vodkafan

You too Tim? It is the town recycling centre. It has a shop attached to it filled with the stuff that some folks inconceivably throw away . I should go there more often, as it is on the way to the gym. It has some beautiful old furniture in it too , sadly I don't need any more furniture, I can't fit it in..great place for DVDs, old pc/console games old vinyl records, books, home gym stuff, bikes, camping equipment, tennis rackets, there were like 3 golf bags there today all filled with the clubs..yes Athena prices are amazing...

It was great. Of course it invites comparison with Hunger Games. Will review it saturday. Oh Lordy. Well today I really blew it. I went to a place and the paperbacks were 5 for £1. What could I do? I did well to restrict myself to coming home with only 10. Some of them are brand new unread Who Dares Wins (revised edition ) Tony Geraghty The Age of Revolution 1789-1848 The Age Of Capital 1848-1875 The Age Of Empire 1875-1914 Eric Hobsbawm Shirley Charlotte Bronte The Colonel Alanna Nash The Puzzle Of God Peter Vardy The Clothes On Their Backs Linda Grant Perfume Patrick Suskind Alone In Berlin Hans Fallada Also, my rucksack fetish continues: I found a karrimor 25litre aergo S rucksack . this is in a small size for a woman or a child. This is £70-80 worth of rucksack! I got it for £1! I will give it to my 10 year old.

So sorry not keeping up with anybodies' reading logs or threads. Just too busy! Just finished Battle Royale. Now reading Raj, (doorstop) Below Stairs, Climbing The Stairs (servants memoirs) and ahem -Jeremy Kyle's autobiography Also- very naughty- I have so far bought 13 books for myself in 2013 but so far only read 12 Blame Sofia for making me go shopping!

1. Did you like the book? What was it that you enjoyed? If you didn't like the book, what were your reasons for disliking it? I liked the book a lot. I enjoyed the slow pace and the whole Victorian gothic feel . 2. The narrative is quite sparse and the characters few, did you find it easy to engage in the story? Yes I found that sparseness was an integral part of the story for me , it didn't overcomplicate everything. I was engaged with the character and the story within a few lines of the first page. 3. What were your expectations when you started this book and were you proved right or wrong? I had already seen the TV version back in the 80's so I knew it was going to be creepy. When I read it the first time (it was a re-read for the reading circle) I had not heard much about the book and didn't have any expectations really but was hoping it had the same atmosphere. I was not disappointed. 4. If you have seen the stage production, TV version or film of The Woman in Black, how did it compare to the book? I have seen the TV version and the recent film. Both were different to the book . I very much disliked the film version. I would enjoy seeing the stage play sometime I think. 5. Was this the first book you've read in this genre/ by this author, has it encouraged you to read more? I can't remember reading any ghost story before this so yes to both questions. 6/ One of the themes of the novel is fear. Did you find the novel creepy – were you scared? Not scared really as you know the main character survives because he is telling the story . But it has a great atmosphere, and the understated calm Victorian way in which he describes events somehow make them all the more chilling. That was completely lost in the film version. 7. Were there any parts/ideas you struggled with? No the plot is all straightforward and linear 8. Overall, was reading the book an enjoyable experience? Yes, loved it! .

Got no reading done since Friday. Just too busy!

That was a very interesting quote and observation Pontalba. Hmm might look out for BOTRK. Was Pierre Boulle actually there at the camp? He wrote Monkey Planet (Planet of the Apes). Robert Goddard and Outlander/Cross Stitch look interesting too. I read a YA novel many years ago called Devil On The Road that sounds a bit similar but that was a male protaganist.

Oh dear poppyshake you had me at "he lit the fire" . What lovely lovely wishful pseudo-memories those words inspire in me (as I have only rarely lived in houses with a real fire) Good job I have never come to visit you I would camp on your hearth rug and never leave. Just keep feeding it coal and logs. Bet it is great when the wind and rain outside is rattling the window frames on winter evenings.... Oh yeah the book... Vincent reminds me a lot of one of my older brothers apart from the STDs...well at least I don't think he's got any

Hi Steve You are starting off great 6 books in already for january. I like the way you have your blog set up with all the internal links to reviews and stuff very organised. I think we should have a whip round to get Frankie a new laptop

hi Kasei good deep reviews! I quite fancy The Walmart Effect.

Hi Bree, I enjoyed all your latest reviews . Glad that you did like I Capture The Castle so much after all the trouble you went to to get hold of your copy.

Hi Bree yes I did like George Knightley, he was always calm and the voice of reason. I intend to read another Austen next month, probably Sense and Sensibility.

