BOOKS!

[mehrfarbig]

I'm re-reading Harry Potter.

Plus Barefoot in the Dark and Blacknarcissus.

Good times.

Chicklit for when I cba and proper books for when I can. ha

[Darkness]

Finished Dara O'Briain's Tickling the English. Am now about half way through Frankie Boyle's My Sh*t Life So Far.

[Darkness]

Bought 2 books recently
- Our Tragic Universe by Scarlett Thomas
- The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim by Jonathan Coe
Both new hardbacks. Mmmm. Sniff to smell the newness......

[Darkness]

Just ordered Jo Brand's autobiography, "Look Back in Hunger".

[Darkness]

Have ordered "Thanks for Nothing" by Jack Dee.

[mehrfarbig]

It by Stephen King...

It is unfortunately stealing my "studying" time.

I've also just read the new Darren Shan book about Larton Crepsley

[Goblin King]

This is could - I thought you were about to post about your German text book.

Discovered a funny fact today. I went to a photocopy/printers' place and they didn't charge VAT on a spiral bound print out. Apparently if they so much as staple the corners of a print-out it's classed as a book and is therefore charged without VAT, like books are.
Most curious!
(We nearly had an argument about paper sizes ... Apparently their printer would reject anything set up for US Letter size, when I foolishly assumed they could simply reduce the US Letter size to fit A4, as you can in nearly all printers - it was an American PDF, but apparently I was missing the point somehow. Fortunately it all worked in the end. So much for one of my first attempt to turn an e-book into a "real" book!)

[mehrfarbig]

lol

Currently reading Thin Executioner AND City of Snakes by Darren Shan

Nothing like shiny new books, usually I read library books, cheaper and more ethical!

[Goblin King]

Tesco has been a good source of random books from Santa.

[Goblin King]

My Lulu purchases arrived!
Dark Dungeons: darkdungeonsblog.wordpress.com/printed-books/
And ...blah, blah, history of Trollword: www.lulu.com/product/paperback/a-fragmentary-history-of-trollworld/12988390

[Goblin King]

I'm finally getting into Iain M Bank's Matter.
(Darkness has bought me a new one for Christmas so it's only right that I try to read this one first! )

[mehrfarbig]

Reading the Exorcist and Catcher in the Rhye.

[Goblin King]

*winces*
I'd follow those books with some light comedies if I were you Merf.

I received quite a few interesting books from loved ones for Christmas. I may have to compile a list and post it here.

[mehrfarbig]

Part of my reading challenge

[Goblin King]

Although these books are never quite in the right place when I fancy reading them, part of my bumper book hoard included:

From Darkness:

Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms
www.amazon.co.uk/Fantasy-Freaks-Gaming-Geeks-Imaginary/dp/0762756756
Just My Type: A Book About Fonts
www.amazon.co.uk/Just-My-Type-About-Fonts/dp/1846683017/
(strangely compelling!)


The release of TV Go Home - which is revolting!
www.amazon.co.uk/TV-Go-Home-Charlie-Brooker/dp/0571272193/


A History of the World in 100 Objects
www.amazon.co.uk/History-World-100-Objects/dp/1846144132/
- in all not a bad choice by my parents

[Count Überquart]

I considered Just My Type for my dad.
but bought him How Music Works instead, at great expense.
But buying books for my father is a brilliant alternative to reading them yourself. If it's any good, the next time you see him he tells you about it in great detail. If it's rubbish, it's never spoken of again.


...I still haven't figured out how to read.
I LOVE Elvis, but he's bad for my intellectual-ness.

[Goblin King]

Elvis will serve you better than any musty old tomes.
Heh, I think the never-mention-again is an official review technique. ;D
Just My Type is definitely a "dad" book - sort of informative, anecdotal with occasional droll humour.

[Darkness]

I have recently read -

Mock the Week - next year's book
The Armstrong and Miller book
A Simples Life, by Aleksandr Orlov.

I am now getting stuck into the Mitchell and Webb Book.

[Darkness]

In hospital, I read the other 2 Mock the Week books. Now I'm home, I'm reading An Idiot Abroad by the very speshul genius that is Karl Pilkington.

[Darkness]

Currently reading a children's book - Lily Alone by Jacqueline Wilson.

Also yesterday bought When God Was a Rabbit, by Sarah Winman.

[Darkness]

Am about a third of the way through "I, Partridge", by Alan Partridge (with a bit of help from Steve Coogan and Armando Ianucci, etc). Tis extremely funny autobiography. I'm just at the part where he first gets his job on "On The Hour" and is meeting Christopher Morris, Rosie May and Brian O'Hanraha-Hanrahan et al for the first time.

[lollipop]

I've started Bookcrossing. Well, I went to register and found I'd already made an account 8 years ago! Which mildly amused me.

Anyway, I've registered a couple of books "to be released" but I haven't left them anywhere yet.

[lollipop]

Halfway through "The Selfish Gene" but had to put it down because it's a bit much for my cold*-fuddled brain. Read some Mr Men books but they're kinda short. Boyfriend gave me "The Wee Free Men" as something suitable for the sickbed lol. It's one of the Discworlds that are aimed at kids, I think.


*illness, not temperature

[Count Überquart]

^ Hitchhiker's Guide is very good for addled brains.
I always have one of them by my bed... Though I did once read a bit of Restaurant at the End of the Universe whilst feverish and ended up having weird delusions/hallucinations in which I was travelling through time...

[Tinkerbell]

I bought full price books today, it was painful, but they were presents so that was my justification argh!

[Goblin King]

Before I walk into bookshops now, I think of a sensible price and then double it.
I usually want a specific title that will never be on a 3 for 2 table! One, expensive book, please.
I wonder why they don't just have an Amazon ordering screen and take 20% of transactions. Or have print on demand for out of print books. I can imagine Smiths and Waterstones closing down blaming the Internet like Clintons did. Selling e-readers in book shops doesn't solve the problem unless customers can buy and download the books in the shop itself. IMHO. I am running out of surfaces in my flat to put books on. It's such a shame that books don't last long in a steamy bathroom - already got quite a few in my kitchen.

[lollipop]

I left a bookcrossing book in the street with a notice saying "Free Book!" and a little piece of paper saying something like, "I've finished with this book and I'd like to pass it on. It's yours if you want it - on one condition, that you register it at Bookcrossing.com so that I can track its progress [and details about this]". Someone picked it up just a couple of hours later but it's been days now and they still haven't registered it

My sister works in a bookshop. Apparently it's not sites like Amazon that are driving bookshops out of business, it's supermarkets (who charge pennies for books as loss leaders and change everyone's perceptions of what a book should cost).

[Darkness]

I agree with your sister, it's the supermarkets that are damaging the book trade. (I spent 10 years as senior bookseller/floor manager for Waterstones).

[Goblin King]

Bookcrossing, eh? If I was a government who wanted to monitor what people were reading, I set up a system like that. Genius!

Good points about supermarkets. I can imagine if bookshops went out of business that Tesco would then put the prices back up. Hmm. Not good.

Was reading that Ray Bradbrury despised ebooks - I guess Kindles don't burn as well as the real thing.

I need to catch up with John Carter, currently reading Warlords of Mars - all very odd, not enough Tharks so far, but the Treemen really spooked me out.

[Goblin King]

edit: "Gods of Mars"