Hayley

Oh you’ve read it too!? I couldn’t sleep last night so I finished A Murder is Announced. It was very good but I don’t think I agree with people who say it’s Agatha Christie’s best novel.

On the plus side, it’s definitely here somewhere, since I haven’t been anywhere else! Oooh that’s interesting. So not really something you can just dip into because one story might continue from a much earlier one? Part of what I love about reading traditional folklore etc. from different countries is seeing the similarities and how stories were adapted for different cultures.

I don't watch a lot of films but my niece was over a couple of days ago (it sounds weird saying you had someone over now doesn't it? Her and her mom are my 'bubble', if anybody's wondering) and she wanted to watch the new Baywatch film (mainly, I think, because she loves Dwayne Johnson). I think it might be the weirdest film I've ever seen.

Thanks everyone I've finished two books so far (during the first 2021 read-a-thon!): One of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde 5/5- I loved it I always love these books. Jasper Fforde has the kind of absolute madness crossed with skill and intelligence that Terry Pratchett has. If you try to explain the plot of the books to anybody they sound ridiculous, but they are brilliant. This is the sixth book in the Thursday Next series and for the first time we're following a fictional character from the book world, instead of 'real' Thursday. This means we get to spend a lot more time getting to explore Book World and finding out how the fictional characters who live there work. I won't try to explain. I'd just recommend that everybody reads these. They are very much written for book lovers. The Other World, It Whispers by Stephanie Victoire 4/5 - I liked it I really wanted to love this, I love a bit of magical realism and the kind of folklore twist that this book suggested it had. I thought it had a lot of promise but, while I did genuinely enjoy some of the stories, there were others that I'm not sure should have been included. There were a couple of stories, quite close to the beginning of the book, that seemed as though they were the beginnings of longer stories, but they just ended. They really killed my motivation to keep reading the book, because they felt so unsatisfying. I would honestly be surprised if the author didn't intend them to be longer stories originally. There were also a couple of times where I felt that the story was a bit too overtly metaphorical / didactic. I could tell what the story was trying to do, but it made me not care about the characters at all, they just didn't feel like real people any more. Perhaps, again, they would have worked better as longer stories, with more time to build the characters. But I gave it four stars for a reason and that's because there were some genuinely good stories in it. Original, well-written, interesting. I can pick three off the top of my head that really stuck with me because they were great ideas. I don't think this was perfect but I'd definitely try this author's books again in the future. I'm now reading A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie. It's weird how old detective stories manage to be so relaxing, despite the murder. I also started as I mean to go on with the book-buying by using a National Book Token I got for Christmas to get Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (the only novel for adults that I haven't read by him, I think) and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. I was actually motivated to finally buy The Alchemist by a different Christmas present, a 'scratch off' poster of '100 books to read'. I haven't worked out where to put it yet but I'll post a picture when I do. I've read about 25 of the books on there already but I'm thinking I might re-read them before scratching them off. The Alchemist is one of the first books on the poster that I haven't read yet so I decided it was time to get it!

Yes! It’s completely understandable but it makes it such a difficult decision! Are you enjoying it so far? This is an excellent idea (and offer!) but um... is this the time I admit that my kindle hasn’t been charged for about... 8 months?

I hope 2021 will be just as good for reading but far better in every other way. I really want to read this but I don’t know what edition to get!

Oh yeah, I thought they might have gone for something a bit different! I guess the penguin classics do have a fairly distinct look though, maybe it would be wrong to change them too dramatically.

It was really good! There’s loads more to it than I covered in that short review too. As an extra bonus, it has a lovely cover

Oooooh I hadn’t seen this! Do we know what they’re going to look like yet? I love Great Expectations, Frankenstein and Dracula. If I was going to re-read one right now I think I’d pick Dracula. I hated Moby Dick though. Such a promising start and then you reach the chapters about whaling...

Thank you! I hope you enjoy The Donor! I read two of the stories from The Other World yesterday and there’s two left so I think I can probably finish that today. I definitely feel like reading a novel rather than short stories next though. You know when you want something you can really get engrossed in? Thinking I might go for Ransom Riggs Hollow City.

Yes, exactly as Raven and Athena said. The links will work if you paste them into the new thread, they just don’t look as neat as when they’re embedded. It’s a problem that developed when we bought the site back online from it’s backup. I’m still not really sure if it’s an issue in the code or just using an old version of the forum software, but either way Invision will be able to fix it for us. I’m just waiting for an email back about when we can go ahead with the move!

Happy reading!

Happy new year both! I accidentally stayed up until 1 in the morning finishing One of our Thursdays is Missing . I love those books! I have more things I need to get done today so I won’t be able to read so much this afternoon (I’d already started by this time yesterday!) but I think I’m going to read some more of the short stories in The Other World, It Whispers, rather than start another novel.

