ian

I've always liked MDR, The Sparrow is a great book that blends Sci-fi, religion and anthropology in a really unusual way. One of the few times I've been moved to email an author to tell them how much I've enjoyed their book. I got a very nice, personal message back from her the very next day.

Harry Potter series by J.K Rowling My Thoughts It's been a marathon session: starting in early October with Philosopher's stone and ending yesterday with Deathly Hallows. I'd read them all before, but only the once, and from Order of the Phoenix onwards, as they were published, borrowing them off a friend as she finished them. This meant at the time that I read them in a soort of frenzy; trying to get to the end of them before somebody spoilt the ending for me. I was interested to see how the books stood up to a second, more relaxed read. Well, the first thing was - it wasn't a relaxed read in sense that I thought it was going to be. Once I started, I was completely caught up in the whole universe of Harry Potter. I found myself sometimes racing through whole chapters - even though I knew what happened next. Even the book that I had previously thought was too long and slow to get to the point, Order of the Phoenix) this time around seemed just right. I loved every second of every book. I'm actually quite sad that I've finished. I can give these books no higher praise than this: when I was reading them I was utterly transported to another world, and I felt like I was a young boy of 11 or so again. 5/5

I'm still ploughing my way through the Harry Potter books. I'm now on Deathly Hallows. I must admit, I'm feeling a little sad that I'm coming to the end again, it's been a really enjoyable experience reading them all again from beginning to end. It's reinforced for me what a great, well-written series of books it is

I think I read that he didn't want to get married as that would have meant having to register where they lived; something you have to do under Swedish law? He didn't want to reveal his address as he had previously had death threats from far-right groups because of his anti-racism stance. That's what I read anyway, I may have all of that wrong.

I must admit, even though I work in science, I've never come across that use of the word. I woul also only associate the word with meanness or stingyness. Still, you can't argue with the dictionary's definition, so I see no reason to change it - especially if you've used it before without comment. Also, scientific writing gets read by peers prior to publication I believe? Someone would have commented before now if it was incorrect. So I've learnt something new; I'll be bursting to try and get it into an email this afternoon.

All the programmes I as watching seem to have finished at the same time (Dr Who, Peaky Blinders, New Tricks) - I wish they could stagger them a little more. At the moment I'm left with The Missing, which is really good, although every single character in it appears to be completely untrustworthy at the moment! Also The Apprentice - which you could say the same thing about!

I was over on another forum, reading some reviews on the episode, and they pointed out something I had missed. Just before the opening credits, Clara says "I'm the doctor", and when the credits come on, it's Jenna Coleman's name that features first, not Peter Capaldi. That's started some people to think that actually, Clara IS a time lord of some sort. Personally, I think it's just the writer's little joke, but it's one of the reasons I still love this show - Those little nuggets that fuel speculation!

I love it!

That was the same with my name - there were 3 Ian's in my primary school class. Then my first girlfriend had an older brother called Ian, and he had named his son Ian. They were known as Big Ian and little Ian. So I came on the scene, I was known as middle Ian. Very confusing!

Now we have to hope that the Moff can finally write a Christmas special that doesn't suck! With Nick Frost as Santa - I'm not holding my breath. (Not that I don't like Nick Frost - but Dr who & Santa? Oh dear!)

I'm not usually keen on the idea of writers taking over other author's characters, so I'm really in two minds about this. Part of me really wants to know what happens next. Do we know if this is going to be entirely the new writers work, or are there some notes or drafts that he's had to work with?

I think possibly Derry, as it appears in the book 11/22/63, which somehow seemed more oppressive and creepy than it did in It

I love The Hitch Hikers guide to the Galaxy as a comedy satire, and Animal farm as a serious satire.

I wonder what everyone thought of the finale? There were bits of it I loved (The nods to Gerry Anderson, Missy) and bits I wasn't so keen on (not as much resolution of some questions as I would have liked) but on the whole, I did like it.

Rather boringly - it's my name! There was a reason for this, rather than me just being unimaginative. At around the same time that I joined this forum, I also joined another where you forum name had to be your actual name, so I just did the same for both. At least I don't forget it!

Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Jane Austen & Lee Child. Love all of these writers, but King will always be...well, the King

I posted somewhere else on here yesterday, the only anxiety I get over Christmas is usually a mild stress over whether I've remembered everyone's presents or I've got them good things. I like to get the majority of the presents brought and out of the way by the end of November, as It's easier for me to budget for it. As luck would have it, I went supermarket shopping last night and found an ideal present for Ruth when I wasn't even looking for one! Other than that, we've got a good plan for Christmas sorted, that avoids all of the usual stress points, so that we can have a nice, relaxed family time. The worst point of Christmas was getting to be the Boxing day visit to Ruth's parents house for dinner. This used to be very enjoyable, but over the last few years it's been a bit of a chore. A combination of too many people with not enough seating and genral arguments. The tipping point for me was the one year we were invited up to find that my brother-in-law, who was meant to be doing the cooking, hadn't turned up, so Ruth & I had to do it. As I'd done the cooking the previous day, I was looking forward to the break. The tin hat got out on it when brother-in-law turned up just as I was finishing the cooking with all his family and proceeded to help themselves to the majority of the food, leaving me and Ruth with the leftovers. I was fuming, as he'd obviously done it deliberately. So now, we go out for a meal on Boxing day, which gives us a nice excuse not to go - we just go for a little drink ayt some point over Christmas instead and it's much better.

That's very true! I couldn't help being reminded of the part in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, where Arther Dent attempts to explain about how to make a really nice cup of tea to the computer of The Heart of Gold!

I'm lucky enough that we are allowed a radio for some background noise here at work, and while we listen to Absolute radio, which has a no-repeat guarantee for the music, which is great (who wants to listen to the same 10 songs played over and over again all day long) they only have about 5 ads which they play about every 15 mins. The result is that they all get very annoying very quickly. But at the moment, the prize is split between BT sport (annoying background music) and Have I got PPI.com (VERY irritating jingle).

I saw a trailer for Interstellar ealier this year while I was at the cinema , and I see that it's finally out later this month. I need to look at the trailers again, but it looks awesome.

I can't remember how to hide the text with a spoiler thing, so I'll just say, in regard to last Saturday's episode Why didn't I see that coming?!!! I really enjoyed this series, there's been a good mix of stories and they seem to be a bit darker, which I've always thought Dr Who should be.

The Stand and IT from his early full length novels, Different seasons for his short(er) stories and 11/22/63 and Under the Dome for his later stuff. But I actually pretty much love everything he's written with a few exceptions in the middle. Probably quicker for me to list those (Desperation, The Dark Half, Bag of Bones). There are a number of books from around that time that I still haven't read, but I do have them as Kindle versions on a CD somewhere in the house. At some point, I'm going to have a marathon King re-read and try to read all his full length novels in order.

I don't do a lot of re-reading these days, as there is always some new to read. In my teenage years, when access to books was a bit more limited due to funds, I re-read pretty much everything I owned about 10 or 20 times. Now my problem is the opposite - plenty of access to books, but no room to keep them - thank God for Kindles! So LOTR got re-read every year, and the same for my favourite Stephen King and Julian May. I'm currently re-reading all the Harry Potter books, which I haven't re-read at all. I'm finding them very enjoyable, particularly as I'm not having to read them fast so the ending isn't spoilt!

I watched this last night - thought it was excellent. It actually made me feel quite uncomfortable it places.