poppyshake

The petrol prices here, compared to the States, would make you weep though! I bet Waterstones are gnashing their teeth, cheaper books and free delivery. I use the second-hand sellers quite a lot .. and it's always been fine. Just make sure you check their rating.

My hubby's got a couple of really old Charles Dicken's editions, they have beautiful engravings inside. Alas they have been packed up in the loft for a couple of years because we thought we were moving. My Mum bought them from an antique bookstore and they are just gorgeous. I'm going to try and find them soon and photograph them. One of the oldest books that I have got on the shelves is a biography of Dickens by his friend .. and fellow author John Forster .. called 'The Life of Charles Dickens'. It's in two volumes, has beautiful uneven pages and was printed in 1874 ... it smells of old bookshops.

My Auntie had an old toploader .. it lasted for years. I think I've had at least three washing machines .. probably more. I need to get to 'The Works' ... they've got some great bargains there ... it's how to do it without OH noticing. He's worrying that the house will collapse from the weight of books that's in it at the moment Still, three books for a fiver .... it would be rude not to!

Ahh Audrey Hepburn .. It has to be Rome. Matt Damon or Ben Affleck?

No, they send you to room 101 where the rats eat books!

Yes my OH is getting a bit panicky about the amount of books, library and otherwise, that have taken over the house recently. He's not banned me yet, but there have been delaying and avoidance tactics employed. But anyone who will buy you a book can't be all that bad, he will relent .. like mine, once the pile goes down (I need an elf to come at night and read some of mine for me!). He's right, you would've come home with others because it is actually a cardinal sin to come away from a library without a book.

In 'Temeraire' there is a paragraph which makes perfect sense to the story, but then a page later, obviously by mistake, it turns up again in full and makes no sense at all. Sloppy in the extreme. I am rubbish at punctuation, so I probably wouldn't notice if there were mistakes of that nature.

Finished 'Temeraire' and started 'Cloud Atlas'. Some books allow you to multi task, ie you can actually ask for a cuppa tea or eat a chocolate bar when reading them, some demand complete attention, this is one of the latter I think.

I love these sorts of memoirs too, rather like you it's because it's similar to my Mum's upbringing. She was bought up, with six siblings, in a two-up two-down house with an outside loo but in the suburbs (Isleworth) rather than in London. I remember seing my Nan doing her washing in the copper then putting it through the mangle .. goodness we've got it easy nowadays!! And community was everything, everyone knew their neighbours and rallied round if there was a problem .. you're lucky now if you're on nodding aquaintance with half the street! I read the actress Liz Smith's memoirs and she was saying that if a neighbour was very ill, they would put straw down on the streets so that the horses would make less noise. For all their hardships, I think they had something then that is lost now. Great review I'll look out for this one.

I think, instead of choosing another book, I'll just read your lists next Kylie Fantastic haul of books ... a bagful of Pratchett's and Wodehouse's .. couldn't be better. I hope you enjoy 'The Magic Toyshop' .. it's probably the most bonkers book I've read this year (do you say 'bonkers' in Australia?), very quirky and unusual. I do mean to read a lot more Angela Carter books but ... 'so little time, so many books'!!'. Her covers are so good that I want to buy the books instead of loaning them from the library and hubby is doing a 10 mile detour around any bookshop at the moment!!

Thanks Noll, I hope you enjoy it .. it's got dragons!! .. what's not to love!

Temeraire - Naomi Novik Waterstone's Synopsis: Naomi Novik's stunning series of novels follow the global adventures of Captain William Laurence and his fighting dragon Temeraire as they are thrown together to fight for Britain during the turbulent time of the Napoleonic Wars. Captain Will Laurence has been at sea since he was just twelve years old; finding a warmer berth in Nelson's navy than any he enjoyed as the youngest, least important son of Lord Allendale. Rising on merit to captain his own vessel, Laurence has earned himself a beautiful fiancee, society's esteem and a golden future. But the war is not going well. It seems Britain can only wait as Napoleon plans to overrun her shores. After a skirmish with a French ship, Laurence finds himself in charge of a rare cargo: a dragon egg bound for the Emperor himself. Dragons are much prized: properly trained, they can mount a fearsome attack from the skies. One of Laurence's men must take the beast in hand and join the aviators' cause, thus relinquishing all hope of a normal life. But when the newly-hatched dragon ignores the young midshipman Laurence chose as its keeper and decides to imprint itself on the horrified captain instead, Laurence's world falls apart. Gone is his golden future: gone his social standing, and soon his beautiful fiancee, as he is consigned to be the constant companion and trainer of the fighting dragon Temeraire! Review: A really enjoyable book to read, the characters were engaging .. especially the dragon 'Temeraire' and I loved his relationship with Laurence (he is almost always called Laurence in the book although it is his surname). Usually dragons in fiction are either fierce or impossibly cute, this was a rather pleasing mixture of the two (erring on the right side in both cases.) I loved the notion too that during the Napoleonic wars, dragons were in the Air Corps with crew, very much like the fighter planes in WWII. There are some sensational aerial battles, really edge of the seat stuff and I'm not in the least surprised that Peter Jackson has bought the film rights. If executed well the films should be fantastic and he's probably the man to do it. There are a couple of glitches, Laurence's relationships with his family and his, soon to become ex, fiancee aren't really fleshed out. Perhaps we'll learn more about them in the sequels (I think there are three so far). A couple of the plotlines, like the one involving the french deserter Choiseul, were fairly predictable. But that didn't really get in the way of what was, on the whole, a highly enjoyable read. It was really reminiscent of those old swashbuckling adventure stories ... but with the added bonus of dragons! There were a couple of situations or words that were fairly 'adult' .. which just prevents it from being suitable for 9 year olds and above .. nothing at all graphic, just words mainly, but that's a bit of a shame because I think they would enjoy it immensely. I will read the first sequel at least. I hope it continues in the same vein. 8/10

