Mexicola

I absolutely love Bill Bryson's books. Notes from a Small Island probably being my favourite. It's nigh on impossible to read any of his books without 'snorting' with laughter every two minutes!

Dirty Pretty Things

Just looking some of them up on Amazon. I can see the Chevalier similarities. ..I feel an order coming on!

Ooh yes, Falling Angels is one of my favourites too, chesilbeach. No, I haven't read any Susan Vreeland, peacefield. I've been after some new authors to get into and would love to try something that's a bit like Chevalier. Thanks for the recommendation

My favourite is the Lady and the Unicorn too (ooh, I fancy re-reading that now) and I agree Burning Bright is not quite as good as the others. The Virgin Blue as well, I didn't get on with quite so well (it being rather different to her other novels), but it was still pretty enjoyable!

Has anyone read any Tracy Chevalier? I've enjoyed all of her novels, and am really looking forward to Remarkable Creatures coming out in paperback- it's about Mary Anning the woman who was the first to discover many dinosaur fossils. I think she found the first when she was just twelve. All of Tracy's books have interesting historical backdrops, but I find this one in particular, very appealing.

I'm easily annoyed by my fellow cinema-goers. There always seems to be at least one group of people to keep talking throughout the film. On one occasion, these guys sitting in front of us had taken their shoes AND socks off and had their feet all up on the seats for all to see OH and I had the screen all to ourselves once, that was a rare delight!

Yes, I love that film The characters are great, it's charming, sweet and funny. The short film before it was brilliant too!

Night of the Living Dead

The Dentyl 'it's a smooth thing' advert with that stupid piano man and annoying face lady Seriously, what is going on with her face?!

Mine does have a tendency to keep plummeting out of the book and losing my page

Looking forward to Where the Wild Things Are and A Serious Man - love the Coen Bros!

I'm 23.

I agree. WH Smiths and other bookshops are overrun with these kinds of books now and I can't help but feel that some of them may not have been written for the right reasons. I won't read them.

I love them too.

You are obviously a man of fine musical tastes (Katie and Peter duet aside). I'm with you there

Leonard Cohen - First we take Manhattan Sigur Ros - Milano The Cure - Just Like Heaven The Doors - Love Street David Bowie - Rebel Rebel Jeff Buckley - Lover, You Should've Come Over Air - Biological Jimi Hendrix - Spanish Castle Magic The Doors - Light my Fire Radiohead - Electioneering.

On a January evening of the early seventies, Christine Nilsson was singing in Faust at the Academy of Music in New York. The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton.

I read this recently and really liked it. I found thoroughly disliking the two main characters to be quite a refreshing experience!

There isn't a great many books that I've read more than once- The Handmaid's Tale, Brave New World, 1984 and Catch 22 being all I can think of. I'd like to re-read books but there's so many others that I've yet to read, I think I'd rather be discovering new books than re-visiting the old ones.

Thank you Yeah I'll be sure to let you know how I get on with it. So far so good, but we'll see. May just be back onto Dracula by the end of the day