chesilbeach

How was The Man in the Picture Kay? I've only read The Woman in Black by Susan Hill - is it as good as that? Brilliant picture by the way … you have such a good eye for these things. I read just over half of The Dead House yesterday, but my Kindle edition doesn't tell me how many pages that is exactly, but I think I've read about 220 pages. It's really good, but it's making my heart thump at times as the tension builds! Glad I decided to take the plunge, thanks to Michelle's recommendation.

Not had a great morning, nothing serious, just niggling things that have been irritating and annoying, but I've finished work and survived the drive home, sorted out my phone, and run the errands I needed to, so I'm now settled down with a cuppa and getting ready to relax and read my book! Bring on the weekend!!!

Bought a few Kindle books this week - The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers and Omens by Kelley Armstrong which were both on the daily deal over the last couple of days, and The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich for the Hallowe'en Read-A-Thon. Will have to take a bit of a diversion from the Hallowe'en reading at some point, as I haven't ready my A Tale of Two Cities pages for this week yet, so need to fit them in somewhere too, but planning a reading weekend as I haven't done enough in the last couple of weeks.

I'm just about to start. I've downloaded The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich to read. Michelle's told me how good it is, but it might be a bit scary for me … but if I'm going to read it, now seems the perfect time! And I never use these, but again, the time seems right ... Happy Hallowe'en Read-A-Thon!

I know there are a few Kelley Armstrong fans here, and Omens, the first in the Cainsville series, is one of the Daily Deals today. I haven't read this series yet, so I've bought it.

Excellent! I hope you enjoy it as much as we did Your post really tickled me, frankie, and here's why ... I've already got Reader on the 6.27 on my wishlist after reading your review. And I've got Lost & Found on my wish list after your review … So it's not just my reading log that's dangerous … yours has already done some damage to!!!

I'm halfway through The Bone Clocks!!!

Not sure where you live, but have you tried your library? Lots of libraries now offer ebook loans, and you'll have a wide range of books to choose from, and I know in the UK, authors still get paid a small amount of money by the libraries under the Public Lending Rights scheme Other than that, in the UK, you can look at the Amazon best sellers chart which is divided between paid and free books, so you can see the top 100 free Kindle books at the time, which will give you an idea about which books are popular, and browse what you might like.

Thanks for the reminder, Janet. I spotted it on my phone this morning, and made a mental note to buy it when I got home, and would have completely forgotten if I hadn't seen this thread!

We've had a bit of rain, but as usual, ffter the clocks have changed the sun has come out and was slap bang in my eyeline while driving home! Always seems to happen for the first week or so after the clocks change, but won't be long now until I'm leaving work in the dark.

I've left mine on landscape mode for a few days now, and I have to say, I'm finding it very convenient.

Hi Helen, welcome to the forum. We welcome new members as the more people to chat to about books, the better , but please can you read our forum rules, as we don't allow new members to join to ask for help with homework, dissertations etc. You can also have a look at this board for our guidelines and FAQ. Hope to see you join in with discussions around the forum, and as a starting point there are a few fans of Outlander here so you might like to have a look at the Diana Gabaldon thread.

I have to say it's quite unusual to pick such a big book, but we'd been getting stuck in a rut of female authors, and the group had suggested some male authors, David Mitchell being one of them, but we're limited by which books we can get due to the number available in the library system. This being a popular book last year, there were plenty of copies purchased by the libraries for us to borrow. I hadn't been able to get to a meeting for a few months, so I just got an email saying that there was a book reserved for me at the library, so it was a big shock to get there and find this doorstop of a book!

Not at all, I just know how over the top I can get … I have to limit myself when I post as I could go on (and on, and on) for hours! I think Kay was referring to a comment Steve made earlier, saying that he didn't want Aliona to be the first professional to win the competition twice, and that if she had to pull out for any reason, Natalie could take over dancing with Jay, and then we might see Nat win.

It's alright, although I haven't really got a clue what's going on at the moment! It just seems to be taking ages to read, I've only read 150 pages in about 5 days. I've bought the Kindle version as the hardback was just too cumbersome. I'll be back to work tomorrow, so hoping the concentrated hour of my lunch break will help me move on a bit.

