Hayley

So sad to hear about the closure of Lionhead studios. Fable was one of the first games I played on xbox and I loved all of them, they were always so pretty and unique. There is a petition to keep them open, which I'll link in case anyone wants to sign, but I don't have much hope it will change Microsoft's minds. https://www.change.org/p/microsoft-studios-don-t-close-lionhead-studios

Hi Lauren The Mysterious Island is available through Project Gutenberg ( http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1268) which is always good. A Winter Amid the Ice sounds really interesting too, I'll have to try it! If you haven't seen it already you should go and say hi on the 'Introductions' section of the forum (under 'The Lounge' on the main page) because more people will see it there

There's quite a few then! I really have high hopes for this series, The Eyre Affair arrived a few days ago and I've been sneakily reading the first few pages Farundell, on the other hand, I think will have to be a 'did not finish.' I'm on page 89 (of 399) and just can't get into it. The actual subject matter interesting but, considering the (much stronger than I expected) supernatural themes, it doesn't feel magical to me. The setting and the characters feel like they have great potential but somehow end up just coming across as quite dull. I realised that it was starting to kill my reading motivation so decided it was probably best to just move on. So it's on to The Eyre Affair

I love The BFG! I thought the trailer for the new film looked brilliant. It seems as though it will be more like the book than the old animated film. Good luck with your challenge!

Thanks everyone Oh! I thought it was weird that I hadn't seen it on your thread I hadn't thought about it before but are there more Thursday Next books to come then? Good Omens was the first time I heard about Neil Gaiman, I bought the book because it was co-written by Terry Pratchett, I'd never heard of Gaiman before! The Ocean at the End of the Lane is very different but definitely worth reading It is worth a read. Personally I don't think the blurb really represents the book that well. It's a pretty quick read too because it's so packed with shocking twists. It gets a little crazy really but it's one of those things that you need to see because it's just not like anything else! Hopefully you will like it Same here, all I knew of the plot was from the back of the book and even that really just hints, quite cryptically, at the content. I liked the surprise so I thought I better not give anything away I'm thinking of giving Farundell a try next. I picked it up in a rush one day from a library sale. The blurb mentioned magic and mystery and a grand old house so I thought it would be worth trying for 20p! I probably shouldn't have but I looked at some reviews out of curiosity when I got it home and they seem very mixed. Some people seem to love it while others think it's poorly written. It put me off a bit and it's been on my shelf for quite a long time now so I think it might be time to give it a chance!

Thank you I had to order The Eyre Affair but it should be here in the next couple of days and I'm looking forward to it! I didn't notice you were trying Fforde too in your thread, are you starting with The Eyre Affair too? And I'm happy to say I can cross a book off my list already! I started reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane last night and finished it this afternoon... The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman - Childhood Magic This was one of those books that I didn't want to end but I still couldn't help reading so fast. I think when I reviewed Trigger Warning I mentioned how much I love Gaiman's ability to create a very immersive, dreamlike, fantasy world and this book was the same. The fantastical is merged into reality with such seamlessness. It's also a really beautiful portrayal of childhood with all it's fears and hopes and of the aspects of childhood we keep inside us as adults. I don't want to say much more, although there were so many things I loved, because I think it's best to read this book without knowing too much about it beforehand. I would definitely recommend anyone (well, unless they really hate fantasy!) to read this beautifully written book!

Oh good, thank you The rule I'm remembering probably was the 10 posts before you can edit

I just wanted to check whether you can edit a post an unlimited amount of times? I want to cross off books from a list as I read them, but this will require multiple uses of 'edit' and I've never actually tried to edit a post more than once! I'm sorry if this seems like a stupid question! I know there are other, similar, lists on the forum but I really can't remember if other members mark them as read one at a time or in groups. And I have a feeling when I started using the forum I read something about the amount you can edit, but now I can't find anything about it

Connie Willis sounds interesting, definitely adding some of her books to my 'to read' list

