BookJumper

As a writer who's been told to cut the allitterion-mania because it's not funny and it's not clever but, rather, snobby and pretentious... you have just made my day !

Oooh, I like your spiwit. I also like people who spell pwettiful pwettifully ! Which reminds me - slinks back to Thomas Lodge... .

I really, really want prettiful bookmarks but as I don't have money to spend on them (why are they so expensive??) I tend to use postcards instead, although my favourites aren't suitable because as I've discovered glitter tends to stick to pages more than it does to postcards. However if I've just bought a book and I start reading it on the bus home I will bookmark it with staples such as my oyster card or the receipt for the book itself. On a more creative note, I've just nabbed (i.e. rescued from the bin as they "no longer conformed to our education policies") an Elizabethan activity pack from work and its full of pretty pictures of Shakespeare, musical notation and funky Early Modern lettering so I was thinking of cutting them up into strips and use them as intellectual bookmarks. I do most of my reading on buses so whatever I'm using as a bookmark usually travels further down the book, although I tend to nearly miss my stop so in my scrambling to get off that's where it stays, confusing me as to how far I've gotten - thus defying the whole point of the bookmarking system. I'm not aware of any particular stillness of jiggliness as I read; I shall pay more attention next time and fill you in on that one. Nobody touches my shelving system (or, they do, but I will have a fit). Current layout goes as follows (top to bottom): first half of shelf 1, poetry (Blake, Milton etc.); second half of shelf 1, half of books borrowed for my dissertation; first half of shelf 2, books by or on Shakespeare (in the following sub-order: plays, plays/novels/etc. written in response to shakespeare, criticism); second half of shelf 2, other half of books borrowed for my dissertation; first half of shelf 3, books on writing (in the following sub-order: reference, poetry manuals, poetry memoirs, fiction manuals, fiction memoirs), second half of shelf 3, notebooks; shelf 4 is speculative fiction (in the following sub-order: graphic novels, neil gaiman, terry pratchett, douglas adams, jasper fforde and other bookish fantasy, straight fantasy, darker fantasy, horror, sci-fi); first half of shelf 5 is Beatles books (in the following sub-order: general, John, Paul, George, (repeat for smaller format books), second half of shelf 5 is a huge stack of all my folders from back in Liverpool Uni. Books for sale/swap/to be charity-shopped go on top of the bookcase. Or else. I cannot have any sort of background noise while I read, which is why my only having time to read on the bus is such an issue: any kid crying/chav spouting choons on their phone/stop announcement will knock me out of the concentration zone. I rather envy my mum, who having four younger siblings learnt the enviable ablity to shut off all noise when her nose is stuck in a book. To this day, catching her attention while she reads is nigh on impossible. I like chapters, both because they're formally plasing narrative units and because they allow me to keep track of where I am in the book ("Chapter 10" is just easier to remember than "the middle of page 492"), as well as offering the possibility to say those words beloved by readers everywhere - "Just one more chapter!"

Jealous!! Re: lovely person who did hot choccie rounds - bless them, that was nice of them !

Agreed. Moist I find very likeable (or at least, found very likeable until my copy of "Going Postal" went walkies 50 pages from the end; I keep forgetting to re-buy that...), however William from "The Truth" (which I'm currently reading painstakingly slowly, although that is my fault and not Terry's; in fact Terry should be commended for managing to make me read at all, at the minute) is a character I actually identified with... it would be awesome if there was more of him, but alas!, no second WdW novel! Re: "Wyrd Sisters", I enjoyed it for diametrically opposite reasons - being a Shakespeare/Theatre Studies buff, I revelled in every reference (no matter how small or obscure). If it was a mickey take, I think it was a mickey take born of love and respect, an in-joke if you like.

Oooh I love irrelevant facts and footnotes (call me an English student if you will) - although I do hope it starts gripping you soon, you know who to bequeath your copy to if it doesn't ! Ahem. Anyway, I have had this on my wishlist ever since I first saw this thread... I'm intrigued by the premise, I love typographical oddities, and in any case feel like I should be supporting an author who (apart from an extra letter and a mild reshuffling of three others) as good as shares my last name . Hope to acquire soon... .

No idea what series/epidose as I watch off thetelly rather than DVD, but the plot went that Rori (having dropped out of Yale) tries her hand at organising one of Emily's social functions and, from a doomed flop, she turns it into an incredible success. However, Logan's horrible family arrive (unannounced, no RVSP or anything) and just expect to be seated because of who they are. This happens, though Rori has an understandable mini-breakdown behind the scenes. Then Richard, meeting Logan's father in the men's room, discovers that Lorelei's accusations weren't just accusations: the Huntsbergers were really evil to Rori at dinner, saying that she wasn't good enough to marry into Logan's family, because she wanted a career and thus didn't understand the responsibilities; to make up for which Logan's father gave her an internship at one of his smaller papers just to tell her that she didn't have "it" and would never make it as a journalist ---> reason Rori dropped out of Yale. Having heard about this, Emily finds Logan's mum and (can't remember the exact wording, which is a shame because it was just spot on) basically calls her a gold-digger, her husband a playboy, and lets her understand that if anyone tries to stand in the way of Rori dating Logan there will be hell to pay. Much as I despise Logan himself, this was priceless!

