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(This is copied and pasted from my review on my reading blog, I thought it should be here too.) Wow what a strange, visceral book this is! When I first started reading it, I didn't get on with it immediately as the author chose to write it in a very strange way. The story of the two central characters, Heathcliff (he has no other name) and Catherine Earnshaw, is told in the first person by a servant, Ellen (Nellie) Dean, to a visitor Mr Lockwood. Nellie's tale is therefore all just reportage of events in the past. However, after a break I picked the book back up again and this plot device then seemed very clever to me, for as the book goes on Nelly is right at the centre of events. Her conversations with Heathcliff and Cathy are related naturally as they happened. Nelly is often forced to be the go between of the main characters, and yet her simple goodness and sense of right and wrong seem to save her from the chaos that destroys everyone else. I consider this book a fantasy, as the characters and their naked emotions are too grotesque to be real; also it is very Gothic. I enjoyed it a lot. I really got into the characters. Heathcliff is an amazing creation. Cathy Earnshaw I didn't much like, but she was very believable, I hated little Linton. I could forgive Heathcliff for most of what he did; but I couldn't forgive him for what he did to Hareton. So I was very glad at the ending. (Interesting conversation going on here about the nature of love and stuff!)

Ong-Bak. Hadn't watched that for a long time, I enjoyed it.

God Of Small Things is worth persevering with. I remember it being very busy, full of detail so you can't read it lazily.

The AfterGlow Of Creation 2/5 Marcus Chown Not as good as the last book of his I read, which was all science. (Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You) This one was a bit of science at the beginning but a lot about the scientists, their mistakes and rivalries etc etc blah blah.

Wuthering Heights 4/5 Emily Bronte Wow what a strange, visceral book this is! When I first started reading it, I didn't get on with it immediately as the author chose to write it in a very strange way. The story of the two central characters, Heathcliff (he has no other name) and Catherine Earnshaw, is told in the first person by a servant, Ellen (Nellie) Dean, to a visitor Mr Lockwood. Nellie's tale is therefore all just reportage of events in the past. However, after a break I picked the book back up again and this plot device then seemed very clever to me, for as the book goes on Nelly is right at the centre of events. Her conversations with Heathcliff and Cathy are related naturally as they happened. Nelly is often forced to be the go between of the main characters, and yet her simple goodness and sense of right and wrong seem to save her from the chaos that destroys everyone else. I consider this book a fantasy, as the characters and their naked emotions are too grotesque to be real; also it is very Gothic. I enjoyed it a lot. I really got into the characters. Heathcliff is an amazing creation. Cathy Earnshaw I didn't much like, but she was very believable, I hated little Linton. I could forgive Heathcliff for most of what he did; but I couldn't forgive him for what he did to Hareton. So I was very glad at the ending.

Ah no! I meant that I was with Jean in usually not liking American versions of European TV shows. I haven't seen The Killing.

I am with you there Jean!

I have started a Short Short List TBR which is composed of books I have already started but then put aside for whatever reason. My reason is that with only a little effort I can finish quite a lot of books in a short time and give my reading a good bump up.

Life In Victorian Britain a social history 4/5 Michael Paterson Yet another Victorian history book. Like most I have read, this one picks a particular subject for each chapter and then gives a whistlestop tour around the 7 decades around that topic ..not a great deal that was new to me in it or in much detail, but being fair I have read so many...this is not a bad little book

Journey Through A Small Planet 3/5 Emanuel Litvinoff This was a slim book I read in two greedy gulps. It is the autobiographical account of the author's childhood growing up as a jew in the poverty-stricken 1920's and 1930s, in the area of Bethnal Green. Nearly all of the jews were Russian and Polish refugees. I knew nothing about this subject. It was really quite amazing how insular his community was. Right in the middle of London, but it is as if the rest of the population or the streets outside his own does not exist; Every one around him is a jew, and they are all only looking at each other and involved only with each other. He himself calls it a ghetto. It is a series of literary sketches; he talks about his painful first crushes on unattainable Jewish girls, his first jobs, his fights at school and his constant struggle to remain individual. I really like the ending, when he writes his first poem, and realises that this is his way out.

I am watching some strange film with Paul Bettany as Charles Darwin. It is sooo heavy and ham-fisted. His daughter is full of way-beyond-her-age wisdom while he is tremulous and scared about publishing his book and theory. And his upright wife is just scared about everything It's just soo bad

Are you the author?

Started watching a horror film called Shrooms but abandoned this and watched Malificent again instead

George Gissing, In The Year Of Jubilee. The two main characters are not married right at the beginning, but Nancy Lord and Lionel Tarrant have all the depth and flaws you could want. Lots of the other characters in the book have interesting relationship troubles too.

My plan to prioritise finishing books that I have already started is working. Will write a couple of reviews tomorrow. Am bashing back on with Wuthering Heights now.

By Grabthar's Hammer he will be avenged!

Science Fiction? The Magic words. Welcome. Which authors do you like to read?

I was forced to watch Inside Out. Utter rubbish. It's no wonder kids are growing up stupid

Welcome both Sylvia and Jean W. Hope you stay and get to enjoy this place.I am on my 6th year here now.

It looks like it was turned into some weird game or something too http://companyofangels.co.uk/molly-zero/

Definitely a Dystopian novel, but do you think it was an adult story or one aimed at teens (YA)? That might help narrow it down. I thought at first it might be Molly Zero by Keith Roberts, published in 1980 . edit. Actually just read a bit of a review of it on amazon and it looks like Molly Zero could fit your bill. http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00E9HR4FO/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/keith-roberts/molly-zero/

Hi Brian nice to see you. I don't think I even made 50 books last year but that is a good target to aim at. Interested to know what you think of the Bond films now you have read so many of the books. I have only read one of the books- Casino Royale - and I enjoyed the chain-smoking edginess of the literary Bond so much that I no longer can stand any of the films. But I am OK about that. The films are all Hollywood hokum anyway.

If you have books still to read you can never die. Kylie will be immortal.

The Victorians 5/5 A. N. Wilson This has long been considered one of the very best, if not the best, historical book about the Victorian Era. I don't know why it took me so long to get around to reading it. He covers the 64 years of Victoria's reign decade by decade, which is a good way of tackling it. It is a thick book in paperback, but I could still have wished for more detail on some subjects. For instance I have read books that covered the political events better. But the author really seems to capture the feeling and spirit. I enjoyed reading it. I had a chance to buy the large hardback version a while back and I wish I had, because there were many more photographs and reproduced much bigger.

You can have mine at no cost if you want to read it. It is very exciting and all true. I like these war memoirs because it just seems as if the world was turned upside down for people. And they did things that they would not have done. And my mum and dad were in that too having their lives turned upside down. Seriously, don't hesitate to ask if you want it. I am drowning in books here.