be getting to know each other and Louis, like Victoria, is suffering from a lack of performance experience, but he's definitely working hard and I hope they'll get there. Talking of Victoria, much better this week, and I really want her to do well. Although the judges gave her the same marks as Kimberley, I actually think it was deserved. Although she must learn how to spot on her turns out of hold, but her footwork was better than Kimberley, and she maintained body contact better too, while Kimberley had the edge on performance, so equal marks were fair for me. I really liked the two salsa routines, both Dani and Sid are growing on me, and think they've done enough to be safe. Have to say, my favourite moment of the night was that after Michael's jive which was so, so bad, that even Natalie couldn't keep a straight face when she was trying to talk him up afterwards!

It's a comic novel written in the form of a diary. It's set in the 1930s in one of those very British upper middle class households, with the lead character trying to keep up appearances and make everything nice. There's a few further editions - I know I've read one set in London - but I can't remember how many there are in total. I do remember, however, feeling like I had to read it my best cut glass RP English accent (believe me, coming from the West Country there is no way I can achieve this in reality :giggle2)!

1. Who was your favourite character and why? Hmm, this is a tricky one. One of the problems I had with the book was that I felt the characters weren't very well developed, and the only one we got to know was Evie, and I agree with chaliepud, she was a bit irritating. Like Kell, I liked the idea of Lend, an almost human chameleon, born of water, but I still felt as a character he was a bit too good to be true. I guess my favourite character, although hardly in the book at all, was Lend's mother, as this was a new type of paranormal character I've never come across before, thought she was intriguing, and I wanted to find out more about her. 2. Was there a particular part you enjoyed/disliked more than the rest? I did quite like the beginning - I thought it was a good way into the story and a good introduction to Evie, who she was and what she could do. 3. Was this the first book you've read in this genre/by this author, has it encouraged you to read more? I've read an awful lot of paranormal YA over the last few years, and although it was enjoyable enough, and far from the the worst I've read in this genre, it didn't stand out as anything particularly new or inventive. I will continue to read the genre, but I don't think I'll be reading any more in this series. 4. Were there any parts/ideas you struggled with? The thing I struggled with most was actually Evie herself. I was torn between feeling a bit sorry for a teenager who had spent most of her life without a family and had to grow up before her time, and finding her shallow and selfish, and although she comes to realise the error of her ways, even that is done in a very obvious way. The other thing I found really annoying was the use of "bleep", which just felt ridiculously childish and grated on me every time I read it. 5. Overall, was reading the book an enjoyable experience? As I've already said, I do like this genre and the story rattled along nicely but I felt it was suited better to the younger end of the demographic despite Evie and Lend being older teenagers, and just a bit lightweight for me. I think if you were a young teenager just embarking on your first YA paranormal books, then this might be a good one to start with.

EM Delafield's The Diary of a Provincial Lady is one of my favourite books - I've been thinking of re-reading it again, as it's been a while since I've read it.

Yes, Saturday's show was live on Saturday, so it may have been that she was trying hard not to do it so much then. To be fair, I did like her approach to the judging and attempting to give constructive criticism, and overall I thought the judging was pretty fair. I think the reason Lisa probably deserved to be top was the combination of good technique (although probably not the best) added to a lively performance which made for an entertaining routine. I was most surprised by Sid - I thought Ola did a great job with him, and I was also quite surprised by Richard & Erin, but then Erin knows how to get a good waltz out of her celebs, no matter how unpromising they might look at first glance! I don't know who to root for at the moment, as I don't have a stand out favourite among the celebrities, so I might have to look to my favourite dancers ... Flavia, Brendan, maybe Vincent? Still think Victoria could completely turn it around, particularly with a ballroom this week (although we don't know what it'll be yet), so maybe this could still be Brendan's year to be the first professional to with the glitterball for a second time?

I have to say, I've pretty much given up on medicating a cold - I'm not really sure that many things actually make much difference. I think as most people have said, plenty of fluids, and although I have no evidence to why we do this, but me and my OH have both always had hot Ribena (a blackcurrant cordial) whenever we've felt a cold coming on, and seems to ease a sore throat too.