Now on to the other thing I wanted to do! I had this idea while trying to think of which book I should read next. I've still not finished my 'book bundle challenge' but I also have a lot of books (taking up a lot of space!) that have been sitting around for while which I just haven't got round to reading yet. SO I thought I'd try to get organised by making a list of the books I have on my shelves but haven't read yet and also moving my 'book bundle challenge' reviews here. Books I have read are in red Book Bundle Challenge: Best Selling Fiction: Hilary Mantel - Fludd M.L. Stedman - The Light Between Oceans Ian Banks - The Bridge Paul Murray - Skippy Dies Jess Walter - Beautiful Ruins John Green - Paper Towns Ben Aaronovitch - Rivers of London Joanne Harris - Peaches for Monsieur Le Curé Stephen King - The Shining Corban Addison - A Walk Across the Sun Sci-Fi and Fantasy: Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Trilogy of Four Stephen Jones - Zombie Apocalypse (TRIED BUT DID NOT FINISH) Joe Abercrombie - The Blade Itself Jim Butcher - Storm Front James Herbert - The Fog Ian M. Banks - Look to Windward Stephen King - Cell Classics: Kurt Vonnegut- Cat's Cradle John Le Carre - The Spy Who Came In From The Cold Harper Lee - To Kill A Mockingbird Robert Lewis Stevenson - The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Tales of Horror Owned Books To Read Abercrombie, Joe – The Heroes Alcott, Louisa May – Little Women Butcher, Jim – Turn coat Byatt, A.S. – The Children’s Book Caldwell, Ian and Dustin Thomason – The Rule of Four Carrell, J.L. – The Shakespeare Secret Collins, Wilkie – The Woman in White Dickens, Charles – A Tale of Two Cities Dickens, Charles – Bleak House Dickens, Charles – The Old Curiosity Shop Dickens, Charles – The Pickwick Papers Eco, Umberto – The Name of the Rose Fasman, Jon – The Geographer’s Library Faulks, Sebastian – Birdsong Fredericks, L.R. – Farundell (did not finish) Gaiman, Neil - Neverwhere Gaiman, Neil – The Ocean at the End of the Lane Galbraith, Robert – The Silkworm Gaylin, Alison – Into the Dark Gibbins, David – The Tiger Warrior Graham, Kenneth - The Wind in the Willows Hardie, Titania – The Rose Labyrinth Hawthorne, Nathaniel – Tanglewood Tales King, Stephen – Duma Key Le Carré, John – A Most Wanted Man Marston, Edward – The Frost Fair Morton, Kate – The Distant Hours Mosse, Kate – Citadel Mosse, Kate - Sepulchre Patterson, James – Witch & Wizard Perry, Karen – Only We Know Riordan, Kate – The Girl in the Photograph Roy, Arundhati – The God of Small Things Verne, Jules – Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Wells, H.G. – The First Men in the Moon Wells, H.G. – The Invisible Man Wells, H.G. – The Island of Doctor Moreau Wells, H.G. – The Time Machine Wells, H.G. – The War of the Worlds The list looks a lot less intimidating than the actual stack of books so hopefully I can start crossing some off now

