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I've finished "The Twelve" (and put my thoughts on a seperate thread). Picking completely at random from my now vast TBR pile (kindle) I've come up with Dombey & Son by Charles Dickens. Not one of his I've read before.

It seemed like a good idea at the time..... Infecting 12 death-row prisoners with an ancient virus, in order to create human weapons. Instead, the virus turned them into ravening, unstoppable monsters. And when the twelve broke out of the underground compound facility where they had been born, all hell was truly unleashed. In a world now ravaged by the viral plague, humanity is reduced to stubborn pockets of resistance. But if the human race is to have a future, survival is not enough. Against terrifying odds, they must hunt down the twelve and destroy them in their lairs. ---------- This is the follow up to "The Passage". The first thing to say is that this is a much shorter book than The Passage. This is about 550 pages whereas the Passage was about 900 odd. I also went through quite a range of feelings about this book as I read it. The book starts five years after The Passage ends, with the survivors of the colony spread far and wide, but mostly residing in another colony in Texas. Just as you get into this however, the action slips back 97 years to the original outbreak (from a different viewpoint admittedly) for a good 100 pages. At first , I was irritated by this. It felt like going over old ground, covered in The Passage. Slowly however, the plight of the new characters started to grip me. Justin Cronin knows how to make you care about the lives of the people he's describing. The action then jumps forward again in two stages and finally we are moving ahead with where The Passage left off. I don't want to say too much more about the actual story as I don't want to ruin it for people, so I'll just give my thoughts. I felt the book would have benefitted by being longer. There were times, particularily towards the end when things felt a bit rushed. There are also some things that don't feel very well explained. I can only hope that they are all explained properly in the final instalment. So I'm only going to give it 4 out of 5 - and it probably only just scrapes that 4 as well.

Dex, I couldn't have said it better myself.

It occured to me after I posted yesterday, that when I think of Classics, I think of Dickens & Austen, both of which were very popular while they were still alive. On that basis, can we expect to see Dan Brown & James Patterson as future classics? Perish the thought personally, but that's just my opinion!

I agree with you that Khaled Hossieni's two books should be on that list - I've not read The Book Thief. I'd like to include "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel to that list.

I'm about three-quarters through it at the moment and I am enjoying it; possibly not as much as The Passage, but very enjoyable nevertheless. I'll put a proper review when I've finished (my New Year resolution is to try and write proper reviews of the books I read).

Well, pretty much all the Dickens & Jane Austen, The Great Gatsby (which I haven't read, so I'll be reading that soon), Mark Twain, plus he added some early Stephen King, knowing how much I like them. Loads more, but at the moment I can't remember.

It's also good when you fall asleep reading in bed, as you don't lose your place, and spend the next half hour trying to find it again! Serious plus for me, that is!

You're the second person I've heard who's said that. My wife has hearing difficulties, so everything in our house is watched with subtitles whenever possible - even I find it useful - it's amazing what you miss or mis-interpret.

Commenting is positively encouraged here! I only received the one "real" book for Christmas, but my brother also put together for me a CD of Kindle books that are free, but it saves me the bother of downloading them. It also means I don't have to spend any money at Amazon, who are black-listed by me at the moment, along with Starbucks due to their tax avoidance schemes

Can't say that I've ever noticed that I read faster on one, but I agree about the % bar taunting you.

That's a great TBR list! If most of these Stephen KIng books are ones you haven't read before, you're in for a treat.

I'm starting the year with My Christmas present - The Twelve by Justin Cronin, which is the follow up to The Passage. I'm about 40 pages in now, and the only comment I will make at the moment is don't try to read this before you read the first book, or you won't have a clue what's going on.

I thought it was excellent. It really looked like the BBC had spent some money on the locations & costumes etc. Looking forward to the next episode.

I read the Bone Collector some time ago, and have been waiting to get my hands on the series in order, as it was so good I felt it derserved it. Which leads me neatly to my last book of 2012 - The Empty Chair by Jeffrey Deaver, the third book in the Lincoln Rhyme series. The was a point early on in this book that I thought I wasn't going to like this, although I still can't pinpoint why. Maybe it felt a bit rushed. Still, I got into it, and the usual twists that Deaver is a master at are all evident. Right up to the last page, there are twists; some you guess, others you don't see coming. Perhaps not quite as good as the previous two in the series, but the bar is still set very high indeed. And that's it for 2012! 43 books read, 1 DNF, 2 two out of fives and 5 five out of fives. Not a bad year at all!

Finished One Shot just before Christmas. I am now reading "Empty Chair" by Jeffrey Deaver. I imagine this will be the last book I read this year. One shot BTW was excellent - almost tempted to go and see it at the pictures, but put off by the Tom Cruise!

I'm reading "One Shot" by Lee Child for my next.

I'll be honest - I think this is one of the best of his I've ever read.

I'm about 3/4 through Pet Semetary now, and it's terrifying! What has always amazed me about Stephen King is his ability to take an idea that when you decribe it, sounds completely ridiculous, but he elevates into something that is both very believable and hugely enjoyable (in a hide under the duvet kind of way!)

At the cinema - Skyfall - which is excellent. Honestly, if you like Bond films at all, go and see this On the TV - Tremors - one of my favourite films, I love it! (this admission always makes my brother roll his eyes in exasperation)

Hi dnashby, Which of the books is that?

So far, I'm really enjoying it!

Maybe not exactly what you're after, but "By the light of the moon" by Dean Koontz comes close. The story follows a group of people who have super-powers forced upon them. It's a very good read.