DanC_84

Yeah that's the one. I saw a preview for it the other day, it looked like it had potential.

I should really try to get a hold of this book. I just read my first Picoult novel, 'Plain Truth', and I loved it. You live in Adelaide right? I might come and steal your dog, it looks awesome.

I just loved 'Blow'. That was one of my favourite films right through my late teens. Scissorhands was great too though, loved Depp in that film. I don't really like the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. I dunno, I just think he is a bit over the top for me in those films, I never really got into them. That other new one he is in coming up looks good though.

Yep, he is. Here is the IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376136/ Should be good. I think Depp would be great in this role. I am actually a really big old-school Depp fan but not such a fan of his newer stuff. This looks like it would be right up his street though, looking forward to it.

LOL, I'm pretty sure your boy Depp is playing the lead if I remember correctly.

Kylie said they were making a film from 'The Rum Diary' as well? That should be pretty interesting.

No I haven't. I will definately have to check it out though.

Just finished 'Deal Breaker' by Harlan Coben tonight. I rated it at 9/10. I have been looking forward to reading this book ever since I purchased it after reading Mac's recommendations thread and I wasn't disappointed. I can't recall a thriller that I enjoyed as much as this one. It was a really cool, face-paced book and I felt the author struck the perfect balance between seriousness and humour, which I find can sometimes be hard to do with this type of book. I really liked the main character and I also felt he developed all of the other characters very skilfully. I particularly liked the character of Win. The book is reasonably complex, and I felt at a few points in it that I was just about to fall off the edge and lose my way completely, but then all of a sudden everything would appear magically clear. I have added the second book of the Myron Bolitar series to my wishlist. Thanks again to Mac for the recommendation, excellent book. Next up for me is 'Ralph's Party' by Lisa Jewell, recommended by Beth.

Glad to see you enjoyed TTTW so much! It is probably still my favourite book so far this year. Just a great story.

Yeah, I really enjoyed it. It was a lot different to most of the other books I have read this year as well so that was good. He provides a great portrayal of San Juan and I found the characters and the story line to be really engaging. It was all over before I knew it. A really easy and fun book to read, I would definately recommend it.

I finished two books over the weekend - 'The Rum Diary' by Hunter S Thompson and 'A Gathering Light' by Jennifer Donnelly. 'The Rum Diary' was a recommendation. I really enjoyed it. It was easy to read and the author painted a really descriptive picture of San Juan and created some excellent characters. I had massive expectations for 'A Gathering Light' after reading a couple of other Jennifer Donnelly books this year that I thought were excellent. Whilst it wasn't quite as good as 'The Tea Rose' or 'The Winter Rose', it didn't disappoint either. Next up is 'Deal Breaker' by Harlan Coben which was a recommendation from Mac.

It is pretty common for guys outside the top 10 to play extremely well right up until the final of a slam and then perform well below that leve in the final. Gonzalez did it against Federer at the Australian Open, Tsonga did it against Djokovic, again at the Australian and going further back Nalbandian did it against Hewitt in Wimbeldon. I actually didn't stay up and watch the entire Wimbeldon final last year, I recorded it and watched it the next day. Great match, had everything.

Haha, its not like I'm just a Fed fan, I like Rafa almost as much. I root for Rafa against pretty much everyone except for Roger. I just have so many awesome Roger memories. I remember when I was about 16 and sitting up until 4 am in the morning and watching Federer be the first guy to beat Sampras at Wimbeldon in years. I was a massive Federer fan before Rafa came along, so he will always come second for me. It is always good to see new faces win Slams, but in this case I wanna see Federer get the record.

Yeah, apparently he is in serious doubt for Wimbeldon too. Hopefully he can get fit in time for it, be a shame if he was to miss it. It is 5-5 in the second right now in the final of the French, Roger took the first. Hopefully he can finish it off and claim the career Slam and equal Sampras' record!

Yeah, it would be absolutely mental if he were to win it. I doubt he will though. It is rare that a guy like that has such an incredible run and then manages to hold it right through until the end. They typically lose some steam in the semis or final. Gonzalez did a very similar thing a couple of years ago at the Aussie Open.

Yeah, that would be a really good final. Probably the most likley one as well from here, although Soderling and Del Potro certainly cannot be discounted.

If Soderling plays how he has been I think that will be a very close match. He is hitting the ball so well at the moment Soderling, so many winners. Federer and Del Potro both had routine straight sets wins last night and will meet in the semis. As well as Del Potro is playing I think Federer will beat him. They played at the Australian and Federer won very easily.

He was never going to beat Gonzalez on clay. Fernando has a real chance in this tournament. Soderling is playing some great tennis but I still give Gonzalez the edge in that match which would put him through to the final. It is tough to see anyone beating him given how well he is hitting it right now.

Wow, Soderling is absolutely killing Davydenko.

Yeah, you gotta have the fools, idiots and fiddleers. Without them its just not as fun.

No I think the Wimbeldon incident did it. Soderling is a bit of a nut, but its good, you need those guys on the tour, they make it fun.

Yeah, I don't know the circumstances with the whole Gasquet thing. It sucks though, Gasquet is the man. I hope he can get back on the court and back into the top 20 asap. The French Open audience is pretty tough, but I think they just love to get behind the underdog. I think they like Rafa, they just get behind the lesser player a lot when they smell an upset. Rafa definately has that aura on clay. That was what really helped Soderling. He hates Nadal with a passion so he wasn't caught up in it. Federer will equal Sampras' record if he wins the French. I think it is only fair that Federer takes that record, he is clearly a far better player than Pete was.

I thought it was a year? And it was for cocaine, which is ridiculous IMO. I don't want to condone the use of cocaine, but the fact that using it gets you the same ban as blatantly cheating with steroids is insane. Yeah, Federer has been losing it the last couple of years. It must be tough. When you win that many slams and you have such a young hungry bull on you all the time like Nadal is it would get tougher and tougher to keep the focus I imagine. He was initially coached by Peter Carter as a junior who coached him until around 2001 or 2002 from memory before he died in a car accident. Since then he has swapped around a bit but never got comfortable. To be honest I think it is his lack of dedication to training that is getting him into trouble more than the lack of a coach. But I doubt it will matter. I think he will win at least a couple more Slams and get the record then he can ride off into the sunset. I think Nadal can definately get the kind of respect that Federer has had. He may already have it. He will always struggle at the US I feel but he has proven he can win the other three. As long as he stays fit and healthy I can't see why he can't win up around 13 or 14 Slams either. He is a very special player.