Hmm. Unable to load... is it a page within the forum that you’re linking to?

Wow, that was timely! What an interesting topic though, especially now! I have to admit, the pandemic didn’t even cross my mind when I read Mrs Dalloway. I’d definitely be interested to read it again with that in mind. I read an article a few days ago (I can’t remember which paper it was in now, it just popped up as a recommended article on my phone) where someone was explaining that they’d expect another ‘roaring twenties’ in the coming years because that is the trend after every pandemic. By the same theory I suppose our literature should follow similar trends!?

Happy new year! I am very determined to read more this year so I’m planning to finish my current book (Jasper Fforde - One of Our Thursdays is Missing) in the next few days

Me too! I assume it’s the weirdness at the moment changing our normal routines. I felt like the whole of December went by in a few days. Hope you’re okay. Don’t feel pressured to join in this month if you don’t feel up to it. And remember there’s an extra day so you can just see how you feel tomorrow or the next day

I just posted it! I kept mine really simple this year. I'm hoping I can make it less bare by reading loads of really good books in January . Yours looks good so far to me! You could always do it a bit differently this year, or leave yourself quite a few empty threads so you can add in the other stuff later when you feel like it?

Spare one, just in case. Thread open

I usually start my reading thread with a list of books on my shelf but, to be honest, I usually forget to cross them off anyway, so let's do things a bit differently this year. Every year I set my reading goal on goodreads to 50. I'm yet to actually make it to 50 but I do like a challenge. So 50 it is for 2021! Total Number of Books read in 2021: 0 I also usually do a 'books acquired' list (and I've only just realised that 'acquired' makes it sound like I might be stealing the books... I actually just meant books that I've received as presents as well as ones I bought for myself!). I started doing that to try to make sure I was getting through the books already on my shelves faster than (or at least at the same time that) I was buying new ones. But 2020 hasn't really left me in the mood for being sensible about books. Honestly I'm planning to buy as many books as I can afford in 2021. And I'm going to make sure I give myself more time to read. I know this year is going to have many of the same challenges as 2020. Things aren't going to be easy. But I do also know that giving myself time to relax has a huge impact on how productive I am when I'm working. So reading more is a win/win decision . Here's to a year where we get to read more, relax more and look forward to better things

The fact that I'm still reading the same books I posted about on November 27th really sums up my reading year in 2020! I'm going to do an extremely brief catch up on my 2020 reviews, because I read some brilliant books and it doesn't seem right to just leave them out, but I also can't wait to start a new reading thread and start putting 2020 entirely behind us. Right. Here we go. If the last book I reviewed was The Magpie Tree then the next book I read was: The Loch of the Dead by Oscar de Muriel: This was the fourth book in the 'Frey & McGray' series. They're Victorian era detective novels in a pretty classic style but always with a supernatural edge (McGray is really into the supernatural, Frey is a sceptic - it's actually an interesting reflection of Victorian attitudes towards science and the supernatural but we won't get into that...). These books are always good and I'd highly recommend them to any detective fiction fan. The characters are great, they're brilliantly developed and even though they play on stereotypes it's in a way that's quite funny and it doesn't stop them from feeling like believable people. There are also times when you really feel for the two main characters as both have interesting backgrounds. McGray in particular has a huge mystery in his past that runs through every book and still manages to feel fresh and gripping. In comparison to the previous books this one seemed a little darker, bringing in elements that are more traditional to horror than detective fiction. I loved it. In fact, I love it so much that I had to go straight on to the next book in the series: The Darker Arts Brilliant for the same reasons as above but with even more tension. You know when you feel like you need to read really fast because you have to know what's going to happen? Plus I genuinely had no idea how it was going to end or what the solution to the mystery was going to be until the end. Clever mystery and cleverly written. We get to find out some more about one of the really interesting 'background characters' who's in previous books too. Next was: The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke A book of short stories from the same world as Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. That novel had such incredible world building and drew me into the story so much that it was nice just to revisit the world in these stories. The book is written as though it was written by someone in that world. If that makes sense. Some of them are from the same time period that Strange and Norrell are in (Strange even appears in one of them) but others are older stories from that world, looking at traditional tales about fairy visitors and the Raven King (who is an important old figure from the novel). You'd definitely get more from this is you've already read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell but it was brilliant. Clarke is now one of my favourite authors. (I'm excited but also a bit scared to read her new book Piranesi, in case I don't like it!) Last book is: The Witch House by Ann Rawson This was a brilliant mystery. The main character (Alice) has recently been released from a care facility, where she ended up after suffering a mental breakdown following the death of her grandmother. Then she finds a body and all the evidence points to her. The murder mystery itself in this is very good but I think what really makes it is Alice's battle with the stigma of having had mental health problems. The way people treat her and the way she feels about herself, sometimes doubting her own mind and her ability to recall past events, really makes you want her to find solutions. It's definitely possible in this one to work out 'whodunnit' before the end, but I still wasn't expecting the ending! I'll definitely look out for more books by this author. And I think that's it. I finished 20 books in total this year, which is a lot less than usual. Hopefully 2021 will be better for reading as well as better all round. Time to plan my new reading thread

