Karsa Orlong

I bet you tape that as well

Noooo, course not I think your TBR should say 835, though

I've seen Biffy twice - and both times they were supporting Muse, so I reckon if you see one you're likely to see the other, too

Oh dear

Tape? What the hell's a tape??

Really? I hadn't noticed

Joe Abercrombie's review of The Desolation of Smaug I love the way he says it's better than the first film

Cover art and an extract from Joe's forthcoming YA novel, Half A King: http://io9.com/an-exclusive-first-look-at-joe-abercrombies-next-novel-1498463757

It's alright, I suppose

How long did that one take? ETA: I'm not surprised if it took ages - it overstayed it's welcome by about 300 pages. I remember enjoying it to start off with, but time hasn't been kind to my memories of it, and the tv series didn't help either. Awful.

Yes, I'd definitely want to read a few shorter books in between each doorstopper. I'll see how it goes. I'm not going to plan, as such, cos it'll very much depend upon what kind of book I'm in the mood for at the time. I think I really have to be in the right frame of mind to take on one of these

Cynic

Ooh, I've been thinking of reading that for ages. I've seen both movie versions. The original Swedish version was vastly superior to the remake, I thought I'm currently 397 pages into Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. I started it on Saturday, so that's quite fast going for me

Yeah, I have read one of his before, although again it was a present from someone, and it was a sequel to Gone Baby Gone, which I hadn't read, so I didn't get the most out of it But yes, it was very kind of him. It's another doorstopper. I think I'm going to have to try and read one doorstopper per month, as I've got quite a few and I'll never get through them, otherwise Thanks Laura Maybe The Works would still have it if you went back?

A friend just bought me a book: The Given Day by Dennis Lehane. He was telling me about it last week and was going to lend me his copy, but decided to buy it for me instead. Very kind of him, and completely unexpected

# 3 Dead Beat (Dresden Files Book 7) by Jim Butcher 2005 - Orbit paperback - 408 pages From Amazon: Harry Dresden must save Chicago from black magic and necromancy - but first, he must locate the Word of Kemmler. Just as soon as he figures out what that is ... It's all in a day's work for the city's only professional wizard - assuming he can live to see the end of the day. Thoughts: A couple of days before Halloween, Harry gets a summons to meet Mavra. Mavra's a bad-ass vampire (and I mean seriously evil, not this sparkle-in-sunshine, fall-in-love with the pretty human rubbish that passes for a vampire these days ) from a previous book in the series. She wants Harry to bring her the Word of Kemmler. He doesn't know what it is, and she sure as hell doesn't tell him, but - if he doesn't find it by midnight on Halloween, she threatens to end Murphy's (that's Karrin Murphy, the head of Chicago PD's Special Investigations division) career. Bob (that's the spirit who lives in the skull in Harry's basement) soon tells Harry all about Kemmler, a necromancer who used to work with black magic and who had a group of followers, and Harry soon finds out that he's not the only one searching for the mysterious Word. Usually, by the seventh book in a series, things can start to wear a little thin. Not so here. In fact, I'd say this if one of the best books in the series so far, if not the best. At first appearance, the story seems to stand on its own, with various ongoing plotlines woven into it to keep the main story arcs moving. Old friends and enemies turn up, as well as some new ones, the ongoing war between the wizards' White Council and the vampires' Red Court continues in the background, and there are plenty of references to previous events. If you haven't read the previous books you'd be lost. And, by the end, it has become apparent that this seemingly separate story ties into the main plotline in a BIG - and quite clever and scary - way. And what an ending! The last hundred pages of this book are real thrill-a-minute, read-in-one-sitting, impossible-to-put-down stuff - a brilliantly orchestrated finale during a violent storm, involving all the parties after the Word of Kemmler, the Wardens, and about a billion zombies. Incidentally, I loved the way Butcher dealt with zombies, and the whole use of necromancy in general. I get the feeling Butcher was really getting into his stride here, and the whole book seems to have a more expansive scale to it whilst still generally remaining tightly plotted and impressively pace (although, unusually) there are a couple of minor dips into exposition). And of course it is full of humour that comes naturally from the characters and Dresden's laconic asides. This led to one of the amusing lines I've read recently: As always seems to happen with this series, at the end I'm left with the urge to immediately go and buy the next book - which I will do soon. I certainly won't leave it a year like I have since the last one! 8/10

Right, time to get my thread back on track

It is if those people were to give that money to charity instead of wasting it on apps!

Sadly, I was looking at those figures earlier on I read the other day that the worldwide spend on smartphone apps in 2013 was $15bn. Now that, to me, is bonkers - but then I don't have a smartphone

No you wouldn't, you'd spend it all on cake and books and then want more You know, considering you don't believe in life on other planets it sounds remarkably like you're talking from Uranus

Spot the people who don't like science fiction

Well until someone can categorically disprove it I'll continue to find it hard to believe that there is no other life in our galaxy, let alone the universe, thank you very much I'd far rather they stopped spending the money on wars than on science and exploration A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips <-- already proved

Of course he's evil - he was in D:Ream

If you can prove that it doesn't exist I'll believe you I love Stargazing Live - I wish it was on more than just the three times

Well it doesn't take much, to be fair