poppy Posted July 1, 2011 Share Posted July 1, 2011 (edited) I'm a little bit hesitant about doing this, I don't keep a Reading List because my reading is rather erratic, but I recently did a 30 day music challenge and it was a lot of fun, so here goes ........ Day 01 – Best book you read last year Day 02 – A book that you’ve read more than 3 times Day 03 – Your favourite series Day 04 – Favourite book of your favourite series Day 05 – A book that makes you happy Day 06 – A book that makes you sad Day 07 – Most underrated book Day 08 – Most overrated book Day 09 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving Day 10 – Favourite classic book Day 11 – A book you hated Day 12 – A book you used to love but don’t anymore Day 13 – Your favourite writer Day 14 – Favourite book of your favourite writer Day 15 – Favourite male character Day 16 – Favourite female character Day 17 – Favourite quote from your favourite book Day 18 – A book that disappointed you Day 19 – Favourite book turned into a movie Day 20 – Favourite romance book Day 21 – Favourite book from your childhood Day 22 – Favourite book you own Day 23 – A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t Day 24 – A book that you wish more people would’ve read Day 25 – A character who you can relate to the most Day 26 – A book that changed your opinion about something Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending Day 28 – Favourite title Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked Day 30 – Your favourite book of all time Day 1. Best book you read last year ~ Stardust by Neil Gaiman This would be my favourite fantasy book ever, it was absolutely delightful. Edited July 1, 2011 by poppy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted July 2, 2011 Author Share Posted July 2, 2011 Day 2. A book you've read more than three times The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley This story begins with five cousins having an idyllic summer holiday on the coast of Cornwall just prior to WWII and then follows their rather unihibited lives through the war and beyond. I very much like Mary Wesley's writing, her backgrounds are very English middle class, but she always has quite eccentric, unconventional characters. I read her autobiography and her own life was pretty wild and unconventional so this would have formed a good background for her writing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissy Posted July 2, 2011 Share Posted July 2, 2011 Having read a few Neil Gaiman's 'Stardust' is on my must read list, and now I will be adding 'The Camomile Lawn', a book I have never really thought of reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesilbeach Posted July 2, 2011 Share Posted July 2, 2011 I love Mary Wesley's books too, poppy! I think The Camomile Lawn is fabulous, but have to admit, that my most re-read of hers would be Harnessing Peacocks. Haven't read any of them for ages though, but I do have her biography, Wild Mary, on my TBR shelf and must get round to it one day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted July 2, 2011 Author Share Posted July 2, 2011 I'm glad you enjoy her books too chesilbeach, I haven't seen anyone else mention her. I haven't read any for a while now, but every so often I go through a stage of reading them all again. I like how you get some of the same characters intertwined in all her books, although each book is a totally different story. Yes, 'Harnessing Peacocks' was very enjoyable and I loved 'The Vacillations of Poppy Carew' too (I think that might have influenced my username choice ) I didn't quite make it through her whole biography, it got quite depressing towards the end, but she was certainly a wild child in her time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easy Reader Posted July 2, 2011 Share Posted July 2, 2011 I'm glad you enjoy her books too chesilbeach, I haven't seen anyone else mention her. As soon as I saw your first post on Mary Wesley my first thought was "I don't think I have seen her mentioned on here" I read all her books one straight after the other and a few years ago I gave them all the charity have regretted it ever since I wouldn't mind re-reading them esp as over time my memories have faded too much. I also have her biography but it is as yet unread Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted July 3, 2011 Author Share Posted July 3, 2011 As soon as I saw your first post on Mary Wesley my first thought was "I don't think I have seen her mentioned on here" I read all her books one straight after the other and a few years ago I gave them all the charity have regretted it ever since I wouldn't mind re-reading them esp as over time my memories have faded too much. I also have her biography but it is as yet unread They're certainly worth a re-read. The benefits of a dodgy memory ....you get to enjoy books all over again and it's almost like the first time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted July 3, 2011 Author Share Posted July 3, 2011 Day 3. Your favourite series I don't know if it really qualifies for a series as it's roughly autobiographical, but I'm going to put Gerald Durrell's books about his childhood on