For everyone who saw today's episode... how great was Emily? Perfectly perfidious, I love that woman (most of the time) !

Neil Gaiman, "Anansi Boys".

Brilliant book, that are you enjoying it?

I actually spotted that in the Book Warehouse yesterday and it looked like my kind of book; I didn't buy it because the copies were way too manky (even for

That made me laugh ! ... I do think I need to procure me some Skid Row, I seem to have missed out ... (You are also guilty of lodging "Down on Skiiiiid Roooow" from The Little Shop of Horrors in my brain, where it shall probably remain until next Tuesday )

First of all, thanks for bringing that website for my attention, it seems like the perfect tol for those who (like me) might need to fine-tune their reading choice to slightly OCD levels! I shall let you know what I can find . It's been about eight years since I last read Northanger Abbey (my all-time favourite Austen too!) actually; I think it's time for a re-read. Might this be the time for me to invest in a boxset (not a single volume collected works, mind you, that would just be uncarriable!)? Noooo not "The Da Vinci Code"! I failed to read it through once and don't have a particular desire to attempt the feat again... . ETA: I've just set the parameters to larger than life, beautiful, no sex, unusual and it's returned this: Salamander by Thomas Wharton A magical tale about the adventures of a Renaissance printer and his companions. This is a novel of full of ideas, myths and fantasies. Just the thing for a rainy weekend. The plot is quite fractured, and far from linear but if you are a booklover stay with it, because it's all about books, reading and love and will give you lots of food for thought and some memorable pictures. ... now THAT sounds rather perfect!

GG follows the lives (professional/educational as well as sentimental) of Lorelei and Rori Gilmore, a mother-daughter pair that due to their relative closeness in age (Lorelei had Rori when she was sixteen, and the show started with Rori at sixteen) are more best friends than anything else. Completing the picture are Richard and Emily (Lorelei's half unbearable, half adorable posh parents) and a charming, colourful cast too diverse to mention them all. Absolutely! It's alternatively funny, sad, inspiring and romantic !

On my TBR already , although admittedly I have been putting it off after reading Binary_Digit's angry review re: the ending. Definitely one I want to read though. No worries, you're not speaking out of turn at all, you're speaking as a considerate person trying to help . Sadly yes, I've considered, I've tried, and it's just made it all infinitely worse... hence the present predicament.

Actually I always had a soft spot for him; I've been a Marty myself quite often during my young & uneventful life so his unrequited subservience to Rori made me go "awww, bless him". Considering the timeframe (i.e. that Jess was well out the picture and far from trying to enter the picture again), how could you pick an obvious b*stard like Logan over someone as cuddleable as Marty? Bad Rori! I do second what's been said about her taste in men for such an intelligent girl... seriously. I had no idea he was an actual rocker, that's awesome, I *heart* hair metal! Agreed that he was hilarious, it made me smile how he was this huge, hairy bulk of a man who nonetheless fit in so well at Laine's mum "parties"... loveable weirdo! This show makes me nostalgic, though. My housemates and I back in Liverpool used to watch it religiously on DVD; we'd all sing the theme tune and be excitably soppy together. Now I sit on my London sofa alone (the OH leaves the room as soon as the TV announcer, well, announces the show) and sing the theme tune to myself... sad, am I not?

That's the whole problem, really... no matter how insignificant a part it plays in the book, it will still sour my reading experience significantly - and by that I mean everything from nausea and dizziness to loss of appetite/sleep and tearfulness. Even though the book may my traumatised mind can't. I am just sick and tired of not truly enjoying otherwise good books because of this so I wondered if there were good books out there that I can truly enjoy start to finish... no souring . I know there's always the children's book route and I'm already going down it, discovering marvellous authors; but I refuse to believe I'll never be able to read another non-children's book because of this.

Re: Andy's clever addition to the "said" debate, I wasn't advocating the idea that every end quotation mark should be followed by a colourful word substituting "said"; I do agree that if only two people are talking such words are hardly needed at all, unless a dramatic change of pace/tone/mood is applied to an otherwise innocent uttering. I just get frustrated at conversations that go more or less like this: "Hello," said BookJumper. "Hello to you too," said Andy. "So, this debate thing..." said BookJumper. "Tiring, is it not?" said Andy. "You can say that again," said BookJumper. "Why are we still talking about it, anyhow?" said Andy. "You know, I'm really not sure," said BookJumper. "Maybe I just like to hear myself speak." "That makes two of us," said Andy. "We should stop debating and get along then," said BookJumper. "Good idea," said Andy. ... and so on ad infinitum. That said, I quite like the word ennui - although to be fair, so far I've only ever encountered it in Shakespearean criticism, and even then only with reference to (you've guessed it) a certain Prince of Denmark, so really I haven't had a chance to get bored of it yet.

Aw, cute ! An echoed sentiment. I cannot thank my mum enough for reading to me always, even when I was technically too old to be read to; the practice transferred to me a love for stories which kept me company through an otherwise lonely childhood.