Swallows and Amazons - I devoured those books! And The Magic Faraway Tree.
In our own time we were allowed to read books of our choice - it was just bedtime stories that had to be highbrow!
Every Saturday morning we would all tog up, walk across the mountain to the village library, chose our books, stop at the sweetshop for our weekly allowance of goodies and then walk back home via the castle clutching our library books. When you got to be in your teens, you were allowed 4 books!
Loved the Mallory Towers and St Clare's books - in fact I got them for my neighbours daughter for Christmas. The urge to go to Boarding School didn't leave me until I was about 25.
My fav all time line in a book is at the end of Lady Chatterley's Lover. 'And so John Thomas says goodnight to Lady Jane, a little droopingly but with a hopeful heart'
Ah bless. i still think it's hilarious the book was banned. Read all three versions I loved it so much. The final version was definitely the best though.
To add to my "odd" quotient...we had no tv growing up for about 6 years (when I was 12 to around 18) so we read books!! The first Christmas was a bit but my mum read us Watership Down...I get a bit twitchy if I don't have a book to read (when travelling to New York I read a full book on each journey and realished the "down" time)...BTW Out by Natso Kirino which I mentioned earlier is turning out brilliant if a bit gruesome!
Just finished my first book since starting this thread, so here comes a review...
(I'll try not give away any more of the plot than you could get by reading the back cover)
Random Acts of Heroic Love by Danny Scheinmann
1991 - Leo Deakin, a young zoologist, is devastated by the tragic death of the love of his life. As his story unfolds he tries to make sense of his life and his loss with the help (or lack of help) of his family, friends and quantum physics.
1938 - from his sickbed, Moritz Daniecki tells his son the amazing story of his life. How, as a young man, he left the love of his life to fight in the Austro-Hungarian army, was captured by the Russians, transported to Siberia, and escaped through a country in the throes of revolution and civil war.
These two stories are interspresed, with a few chapters of each at a time, with no obvious link between them. Yet there is a link between them that would only come as a shock to a halfwit (apologies if anyone has read this and didn't get it). For all that, it's still an entertaining read. The contrast between the relatively ordinary world of Leo (which makes his grief all the more easy to empathise with) and the epic struggle of Moritz could have created an uneven read. In my opinion the switches in tone and scope keep both stories fresh and interesting.
The resolution was all a bit too tidy for my liking and left me rather disappointed - I won't say more without giving anything away - but overall it gets the SVT thumbs up.
Sounds good SVT - its a shame we couldn't have a spreadsheet set up somewhere of "Recommended Reading". Not quite sure who we'd managed that on the t'interwebby tho!
Have decided the amount of books I'm reading at once is ridiculous, even for me. Am now going to make a biiiiig effort to actually finish them, one by one. (I might be gone some time!)
I will SVT, but they are all a bit "easy" reading at the moment - nowt estoric I'm afraid. I tend to find that when I am studying (as now - Diploma in Mgt leading to MBA) I need rubbish to read other times.
I've been crying with laughter at my latest book. It was given to me by Min and it's very funny indeed. It's called "how triathlon ruined my life" need I say more?
Comments
Swallows and Amazons - I devoured those books! And The Magic Faraway Tree.
In our own time we were allowed to read books of our choice - it was just bedtime stories that had to be highbrow!
Every Saturday morning we would all tog up, walk across the mountain to the village library, chose our books, stop at the sweetshop for our weekly allowance of goodies and then walk back home via the castle clutching our library books. When you got to be in your teens, you were allowed 4 books!
Loved the Mallory Towers and St Clare's books - in fact I got them for my neighbours daughter for Christmas. The urge to go to Boarding School didn't leave me until I was about 25.
My fav all time line in a book is at the end of Lady Chatterley's Lover. 'And so John Thomas says goodnight to Lady Jane, a little droopingly but with a hopeful heart'
Ah bless. i still think it's hilarious the book was banned. Read all three versions I loved it so much. The final version was definitely the best though.
Last night form the libary
Scott of the antartic (not the one by ranlph finnes)
The real forgotton solider(WW1 stuff)
The devil riders(about the charge of the light brigade)
About 2500 pages all in all. Should keep me til sunday lunch time
sorry I've not read back...
but I'm reading "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey at the moment... it's a horrific but addictive (no pun intended) read
Quite the book worm TT - I wish I had time to read that much. I don't like speed reading though, I like to take my time; digest the book.
Fienne's Race to the Pole book is very good but I've not read Scott of the Antarctic. Expect a full report Monday!
Just finished my first book since starting this thread, so here comes a review...
(I'll try not give away any more of the plot than you could get by reading the back cover)
Random Acts of Heroic Love by Danny Scheinmann
1991 - Leo Deakin, a young zoologist, is devastated by the tragic death of the love of his life. As his story unfolds he tries to make sense of his life and his loss with the help (or lack of help) of his family, friends and quantum physics.
1938 - from his sickbed, Moritz Daniecki tells his son the amazing story of his life. How, as a young man, he left the love of his life to fight in the Austro-Hungarian army, was captured by the Russians, transported to Siberia, and escaped through a country in the throes of revolution and civil war.
These two stories are interspresed, with a few chapters of each at a time, with no obvious link between them. Yet there is a link between them that would only come as a shock to a halfwit (apologies if anyone has read this and didn't get it). For all that, it's still an entertaining read. The contrast between the relatively ordinary world of Leo (which makes his grief all the more easy to empathise with) and the epic struggle of Moritz could have created an uneven read. In my opinion the switches in tone and scope keep both stories fresh and interesting.
The resolution was all a bit too tidy for my liking and left me rather disappointed - I won't say more without giving anything away - but overall it gets the SVT thumbs up.
Min - that's fine, as long as you review when finished!
I am currently reading "A Quiet Belief in Angels".
Anyone finished a book in the last couple of days?
I'm going a bit slow at the moment due to a lack of train journeys.
I am nearly done with the Long Walk to Freedom.
Am big girl and have been crying through it - awesome book!
Awww, thanks beebs. You say the nicest things.
(sniff)
I cry in books
I have a VERY active imagination
Actually, my old lit prof reckons it's empathy and compassion that makes you cry
I cried at a book today
SVT