TheNinthWord

Finished House of the Wolfings today. It was quite an exciting read. Reminded me a lot of Tolkien and Beowulf. Concentrating on getting through Lud-in-the-Mist today. Just over 100 pages in. I'm so glad I picked the fantasy module at uni.

Added The House of the Wolfings which I just finished reading today, along with a link to my review of the book on my blog. I thought it was an excellent epic tale, and if anybody here is interested in reading this early example of fantasy literature which inspired Tolkien, there is an e-book version available here.

The Iliad, Homer I've dipped into to, and read it up until book 20-something, I think. It was the catalogue of ships that stopped me. It's been on my shelf for 3 years, and apart from my first attempt I haven't looked at it.

Books on my bookshelf as of 30 January (31): -Mansfield Park, Jane Austen -Mister B. Gone, Clive Barker -The Lost Continent, Bill Bryson -Notes from a Small Island, Bill Bryson -Selected Poems of Lord Byron -Wild Swans, Jung Chang -Arthur: At the Crossing Places, Kevin Crossley Holland -Arthur: King of the Middle March, Kevin Crossley Holland -The Divine Comedy, Dante -Inkheart, Cornelia Funke -American Gods, Neil Gaiman -Smoke and Mirrors, Neil Gaiman -Wizard's First Rule, Terry Goodkind -The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mohsin Hamid -Imperium, Robert Harris -Catch-22, Joseph Heller -Ted Hughes: Poems Selected by Simon Armitage -Geomancer, Ian Irvine -Crossroads of Twilight, Robert Jordan -Wish I Was Here, Jackie Kay -Four Past Midnight, Stephen King -The Stand, Stephen King -H.P. Lovecraft Omnibus 3: The Haunter of the Dark -Elric, Michael Moorcock -What Was Lost, Catherine O'Flynn -52 Ways of Looking at a Poem, Ruth Padel -The Fall of the House of Usher, and Other Writings, Edgar Allen Poe -The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery -The Merlin Trilogy, Mary Stewart -The Once and Future King, T. H. White -The Angel's Game, Carlos Ruiz Zafon

* indicates books read as part of my degree Currently Reading as of 14th March: -The Well of Ascension, Brandon Sanderson *-The Crystal Cave, Mary Stewart -Lucky Break, Esther Freud Books read in 2011 as of 14th March (12) January (3) *-Merlin's Wood, Robert Holdstock *-Beowulf, unknown *-Measure for Measure, William Shakespeare February (5) *-The House of the Wolfings, William Morris review *-The Comedy of Errors, William Shakespeare *-Lud-in-the-Mist, Hope Mirrlees review *-King Henry V, William Shakespeare *-The Carasoyn, George MacDonald March (4) *-The King of the Golden River, John Ruskin *-Arthur: The Seeing Stone, Kevin Crossley-Holland *-The Sword in the Stone, T. H. White *-Timon of Athens, William Shakespeare

The end of the year, and the end of this topic. Added my December read (bizarrely I've not felt the urge to read much recently), and now I'm going to create a new list for 2011. Hopefully I'll get a lot more read this year.

I love Regeneration. I read it a few years ago as part of my A-level WWI literature module, and I thought it was fantastic. I've read the first two in the trilogy, but sadly haven't got around to reading the last (which is reportedly the best and brings it all to a great close). Hope you enjoy reading it!

Read a few more chapters of The Well of Ascension yesterday and today. I've been catching trains left, right, and centre, so I had a lot of travelling time to fill. Not sure I'll get this finished before Christmas though. I fly home to America in a couple of weeks. At least I'll have plenty of opportunity to read on the plane.

I saw Harry Potter today at last. I was actually a bit disappointed. It was a very non-film. Splitting the book into two halves was not a good idea.

I saw Deck the Halls on TV the other day. What a terrible, terrible film. Even though it had Kristin Chenoweth in it, I still couldn't make it all the way through. Hopefully going to see Harry Potter in the next week or so. I prefer to go to the cinema after the initial rush. There's nothing worse than being in a packed cinema when I want to watch a film.

Just updated with The Winter's Tale, which I read for my course.

I've been reading some Poe recently, and I adore 'The Raven'. The metre, the rhyme, the narrative, the spooky feeling behind it. It's all amazingly done. But the raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling, Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and bust and door; Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore - What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore Meant in croaking `Nevermore.' That's just one stanza. It's not an excessively long poem, but probably too long to post in this thread. The rest can be found here: The Raven

I wrote a few hundred words of my novel for my dissertation project. It's coming along really nicely. I haven't read a lot for pleasure recently. I've managed to squeeze in a chapter of The Well of Ascension here and there, but work is starting to take over.

Into the West - Annie Lennox & Howard Shore Absolutely gorgeous song.

I voted for it being a valid and wonderful part of English Literature, but then I might be a little biased. It's my favourite genre, and I believe fantasy is a great way to explore human nature and show it in a different light. I'm also going to be doing a 'Fantasy and Fandom' module as part of my degree after Christmas. I'll be looking at the development of fantasy literature from 'Beowulf' and 'Le Morte Darthur' right through to Neil Gaiman. I'm very excited about it.

Spaghetti bolognaise. Quick, easy, and delish! I also had an epic fried egg with my beans on toast for lunch. I'm usually rubbish at them but it was amazing.

I also prefer to finish at a chapter, or relevant break in the text if there are no chapters. I think that's why I really like books with short chapters; I can read a few at a time and I whizz through the book. Books with longer chapters that require a big time commitment are much harder for me to read. I can finish mid-way through a chapter if I need to, but then I tend to forget what happened next time I pick the book up. That's one thing that really irks me about The Wheel of Time series. As much as I love the books, it always takes me a long time to get past the 70-100 page prologue Jordan likes to use. And then subsequent chapters are often 30+ pages. Some days I just don't have the stamina to read for an hour at a time. I think that's the main reason I had to put the tenth book down a few weeks ago.

Ooh I love Jane Eyre. I'm not sure how I feel about Mia Wasikowska playing Jane. I really didn't like her in Alice in Wonderland. She felt flat and emotionless. But I am intrigued.

I read this recently and really enjoyed it. I was expecting a conceited argument from an arrogant professor, but in fact it was very measured. I suppose it helps that I'm an atheist as well, so I found myself agreeing with the majority of what Dawkins says. And it's true what has been said; the arguments run on from one another so it's best to read it fairly quickly. I managed to get through it in just a few days, which is very quick for me.

I bought Star Trek (the 2009 film) last week and only just got around to watching it this evening. It was excellent. I can't get the soundtrack out of my head now though.

I finished Titus Andronicus this evening. All I can say about it at the moment is "wow". I never knew so much death, revenge, rape, and cannibalism could be squeezed into one play.

I also hope you enjoy Jonathan Strange. It's a slightly heavy but very unique and rewarding read. Definitely one of my favourite books. Working my way through Titus Andronicus this evening. I'm actually quite enjoying it, despite all the gore.

Started reading Titus Andronicus for my course. I've only read Act One, and already I'm shocked by the gore. This is going to be a fun read.

I watched Invasion of the Body Snatchers on TV today. The 1956 film. It was very very good.

I, too, was disappointed with Dracula. The opening sequence in Dracula's castle was easily the best part, but then he spends the most of the novel in a box. Not very threatening at all.