Would be perfect! It was still a bit new yesterday … they only opened the café at the weekend, and I'm sure I heard they had been giving away free coffee while they got used to the new machinery! They hadn't had any cakes or other food delivered, but did try one of the cookies, and when they tried to make my coffee, realised they still didn't have any saucers as they hadn't been delivered. Then while I was there, they had a milk delivery and their fridge was already full, so they had nowhere to store the delivery … a bit of chaos all in all! lol: Fortunately, it's not too close to home, so it'll be a weekly visit at most, but probably less frequent than that, otherwise I could see far too many books entering the house! I've read about City Lights in The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee

You don't need to compete, Janet … I know I take it far too seriously!!! At the end of the day, it's a light entertainment show, and if I wanted to see "proper" dancing I should go to the professional dancing competitions, but I just stick to Strictly My main problem with the charleston (and the salsa and the Argentine tango - which I actually adore, so it's like cutting off my nose to spite my face) is that it's not a dance the professional dancers have trained in themselves, so they have to rely on outside choreographers and teachers, which means they can't choreograph to help their celebs, but the charleston seems to be worse for me in that they nearly all look the same. The only one that's every really stood out was Sophie Ellis-Bextor's a couple of years ago that was fantastic, and that was because she actually looked up the history of the dance and insisted on an authentic dance rather than the comedy routine it has become on Strictly, but I appreciate that we all have different tastes, and that we can't all like the same dances, and as far as entertainment goes, the Strictly Charleston definitely brings a sense of fun to the occasion. There are times when non-traditional can work brilliantly - in fact, one of my favourite paso doble's was years ago, and Letitia Dean and Darren Bennett danced it to Live and Let Die - but it's when the song doesn't suit the style of dance I find a problem. It must make it much harder for the celebrities too, as they're being taught to dance to a song that doesn't have the right mood, the right drama or even the right rhythm for what they're trying to learn. I think the programme has suffered from the meh's a bit this year because of the dance order - instead of spreading the good dancers throughout the night, they seem to keep saving them all for the end of the programme, so if feels like you're sitting through a lot of ok-ish dances before getting to the good stuff. Agreed on all counts! I'd like to see Anita and Katie get close to the end of the series too, as they seem to have both embraced it all brilliantly.

Went to the nearest Waterstone's to me yesterday, to find they're having a refit, and there's now a Waterstone's café in there … this could be disastrous now my own local café has closed! The way they've changed the layout, I don't think they've got any less space for books, and with the new light wood shelving gradually replacing the old black stuff and a nice new floor, it's actually a lot brighter and more welcoming than before. Only part way through at the moment, and they have lots of books packed away and were shelving them as each section is completed (can't exactly do this when they're closed anymore, now we have shops open 7 days a week), but I love the new look and feel so will be going back again to have a decent wander around when it's finished.

Didn't quite make the 200 page mark yesterday, but have read about 50 pages this morning, and hoping to read a bit more this afternoon, but The Bone Clocks is definitely not a quick read!

Went to see Spectre this morning as I had the day off. I'm not sure I enjoyed it as much as Skyfall on the first viewing, but it was still fantastic. Couple of look away moments for me, as I'm a bit squeamish, but you have to expect that with a 21st century Bond. Will definitely be going again with OH and possibly friends as well, and will happily watch again. Most films over two hours are too long for my liking, but checked the time after what I thought was an hour, and it was actually already 90 mins in, so didn't feel like it was that long to me.

Map goes on sale in Oxford for £60,000 after being found at Blackwell’s Rare Books inside novel belonging to illustrator Pauline Baynes http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/23/jrr-tolkien-middle-earth-annotated-map-blackwells-lord-of-the-rings

How did everyone get on with the first chapters? I'm enjoying it a lot, although I'm not feeling connected to any of the characters as yet. I feel like we're really still in the introductory stages of the book, and still finding out who is who, and where the story is going. From the synopsis, I feel like we've barely brushed the surface of the story, but I feel like we're about to go over the top into the real action of the plot now. One of my worries about Dickens is the language as before I read Nicholas Nickleby last year, I'd been put off by attempts to start other novels which had seemed far to florid, but Nicholas Nickleby wasn't like that at all and I'm pleased that A Tale of Two Cities is not one either, and I'm finding it a very smooth reading experience.

Didn't manage to read any more of The Bone Clocks yesterday, so I need to knuckle down to it today. My goal is to read to around page 200, so that I'll be a third of the way through.

Went to my favourite cafe for the last time on Saturday. They're closing down the cafe side of the business to concentrate on the cake making, so I'll have to find somewhere else to read my book at the weekends now. The owner made the effort to have a chat with me to say thank you for my custom despite being run off her feet which was lovely of her, and I'm going to miss them. There are a few other places locally, but none are so convenient a location, and no-one makes proper toast! I've now got a couple of days off after a very long and busy week last week, but first off I need to take my car to get my tyres checked out, as the back ones are starting to look like they might need changing, or at least will do soon, and depending on how that goes will decide what I do with the rest of my day.

This morning looks promising … sun peaking out from behind the clouds and blue skies emerging, with a little bit of a nip in the air, a beautiful autumnal day.