Corfu Island here. They include My Family and Other Animals ; Birds, Beasts, and Relatives and Garden of the Gods. This is between 1935 and 1939 and life on Corfu is absolutely idyllic. His mother is a widow and has to try and manage four unruly children. She is my heroine. She copes with all sorts of creatures being kept in Gerald's bedroom, sometimes accompanied by dreadful smells because a taxidermy experiment didn't quite work and scorpions being let out at the dinner table because they were mistaken for matches. The others are just as bad. Leslie is gun crazy and prone to let off volleys of shots from his window in the middle of the night, shattering everyone's nerves. Larry (well known auther Lawrence Durrell) is a budding writer and forever inviting eccentric friends to stay for indefinite periods without giving his long-suffering mother any warning. And Margot who keeps falling in love and moping round and shutting herself away in her bedroom. They really are the most delightful and funny books, there are such a wonderful array of characters, both human and animal. Highly recommend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easy Reader Posted July 3, 2011 Share Posted July 3, 2011 They're certainly worth a re-read. The benefits of a dodgy memory ....you get to enjoy books all over again and it's almost like the first time Thats a very good point but I am in the middle of sorting out my books and realise I need to dispatch of some read ones and read all the others as my shelves simply aren't big enough to hold them all so re-aquiring books isn't an option at the moment. (might see if you can download them on to kindle though ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted July 4, 2011 Author Share Posted July 4, 2011 Day 4. Favourite book from favourite series ~ My Family and Other Animals. This starts with the Durrells in the midst of a miserable wet summer, each nursing various ailments and dreaming of warmer climates. Larry, the eldest suggests selling up and moving to Greece. 'I can't do that, dear,' said Mother, shocked. 'Why not?' 'But I've only just bought it.' 'Sell it while it's still untarnished, then.' 'Don't be ridiculous, dear,' said Mother firmly. 'that's quite out of the question. It would be madness.' So we sold the house and fled from the gloom of the English summer, like a flock of migrating swallows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janet Posted July 4, 2011 Share Posted July 4, 2011 I loved that book. Such beautiful writing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted July 4, 2011 Author Share Posted July 4, 2011 I think he's a very good writer too Janet and I love his sense of humour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted July 4, 2011 Author Share Posted July 4, 2011 Day 5. A book that makes you happy. Anything by P.G.Wodehouse, especially his Jeeves and Wooster books. A very funny, witty writer. He comes out with such gems as ~ "I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled." "A melancholy-looking man, he had the appearance of someone who had searched for the leak in life's gas pipe with a lighted candle." "I don't want to wrong anybody, so I won't go so far as to say that she actually wrote poetry, but her conversation, to my mind, was of a nature calculated to excite the liveliest of suspicions. Well, I mean to say, when a girl suddenly asks you out of a blue sky if you don't sometimes feel that the stars are God's daisy-chain, you begin to think a bit." "I know I was writing stories when I was five. I don't know what I did before that . . . just loafed, I suppose." Pure escapism Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kylie Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 Ah, Wodehouse. He's such a brilliant writer isn't he? He has the best one-liners ever...and there are so many of them to enjoy! Gosh I wish I had time to read all my books. My Family and Other Animals is one I've had for a while and I know that Janet especially has always raved about it. I have no doubt that I'm going to love it, but for some reason it never makes it to the top of the TBR pile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted July 5, 2011 Author Share Posted July 5, 2011 Ah, Wodehouse. He's such a brilliant writer isn't he? He has the best one-liners ever...and there are so many of them to enjoy! I thought of you when I wrote this Kylie and I was just reading Poppyshake's Book List and see PG Wodehouse is her happy place to go too (as well as Bill Bryson, another shared favourite) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppyshake Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 I love your Wodehouse quotes Poppy his books are always full of gems like those and I love all his abbreviations and nicknames too. I've never read any of Gerald Durrell's books though I feel I know them from TV etc, you never get the full picture though until you actually read the stories they were adapted from and you have inspired me to add them to my lists Poppy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted July 5, 2011 Author Share Posted July 5, 2011 (edited) I love your Wodehouse quotes Poppy his books are always full of