BookJumper

I wish I could show y'all my spectacularly OCD bookcase but alas, my camera got left on a cab seat 'round about this time last year so I can't piccify anything... *sigh*!

Hmm, maybe I need to come to you for "safe" reccomendations then !

Oh, hundreds. A few of the most hated include: - "sell-out" graphic scenes that tone a book down and could easily have been omitted with no loss whatsoever, such as those in Scarlett Thomas's "The End of Mr Y"; I'm not fond of graphic scenes in general but I will deal if they fulfill a clear narrative/emtional/whatever function, as for example they do in the novels of Carl-Johan Vallgren, Keith Miller and Elizabeth Bear. - pretentiousness of the kind where the author looks down at you rather than let you in on the joke; this is the pretentiousness of Umberto Eco as opposed to the tongue-in-cheek pretentiousness of Jasper Fforde and Tom Stoppard, which conversely I can't get enough of. - repetitiveness, such as my all-time-favourite "swerve to avoid" recourring thrice in the space of two pages in one of the last HPs (I was so unimpressed I forget which); I only put up with it if the rewards are otherwise great, i.e. Daniel Waters's "Generation Dead" can get a bit repetitive in its descriptions at times but the plot is so original and the characters so captivating I'm just about letting him off. - as a subsection of repetitiveness, those who seem to be able to write nothing but "x said" when referring to dialogue. I get Raven's point and do agree that when a good flow of conversation is established often one does not need descriptive hangers-on at all; however I have experienced description of dialogue which is varied, engaging and informative so it annoys me when authors don't bother to make it so. ... others include cardboard characters, lack of historical/geographical/whatever research, excessive derivatism... I could continue, you know.

I avoid translations * - when I have the luxury to do so. Being bilingual Italian and English, brought up in Italy, I stopped reading English and American books in Italian at about the age of 11, which is when I started to realise the extent of the badness of most mass market paperback translations. When I don't have the luxury to do so - alas, my German is pretty distant, my Spanish rather basic, my Russian all but forgotten, my French nonexistent - I rely on reputable publishers: in England, this means Penguin Classics (the ones with the black covers), if all else fails Vintage are also usually good; in Italy I rely solely on a stupidly expensive academic-y imprint called Garzanti whose translations read like a dream: I read Hugo's "Les Miserabl

I placed an Amazon order yesterday and failed to order this although it's not even

Witty, very witty; I approve ! I'm now the proud owner of a snazzy parchment-y, sepia-y looking Shakespeare bookmark courtesy of the Britis library shop (which may or may not have also seduced me into buying some very posh writing implements...) - look at how contented I am: :D!

I'm trying to be stern with myself now and get the magic number down to one; juggling books was all well and good when I was younger, full of time and free from the very idea of close reading, and read as fast as a little engine that could - right now it takes me so long to get through a single book it's ridiculous so measures need to be taken, stern ones.

My favouritest Pratchett, that... enjoy !

Awww jewell that is so sweet! Having just treated myself to a the snazziest, ultimatest edition of Hitchhikers that money can buy (five books in one plus a short story, bound in black leather with gold lettering and gilt edged paper) I am quite jealous... I want a DONT PANIC bookmark too!!!

I never write in, or underline, or dog-ear books (I tried to underline a book for study once, very lightly in pencil, after a chapter I couldn't take it anymore and stopped) let alone library books. In fact, I go as far as to un-dog-ear them, which means that the books always get returned in a better condition than I borrowed them in.

My most recent "judge a book by its cover" exploit consisted of Reif Larsen's "The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet",

Shame you didn't like "The Book Thief" Ceinwenn (I'm on the "loved it" team); however I completely agree that life's too short to be spent reading books which just aren't your thing.

I was wondering the selfame thing some time ago; then I discovered this website here, which tells you which ones of his books are part of what series and which ones can be read independently - does that help ?

Currently reading or otherwise unfinished: according to Librarything, about 10 (shame on me), Mount TBR: according to Librarything, about 33 (shame on me), Ever-Growing Wishlist: according to Amazon, 216 (oh dear) !!

