BookJumper

Today I've started Alphabeth of Thorn; I'm not very far into it but so far it's gorgeous beautifully written, beautiful looking and feeling book, and it's about books - what more could one want? Having received my refund from Amazon, I've also re-bought To Reign in Hell, The Kiss of Life and A Monster's Notes; instead of the other books I'd originally bought, which were in particular bad shape, I've ordered The Original Frankenstein (which brings together Mary Shelley's earliest surviving manuscript alongside the more well-known version edited by P.B. Shelley) - which it will be good to peruse before attacking A Monster's Notes* - and Olaf Stapledon's Starmaker: The Scholarly Edition. Starmaker was a bit prohibitive so I set myself back an extra

@ Frankie: I thought nothing of the sort I just know that most people aren't as troubled as I am by sex in books. @ Fi: *yaaay* thank you, looking forward to your report !

Ah but you see, I've been pondering this long because although the trilogy sounds awesome in concept some of the reviews I've read imply naughty bits which I don't want to read hence I need someone to tell me if there's any hanky panky going on in there before I can pick them up, or upsetness of the BookJumper will ensue.

Are those the ones where there's immortals whose immortality can be taken away from them if their ruler is displeased? If so, I haven't read them but was pondering doing so, therefore you should read them and tell me what you think .

Hello and welcome saxpastil yours is a very good question, so much so that it is one of the issues we've been exploring in this thread; if you look back through the pages you'll find people's opinions on the subject, hope you find them interesting/helpful!

I shop at all of the above and have never seen a Milk Slice in either Liverpool or London... what's going on *cries*?!?!

Ok, four years and a half since I saw a Milk Slice as well please share with me the name of your supplier?

... I've 'only' been missing out for the past four and a half years guys; Kinder's Italian so I was raised on their chocolate it's just that apart from the odd Surprise Egg here and there I haven't really seen any Kinder chocolate since I moved to England I must be going to all the wrong supermarkets, obviously.

May I recommend some Byron? I know he's not the most recent of poets but he reads really modern. My favourites by him include The Lament of Tasso (about an Italian poet who wrote his masterpiece in prison), Prometheus (about the Titan who stole fire from the Greek Gods to give it to mankind) and Farewell to the Muse (about poetic inspiration). Norton's Byron's Poetry and Prose is probably your best bet edition-wise.

Oi, where're you guys buying the Kinder bars, I haven't seen a single one since I moved to England?!

Indeed, it all depends on what genres/themes you're into, I find that the things I enjoy in fiction I enjoy in poetry - in my case, it's heroism, philosophy, theology, that kind of thing. If you tell us what you like we might be able to help ?

Alas, I'm destitute Noll - I cannot afford the ready made shakes, nicer as they look! Going to have another one for lunch in an hour or so. Gotta admit, they are stupidly filling; I struggled to finish my breakfast in fact. I will stop Slimfasting when my referral for gym stops being lost in the mail though; I only need to shift about a dress size and a half so as soon as I can start exercising I should be ok eating normally, I think. I hope.

A cup of chocolate Slimfast (bleh).

Yay I love Anansi Boys, after Neverwhere (my own pet favourite, I hope you can get your hands on it soon) I think it's Gaiman's best. Glad to have you among the converted .

Surely you mean source language . If I'm fluent in a source language, I find parallel text interesting as it gives me the opportunity of agreeing/disagreeing with the translational choices made by others. As for languages I'm not fluent in, I still like to see the shape of the original poem - things like metre are so often lost in translation, and being able to physically see them for oneself can affect one's understanding of the poem, even if read in translation. A parallel text version of Rilke, then, is fine by me .

Nope - Penguin has this special edition Jane Eyre, but it's bound in cloth rather than leather; the only Penguin Titles available in leather are The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Great Gatsby, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Big Sleep, Room with a View and Brideshead Revisited. Between the Penguin hardback and the Fine hardback of Jane Eyre, I've already chosen the Fine - I like the cover art more, it's nice and big without being massive, and most importantly the binding feels a lot sturdier. Then again, if you want something that you can carry around in a bag, the Penguin is probably your best bet as it's about half the size of the Fine.

The Collector's Library books are very small, say about half the size of a typical paperback - when I said pocketable I meant pocketable . The issue of Fine Editions vs. Penguin Leatherbound doesn't really exist as there aren't many books of either series, and there's no overlap of titles between them.

Well parallel text means that the translator is a 'line by line' translator (which is a good thing); it also allows the reader who might have a basic knowledge of the original language to improve his knowledge thereof; finally, they are a vital resource for all future translators out there.

My dear, Shakespeare on steroids couldn't write fast enough for you !

If anyone's ever in Milan, Italy at some point, there's a magnificent shop called Chocolat, which would be a Thornton-y type shop were it not that they also sell around 20 varieties of homemade chocolate ice-cream, from rhum to chilli via everything in between... mmmm!

Ah but you see, those of us who are not fluent in German can ill afford the luxury of such ideals !

As others have said, both of the editions you mention are unfortunately pretty dismal. The black-banded Penguin Classics are good translations on acceptable paper; the Oxford Classics range is good paper-wise provided you get the newest editions (i.e. the ones with the brighter, whiter covers; the slightly older ones are fairly bad quality), I can't vouch for their translations but their introductions and notes are good in case that makes a difference. I like my classics hardbound and oversized, such as those of Fine Editions, who unfortunately are fairly new and therefore only have a handful of available titles at the minute. The Collector's Library are very good if you want something pocketable, they're printed on very thin but good paper, which means that as long as you don't have a problem with smallish print you can take any classic around in the tiniest of purses. I personally don't like the special edition Penguins (the covers don't feel too durable), but I think I'm the minority there.

I've just been on their website and you can order a personalised box of 32 individually selected chocolates for

Do you have Thornton's or similar in the States? As well as selling really nice boxed selections, you can make up your own (buying the chocolates individually for not very much) or decide to personalise one big chocolate with an icing message as good as chocolatey presents go, really.