Uh... I think we are. I couldn't remember if she was older or younger, but I think there weren't any other siblings.

Ah, right. I always, for some reason, counted Andrei's wife as one of the bunch living at Bald Hill, was it? Hence the thinking he had more then one sibling...

...of course, but War and Peace is so much more interesting. It kind of pulls you along with it.

It does- doesn't it? It's a more subtle kind of "pulling", though, which is infinitely nicer than one or two of the other kinds I've experienced with books- one being the suffocating type, where you feel like you have to read on even though in a way you're dreading what's to come, but you won't be at peace until you do find out what happens next...

Thanks for the thoughts on War and Peace, Fanny! No worries - guilting is totally welcomed by me!

Hurray!

Hmmm....2010 reading goals. As of yet, I have none. But I kept a list of what I read for this year, which has been really nice. I suppose, in the upcoming year, I'd like to read more Dickens, probably read Les Miserables, LotR & other of Tolkien's work again, and some other misc. fiction books that have been waiting for me. But that's about it for now...

I picked up A Christmas Carol yesterday, as I remembered I wanted to read it again but I thought that waiting until Christmas would be appropriate. I've read it once before and seen one movie adaptation, and while I wasn't turned off the story or anything like that, I believe I didn't have a really full appreciation and understanding of the story. I'm enjoying it now, though.

has anyone read Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reailly Giff? it's a great holiday story (far from typical)! my mom loves it! she said it's her favorite book right now!

lys, no, of course not! How can you think such a thing?

I always, for some reason, counted Andrei's wife as one of the bunch living at Bald Hill, was it?

Mmmmhmm. That sounds right. And she did live there for awhile. I always felt rather sorry for her, especially now that I can't remember her name.

it seems that handsome people are often evil

I'm taking this out of context, but isn't that a common device? I read The Master of Ballentrae by Stevenson yesterday (yay for being sick and doing nothing else all day) and the Master is described as being a very fine looking young man. I don't remember if Mr. Hyde was particularly good-looking... wasn't he described as having something 'not quite right in the face'? And being small and ugly? Oh, rats, there went that theory. (I'll try to save it by remembering that Long John Silver was a pleasant fellow...) My other example off the top of my head was Sherwood Smith's Flauvic, but I guess he doesn't really count as the other characters were pretty good looking too. *needs more examples*

So, I've finished Jo's Boys and Blessed Child! =] I'll give my thoughts on them throughout the post, I guess.

Ryan, ditto, I do like Little Men better. Jo's Boys was pretty nice; I'm glad for but I wasn't too keen on

I did enjoy Blessed Child. It was really good, and yes, suspensful. It was an awesome read, and I loved the message it gave. There were a few things here and there I didn't like very much but they were mostly minor, so I'd say that it is something I'd read again happily. =]
Now to read Thr3e...

Tell me how you like 'A Christmas Carol', Bella. And yay for more Austen books! I'm also re-reading 'Emma' now and I'm almost finished, actually. 'Mansfield Park' is the only Austen novel I have yet to read. I'm asking for 'Les Misérables' for Christmas, even though I haven't read it yet. So it looks like we'll be reading the same novels in about the same time period.

Will do.
Yes, yay for more Jane Austen books! I just started Mansfield Park yesterday, and I liked the...10 or so pages I read of it, but I had to put it down and I decided to read something more Christmasy. But after that, I'll be reading the rest on my list. =] Haha, really? How neat!

WOW. That is seriously… all three at once? Along with American Journalism?? And here I thought I was being all longhair because I was reading The Problem of Pain over winter break. lol

LOL, no not all three at once. Reading two or more novels at one time without getting them confused is something I can't do. Plus, I gave away American Journalism; I thought it was going to be some neat book about history, but it's just how newspapers fared back then... >.<
Ahaha! Well, you'll probably do more reading than I will.
D'aw! The mini library in the phone box is adorable.

Do you have any books you are definitely planning on reading next year?

