bobblybear

I really enjoyed Pandora's Star, but haven't read Judas Unchained yet. I've had The Nights Dawn Trilogy recommended to me numerous times, but have yet to get around to it. Maybe one of these days.....

You have some great books on your TBR list. The ones that stand out in particular for me are: Life of Pi - Yann Martel Into the Darkest Corner - Elizabeth Haynes The Book Thief - Markus Zusak Happy reading in 2014.

It's still only £1.09, so I assume it's still part of the sale. I'm about 8% through it so far, and it's very good. It makes for uncomfortable reading, and has motivated me to try buying more locally produced fruit, vegetables and meat.

Don't worry, I'm sure I will. And if not, it's only 99p!

Finished Dan Brown's Inferno. It was a bit of a struggle towards the end. I've just now started Stuffed and Starved: From Food to Fork: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System

Goodness, that's a big list of books on your TBR pile! My comments on some of them: Monica Ali - Brick Lane: I really wanted to enjoy this, as it's exactly the kind of book I would like but for some reason I just didn't connect with it and couldn't even finish it. Margaret Atwood - The Blind Assassin: One of Atwood's best books, IMO...the other great one of hers is Alias Grace Mark Z. Danielewski - House of Leaves: Good luck with this one! It's very interesting to look at, but mighty difficult to read. Patrick Dewitt - The Sisters Brothers: Read it earlier this year, and loved it. I think it's one of the best books I've read in the year. Ken Follett - Pillars of the Earth: One of my favorites. I really hope you like it as much as I did. Alex Garland - The Beach: Another good one....much better than the film. Richard Herley - The Penal Colony : A really good Kindle freebie (though it doesn't look like it's free anymore) Zadie Smith - White Teeth: Loved this book, but couldn't get into her other ones. Tom Rob Smith - Child 44: One of the better books of the genre. Stephen King - IT: Another one of my faves. It's a long read but well worth it! Happy reading in 2014!

Nice goal to reduce TBR pile by one book in 2014. It sounds easy, but we all know that it can be very difficult! Comments on your TBR pile: Ben Aaronovitch - Rivers of London : I couldn't get into this one, but I know I'm in the definite minority. Max Brooks - World War Z : This is another one that I struggled with, more the style of the book than the written content. Mark Dunn - Ella Minnow Pea : Loved this one, it was just so original. Ken Follett - Pillars of the Earth : One of my favorites. I've read it a few times, and keep thinking I should read it again. Alex Garland - The Beach : Another great one. Miles better than the movie. Richard Herley - The Penal Colony : A nice surprise. This was a freebie on the Kindle, and I enjoyed it much more than I expected to. Happy reading for 2014.

Nice review of Them. I saw it on the Kindle sales, but was wavering about whether it would be a good read. I've just bought it now, because like you say, 99p is a bargain!

Thanks, Athena. It's still well-worth a read.

I'm 85% through Inferno by Dan Brown so I will most likely finish it today. After that I want to read Stuffed and Starved: From Food to Fork: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System. I bought it as part of the Kindle Christmas sale, so it kind of goes against my plan of tackling oldest books first.

Divergent by Veronica Roth is one of the Kindle Daily Deals for £0.99

Started Inferno by Dan Brown last night. So far, it's what I expected.

Nice review of Three Men In A Boat. My review can be found here. I'm surprised to read back on it actually, as I don't remember it being overly funny, but in my review I say there were some parts that I found very amusing. Mine was a Kindle version and so missed out on the illustrations; at least your version had something nice in it.

