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BookJumper

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  1. BookJumper
    Yay, glad to be of service! I stand by my statement... books don't get much better than those featuring a winged dinosaur writer on a quest to find the author of the best short story of all time through a city full of booshops on the surface and catacombs lined with books underneath :D! Technically it's part of a series (trust me never to pick up things in order) but as far as I could tell it's pretty standalone, the few things that could have been potentially confusing were considerately footnoted - thank you, Walter. Who, by the way, is also an illustration genius. The pictures are so beautiful, you spend as much time taking them in as the pages of text. Me too. Spoiler-tag hardly needed though, don't know about your edition but mine told me the end ON THE BLURB, and repeated it in the introduction just in case I'd missed it. It still affected me (how could it not??), but I think it would have done so even more if I hadn't been preparing myself the whole time...
  2. BookJumper
    I begun this some time ago and, even though life-the-universe-&-everything sidetracked me, I must say that (along with Jasper Fforde's "The Well of Lost Plots") it's the book I'm most looking forward to picking up again. It's absolutely brilliant, the best way I can describe it is like a Thursday Next book for kiddies. Praise doesn't get much higher than that - you'll love it :friends0:!
  3. BookJumper
    When in a bookshop, I like to give everyone an even chance so I start at Fiction: A and scan every single spine until I get to Fiction: Z. If the title grabs me I'll check to see if cover/edition, blurb, mini-reviews at the front (if any) and random excerpt appeal. If they do, I'll usually buy the book on the spot PROVIDED the book's in good condition. Today, for example, I looked at five copies of the same book from my wishlist and bought none as the binding wasn't satisfactory on any of them. When this happens for a book not on my wishlist, I will jot the title down in one of my many omnipresent notebooks, check it out on Amazon when I get home, and add it to my wishlist if the reviews on there clinch it. I am planning to type up my wishlist in Word and print it off soon for ease of reference whilst physically bookshopping, but as there are more than two hundred books on my wishlist that task daunts me rather.
  4. BookJumper
    Finished "84 Charing Cross Road" earlier today (OMG OMG ACHIEVEMENT - my mojo is so nonexistent this is the first thing I've completed since Jasper Fforde's "The Book of Lost Plots" in, er, January or February I think it was...). It was beautiful, I still have a lump in my throat and my heart is screaming REVIEW THIS NOW!!!, but I'll behave and postpone it until I've finished "The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street" as well. On a less enchanting note, I wandered into TWO bookshops today and completely failed to buy anything... what's wrong with me???
  5. BookJumper
    Come to think about it - not a single bit. This is in no way a conscious decision, but actually I tend to watch things that are as far removed from my reading material as could be. Reading-wise I mostly devour Spec Fic (fantasy, horror, science fiction), and steer well clear of things like crime and chick lit. Yet, my favourite shows include CSI Miami, Law and Order, The Gilmore Girls. I officially make no sense.
  6. BookJumper
    Mine too, is it the prettiful Virago textile hardback? Glad you enjoyed it so much; all I needed to read was a couple of pages before I knew I would treasure this book forever. I feel a review coming on...!
  7. BookJumper
    You're clearly clairvoyant Kylie, as I haven't finished it yet so I haven't written a review of it save in my head. Soon, though, soon. I can tell you right now though that I'm adoring every page and I dare say you'll do too! Oh good, I'll look forward to that as I've got a copy languishing on my top shelf.
  8. BookJumper