Several. First, a few I promised my mom that I'd read (Don't remember all the titles right now).
And then:
-I'll finish Two Towers & Return of the King that I put off doing.
-The Great Divorce
-Thr3e
-Les Misérables
-The Count of Monte Cristo
-Some more Austen
-A Midsummer Night's Dream
That's just about a short list, but of course there follows series that I haven't finished, and other books like that.

And, I started reading A Christmas Carol yesterday, but I realised the setting was Christmas Eve and decided it would be more fitting if I read it today. So, I'll try finish it today and tomorrow, perhaps.

I set a goal of 50 books for this year and I'm coming up on 80.

Next year, the book I most want to read is Conspiracy of Kings. Garth Nix is finally releasing a new Old Kingdom book next year, so I'm excited about that. I want to finish reading Jane Austen, read Unfinished Tales and reread The Sil. I'm taking a class on the Modern American novel next semester, so I'll be reading several books for it. Sadly, at least one of them is by Hemingway, an author I detest.

Hmm. I've never set a numerical book goal for myself. I think it's a great idea. I'll try for 50. Among the books I want to read are
The Iliad
Hamlet
Macbeth
Crime and Punishment
Desiring God
The Scarlet Letter
The Abolition of Man
The works (or at least a good overview of the works) of T.S. Eliot

I'd actually planned to read some Hemingway, too. Why do you detest him, Bookwyrm? Would my time be better spent reading someone else?

I think more life experience is needed to write a good novel. It's important to write lots and lots and not use most of what you write. In the process you learn more about the mechanics of writing well and are likely to avoid beginner mistakes like 'purple prose'. Ick.

eg.

'Look at this book! It was written by a 15 year old!'
'Nice, but is it any good?'
'Er...'
'That would be a 'no' then?'
'But it has dragons and lots of pages.'
'Your point being?'
'...'

HA!! Spot-on, W4J.

I loved your AoGG review, MereChristian. Congrats on it becoming a HotReview!

Waaaaaaaaait, lys, you're taking a Jane Austen class?? Now it's my turn to be jealous of you! That's so awesome.

What a wonderful description of Till We Have Faces! I'm glad you enjoyed that one. I need to reread it ... I just know that I didn't catch half of what was going on the first time 'round.

Aw, thanks! I know, it took me a while, too. I reread parts to make sure I know what was going on; towards the end it had that breathless whirlwind thing going on… And I'm glad you liked the Welles/Wells interview!

Recently I found a Japanese anime adaption of Les Mis that follows the book so well, it's making me want to reread!

Oh, that sounds so you, kotwcs. It sounds interesting!

I don't think we should expose children to everything but nor should we hide children from everything. There needs to be a thoughtful and discerning balance.

Indeed. You put things so well.

Books I want to read next year… well, the Harry Potter series this summer, for sure. And I want to try to read all my books that I've bought that I haven't read yet, such as Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. As for the number of books I've read this year, the count is roughly 83. That's not counting the books I'd pick up and leaf through while shelving in the library during the summer, but it does count the kids' books I've read.

LOL, no not all three at once. Reading two or more novels at one time without getting them confused is something I can't do. Plus, I gave away American Journalism; I thought it was going to be some neat book about history, but it's just how newspapers fared back then... >.<
Ahaha! Well, you'll probably do more reading than I will.
D'aw! The mini library in the phone box is adorable.

Oh, ok. lol!

I finished The Problem of Pain finally. The last chapter, Heaven, was my favorite--it basically made up for the book's being dense and a bit hard to get through. After that (or, yesterday) I read Terry Pratchett's Wintersmith. It was really enjoyable. I would really like to read all of his Discworld books in order, since some of the characters weren't fleshed out; I imagine that was because I was supposed to know them from the earlier books with Tiffany Aching in them. Was there more about Horace the Cheese in other books? Please say yes.

I was supposed to read A Christmas Carol today, it being Christmas Eve and all, but it's ten PM and we're watching It's a Wonderful Life, so… Maybe tomorrow.

I've only read The Old Man and the Sea, but it was boring and depressing. I didn't enjoy Hemingway's writing style and he seemed obsessed with having his characters go potty and kept using the same descriptions over and over. I don't know why he's considered some kind of great writer if all of his works are like that.