I'm not a big fan of Brendan, and it's odd that he's beginning to naff you off Kay, as naff is the word I'd used to describe his baking! Everything he does seems so 70s and dated, and although you might be right about the editing, he does seem to come across as smug and as if he thinks he deserves the top baker every week, and that the others aren't as good as him. Is it just me, or does anyone else think there has been far too much sweet baking this series? I'm sure previous series had far more savoury challenges, but it feels like we've had hardly any this year.

Reading has been taking a low priority this weekend, but managed to finish Hollow Pike during my lunch break today, and thought it was a very good YA book. Had a few minor niggles with it, but will detail more when I finally get round to catching up with my reviews! Also borrowed Henry Tilney's Diary by Amanda Grange from the library, as I'm currently reading Northanger Abbey for my Jane Austen reading, and this one isn't available in a Kindle version, and didn't want to buy a paperback version. Having said that, will be starting on Paranormalcy next for the reading circle discussion, so the Jane Austen will just have to wait!

Sky have launched a Sky Movies 007 channel to coincide with the 50th anniversary of James Bond films, and are showing all the newly restored films in glorious HD, so it's been on the television most of the weekend while we've been doing other things. I've caught bits of The Spy Who Loved Me, Live and Let Die, Casino Royale, From Russia With Love, Moonraker, Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, The Man With The Golden Gun as well as seeing a documentary about Q which was being made with Desmond Llewelyn just before he died, and some on set footage from Skyfall!

I thought this book was original and fascinating when I read it. I'd heard about it on a radio programme and borrowed it in hardback from the library as soon as it became available, but after I'd finished it, I saw a few ambivalent reviews about it afterwards. I'd never read anything like it, but it was before I really started to fully stretch my literary wings, and I'm not sure if I'd feel the same way about it now, but the story definitely still sticks with me even now.

It was irritating, wasn't it?! I thought there were slightly fewer on Saturday, so perhaps someone mentioned it to her after the Friday night show - I know it was widespread on twitter, and I think some newspaper reviews picked up on it as well.

This sounds really good, Kay, so has been added to my wishlist! The only way you'd get away with that was if Alan was out of the house for the day

It might be The Late Great Me by Sandra Scopperttone?

Friday dinner is always mozzarella and tomato pasta bake - my favourite night of the week!

It sounds like you need to get a database application of some sort - Word and Excel can be used but as you've found out, they're quite limited. I don't really know what to recommend as I don't use any on a Windows platform. In the short term though, with specific reference to you comment about copy and pasting into Word, have you tried using the Paste Special option (it will be on the Edit menu if that's still there on 2007)? That way you can select to paste the text as (this is from memory so might not be exactly right term) Unformatted Text. This should paste it and use the style format in your document rather than copying any formatting from the source - so will have your font, size, spacing etc.

I tried the sample of Hollow Pike yesterday and bought the book this morning as I'd enjoyed it so much, and I've just gone and downloaded Paranormalcy for the reading circle too!

Went to see Looper tonight, without knowing much about it, but my friend wanted to see it. Definitely not my sort of film - far too violent, although I can see that it was still an interesting story and quite a good take on time travel, but had to look away from the screen far too often (I'm such a wuss )

I stayed up to watch the end, it was so exciting! I'm not a golf fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I love watching the Ryder Cup, and the last day this year was an absolute classic. Very emotional Olazabal interview too

The Six Sixters series by M. C. Beaton are Regency romances, each book based on one of the six Armitage sisters, following how their clergyman father attempts to marry off the girls to rich husbands in order to improve the family finances, and allow him to keep his beloved horses and pack of hunting hounds. All the sisters have their own unique personality, and have their own ideas of what they want in a husband, and their stories intertwine nicely, with rather ridiculous parents and relatives almost ruining the girls chances of ever making a good match, but as you would expect, love trumps all in the end! The books are exactly what I would expect from this author - great fun, slightly silly, funny and very easy to read - I read six short books (a couple of hundred pages each) within a few days - and were the perfect entertainment for a lazy holiday reading session.