wow Kylie .. I thought I had bought a lot of books lately! Look forward to seeing your list

Yep I'm in Oxfordshire too and it's a nightmare .. the snow really messed up the roads bigtime.

It's exactly like support groups .. I've seen some shockers in my time. One band were basing themselves on Oasis .. and the lead singer had a khaki zip-up kind of straitjacket on ... he was sweating so much it was pouring out of his sleeve .. I was unlucky enough to be near the front for that one, we all got hosed down.

I liked that a lot, hope you do too.

Ooh thanks Michelle ... this is definitely on my wish list

Bought two more books today ... honestly someone should lock me up (I think hubby will if this carries on) 'The Robe of Skulls' by Vivian French which was only a

Ooh Tunn, be prepared for the shocking ending. I've read that some people threw the book across the room in disgust at the end. It's quirky .. it's quite crude, it's not as good as 'Gold' but I'm glad I read it, there were bits of it that I loved .. especially TV himself.

I hate the trailers part and the adverts .. I feel like they've taken me hostage. I can't go anywhere, yet I have to watch 15 mins of trailers for films I would never willingly sit my bum on a cinema seat for. I think, over all the years, I've only seen two trailers that excited me ... but I am a bit of a picky watcher so it's probably just me. It's the equivalent of going to see someone in concert and them showing you videos of other singers that you wouldn't want to see if your life depended. I remember seeing the trailer for 'Confessions of a Shopaholic' ..

Well that's good to know. I checked it on the library catalogue list before I went and they had it as 'on shelf' but when I got there some fiend had taken it out

Again it was another recommendation on the 1001 Books to Read list .. I think I must have memorised some of it cos books kept leaping out at me from the library shelves. At least it's thin, it's a paperback and I didn't have to buy it, so no real harm done (except to the books that were already waiting on my shelf before the trip to the library). Btw I'm wanting to read 'Kafka on the Shore' so look forward to hearing what you make of it Brida

I've just read about a book that is described as a 'Far-Fetched Fictional steampunk sequel to 'The War of the Worlds' .. which is due out later this year called 'The Japanese Devil Fish Girl and Other Unnatural Attractions' by Robert Rankin. The blurb I've got says ... It's 1985; nearly a decade since the failed Martian invasion of Earth, chronicled in The War of the Worlds. Mars is now part of the ever expanding British Empire. And the quest of one man to find a new attraction for his show is about to cause considerable friction on other planets. Enough to spark an interplanetary war. Robert Rankin's new novel fizzes with his archetypal imagination and humour. Amazon says ... The pickled Martian's tentacles are fraying at the ends and Professor Coffin's Most Meritorious Unnatural Attraction (the remains of the original alien autopsy, performed by Sir Frederick Treves at the London Hospital) is no longer drawing the crowds. It's 1895; nearly a decade since Mars invaded Earth, chronicled by H.G. Wells in THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. Wrecked Martian spaceships, back-engineered by Charles Babbage and Nikola Tesla, have carried the Queen's Own Electric Fusiliers to the red planet, and Mars is now part of the ever-expanding British Empire. The less-than-scrupulous sideshow proprietor likes Off-worlders' cash, so he needs a sensational new attraction. Word has reached him of the Japanese Devil Fish Girl; nothing quite like her has ever existed before. But Professor Coffin's quest to possess the ultimate showman's exhibit is about to cause considerable friction amongst the folk of other planets. Sufficient, in fact, to spark off Worlds War Two. I'm not a big fan of sequels .. especially those written by different authors to the original .. but you never know.

Good .. it's my hubby's birthday on Monday so it'll be lunch out and then hit the cinema

Halfway through 'Temeraire' .. it's good