I'm reading Prince Caspian right now... For the first time in English and I love it. After this I'll read Little Women...I'll tell you what I think of it!

I thought of reading A Christmas Carol again this year as well, Fanny and mara, but I still haven't finished The Lord of the Rings and I got several books for Christmas, so ... I think it'll wait another year. Plus I way overdid the whole "being Christmas-ey" thing this past week.

Booky, I hated The Old Man and the Sea too (and yes, there did seem to be potty business of some sort on almost every page ). I hated several of his short stories when I first read them too, although a recent re-read of "Hills Like White Elephants" proved slightly more successful. I'm thinking that I need to give him another try, but I agree that he's overrated.

And now for my literary acquisitions this Christmas day:

(read this today - very good, although I'm not sure yet what I think of the romance and the fate of one character)

(reading this now - a much better translation than my previous one)

(going straight on the to-read list)

...aaand an antique copy of As You Like It, a reading light, and the 1995 Persuasion film (not a book, I know, but I thought it'd be of interest to my fellow Austenites in here).

For next year, I originally wanted to aim to read 100 books, but then I considered a few very long books that I want to read (Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, and 2666 by Robert Bolano) and the fact that I want to continue reading quite a lot of non-fiction, and revised my goal to 50 books.

As I recall, my goals last year were to read more non-fiction (which I did), read War and Peace (which I did) and read more classics (eh...I guess I read a fair few. I'm finishing off the year with A Tale of Two Cities so all is not lost )

My Christmas books -

The Complete Poems - Anne Sexton
The White Guard - Mikhail Bulgakov
The Woman in the Case - Anton Chekhov
Maps For Lost Lovers - Nadeem Aslam
My Life - Leon Trotsky
1812, Napoleon's Fatal March on Moscow - Adam Zamoyski
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter - Simone de Beauvoir

I really love the Ember books by Jeanne Duprau

The City Of Ember
The People Of Sparks
The Prophet Of Yonwood
The Diamond Of Darkhold

those books are very well written.....I love them!

I like the City of Ember books a lot too, Liberty Hoffman. My favorite one was the first, although The Diamond of Darkhold was pretty good too (most likely because they had to go back underground ).

lys: Awesome gifts! Those covers are lovely.
Conga-rats to Shantih, too!

For Christmas I got Mere Christians: Inspiring Stories of Encounters with C.S. Lewis. I had picked that one up at the Christian bookstore since I had some gift certificates, but I ended up buying Conversations with C.S. Lewis instead, much to my mom's relief. I can't wait to read them both.

I did end up starting A Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve. I read about two staves... I have to finish it still.

I got a lot of books for Christmas:

Black Ships Before Troy
The Wanderings of Odysseus
The Pilgrims Regress
J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator
Mythology Handbook
The Monsterology Handbook
And a ton of George Macdonald books which I have been wanting to read for a long time.
Not to mention a gift card to Borders and Barnes and Noble.
So I’m very full on my to-read list

Nice haul, lys! All those books have great cover illustrations too.

For Christmas I got:

The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories by Tolstoy (the new Volokhonsky and Pevear translation...I really liked how they did Anna Karennina--I think I like them better than Constance Garnett )
The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton. This book looks beautiful and I can't wait to read it.

Family members recieved:

The Giver by Lois Lowry
Night by Elie Weisel
...and various other titles that escape me but that I will probably sample once my siblings are finished.^^

A reading list for 2010? Hmm...some books I've had on my mind lately to read:

The Master and the Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
More Dickens, Austen, and Shakespeare
Dostoevsky's short stories
My Japanese literature anthology
That one kind of creepy series wisewoman recommended to me a while ago that I can't remember the title of
Actually get into Poe, maybe more Twain
A reread of The Brothers Karamazov and/or Crime and Punishment.
More Dorothy Sayers! I recently read The Daughter of Time and loved it.

...this is actually turning out to be a kind of big list! I usually just read what comes my way...like lys, I'm feeling the crunch of being a student when it comes to leisure reading...