BookJumper

ETA: I coaxed OH into making pancakes for dessert, with lemon juice & sugar... mmmm!

I'm glad a at least a few people enjoyed this, as it's rather high on my wishlist. I very nearly bought it in a charity shop last week but was put off by the bane of my existence, the book's unsatisfactory condition...!

My bad I meant "The Dead Zone" (which I haven't read, although I've seen and loved the film with Christopher Walken) not "The Stand" (which as of yet I haven't read or seen) - edited the post I have.

Halloumi/Paneer/other suitably fattening foreign cheese Coffee with stem ginger muffin/hobnob/lemon sponge cake on the side Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough/Chunky Monkey ice-cream Wagamama's Ginger and White Chocolate cheesecake ... I could continue, you know.

Southern Fried Chicken courtesy of Mr. Somerfield, accompanied by some sort of veggie or other (I'd be fine with the occasional skipping of the greens but OH gets all weak and faint when we do that so I needs suffer...).

Back in my youthful days of more intense concentration and a quicker step, this used to be my natural modus operandi... read on the way to the bus to school, on the bus to school, on the way between the bus and school. And so on.

I might have strayed into Foyle's yesterday where a rather handsome cloth-bound Virago edition of Helene Hanff's "84 Charing Cross Road" (actually on my wishlist, go me!) fell into my hands... .

Argh, you leave me choiceless! How did you know The BookJumper can fend off anything except a good dare?! It's a deal, then. Just let me hand in my dissertation and I'm on it!

*passes hankies and prepares some for self*

I haven't read "The Dead Zone" yet but if it's anywhere near as good as the film (or, as indeed is often the case, much better than it), then you're in for a marvellous read.

Oooh I need to see this, methinks!

The only one I've read is "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant", which I wouldn't want to recommend to my worst enemy - tedious and starring the most selfish, ungrateful, whining, self-pitying main character to ever grace the pages of a work of fantasy. I too appreciate shades of gray in my heroes, but Thomas "The Unbeliever" Covenant is just too much of a moping, dislikeable little twerp. I read all the book in the series about a decade ago, sure that he'd have an epiphany somewhere down the line and start being a huseful human (if fictional) human being. I was wrong; I wish I hadn't wasted my time. I haven't read "Coldfire", although I must admit that a pretty reliable reviewer from this forum has succeeded in making me add it to my wishlist - it sounds fantastic; personally I'd start there without a doubt, although admittedly "The First Law" might suit your dark requirements even more...

Oh dear, I was rather planning to read this at some point! May I ask why it disturbed you?

That's the problem, hyper-analysis is only enjoyable (and even then, up to a point) in the case of Dostoevskij & Co., hence why it vexes me that my university-ruined brain will apply the method indiscriminately to all reading material at hand! The Cambridge Footlights sketch in which Stephen Fry draws Hugh Laurie's attention to "Shakespeare's 'T' very much capitalised there" (the 'T' in question being the first letter of the first word of a sentence) made me chuckle with recognition... . Any particular reason you had me down as INTJ ?

INFJ can't really dispute that. You see, this is what I do first time around. It wouldn't vex me if all books needed to be read this way; but the fact that I can't stop myself from analysing trash in the same way I'd analyse Dostoevskij doesn't feel right.

If I did that to one of my mum's books... *shudders at the very thought*! I used to turn corners down when I was smaller (before the book collector in me grew up), of the books that were second-hand and tatty and ancient. Now the book collector is big and strong, I won't turn even those - I'd rather strive and fail to remember the page number!

I thank you for your kind offer but will have to gracefully decline, as I'm pretty terrible at returning books as well that's why, in an effort to be noble, I strive not to borrow at all ! I'd hate to join the ranks of your "friends". The series is fairly high up on my wishlist anyway so as soon as I'm less destitute it'll find their way off my wishlist and onto my shelf...

Oh, they're already there (it is, after all, quite a humongous wishlist...)!

I've already tried without a flash and it wouldn't show; now, as for a scanner... you're a GENIUS and I love you . I recently acquired a printer-copier-scanner for dissertation purposes, it's still in its box as I was waiting for the ink to arrive so I'd pretty much forgotten about it entirely!! Thank you thnk you thank you, I'll give this a shot as it sounds like my best chance so far... Alas I cannot do this as the book's a hardback, the image in the middle is papery but the tear is not raised, more like top bit of paper and bottom bit of paper are separated by a white line like a key-scratch on a car? But thank you anyway .

Oh dear. I'll still read this eventually because I'm a completist and therefore must, at some point, read all of Mr. Gaiman's oeuvre. However, I'll probably do it later rather than sooner and give precedence to books that won't disturb me! Thanks for the warning !

Due to life, the universe and being trained at university in the art of close reading I've gone from an average of 1 or 2 long (400pp+) / 3 or 4 short (200pp+) books a week to an average of 1/8 of a single 400+ book a week. Yes, it takes me about two months to read a book these days, not just because I've only got the time read on noisy peak-time buses, but also because I'm unable to read without a cereal packet without considering the implications of every word and punctuation mark. Words and punctuation marks that aren't there are the subject of even more speculation ("I wonder why Mr. Kellog chose not to use this particular word here..."). With what my TBR (30+) and wishlist (200+) are like, this state of affairs depresses me.

Today I received Teery Pratchett's "Reaper Man", Unseen Library edition, and - wait for it - the top corner is severely bumped, both front and back. I'm pretty sure this wasn't indicated in the ad as, quite simply, I wouldn't have bought it in that case. It might have happened in the post but then again, it shouldn't have: if it did, it means it wasn't packaged properly, so I'm going to badger this guy as well . The guy I'm badgering re: the torn copy of "Maskerade" says he's willing to help (he hasn't defined how, but it's a start), however he wants proof of the damage and the damage won't show on camera because of the reflectiveness of the gold leaf !! On a more positive note, I wandered into the bargain bookshop in front of the British Library today and emerged with "Writer's Workshop in a Book: The Squaw Valley Community of Writers on the Art of Fiction", with contributions from the likes of Pulitzer prize-winner Michael Chabon, for

I haven't read or seen The Golden Compass (yet); however, if my fourteen-year-old cousin can come to the independent conclusion that "the book was so much better", then it probably was.

While GOF is also my favourite, I'd say the first books rather than the last are the best books - they went utterly downhill from "The Order of the Phoenix" onwards, I thought, becoming increasingly repetitive, silly and sickly. The first four, on the other hand, are the stuff of brilliance. Like you, I shunned HP for years, thinking "eeew they're for kids" - then one day, finding myself stuck at home with a broken foot and nothing else in the house I hadn't read, I finally accepted the volumes 1-4 from my sister. I read 1-3 in a day and 4 the day after, loving every single magic-filled page. Yes, they're for younger readers but why does it matter? It seems to me that many books for young readers are written to a higher standard than books for adults these days,* because kids are less likely to put up with badly written drivel. *This does not include "Twilight".