    College Books

    BookJumper replied to Nici's topic in Book Buying

    Sorry, can offer none of those. If, however, you could use the Blackwell Companion to Shakespeare or the Longman Annotated Faerie Queen I'd be only too happy to pass them over to you .
  9. BookJumper
    IMHO, some of the most romantic songs of all time include: The Beatles, Words of Love The Beatles, In My Life John Lennon, Grow Old with Me John Lennon, Oh My Love John Lennon, Woman Paul McCartney, Calico Skies Paul McCartney, Maybe I'm Amazed George Harrison, If Not For You Ringo Starr, Love First, Ask Questions Later Simon & Garfunkel, Bridge Over Troubled Water The Divine Comedy, Perfect Lovesong Billy Joel, Just the Way You Are Barry White, You're My First, My Last, My Everything Queen, You're My Best Friend Bon Jovi, The Next 100 Years Bon Jovi, When I Look Into Your Eyes Bon Jovi, Thank You For Loving Me Bryan Adams, When You Love Someone Savage Garden, I Knew I Loved You The Hollies, I'm Alive Herman's Hermits, There's a Kind of Hush Peter and Gordon, To Know You is to Love You A Whole New World - Alladin Unchained Melody, Ghost OST She, Notting Hill OST I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing, Aerosmith Lastly: Bob Marley, Is This Love (mine and OH's song - aka the one that inspired me to tell him I loved him for the very first time, how much more romantic can a song get?).
  10. BookJumper
    Lending: I can count the people I can trust with my books on a single hand, they include my mum (who reads so fast I usually get the book the morning after) and a few friends from home who I became friends with over mutual love of books. I don't even lend to my dad because he tends to forget to read the books I give him and/or misplace them. Borrowing: I only really borrow university books from the library (even then, I'm likely to buy the books which I can afford/sound interesting enough), if hate the idea of reading a book, liking it and having to give it back - which is why I advise people that want to lend me books to think again. If they still want to lend me their books after having been advised otherwise, I figure they don't mind losing them. However, if lent a book my one of the select few mentioned above, I'll wrench myself from it, out of respect and fear of retaliation!
  11. BookJumper

    My, you do sound eager :D! Tell you what:

     

    As the minions I already have are growing impatient, I can't ask them to wait longer than they already are for chapter one; HOWEVER, if you really are a fast reader and pinky promise to read and comment on the prologue before chapter one is due out (September 23rd), you're on.

     

    If that's acceptable, please do PM me your email address and I'll email you the prologue asap.

     

    Dare I say, welcome aboard?

  12. BookJumper
    Copy-shop workers who, told you're in a real hurry, think its a good idea to use your dissertation to train their colleagues in a specific binding technique... my deadline was in three quarters of an hour with a bus in the middle, so naturally I wanted to strangle him. I made it in the end, but with only 9 minutes to spare and only because I powerwalked on my bad leg all my way to the bus stop!
  13. BookJumper
    My concentration is abysmal so any type of noise (TV, computer games, the bus telling me where I'm going) will put me off. As I share a room with OH in a house without a lounge and have time to read mainly on buses, this is a problem. Usually indoors, I find traffic a disturbance, also in my old age (24) I'm starting to get chiller quicker - having moved to England from Italy can't have helped. That said, if I find a particularly inspirational spot (park, graveyard, that kind of thing) I will gladly read outdoors unless the wind insists on flapping my pages, which is both annoying and damaging to the book. Can't read too early, must be caffeinated first! Easily solved question - I don't own a sofa, so the bed really is my only choice... I'll usually have a cuppa coffe (or tea if I'm feeling a bit under the weather) close by, but after experiencing the annoyance of getting crumbs in books and spending ages to get them out I do try my best not to be hungry when I read.
  14. BookJumper
    I am an opinionated, sarky yet golden-hearted American scriptwriter corresponding with a British bookseller who's not quite as cold as he may at first seem.
  15. BookJumper
    Born and raised a catholic, I've become agnostic following two separate crises of faith during my teenage years. I miss having it though, and therefore enjoy reading works of fiction or poetry which explore questions of spirituality, such as Richard Bach's "Illusions: Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah" and John Milton's "Paradise Lost". The hope is that one day I'll find in one of them a reverberation of truth strong enough to get me believing again. I do tend to avoid non-fiction on the subject however, as it's often preachy and I've never liked being preached at (back in the days when I still had some faith to speak of, this attitude led my R.E. teacher to brand me as a "Lutheran" - the way he sait it he might as well have said hell-bound devil-spawn).
  16. BookJumper
    Born and bred reader. Both my parents are voracious readers and we were carted off to libraries and bookshops from a very young age, which must have sealed our fate. The school librarians loved me, I remember in middle school I was the only student in the librarian's memory to ever have needed a second card stapled to the first because I'd run out of space to record my borrowings...
  17. BookJumper
    Me and a book in front of telly have about the same chance as the famous snowball in hell.
  18. BookJumper