gems like those and I love all his abbreviations and nicknames too. I've never read any of Gerald Durrell's books though I feel I know them from TV etc, you never get the full picture though until you actually read the stories they were adapted from and you have inspired me to add them to my lists Poppy Oh yes Poppyshake, his characters names are gorgeous. Gussie Finknottle, the newt fancier; Tuppy Glossop; Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright; Stiffy Byng; Pongo Twistleton. Have you read his Blandings series about Lord Emsworth and his prize pig Empress of Blandings? Very funny too. You're right 'My Family and Other Animals' was a TV series and it was very good indeed, but nothing beats reading the books. Edited July 5, 2011 by poppy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted July 5, 2011 Author Share Posted July 5, 2011 Day 6. A book that makes you sad. I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb This is an excellent book but contains a lot of sadness. The story of identical twins, one with schizophrenia, the other normal but whose life is almost as difficult. I found this quite a harrowing read but am glad I read it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kylie Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 I thought of you when I wrote this Kylie and I was just reading Poppyshake's Book List and see PG Wodehouse is her happy place to go too (as well as Bill Bryson, another shared favourite) I have rather a large number of Wodehouse's to read. I was disappointed to see that I haven't read any so far this year. I'll have to remedy that very soon. I can't recall, Poppy...have you read The Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weave Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Day 1. Best book you read last year ~ Stardust by Neil Gaiman This would be my favourite fantasy book ever, it was absolutely delightful. I agree with you wholeheartedly poppy, 'Stardust' is a fantastic read Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roland Butter Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 Oh yes Poppyshake, his characters names are gorgeous. Gussie Finknottle, the newt fancier; Tuppy Glossop; Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright; Stiffy Byng; Pongo Twistleton. Have you read his Blandings series about Lord Emsworth and his prize pig Empress of Blandings? Very funny too. I quote from yesterday's Guardian, poppy: First test of an Olympic venue draws protesters ...Inside, scores of children from nearby schools watched bemused as the British three-day eventer Piggy French put her horse through its dressage paces ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted July 6, 2011 Author Share Posted July 6, 2011 I quote from yesterday's Guardian, poppy: First test of an Olympic venue draws protesters ...Inside, scores of children from nearby schools watched bemused as the British three-day eventer Piggy French put her horse through its dressage paces ... Funny. I think it must be a British thing, much more imaginative than here where people merely get an O or A whacked on the end of their names, often with a Z for good measure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted July 6, 2011 Author Share Posted July 6, 2011 I I can't recall, Poppy...have you read The Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith? No, I haven't Kylie, and I can't find it listed at our library either, but I'll write it down for future reference, thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted July 6, 2011 Author Share Posted July 6, 2011 Day 7. Most underrated book Flash House by Aimee Liu I don't know if this book is generally underrated but I've never seen it mentioned. It's a multi-layered story, part political, part love story, part rescue mission. Joanna Shaw's husband, a political journalist, has gone missing and she sets out with her small son, her husband's best friend and Kamla, a street child she has rescued from a 'Flash House', to search for him. This leads them to the mountainous and dangerous area of Kashmir. It is far more than just an adventure story and asks the question what our real motivations are when we presume to help others. I found this a very thought-provoking book deserving more recognition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted July 7, 2011 Author Share Posted July 7, 2011 (edited) Day 8. Most over-rated book The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. This is probably a bit unfair, as it is beautifully written book but it just about drove me crazy. I usually love this kind of book and it had that very English feel about it which was quite surprising given that the author is Japanese (although raised in the UK). It was the slowness and the pedantic ramblings of Stevens, the butler, that I found so infuriating and the fact that he was so unemotional and unprepared to show his true feelings (though I began to wonder if he really had any.) Even when his father was dying, he put duty to his employer first. I just wanted to shake the man. Edited July 7, 2011 by poppy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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