Which is why, in my opinion, annotated editions are a thing of marvel. After four solid years of English Lit degrees even I am sometimes at a loss, and that is when footnotes can come in extremely useful. I reccommend these (I'd say Oxford World's Classics are the more accessible; Longman's Annotated Poets series is rather magnificent but a bit more academic in its intended audience) as I'd hate to think that people are missing out on the joy of poetry - and it is a joy - because they cannot get past the references.

Right, so many of you like these so much I have decided there must be some good in them (not really a logical assumption, given that a sizeable portion of this forum is Twilight-mad and I think it's unreadable, but there you go) disturbing sexy bits or no, so when I get a bit of money I will give them another go. I technically already own "Dead Until Dark" but I intend to invest on the original cutesy cover - I was given the standard film-tie in which is something I can't stand on principle at the best of times, and in this particular case I can't even bear to leave the house with it, it's horrid!

I've never actually left the cinema, however I did snore through most of "The Phantom Menace".

The novel of your favourite adaptation would be the obvious choice - if, say, you had particularly enjoyed the "Dead Zone" movie you're unlikely to dislike the "Dead Zone" book. However, my personal favourites I'd reccommend left right and centre are, in order: "The Dark Half" (a writer decides to kill off his pseudonym... the pseudonym isn't of the same opinion) "Misery" (a writer decides to kill off the central character of his novels... his greatest fan isn't of the same opinion) "Carrie" (revenge of the bullied telekinetic wallflower) "Christine" (revenge of the bullied nerd, via sleek automobile from hell) "Nightmares and Dreamscapes" (short story collection, mostly made out of awesome, particularly "Dolan's Cadillac", "The End of the Whole Mess", "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band", "Rainy Season" and "Umney's Last Case")

Well known scientific fact actually, 'cos the flavours have more time to sink into the food: stuff tastes better the longer you marinade it with seasoning, so it makes sense that tupperwaring something overnight makes it even nicer than it originally was. This is particularly true of curries, possibly because seasoning - they has it.

Agreed, you've got some interesting stuff on there I was wondering if I could I ask you why you favourited "The Stars My Destination"? The title really grabs me but the cover (I have so far been unable to find an edition other than the really ugly Gollancz Masterworks one) has been preventing me from buying this for quite some time. It might help is someone told me what I was missing... !

It's wonderful how different we all are... ! I gave up on this because though I loved the sciency and metaphysical bits I did not sympathise with the main character at all and found her way of expressing herself about certain events far too brutal for my liking - which was a shame, because I really would have liked to know what all those lofty ideas where building up to !

I had rice with yellow peppers, bacon, onion, garlic & cheese.

Awww, If only this thread had been up a few days ago... ! I had this on my swap thread for ages (I abandoned it after it had scarred me by page 2) but since no one was snapping it up I charity shopped it - I'm moving house so no point in boxing up what I'm not going to keep... sorry, it could have been yours if only I'd known ! On a brighter note, may I suggest "When Hitler Stole the Pink Rabbit" by Judith Kerr? It's halfway between adorable and very moving.

My soon to be ex-neighbours from upstairs (thank Heavens we've found a new house at last so me & OH will be packing up soon enough). They keep us up nigh on every night stomping and slamming the fire doors at stupid o'clock in the morning. For the past few months they've also been having parties, two to three times a week, mid-week as well, going into ridiculously small hours, their windows wide open so all we can hear is their music while we try to sleep. Last week someone even threw a bottle of vodka from their window down onto our balcony where it smashed into a million pieces, and when we knocked to complain we heard them whisper that there was someone at the door, there was a pause and in the end they made guests come to open because they didn't have the nerve to face us themselves. We've sent letters in the past but it just made things worse. In the early days one Saturday night I was on my own I went to tell them they were keeping me up and the hypocrites tried telling me I was imagining things, that they're always in bed by 11 because they work 9-5, that this was the first party they'd ever had in the house, that it was a Saturday and I had no right to remonstrate. They're not the reason we're having to move (increased unaffordable rent is), but let me tell you, they shall not be missed...