    In actual fact, the dreaded d-word, finances and a fair bit of personal angst are keeping me quite stressed at the moment :roll: I've had the most wondrous day so far full of spilled drinks and roads crossed for no reason. However, I hope that once d-day aka Monday is over things will start to look up at least a tiny bit. Mind you, once the stupid thing is in I can start worrying about what my markers will make of it...

     

    On the plus side I've got this wonderful project to look forward to, it's called "writing a novel under pressure", have you heard about it :lol:? Joking aside, the responses I've had so far have been extremely comforting AND helpful, proving that you don't need to knock someone to improve their writing :D.

     

    I look forward to hearing your thoughts on chapter 1, too - it'll be sent out as soon as everyone gets back to me on the prologue; the promised month's nearly elapsed so i'll start nagging post d-day :D!

     

    Hope you're fine and dandy :friends0:

    Giulia

  19. BookJumper
    I'm none too fond of reality so any location will do if it shares a border with Faerie or similarly far-fetched land (i.e. the villages in Hope Mirrlees' "Lud-in-the-Mist" and Neil Gaiman's "Stardust", but also the London of Gaiman's "Neverwhere"). Although I must say, the best setting ever for me was in Walter Moers' "The City of Dreaming Books", which is set in Bookholm aka The City of Dreaming Books - a sort of fantasy Hay-on-Wye made up entirely of antiquarian bookshops and printers' shops above and book-filled catacombs below.
  20. BookJumper
    Thank you, Janet, for rescuing me from my folly - I shall not be seeing this!
  21. BookJumper
    Roxi and ScarletBella, I feel your pain . Right now I'm really bugged by: - supervisors who ignore emails, potentially messing up the mark I need to achieve a decent degree - benefit bureocracy, which means too little money too late, and extra stress I don't need during dissertation time - having to cancel a mugh-longed after trip to Stratford due to poverty - having spent
  22. BookJumper
    I envy you guys. Whenever I'm stressed or unhappy (which happens fairly often) I find that my already abysmal capacity for concentration gets even worse, so I find myself reading the same page over and over without taking anything in.
  23. BookJumper
    After you guys' enthusiasm, I feel bad for not having liked this book more. Don't get me wrong, I didn't think it was bad - I know bad writing when I see it and this isn't it - but it left me completely blank and empty. I'm pretty big on Faustian stories from Christopher Marlowe onwards so this really interested me, yet I completely and utterly failed to feel anything for any of the characters. I think I was slightly disturbed in places, but that's about as engaging as it got for me...
  24. BookJumper
    Insupportable, yes. I'm a good person. If someone who's clearly on the wobbly side gets on the bus, I'll get up even though I'm injured, because I know no one else will and being young I'm probably better at balancing on one foot than they are. Ditto for women who are pregnant, or have a small child about their person - at least my bag doesn't wriggle. It's when athletic people thrice my age start demanding my seat that I get annoyed. I can't stand and I've got a eighty-pound superbandage around my ankle to prove it; maybe I should start wearing skirts more often so you can actually see it. Mind you, not that it would necessarily help; I remember having to ask people for seats with a knee-high plaster cast. Not that they complied.
  25. BookJumper
    He was Prince Caspian in the second Narnia film, as well as the young father of Tristran Thorn in Stardust.
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