World War II London Blitz Diary Volume 2 Ruby Alice Side 4/6 More of Ruby's private diary moving into 1941. Food rationing is starting to seriously bite and Ruby is fed up with beauracracy, propaganda and her husband Ted. Having nothing to look forward to in life Ruby rebels against what she sees as men's stupidity in getting into the war and finds solace in books and buying clothes and material while she still can. This is a woman's innermost thoughts and are at different times amusing, moving or shocking (she reveals herself to be quite racist in one passage) but always real .

Rosie's War: An Englishwoman's Escape From Occupied France Rosemary Say and Noel Holland 4/6 I am reading a lot of this sort of war memoir book at the moment. I always find them fascinating, and they are a reminder that it is not only soldiers who fight in wars, everybody is affected . Truth is often far stranger and more entertaining than fiction. I cannot help thinking of my own parents who lived through these same times.

Emma Jane Austen 5/6 This is the fourth Austen novel I have read. I appreciated the way the story got into an exposition of Emma's character straight away, and declares her express intention to meddle in the affairs of others, only for their own good of course. I very soon disliked Emma intensely but now see that this was intentional on Jane Austen's part; her way of playing with the reader's mind. After a while Emma did grow on me (as Bree said she would). Emma felt herself to be such a great judge of character but in fact she was almost always completely wrong about everything! But her saving grace was that she was always sorry for her mistakes after she realised them, and she was essentially good hearted. I felt that this was Austen's funniest novel (that I have so far read) even funnier than Northanger Abbey and I could appreciate the great skill in the writing. The characters were very funny and larger than life but still believable. The passage where Emma's hypochondriac father and his son in law are arguing the merits of which of their doctors is giving the best advice is hilarious when it escalates into a sort of oneupmanship contest. As an aside, I have been reading other books about the lives of domestic servants and for the first time I noticed their absence in Jane Austen's world; The houses of her characters would have been heavily populated with servants, even personal maids yet they are mentioned only in passing once or twice. It is as if for all intents and purposes they do not exist. That is so weird to a modern day mind. Imagine sharing living space in a house with several other people and yet treating them as if they are not there ! All the usual Austen plot devices are there in this novel to convey information, letters , conversations , hearsay and the ever present restraints of class divisions and manners. It is a small world brilliantly observed.

I stole your picture Janet! I nabbed it for my new desKtop background. I often see foxes on the way home when I finish at 2 am or 6 am. I saw one last night and it had its mottled dark winter coat, almost black. It just sauntered across the road, was not even scared of the car.

I am sure I downloaded it after reading your review Laura, but I can't remember now what you wrote. I am enjoying it so far but the war has not properly started yet.

Finished Vol 2 of Ruby Sides Blitz Diary. That's 10 books read for january so far. As I did not have my big Raj book to hand I had to start another one on my kindle instead. This is Rosie's War, another true war experience/memoir. This had been on my kindle for a while, I thought I had added it my TBR but I just found out I had not. I chose this as I thought it would follow on quite nicely from the Blitz diary as it overlapped in time and would show the war from a different perspective. Will catch up on my reviews, and looking at what everybody else is reading on saturday.

I finished Emma, which I enjoyed. Will review it saturday. Reading Vol 2 of the World War II London Blitz Diary now, and one humungeous paperback history book, Raj

Some would say so !

I just read what Chaliepud wrote and I completely agree. If it was me I would do less places and have more time in each place. But of course that is your choice. If you need an emergency crash pad when in England I can put up 3 and do you a meal . For instance if you were passing through south to north or something. I am centrally placed in the middle of England. I live in Rugby, where the game of Rugby Football was invented, at the private school of the same name. Would be cool to meet some Americans.

I haven't read what everybody else has written but if you are only going to spend 2 days in England, I seriously would not waste half a day and a lot of money driving past lots of lovely stuff just to get to Stonehenge. I love prehistory but it is really just a pile of stones in the middle of nowhere and it is really really outrageously expensive to get up close. They have it fenced off and I was very disappointed. I didn't pay the extortionate fee for a tour. There is nothing else for miles around and even to get a drink or something to eat they screw the visitor unmercifully .The best view of it was actually in the distance from the road as we came over the hill !! Honestly. There is much more interesting stuff to see (and for free) packed close together in London.

Arne Saknusann rules!

Is it much like the classic film with James Mason, Steve? I loved that film when I was a kid. Always felt sorry for the duck.

I now have 78 books left on my TBR, having already read 8 so far this year. As my target is 104, that leaves me a few books short. But there is no rush.

Oh no I shouldn't have come on here! Poppyshake stop reading these interesting books! You will cost me money..