The Hundred-Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared - Jonas Jonasson The book opens with Allan Karlsson sitting in his room in a nursing home, on the morning of his 100th birthday. Because of his age they are throwing him a birthday party, in which several important people and media are invited. However, he doesn’t want to put up with all the fuss, so he climbs out of the window and makes his way to the bus station. There, a young man asks him to watch his suitcase while nature calls. While the man is off doing his business, Allan’s bus arrives and so he decides to board with this man’s suitcase (as he didn't bring any belongings of his own). This sets off a chain of events which follow Allan (and various co-conspirators he picks up along the way) across the country, and also leads to a recollection of his past, from his childhood to his present. The chapters alternate between Allan's present and his past. He has been key in some significant historical events, and has befriended many key people – Truman, Churchill, Kim Jong Il, to name a few - and played an important role is many political happenings. It’s all extremely far-fetched (but obviously so) and told with a lot of very, very black humour. His life story is so utterly over-the-top and so tongue-in-cheek, that anything and everything is possible. However, because of the exaggerated nature of the story, I thought it dragged on for too long....it was over-kill and eventually got to be exhausting to follow. I think that kind of exaggerated story treads a fine line between being 'humorous' and 'annoying', and it crossed over to the annoying side for me a few times towards the end, purely because it was just 'too much'. The Kindle version is 480 pages, and about two-thirds through, I began to get restless. I would have enjoyed it more if it had been trimmed (significantly). It also on occasion felt a bit stilted but I think that was due to the translation. All in all, I enjoyed it, but not as much as I’d hoped I would. 3/6

Sorry, completely forgot to reply to your post, Kylie. Interesting that you hated The Jungle Book so much. Because it's a classic, I thought the majority of people loved it, but I've just read the Reading Circle thread and it seems that most people didn't enjoy it. Maybe it's just too different for the current time. So, I've just finished The Secret History by Donna Tartt.....and I really need to catch up on writing reviews. I have about four to write up, and the longer I leave it the more difficult it will be (I tend to forget details in books quite quickly after finishing them ).

Shame you didn't particularly enjoy The Thirteenth Tale. I really liked it when I read it last year. Thanks for the heads up about the TV adaptation - I had no idea they'd made something like that, so I look forward to watching it next week. It's definitely better the second time around, isn't it? I'm just over halfway through, and it's just brilliant.

Have you read any other Zadie Smith books? I loved White Teeth but hated NW (in fact, I couldn't finish it), and was wondering if On Beauty was similar to either of those?

Thanks, Alexi. So many positive comments about The Secret Life of Bees, I may need to make it my next read. Actually my second to next read (I want to read Inferno over the XMas break). I'm glad you say his books are pretty easy to read; one of the things that put me off reading them was that I thought they would be quite complex and difficult. Not sure why I thought that, though...

I've spent the last few hours reading The Secret History. I'd forgotten how good it is. In fact, I'd stay up and read more of it tonight, if only I didn't have to get up early for work tomorrow.

These three are all pretty high up on my TBR list as I've heard many good things about them. I'll probably get started on one (or more) of them over the Christmas break.

Thank you, Marie. Sophie's World is one I have tried to read numerous times, but always given up on. Mind you, I haven't tried reading it in about 10 years, so maybe I will enjoy it more now. I've tried The Little Friend as well, and had to give up on it, but as I loved The Secret History so much, I'm willing to give it a second try. I don't know why I haven't read A Discovery of Witches yet because I've heard many positive things about it, and I'm sure I meant to read it as soon as I bought it. It's one that's pretty high on my TBR pile so I should get to it in 2014. I think the size of London and Sarum have made me postpone reading them....I kind of feel like I need to work up to it. I've never read any of Edward Rutherfurd's books, though I've always been interested in them. I guess I'll find out sooner or later whether I like them or not.

I'm glad you have more time to read over the holidays, Karen. It's very frustrating, isn't it? I loved The Kite Runner, but haven't seen the movie. I hope you enjoy it.

For Bernard Cornwell fans, there are a whole lot of Sharpe books for £0.99 as the Kindle Daily Deal.

Read a bit more of The Secret History. Even though it's a re-read, my memory of it is so rubbish it is like reading it for the first time. Also, Amazon have started one of their Christmas Kindle sales, so I bought the following: Homeland: Carrie's Run - Andrew Kaplan A Monster Calls - Patrick Ness Inferno - Dan Brown Dark Eden - Chris Beckett Stuffed and Starved: From Farm to Fork - Raj Patel Obviously my TBR list is completely under control.

Thanks, Janet and Athena. So many books on my TBR list have been there for years (like Dune, and A Prayer for Owen Meany), and even though I really want to read them, I never seem to be in the mood for them. It's quite frustrating, as I'm sure I will enjoy them....it's just making that first step of picking them up. I really want to concentrate on reading those books that have been on my list the longest, but I just can't seem to do that!