I'm glad you all like my opening quote. So true, isn't it?

From the old thread: Amira, you make some excellent points about Breaking Dawn. I was actually wondering if, in the film version,

AitB, regarding Jane Eyre:

I do love the new spoiler feature!

I read the first two Inkheart books and found them engaging, though definitely in need of some trimming. They both seemed a little bloated and over-written for their plots. But having said that, I did enjoy them and plan on rereading the first two so I can read the third one (which I recently acquired via PBS).

Good thoughts on Silas Marner, FF. I think you can learn to appreciate both complex and simple works if you make it a point to toggle back and forth between them. I find that it's fun to read a classic book and then jump into something completely different for my next book, and vice versa. It keeps my reading fresh

I decided to do a rather impromptu re-read of Persuasion today, as I recently re-watched the '95 version.

I love impromptu rereads! You just pick something up on the spur of the moment. Fun. (And I adore the 1995 adaptation! Hmm, maybe I need to reread Persuasion...)

Nice reviews, starkat! The only thing I would suggest is ending with your reaction/thoughts about the book rather than plot summary. Plot summaries are great and certainly necessary, but I find myself wanting to know why you like the book and why I might too. Just a suggestion

Finally dived into BookMooch...it's great

See what patient, long-suffering peer pressure can accomplish?

I would like to announce that I talked my twelve-year-old sister into reading Pride & Prejudice. She wanted to try Les Miserables (she's very ambitious) but I thought she had better start with a slightly less heavy classic.

Hey, welcome back Fauny! I agree that P&P is probably a better place to start with "classics" than Les Misérables! I would hate for someone to develop a dislike for classic books just because they read them too early. We were sort of discussing that in the old thread when the forum changed... Let us know how she likes P&P. Is she familiar with the story from movie versions?

Welcome to the Books thread, Peregrin! I need to read more MacDonald; I think I have only read his book The Wise Woman (and that because a friend gave it to me, because of my username). I always hear what an influence he was on Lewis.

I got a bit bored of him goign on and i felt like skipping a couple of pages but i didn't.

Yay, I'm proud you stuck it out!

I am continuing in my audiobook of The Mystery of the Yellow Room. I always have to leave off at the most interesting/tense moments!

Hello all.

I wanted to say that I love the quote by WW. Great job. I also love the new forum. The layout is wonderful, and the new parts, like the spoiler tags, are neat. Quick question: are the spoiler tags done the same way as the spoiler boxes were before? Great job on the layout and rollout, mods and admins.

I'm going to be starting on The Hobbit and LOTR in the next few days. I'll also be reading The Queen of Attolia. I will have reviews for Alice in Wonderland and Fahrenheit 451 in the next few days, as soon as I get caught up on my homework. One of the drawbacks of graduate school.

arabesque, I'm glad that you found The Ranger's Apprentice series. It is not the best writing, in my opinion, but it is good, and the characterization and mythology are top-notch. Also, as a former military guy I really enjoy the spot-on descriptions of the tactics, rank structure, military atmosphere, and military life in general, in the books.

How have you fared so far on BookMooch, Alyosha? What's your username on there?

Anyways, I'm off for now. God bless all.

I bid you all adieu.

Yes, it's Dragonspell, DiGoRyKiRkE. I loved the plot, I love the entire series, in fact. They really are very good.

Lol. Cast of characters from a Star Wars set, Meltintalle? Well the whole series, in order, is: Dragonspell, Dragonquest, Dragonknight, Dragonfire, and Dragonlight. You should go back and read book one! It's very good.

I don't think I could ever join BookMooch; I don't want to get rid of any of my books. Well, maybe my really sweet copy of 1984. It was a terrible book, but the cover is so cool.

My family watched the Beckinsdale Emma last night and I had a question about one of the plot points.

Nice reviews, starkat! The only thing I would suggest is ending with your reaction/thoughts about the book rather than plot summary. Plot summaries are great and certainly necessary, but I find myself wanting to know why you like the book and why I might too. Just a suggestion

The big problem with that is I can't write in first person for these. I have a tendency to write that part this way. Something to work on I guess. Thanks.

I am reading lord of the rings the fellow ship of the ring at the moment.

It is a really good book. I would give it 9.5/10. I would of gave it 10 if gandolf didn't go on so much in that discussion they had. I got a bit bored of him goign on and i felt like skipping a couple of pages but i didn't.

ILF! I am so proud of you right now! Did you read the Hobbit already? That one is a bit easier and is almost required to really understand what's happening in FotR in more detail. It's not required, but it helps. The Gandalf speech thing...is that The Council of Elrond chapter? I really loved that chapter but I have talked to a lot of people who just couldn't get past it. But then I'm a sucker for good history (even if it's fictional ) and that chapter was loaded with it.

Yes, it's Dragonspell, DiGoRyKiRkE. I loved the plot, I love the entire series, in fact. They really are very good.

Lol. Cast of characters from a Star Wars set, Meltintalle? Well the whole series, in order, is: Dragonspell, Dragonquest, Dragonknight, Dragonfire, and Dragonlight. You should go back and read book one! It's very good.