Ok I've now finished both Fever of the Blood and The Mysterious Island so... Fever of the Blood by Oscar de Muriel - All the themes I love! For anyone who read my review of The Strings of Murder last year, I loved all the same things about this book. I love the time period and the way de Muriel writes about it in a way that is accurate, honest and never clichéd. I also love the theme of the supernatural versus the rational which fits within the Victorian time period so well. Like the last book it kept me gripped the whole way through, I felt like I needed to know what would happen at the end, it's a great mystery. Aside from all the positives maintained from the previous book though this also had some positive new surprises. The characters from the previous book are developed very nicely and some, who had no particularly important part before, start to reveal interesting histories of their own. The sense of unravelling these individual stories to see the bigger picture is part of what keeps this book so tense and interesting. It felt as though this book progressed into darker and more dangerous territory than the last as well, leaving an impression of a building danger that makes me really, really want the next book! The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne - A very factual adventure! One of the main features of this book, one which I think could make a reader love it or hate it, is the incredible amount of detail. It is not (like Robinson Crusoe) that Verne goes into minute detail about one aspect of the stranded men's lives, but that he details everything. The types of animals and plants, their uses, the geographical information and exact coordinates of the island (and, of course, the processes required to find all this information). The survivors become woodworkers, metalworkers, doctors, chemists, builders and everything they do to improve their lives on the island is fully explained. Most of the time I thought this was actually quite interesting and clever but, as you can imagine, it sometimes made it feel as though the actual story was progressing very slowly. In a way, I found it to be a very relaxing read. Because of the amount of detail you really feel like you are fully exploring the island, which is mostly wonderful (although, perhaps, not always possible.) The mystery of the island was enough to keep me intrigued though and I genuinely had no idea what it would turn out to be. Two points which annoyed me slightly, although it wasn't the fault of the story - I had an edition with notes in the back (wordsworth classics) which I usually like and I though would be particularly useful for this book - there are barely notes for the length of the book and most of them are just to say 'this can't really happen', 'this is wrong' etc. So I wouldn't recommend that edition if you want explanatory notes. The other thing was that I had heard this book is related slightly to 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea' (which I also have on my to-read list) but this book actually tells you something about a character which gives away the ending of 'Twenty Thousand Leagues.' So if you want the ending to be a surprise, don't read this book first!

I really can't believe how long it has been since I updated this thread! I could have sworn I had reviewed The Blade Itself! I think I might have accidentally put it in my normal reading thread last year I actually just came to say that since I'm doing this challenge alongside my other reading and this thread doesn't get updated very often (REALLY not very often apparently!) I'm going to move future progress updates to my 2016 reading thread. I'm assuming this thread doesn't need to be closed because I'm not actually merging the two threads, but if I'm wrong and a friendly mod happens to be passing, please feel free to move it!

Glad to see you're having a good reading year so far I'm already about 3 books behind according to Goodreads Lolly Willowes does sound really interesting! I was surprised to see how early it was written! Might have to give it a try

I don't read e-books because I find it hard to read from a screen for a long time. I have a kindle fire now but I use it more like an easily portable laptop than an e-reader. I did try to use it to read and I do use it to make notes in books when I'm working sometimes, or to search for a word in a book, but I've never been able to sit and read a whole book from it. I have never tried an e-reader with the special screen for reading though (is it called paperwhite, or is that a make?) so maybe it would be different with one of those. I like paper books anyway. I like being able to browse through them in a shop, see the cover, physically see how far through it you are. And, of course, there is the new book smell (or really old book smell - even better!) which you don't get from an e-reader

Firewatch sounds interesting but do you actually do anything other than walk through the story and choose dialogue options? Like puzzles or crafting? I played Dear Ester with a friend and was a little disappointed that there wasn't more to the game. In fact, I would call it more of an interactive story than a game. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't constantly been expecting to have to do something, only to find that I had reached the end Miasmata is good but I found it quite freaky I never got round to finishing it either, I really should! I've been playing Night of the Rabbit recently. I got it in a Humble Bundle a while ago and thought it looked pretty. It's also by Daedalic Entertainment, the company that developed the 'Deponia' games which I loved. So far it's really good

I know I'm a bit late but I just saw this and it made me laugh. Your instructions are obviously good though because you do always have a very nicely organised thread! It's a shame about the poor romance and ending in The Love That Split the World, the synopsis did sound promising and it's always annoying when you feel like a book wasn't as good as it could have been. Like Athena, I hope your next read will be better

I've never tried Coq au Vin but it sounds (and looks) like it would be very nice. I don't have my own garden so the only thing I can really say I bought and cooked with is a potted basil plant which I used on pizza. Not exactly on the same level I think the nicest local thing I've had was honey from a man who lives just a couple of roads away from me. I really love honey though so it would have been unusual if I didn't like it

Hi I haven't read any of the books you're reading at the moment but I've heard good things about the first two, I hope you're enjoying them!

