poppyshake

Tea .. I'm never happier than when my teabag tin is full .. when I can see the bottom of the tin I start to feel anxious ... like it's 'always Winter but never Christmas'!! I can't wait to fill it up again. Toast .. goes so well with the above .. preferably uncut bread and real butter. Scotch eggs .. my Mum always bought me one every Saturday with my comic .. I didn't want sweets just a Scotch egg. They don't make them like they used to though ... they've gone all grey and suspect

I wanted to like it but like you Sammy for the most part I just wanted to get through it. Some of it I enjoyed but I think you do need to be at a certain time in your life or in a certain mindset to get the most out of it .. you can't really pick it up in your coffee break. I did enjoy Russell Brands programme about it though very much. I keep it always on my bookshelf though .. hoping it might impress visitors It's got that kind of book kudos (I'm always hoping that no-one will ask me to give them a summary though). One day I will try again .. and probably love it.

Yes, I've just looked it up it's called 'Minnie's Room'

I loved this book .. I love all Persephone books! (or have done so far!). She wrote a sequel didn't she? which Persephone also publish .. something about stories in peacetime. They sent me an e.mail recently saying that you could buy two books and get a third free .. I wish I had taken them up on it now. Their shop looks gorgeous too.

I think I am probably still waiting to read my first horror .. the nearest I've ever got is '1984' by George Orwell .. though I did hear a reading of Edgar Allan Poe's 'the Pit and the Pendulum' once .. I had to read 'Wind in the Willows' afterwards as therapy

I expect it was Enid Blyton's tales of 'Hop Skip and Jump' about three very naughty brownies But the first 'proper' fantasy book that I read was 'The Hobbit' by Tolkien .. and tbh 'Hop, Skip and Jump' looked a bit tame after that!

I love Jane Austen but I didn't think much of this book either.

Which one/s were your favourites Michael?. You're right, I haven't heard of any of the one's in black .. except Dick Francis. I've heard lots about Jodi Picoult and see her books everywhere but haven't read any yet.

I love the 'interesting bookcase' that takes up a whole wall ... though I think it might mess with my brain having them all slanted sideways (it doesn't take much!) .. fantastic though.

I like these leaning men bookends .. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Addject-BE01L-Leaning-Pair-Bookends/dp/B000EZWMIE/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1250348444&sr=8-12 I think there are leaning ladies too also James the bookend seems like fun .. though he is doing a lot of work on his own by the look of it http://www.amazon.co.uk/James-the-Book-End-Black/dp/B000MK256A/ref=pd_sim_ce_3

I must admit that I do tend to be attracted to books with nice covers and vice versa ... though I wouldn't buy a book on that basis alone .. that would be a bit nuts really. It's the thing that makes you pick up the book in the first place, if the cover appeals you automatically think 'that's my sort of book' .. which is nonsense really but often it is your sort of book. I love beautifully illustrated books too ... and often buy a copy even if I already have it in a plainer format .. there's that beautifully illustrated 'A Christmas Carol' illustrated by P.J. Lynch .. now, I already have at least two other versions but when I saw how beautiful that one was I had to have it. I will overlook my aversion to hardbacks for a nice cover too .. 'I Coriander' had a beautiful cover in hardback .. as did 'The Tale of Despereaux'. I've even got some American and French 'Harry Potters' to go with my British ones .. cos I liked the covers! (I can't even read the french one!).

The day I laid Robert Morgan to rest was remarkable for two reasons, first, even though it was August, the sky overhead was as rough and cold as a January lake; and second, it was the day I started to shrink. The Little Giant of Aberdeen County - Tiffany Baker

I loved that whole chapter .. it was a shame it was cut from the film .. I read that it was in the script for a long time

This is on my 'bought but not yet read' list .. I think it might move further down the list after reading your review .. maybe to save for when I'm desperate.

If I like/love the book I'll keep it .. if it's disappointing or I hate it then the charity shop gets it (which is not very charitable but there you go). Like you Lissy, I always think I might want to read a book again if I enjoyed it .. usually I don't get around to it (there's always a nice shiny new book) but sometimes I do. I don't mind lending books to friends/family but i do get a bit anxious about whether they'll return it or not and even as I hand it over there's always a moment when I want to snatch it back off them and hide it.

Pride and Prejudice .. Jane Austen Rebecca .. Daphne Du Maurier Lord of the Rings .. JRR Tolkien The Harry Potter series .. JK Rowling Wuthering Heights .. Emily Bronte It's so difficult to pick only five .. you have to keep it really tight .. if it was a list of all my fave books it would also be peppered with Dickens and Trollope (A), CS Lewis, Terry Pratchett, Susanna Clarke, Stroud and Abercrombie, Charlotte Bronte and Nancy Mitford (infact the Mitfords in general) .. not to mention Stephen Fry. Just five is difficult.

But then, if you can't see .. after reading the newspaper or seeing the TV news that, whatever your problems, there are a lot of people worse off in the world and that you should be grateful for what you've got .. then no paperback is going to make you think differently especially when the wished for wealth/lifechange doesn't materialise. And this sort of doctrine seems to promote self absorption rather than the opposite and whilst thinking about what You want it life and what You want to achieve then you're even less likely to be thinking of other peoples hardships and how lucky you are in comparison. I know what you mean about the current 'Daily Mail' negative thinking mentality but there's something a bit worrying (and insincere) about being perpetually cheerful .. that's not normal either .. people have to have grouchy days if just to appreciate the sunshiney ones.

I haven't read it so can only comment on the genre in general .. whenever I read or hear extracts from some so called positive thinking/self help books you can't help but think that the person that the author is really helping is himself ... to your well earned cash for one thing. There was one book I heard about that suggested writing your goals down and dating it some time in the future (whereby you get the list out and find you've probably achieved it and much more) and I couldn't help thinking that the author must have written down 'September 2010' bought a new house by the sea with the proceeds of 'Complete Idiots Guide to the Blindingly Obvious' It also reminded me of Nancy Mitford's fantastic character Lord Alconleigh who used to write the names of his adversaries on a piece of paper and put it in the death drawer .. convinced this would kill them within a year. There was another book I saw reviewed about losing weight where some of the key points were .. separating foods into 'good' and 'bad' foods and a helpful pointer that 'good' was a tuna fish sandwich on wholemeal and 'bad' was a cream bun (bet you couldn't have worked that out by yourself) and that (this is revolutionary) if you eat a sensible diet and take lots of exercise you will lose weight.

This must be one of the best if not the best autobiography out there. Astonishingly frank and honest .. makes you want to throw nearly everyone else's biog into a skip. I can't wait to read the sequel which I've heard he is writing.

Thanks for the reccommendation, it sounds fantastic, I've just added it to my Amazon wishlist

I adored Joe's 'First Law ' trilogy so much that i bought this book immediately (I couldn't even wait for the paperback which is unusual cos I don't like reading hardbacks).. my OH has comandeered it at the moment but he is enjoying it immensely so I can't wait to get started.

I absolutely adored this book .. and was totally immersed in Daisy's world. I thought it was beautifully written. I agree it was far fetched at times but then again that's what most fiction is and I didn't think it was overly so. It's one of those books that hums beautifully along and you think you know how it's all going and then bang ... something happens to make you sit up and really take notice. I haven't read anything else by Meg yet but I'd like to because I enjoyed her style of writing.