Really? Well, I'm glad you liked them, beacause I read about half of the first book and then had to give up on it because I thought the writing quality was just so terrible. >_> Don't get me wrong, it's great that they're Christian books and everything, and I'm sure there's an intriguing story in there somewhere, but I guess they just aren't for me.

kate:

boy, i love these new spoiiler boxes !that is my favorite movie adaption of emma! it's much closer to the book than the one with gyeneth paltrow. and the characters are more how i imagined them too.

Hello! I'm popping into this thread and hope to stay for a loong time!

I just finished re-reading 4:50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie. I love that book! One of my favourite things is that

You know you've read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend.

Haven't all booklovers felt this way?

I always feel this way when I finish a book. Right now, I have a couple of books that I don't want to read right now because I know I'll rush and finish them really quickly because of college and I want to take time to read them and really enjoy them. I don't want to rush and feel that I've finished reading the books too soon...

Woooo ... a lot of catch-up to do.

Old Forum
So I suppose someone already posted that ultra-condensed version of Twilight? Great. It was probably mara, as likely as not. That girl ... always stealing my thunder.

Aww, no love for The Sil! So sad. I think it contains some of the most heartbreakingly beautiful sentences Tolkien ever wrote.

It does feature some beautiful writing, I agree. And some great philosophical thoughts and world-building. But it is so very dull. The glimpses we get of Middle-Earth in its earlier ages in LotR are so powerful and mysterious and elegiac ... when I came to read the "real thing" I was almost invariably disappointed. (Lewis actually speaks of this kind of disappointment in an early chapter of The Screwtape Letters, a quote I love. I'm actually thinking of writing a short Facebook note on the theme of disappointment in literature, using quotes from Screwtape, Middlemarch, and The Bell at Sealey Head. [/random geeky rant])

I started a Morris book online several years ago, got about halfway, and gave up. If I recall rightly the prose was beautiful but the story never seemed to go anywhere, and of course the protagonist falls in love with every beautiful girl he sees (which happens to be every girl he sees), much as in MacDonald's Phantastes.

That does sound like Phantastes, right down to the beautiful prose and the story not going anywhere. Fascinating.

Aww, no love for my poor, beloved Silas Marner! I can see how some might not like Eliot's style (though they must be utterly mad ), or Victorian writing in general, but too long? Honestly, the book is one of the skinniest classics in existence already. Eliot's prose is so beautiful, too, I want to bask in it - and the misty pastoral atmosphere she invokes in Marner is wonderfully unique. The criticism that the story is simplistic makes more sense to me, but does every book have to be groundbreaking? I always think people approach this story in the utterly wrong way (and high school English teachers are probably a large part of it); I like to think of it as a folktale of some sort that Eliot found and expanded to suit her needs. And the redemptive aspect of the story is just so powerful.

(By the bye, I was probably younger than 15 when I read this, DiGs, so it's not exclusively a matter of experience equaling enjoyment. Of course, I also fell in love with Shakespeare at the age of 6, so perhaps I'm just odd. )

The Moonstone moves pretty quickly. I forget if that one or The Woman in White was my first Wilkie Collins book.

That leads me to a question (which I open up to the whole NarniaWeb community) ... which should I read first? I bought both within a few weeks of each other and they are each riding high on my reading list. Decisions are so difficult, at least when it comes to reading.

I'll be fascinated to know what you end up thinking about The Mystery of the Yellow Room, Amy. It seems you're enjoying it so far, so I'm glad.

New Forum
You liked Marner less than Deronda, Fanny? Really? I guess I shouldn't be surprised, considering how little liked the former is hereabouts, but I find it so superior to DD in terms of theme, story, and structure. Ah well.

*is glad to see both Alyosha and Fauny about*

Those who have read the other Psmith books: aren't I correct in thinking that the earlier books don't focus as closely on him, and belong more to Wodehouse's "school" genre of writing than his later, purer style of comedy? I'm sure I'll pick up the others at some point, but I've been lead to understand that Leave it to Psmith is on the whole one of a kind. A pity ... I wish Wodehouse had written his further adventures.

*is glad ILF is enjoying LotR so much* I agree that "The Council of Elrond" chapter can go on a bit ... but there are also some fascinating concepts in there (victory only being possible under a mask of folly, etc.)

On a lark, I picked up The Importance of Being Earnest yesterday, read it in a couple hours, and just reviewed it on LibraryThing. I loved some of the lines and characters, which reminded me distinctly of the little Wodehouse I'd read (indolent, spoiled gentleman, thoughtful butler, Gorgon-like aunt), but I didn't feel as if I could really relate to them. Fun, but not a favorite.

I also posted a review of The World of Opera. Now I only have four more to go before I'm caught up!

I won DragonSpell (signed!) in a contest last year...I suppose I should read it sometime

I've spent way more time book shopping than reading this summer, I think I have to keep moving my books around to make room for them all. Oh the pain. Today I braved the adult-fiction-mostly-romance shelf for the first time in years and found three Dorothy Sayers (Have His Carcase, Five Red Herrings, Unnatural Death) which was quite the serendipity since my library has exactly ONE Lord Peter book. Shocking! Maybe BC isn't so deprived after all, Valia.