Probably tomato sauce. Unless they're really nice chip shop chips, then just salt and vinegar. I like chips and gravy but I would only really have that if the meal had gravy - like pie and chips with gravy. If I had lasagne I would dip them in that (that's one of my favourites!). Beans are good too. I never liked mayonnaise though! When I had my flat (at uni), if I was really hungry and didn't have much money to go and buy food, I would cook really cheap frozen chips and put them in a casserole dish, then pour a tin of beans on top - and then grate some cheese on top of that if I happened to have any. Probably not the most nutritious thing I ever ate but very satisfying when you're hungry

Still reading ​The Mysterious Island ​but I think I'm going to have to pause reading it for a little while because (and I am VERY excited about this) I just received ​Fever of the Blood ​by Oscar de Muriel! I got it from a goodreads giveaway, it isn't actually out until the 11th and it came with a signed cover, a poster and the first book ​The Strings of Murder ​(which I did already have but my copy was from a charity shop so nice to have a shiny new one). I can't resist reading it early so change of reading plan ​

I just bought ​The Silkworm ​without realising it was part of a series (since it doesn't actually say it is on the cover - it just says 'by the author of the international bestseller The Cuckoo's Calling'). Does anyone who's read both know if Cuckoo's Calling needs to be read first, or if I can just read ​The Silkworm ​as a standalone book?

I'm glad you're all thinking of looking at ​The Miniaturist​, it definitely wasn't perfect (to me, anyway) for the reasons above but it's not quite like anything I've ever read before either and it made me stay up until about half past two in the morning to find out what happens at the end so that has to be a positive I only found out about it a couple of years ago when someone at my university mentioned it, I couldn't believe I'd never been before! The café looks really nice, although I've never eaten there because I'm usually feeling too guilty about all the books I just bought to also stuff my face with cake . Did they have the upstairs part for children the last time you went? Could be a good distraction for a 3 year old Quick book update: I am reading ​The Mysterious Island ​but I expect it's going to take me a while to finish it. It's really interesting so far, but also what I would describe as 'dense'. It has a ​lot ​of information (often scientific / technological / mathematical information) packed into each chapter, so I feel as though I have to read it slowly to take everything in (and sometimes have to read the same section three times before I actually understand it ). I suspect the pace might pick up later in the story but I'll see ​ ​

Hi your profile picture looks delicious ​

I have no idea but I'm intrigued as to why you only have these two small circles of the cover to work out the name of the author. What is it for?

Thank you Athena and Kylie I'm glad it's going on more reading lists, it really is worth reading! I decided to read ​The Miniaturist ​next and finished it this morning so... ​The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton - ​​Page Turner The best thing about this book is that it constantly maintains a sense of mystery. I literally couldn't put it down sometimes because I ​had ​to find out what the explanation was. For that reason it was brilliant. I love the idea of the cabinet (containing a miniature version of the character's house) which the book is based on. It might be because I used to really love tiny dollhouse things as a child, my seven year old self really wanted the cabinet . There's also a slightly magical edge that runs throughout the book which I liked. Although the book is set in the late 1600's it deals with some serious issues that are still very relevant to modern times, mainly gender equality but also racism and homophobia. There were two reasons I didn't completely love it. The main reason is that I wanted more to be explained and revealed. There were elements of the plot that I was expecting to return later but they just never did. To be fair I never like it when things are left unanswered in a book, and this is definitely not the only book to leave you guessing on a few points, but it almost felt as though parts had been cut out in some cases. The second, which is partly related to the first, is that although I really liked the characters in the book generally and thought they were well done, very occasionally they did things that I just didn't get. I felt like the action, or reaction, needed more explanation as to why it fit the character. These negatives by no means ruined the book, they're just small personal things. I suppose basically I just wanted it to be longer I still really enjoyed reading it and would recommend it to other people to read. I'm thinking of reading some Jules Verne next, probably ​The Mysterious Island