Everyone remembers where they were when the BookWorld was remade. One of Our Thursdays is Missing - Jasper Fforde

Aha! This might have identified the issue! I never use a URL to insert images here, I save the images to my desktop and then just 'choose file', so I hadn't noticed a problem with URL's at all. One of the weird problems I haven't been able to work out is that, although links still work, embedding them doesn't. Raven's comment is making me wonder whether it's because we're running from an old version of the software. It would also explain why we can't use the 'at' symbol to link member's names at the moment. If it is that then I'm really happy about it, because it means there's nothing wrong in our code, we just need to update our software. Andrea, I'm sorry about the slow loading (and you really don't need to apologise!). It's not just you, it keeps happening periodically because the forum database is currently so stupidly enormous that our server freaks out occasionally. You did miss a lot with the technical issues! I've been told not to touch the databases, since I can't code, so I've been looking at moving us to be hosted by the people who made our software, so they can fix it. Actually I do have a bit of an update on that front... as it's been a while since I heard from them I got in touch to find out whether we can go ahead with the move soon and was told that yes it should be possible. Unfortunately, because of how their customer service team works, I can't just make speak I to the same person more than once, which can get slightly confusing. Most of their team is away until the 3rd anyway though so on Sunday I'll send a message to the right team and tell them we'd like to go ahead with the move if it's possible now. This time though I'll just take it really slowly and get a specific time frame for the move from them before I let anything move from our current host. We should not have been offline for more than 24 hours before and this time I'm determined not to let it happen. If they can move us then the link issues and the slow loading should be fixed immediately, because they can fix anything that's awry in the code as well as updating us to the newest version.

This is brilliant. Now to try and remember what I read this year... Gosh! Doesn't that look pretty! It's your favourite book cover of 2020! It has to be The House Without Windows by Barbara Newhall Follett. It's one of the prettiest book covers I've ever owned, not just from 2020! They bring me words I like to read! It's your favourite publisher of 2020! I don't think I have one. I did discover a couple of indie publishers this year that I'm excited to try more books by though, Red Dog Press and Orenda Books... so them if that's not cheating Your favourite book that somebody read to you! It's your audiobook recommendation of 2020! I don't really listen to audiobooks but my boyfriend likes to listen to an audiobook to go to sleep and my favourite that he has is the Sherlock Holmes collection. I've read all their works, darling! It's your most read author of 2020! It's a tie between Terry Pratchett, Susanna Clarke and Oscar de Muriel (two of each!) I've heard it all before! Your recommended re-read of 2020! Any of Terry Pratchett's books I'd rather rub broken glass into my eyes! It's your book that wasn't worth bothering with in 2020! I know I did give up on a book this year but I can't remember what it was... it might have been The Tiger Warrior. That was not good. I was expecting so much more! It's your biggest literary let-down of 2020! Probably Soot by Andrew Martin. It started with great potential and then I just remember being massively let down by the ending. Which was so memorable I now can't remember what it was... Gosh! Doesn't that look prettier! It's your favourite illustrated book of 2020! Well this has to be The House Without Windows again because I think I spent as long staring at Jackie Morris's illustrations as I did actually reading the book. Growing up is so over-rated! It's your children's book recommendation of 2020! The Wind in the Willows was the only children's book I read this year, but I was also surprised at how beautifully written it is. I like people to think I'm deep! It's your recommended classic of 2020! The Wind in the Willows is a pretty close one for this too actually but I think Fahrenheit 451 was my favourite. I have a very short attent... What were we talking about? It's your favourite short story (or collection of short stories) of 2020! The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke. Her world-building is incredible. I split my sides and wet myself!* It's the funniest book you read in 2020! Terry Pratchett's Wyrd Sisters (re-reads count, right?). As well as having a really funny take on Shakespearean theatre I love Magrat, the awkward witch. I'd crawl over hot coals to convince others how good this is! It's your book of the year, 2020! I've actually read some really great books this year but I think the one that really amazed me, that I was really sad to finish, was Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. If you get a pop-up about not being able to embed links just close it and post the link anyway, it will work!

Oh no! I really wasn't expecting you to hate it. I kind of want to read it now though just to find out how different it is to the Chronicles of St Mary's! I've been slowly making my way through Jasper Fforde's One of Our Thursdays is Missing. It's brilliant but I'm trying to pace myself because there's only one more in the series after this! If i can make it last another day I'll try to finish it for the first 2021 read-a-thon