Fauny! Glad you're still around!

Those who have read the other Psmith books: aren't I correct in thinking that the earlier books don't focus as closely on him, and belong more to Wodehouse's "school" genre of writing than his later, purer style of comedy? I'm sure I'll pick up the others at some point, but I've been lead to understand that Leave it to Psmith is on the whole one of a kind. A pity ... I wish Wodehouse had written his further adventures.

Pretty much (though only Mike and Psmith actually takes place at school--and I think they all focus on Psmith fairly equally, though they're often in Mike's POV). They're less epic. If you liked Leave it to Psmith you might try the other Blandings books--though I can only speak for one of them (Something Fresh).

Thanks for the IoBE review--I found picked it up for fifty cents a few weeks ago and need to get around to reading beyond the first five pages sometime. You're right, he does seem Wodehouse-esque.

See what patient, long-suffering peer pressure can accomplish?

Yep, the delinquent soul come at last to repentance, that's me. I am having much fun dispatching my ten copies of The Giver all over the continent.

First post in the new forum and still trying to get used to it! (I am a bit clumsy today )
Great quote to start this thread, how very true it is.
ForeverFan: yes, it was me. Thank you for the information, I always like to find new bibliography about Queen Victoria, she is one of my favourite historical characters.
Phosphorus: you summed up pretty well Bonnie Prince Charlie, with his good qualities and his flaws. I thnk I'll always prefer Stuart to Hanover, I understand their reasons better, and they appeal to the romantic side in me.
Mar in Narnia: 4.50 was the one about the Crackenthorpes? Ooh, if it is, what a good book. But I have one question about the end:

Lysander: very good point about LotR being elegiac, that was one of the things that I most liked about the book. Tolkien always defended that Beowulf, apart from a great epic poem, was primarily an elegy and highlighted the elegiac passages in there. After studying that, I was not surprised when I read LotR and found such a high, elegiac style so wonderfully done.
It is very interesting what you say about your disappointment with The Silmarillion, because Tolkien himself said something similar in some of his letters. He said that a story has to be written or there won't be a story, but the stories that are not told are the most moving, because they are not told. I don't remember much more, but I can look it up.

Finally! After my third attempt I can post! (I am very clumsy today)

Well, I will admit that out of the series the first book is my least favorite, Mr Anderson. But I love the author's writing style. Different people like different things, I guess.

Cool! That's neat that you won Dragonspell in a contest, Alyosha.

About a month ago I finished the Oracles of Fire series by Bryan Davis. They are so good! I love fantasy books, and Bryan Davis writes very well. Also, I'm now working on rereading Isle of Fire by Wayne Thomas Batson.

I finished Persuasion yesterday, what a lovely re-read. *happy sigh* (Allow me to indulge. ) It took me a bit to get re-acquainted with Austen's style of writing, sometimes I had to re-read a paragraph slowly once or twice to be able to actually get the meaning behind her words, and the right 'tone' of how they should be read, but it didn't take me long, so I didn't mind. I enjoyed the characters (excepting the ones that are not supposed to be enjoyed, but just tolerated), and also, I read the alternate/original ending for the first time. It was sweet- but I'm not sure I like it over the one that's now in place.

Faun_song: Good for you! Yes, I would definitely agree Pride & Prejudice is a better one to start on.

ww, thanks for the tip! I'm trying that now, opting to read a more recently written YA fiction (which is still somewhat long, 300+ pages) after reading a Jane Austen.

I agree about impromptu reads, although often, since I have other books that have been waiting to be read for sometime, I don't let myself do that.

Welcome to the books thread, Mar!

Lys
Perhaps in Marner the themes, stories & structures are better, (and I'm not saying I hated the book. It was good in it's own right, and I think that for me to say I disliked it solely on the grounds it was 'too' simple isn't fair. There were some parts that made me stop and think, and the book seemed to have more to it, then say, Under The Greenwood Tree, which was also a simple plot, but left me feeling unsatisfied), but in Deronda I found I enjoyed the characters so much more. While I did like Silas Marner (the character), I enjoyed Daniel's character more, especially how he took in the actions and lives of others, most likely because I could sympathize, and found that at times I could identify with Daniel's struggles and wonders.

I *would* agree that the idea that it's too long to me doesn't make that much sense...because it's not really long enough to make it be too long. But then, I would suppose that if someone was forced to read it during school or the like, and didn't enjoy it, anything could seem too long.

About whether you should read The Woman in White or The Moonstone first, I would say it doesn't matter. I read the former first, but enjoyed the latter moreso. Both are very good reads, and quite intriguing/hard to put down.

Amira Tair, no problem! Yes- I certainly found Victoria to be a very interesting, and strong person.

I picked up Castaways of the Flying Dutchman by Brian Jacques and the following sequel one or two weeks ago, so I've started of Castaways. No idea if I'll enjoy the story or not, I'm not far enough in to say, but it came recommended from one or two people, so we'll see. Anyone else read it? And if so, what did they think?

O my goodness! i just finished Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and
*SPOILER*
. all who have read this please discuss and don't tell me anything important from HP7 because i have yet to read it.