Hayley

If you're a student you can use studentbeans.com, I don't have an e-reader but they send you an email occasionally telling you the best deals on everything from e-books to clothes and restaurants. I don't think you can use it if your not a student, so I'm sorry if your not and that was useless I think it would be a good idea if we had a thread on the forum where we can tell each other about good book/ e-book deals we come across, do we already have something like that?

I thought The Remains of the Day was slow to start with too, actually I never finished it, but it seems to have a lot of brilliant reviews so I'll be interested to see what you think, I can decide if it's worth trying again then

I thought Northanger Abbey was easy to read, not too long either

That is a LONG reading list! Some very good books on it though, should be fun trying to get through it

Yeah The Metamorphosis is definitely worth a try, but be prepared to be confused Thanks Ben, I did have a good first semester, if a little bit hectic towards the end, I hope you did too I wouldn't say not to read In Cold Blood, it is at least an interesting experience to read it. I'm very sure that you'll see what I mean about the uncomfortable feeling it creates when you start it though. Ok so here's another... getting there slowly Nella Larson - Quicksand and Passing I've only included Quicksand and Passing because these are the only two stories I read from the collection, although they are the main ones. I really enjoyed these short stories, particularly Passing. At a basic level, they are stories which deal with issues of race in the Harlem renaissance era, it's the writing which makes them special. Both are very tragic, and beautifully, emotionally written, you really start to feel sympathetic to the main characters as they struggle against issues which seem completely out of their control. At the same time though, you don't necessarily like them as people, which I think is particularly clever of Larson I would definitely recommend, especially as they are such quick reads!

Ok, I haven't posted in this for so long I actually couldn't find it haha! I'm really not very good at this... I do have an excuse, I've had an extremely busy term, and to be honest, it's not much less busy now in the Christmas holiday! There are some books on the list which I only read part of and even if I do get round to reading them it won't be soon, so I'll give a short explanation here... As I Lay Dying: This one I didn't finish mainly because I just didn't have time with assignment deadlines, and it was taking a long time to read as the narrative is very choppy and confusing. Quirky is probably the word for this book, it has meaning behind it, but it also has an entire chapter of 5 words 'my mother is a fish'. (just in case, I'll point out that that isn't a spoiler. Nobody turns into a fish). I can see what others would enjoy in it, but it just wasn't my kind of book. Decline and Fall: I actually did want to read this and probably will keep it to read in the future, it was literally a case of running out of time. It does actually seem like it could be quite funny. In Cold Blood: This was quite a long book, and I would have struggled to read it all in time, but to be honest I just really didn't like it. It is a true story of a mass murder in America, but written in a fictional style so obviously with made up or embellished scenes. It just made me feel very uncomfortable reading it. Not only is it a completely different experience reading a description of somebody being murdered when you know it really happened, there are also things like a girls diary in there, which I felt probably shouldn't have been published in the first place. It also made me feel quite angry that the author (who developed a close, if not romantic, relationship with one of the murderers when he was interviewing them for the book) tries to create sympathy for the murderers, to the point where it feels he is trying to justify what they did. I won't be finishing this one! Total Recall: I really wanted to read this one, but it was just too long and I didn't get time. It is an interesting combination of a modern detective story, including business scams and murder, with the war crimes of the holocaust. The main character is a brilliant example of a strong female detective. I think a lot of the time in books and film, writers are afraid to give their strong female characters feminine traits, as though this will make them seem weak, and that's not the case in this book. V.I (the detective) is smart, strong and is allowed to worry about what she's going to wear occasionally. This just makes it feel much more relatable, she seems far more like she could be a real person. I will try to finish this one in the future.

'The Purloined Letter' by Edgar Allan Poe has no murder in it (short story) In The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins there are a couple of murders but the investigation isn't about them, it's about a theft, if that counts. And Mark Twain's 'The Stolen White Elephant' (also a short story) isn't about murder, but it's also technically a parody of detective fiction so I don't know if that counts either...

I think I would say it is fair to call Poe the father of detective fiction, there's quite a lot of similarities between his Dupin stories and some of our best loved detective fiction, like Sherlock Holmes. I do agree with bree though, Collins produced the first real English detective novel, and it's very good

Could it be Beatrix Potter's 'The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin'? That has an owl and squirrel as the central characters, the squirrels go to owl island to collect nuts as far as I can remember, if that helps

I wasn't sure how I felt when I read this article either. In a way I'm happy that Discworld will continue after Terry Pratchett is unable to write, because I love all the books and would be so sad to see the end of them. But then, like you said Raven, we don't really know anything about Rhianna Pratchett's writing, and I'd hate to think the Discworld series would become something different once she starts writing them. But I don't think Terry Pratchett would have even suggested the idea if he wasn't sure his daughter could carry on the series in a way he would have done, so I'm pretty hopeful for them. Also the new Tomb Raider storyline does look really good

(edited: I found the thread ) Has anybody seen the new Bioshock trailer? I'm really looking forward to it, hopefully it wont be disappointing. On the other hand, there's just been the new Asassins Creed trailer, and I'm really not sure about that. Having played all the other games, I just don't see how they're going to get the same atmosphere in a pretty modern setting. Already in the older trailer, they showed the hero swinging from trees instead of rooftops, and his arms just looked like they were going straight through the branches. Hopefully they've fixed this now, but I'm not so sure. In one of the developer blogs, they said that the settings fans suggested were boring. I thought this was a pretty stupid thing to say, since the fans are the ones that are going to be buying and playing the game! Best trailer I think I've seen so far is Tomb Raider, (sorry if I already mentioned this, I don't think I did) the very good looking story line is written by Terry Pratchetts daughter, Rhianna Pratchett

Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf I mentioned in another part of the forum (can't remember where now...) that I found this book a little difficult to get on with. The structure is a little unusual for a start. The story swaps between various characters and scenes in a sort of snapshot style, which can get a little confusing, as there's sometimes nothing particular to define the change, so I often found myself having to go back a page to remember who was being talked about. There was also very little punctuation, which made it difficult to work out the meaning of some of the sentences without really studying them. The story itself was good, really quite emotional and an honest take on the state of society in England during the first world war. Personally though I found one persons story very interesting, while the other was quite boring. It's definitely not one of my favourite books, by quite a long way. I don't think it's a bad book by any means, I think it's very clever, written in a very unique way and a good social commentary. I just think it may be an acquired taste... like mustard

Sorry for the delay, I've been much busier for the start of term than I was expecting! It's set in the early twentieth century, I don't think it gives any specific dates but there's reference to real events you can work out the time frame from. I don't recall there being anything particularly to do with the potato famine though, there's more of a hint towards political unrest and the divide between Catholics and Protestants. I agree that it's a bit strange we we aren't taught about the potato famine at school too now you mention it! What book is it you're reading? I'll just make a quick note in general on the poetry I mentioned above, it would be too long and not very interesting to go through them all. I have to admit I am really not a fan of modernist poetry. By the time I got to the line in Gertrude Steins 'Tender Buttons' which said "sugar is not a vegetable" I was ready to rip it up (all 63 pages of it) and have a good rant. I think it's because I like to get into a poem or a book and be able to really think about it, analyse it and work it out; but these types of poems literally have no meaning, or have unlimited meanings (which amounts to the same thing) and I just don't entirely see the point of reading a series of random sentences. This was my least favourite though, my favourite was probably Hardy's The Darkling Thrush, which I'm happy to say did make sense, had some beautiful imagery and a very pretty, thought provoking ending. I promise to come back later and actually review the rest of the books! And thanks for reading and commenting, it does give me much more motivation to keep up the reviews

I read this book recently and I would definitely agree with your description of 'bizarre brilliance'. Considering the extremely odd events of the story, it's so well written that you still feel yourself connecting emotionally with the characters, and really feeling sympathetic towards Gregor. I read an interpretation somewhere (I can't remember where now) which I thought was interesting, that when Gregor transforms he actually has wings, but he just never realises it. I think this would give an entirely new meaning to the story, but at the same time I don't think there's really any solid evidence to prove it.

Unless it's old enough to be out of copyright and you can find the passage online to paste into a word document or something, I also think taking a picture of it is the quickest way. But at least having to copy it out by hand will make you remember your favourite parts better

This looks so good! I love Philip Pullman, and I love the classic Grimm fairy tales. But I have so much to read at the moment I know I wouldn't get time I will definitely be waiting to read your review though Michelle!

It didn't occur to me either to think of it that way, but it does sound a bit like over-interpreting to me. The Harry Potter series was always meant to be for children, that's the audience Rowling wrote it for, and it almost seems like they're trying to for force a more adult theme onto it. If it's not what Rowling meant when she wrote it, it's not how it's supposed to be. Also I agree with LittleW, the ending of the books doesn't really make sense alongside this interpretation.

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka I think I can honestly say that this is the strangest book I have ever read. I have the Norton Critical edition of this book, which doesn't have a normal blurb, so I had no idea what to expect when I started reading. At first, I thought the transformation (or metamorphosis) he undergoes (into some kind of insect) was metaphorical, or a dream. Then as I carried on reading, I realised this was actually what the book was about. After this realisation it was kind of like looking at a piece of abstract art. I felt like I was reading something very artistic and profound, but I hadn't got a clue what it was supposed to mean. And the ending didn't make it much clearer. After reading some of the criticism included in the back of this edition, I am starting to get it a bit more (I think) but it's definitely not the book to go for if you're looking for an easy read. I did think the actual style of writing was really very good though. Considering just how... odd... the plot is, the fairly informal, basic writing style makes the setting and characters still seem viable. I would definitely recommend reading it if your up for a bit of a mental challenge though

I learnt a new word from Little Dorrit today, 'parsimony'. Apparently it means 'extreme unwillingness to spend money or use resources' (Concise Oxford English Dictionary). The mondegreen examples made me laugh. When I was little there was a song (I'm not sure what it is now) that had the words 'there's a rat in the kitchen, what am I gonna do, I'm gonna get that rat, that's what I'm gonna do'. And I genuinely thought for years that it was 'I'm gonna get that rat and flush him down the loo' But then I asked my Mom why he was going to flush a rat down the toilet and (once she'd finished laughing), the song became much clearer

How about Atonement by Ian McEwan? It definitely is emotional and dramatic

Ok, not to get around to the reviewing part. I'll go in order of the list so far... Dubliners by James Joyce: At first I couldn't make my mind up whether I liked this book or not. When I really thought about it I felt like not much was happening, and I was worried it was going to become boring very quickly. BUT, even though it isn't exactly action packed, there is something quite compelling about looking into people's 'normal' lives. Joyce deals with his characters in such a delicate way that it often takes until nearly the end of a story for the actual tragedy of it to sink in. Also, being set in a time of political unrest in Ireland, there are undertones of larger historical events. I used the Penguin modern classics version, which does have useful notes in the back, explaining some of the historical references that you may not otherwise understand. I did think some of the notes were unnecessary though, (actually quite a lot of them), particularly one's about street names. I think I read the note "this is now O'Connell street" about fifteen times, and I just didn't think these were necessary.

The Book Thief is amazing, I would recommend it to anybody; a very thought provoking book. Zusak has another book called 'I Am The Messenger' which won an award for excellence in young adult literature, and I really think it's one of the most inspirational books I've ever read. Hope that's a little helpful at least