Easy Reader

Day 23 – A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t Well there are so many books and so little time that its hard to choose so I will go the first book that sprang to mind and that is Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor. “Forever Amber tells the story of orphaned Amber St. Clare, who makes her way up through the ranks of 17th century English society by sleeping with and/or marrying successively richer and more important men, while keeping her love for the one man she could never have. The novel includes portrayals of Restoration fashion, politics, and public disasters, including the plague and the Great Fire of London” taken from wikipedia I have seen many reviews on many forums all saying that although it is 976 pages long its well worth it and that it’s a gripping read. I have started to read it twice and got no further than page 3. I really want to read and I want to be gripped by it like everyone says I will be but I can’t get past page 3 and there are another 973 to go after that. Although from memory I think the first part is an introduction so I may try starting it at the next chapter and go back to the first part once I have got into it more.

Our Mutual Friend – Charles Dickens 2/10 and I am really giving it a two as a reward to myself for finishing it. I only really read this because of its connections to Lost, the connection being that one of the characters Desmond carries a copy around with him as he is saving it to be the last book he reads before he dies. I ordered my copy online and didn’t realise until it turned up just how long it is. Its 928 pages and the text is small. I tried not to be overwhelmed by the size of it and set out with the plan of reading a chapter a month until I got the swing of it. I never got into the swing never came. I had the genius idea of copy pasting each chapter into word on my pc at work so that I could read it gradually in moments of boredom at work (a regular occurrence). Approximately two years later I have finally finished it. The book for me contains far too many characters (20 major and 16 minor in total), too many similar characters, too many characters going by different names and far too much going on all wrapped up in a mammoth 67 chapters. For a large part of the book I didn’t have a clue what was going on and was constantly looking up book synopsis online to get a better idea of what was happening, some of the synopsis were books in themselves, and most left just as confused if not more so than I was before I looked things up. My own synopsis of the book is…. John Harmon’s should inherit his now deceased fathers wealth but on the condition that he marries Bella Wilfer. At the beginning of the book a body is found in the river as John Harmon has faked his own death and is now calling himself John Rokesmith and gets a job working with the Boffins, who in the event of Harmons apparent death now run his father’s business, in an attempt to get to know Bella better. For some reason or other Bella lives with the Boffins. That is pretty much what I understood to be important to the book there is loads of other stuff and other people who as far as I am concerned could have been edited out of the book. The basis of the book is a nice idea but the process is so protracted and unnecessary that it, for me, took the life out of the story. I did have to laugh yesterday when I looked up another synopsis for it “The book is largely believed to be the most challenging that Dickens produced” you can say that again. Getting back to the Lost connection I have to say if Desmond was saving this to be the book that he was going to read last before he died then he must have been expecting a long drawn out death.

It was a golden crunch they soak the tea up like a sponge I am currently drinking tea, without biscuits.

I have one like in your link which I mainly use for doing craft things It does give good light but I have trouble getting the angle right for reading with and sometimes depending on the book its too heavy and pulls the corners back. It would probably be ok for hardbacks where you could attach it to the cover and not the pages therefore wouldn't need to reajust each time you turn a page. It clips onto the kindle too but I find you do have to have part of the clip covering the screen but still works better on kindle than books

Oh yes I had forgotten about Wimpy Kid they get my vote too

I wouldn't recommend Winnie the Pooh either and he is probably too old for Mr Men My 10 year old nephew likes factual books like encyclopaedias his current favourite is Lego Star Wars The Visual Dictionary (it combines his two favourite things star wars and lego) it even comes with a little lego man in the front cover. Also the right age group to start Harry Potter

I find it helps if you give them a list of books to choose from. I know my mum for one just takes the list into a bookshop and hands it over to the sales assistant and stands and waits for them to go and get book/s for her. I know some friends like to do their shopping online as much as possible so a few suggestions to them and they can just pop something in their basket.

^^ Just this morning I was talking to someone whilst dipping biscuits into my tea and one biscuit got too soggy and dropped off onto my chin as I was shoving it in my mouth so had to do that wiping away whilst pretening I wasn't embarrassed thing currently treating myself to a pepsi max I haven't had any fizz for nearly a week now

of course why didn't I realise that myself I did have a bit of trouble with the first few pages as I didn't realise Thursday was female to start with I just thought male writer so obviously a male character.

Day 22 – Favourite book you own Its going to have to be the Thursday Next series – not only do I like the books themselves but the covers too. I think they would make great posters and they reflect the content of the books perfectly.

Well done you. Its true Bill Bryson is a very funny man. My sister reads and a couple of my friends but I think that's it. Perhaps I too should start handing out some Bill Bryson's to those who don't.

Yeah, Girl Power I love a good strong female lead character. Its even better if you know a man chose to think out of the box when writing it.

Yes it annoys me too. Did you know she works for Sam at Merlotte's bar where she wears a uniform of a white tee and black shorts. I think it was in the second book I started to feel that she mentioned it on every page. I have read the first three but I am having a break from the now if it wasn't for these constant reminders I would enjoy them so much more and would probably finished them by now.

Someone asked me the other day if I had read The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald (I haven't) and I thought I don't even know what its about which is unusal as you normally know roughly what the classics are about. Now I feel fate is telling me I should read it.

A question for those of you who have copies of The Letters of Vincent Van Goghdo all editions have pictures with them or only a few of them. I have just looked it up on amazon and see that there is a nice looking set of books including pictures but then I saw that they are £427 so I wont be getting that set but now I know you can get copies with pictures then I definitely want one with them.

I have only read the first one and am planning on reading them in order but had a horrible feeling that they would be very samey (his style reminded me a bit of John Grisham) but seeing as how you think they are only samey in the later ones then I will assume they aren't as bad as I am imagining.

Thats a good idea trouble if you can't always guarantee when the series has ended. Also I wish they would put the book number down the spine for book series like they do childrens books I get so confused as to what order they go in it would be so much easier if I could just see at a glance

I did read Going Solo too but I couldn't remember what it was called and I don't remember that much about the book either (I think I was too young for it at the time). I know my sister read Boy for her bookclub and she really wasn't looking forward to it but then got Going Solo straight after reading Boy as she enjoyed it so much.

Day 21 – Favourite book from your childhood I wasn’t much of a reader as a child so don’t have a long list to choose from. I did think of saying Fantastic Mr Fox as it was the first “big” book I read all by myself. And then I thought I might go for Goodnight Mr Tom as I had that read to me at school and I remember really looking forward to hearing the next installment but felt that was cheating as I didn’t read it myself. But in the end I decided to go for Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl. Again this one was read to me at school but I also got my own copy and read it again myself afterwards. Its an autobiography of Roald Dahl from his childhood years a childhood that was full of many dramas and hilarities. I can still laugh today recalling some of the stories. I am getting nostalgic about it now I might just had to add it to my wishlist .

That would make a great bookcover Pickle

I missed the beginning of that and thought the girl didn't know who her mum was throughout. Didn't think it was a great film but there is something very watchable about Ryan Reynolds. Isla Fisher was annoying me though.

Painting Mona Lisa and The Borgia Bride by Jeanne Kalogridis are both very good I haven't read any of her others yet.

I used to be very fussy but then I started to think whats the point I only read them once and then they sit of the shelf and get sun bleached anyway so I am less fussy although I do prefer a pristine book. If a book I am reading has an unblemished spine then I will try my very hardest not to damage it but if reading a second hand book that has some spine damage then I know I can relax whilst reading it. I don't like "yellow" books when the pages are old and yellowing I did receive one book from a book swap where I opened the end of the packet saw the book was yellow and then left it in the packaging and its still there. I don't like second hand books that smell of smoke but I don't seem to find them as often these days I think more people smoke outside now which helps. So basically I don't mind if its second hand just as long as its not in too bad a state but what I do object to is that nowadays charity shop books are nearlly the same prices as new books that are on offer either 2 for £7 or on 3 4 2's so I would much prefer to get 2 or 3 books all shiney and new for the same price as 2 or 3 books that look like a dog has chewed them.

All The Time I used to know every single detail I could have told you everything that happened and all the characters first and surnames but these days my memory is not so good. I am forever telling people "oh in this book this happened because oh no I can't remember why they did that."

Hello Katie and welcome I for one never get sick of recommendations I just wish I had time to read them all