h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The second bridget jones

Nice happy bus journey book

I have recently finished "To the Light House" by Virginia Woolf, which made no sense at all quite frankly. I have now started "Part of the Furniture" by Mary Wesley, which is awful yet entertaining old nonsense.

ah, to the lighthouse, bane of my existence in first semester

I read "Mrs Dalloway" last year and really liked it, but "To The Lighthouse" was just too incoherent for me. Still, at least all I had to do was read it, I wouldn't want to have to study and analyse it.

Dylan. The Chronicles, vol 1.


At the weekend I discovered a great 2nd hand bookshop in Callendar. I added to my collection of random foreign language dictionaries and textbooks with colonial-era ones in/on Hausa, Swahili and Levantine Arabic. (You never know when these things might come in handy!)

Oh...and Cantonese.

Knew it was one of them Bobs.

Oh Dear. Wrong thread!

I've just finished A Long Way Down by Nick Hornsby and now Noggin is reading it (on the sofa, as we speak).

I think I gave the book a bit of hard time at the beginning as it seemed kind of like 'oh, look how clever and funny I am' sort of writing. But I soon warmed to the characters and ended up loving the humour (several laugh-out-loud moments, even a few shaking-with-uncontrollable-laughter-for-about-five-minute ones) and found I read the whole thing in two days and wished it had lasted longer.

And now for something completely different I'm about to start The Last Jew by Noah Gordon, which takes place in southern Spain in 1492 during the Inquisition. But first I have to finish my Hello mag . . .


az

I-Am-Reading-Janet-And-John-Because-That's-The-Only-Book-We're-Allowed-To-Mention-On-h2g2-Thesedays.

A Sentimental Bloke by C.J.Dennis and one which spoke of a nation and to a newly formed one. Totally out of step with correct British ideas of what was correct. Seminal but dated, but of interest in a Canon of brevity.

A second attempt at reading "Q" by the gestalt entity, Luther Blisset.

As often happens when I'm not feeling well, I've headed for some lighter reading, Agatha Christie, mostly. Right now I'm reading Three Act Tragedy. I'm also reading Lucrezia Borgia by Maria Bellonci.

I tried reading Q as well, but when I found out it wasn't an autobiography...

Nah, didn't get very far with it, it seemed very dense and I didn't really want to give it the effort it was going to need. Can't wait for a book about the dissolution of the monasteries by Jan Molby.

As In was saying to Clive...I'm girding my loins for a third attempt at Q, whenever it surfaces to the top of my pile.

But now you mention Jan Molby...I loved the story of when he was caught speeding - someting like 90 in a 30 mph zone - somewhere on The Wirral. When the plods arrived at his door, he claimed he'd been at home all evenin and that someone must have stolen his car. Unfortunately, the ossifers who'd seen him had said to one another 'It looks like Jan Molby's in a bit of a hurry tonight!'

I've just raided my local 2nd hand charity book shop and got 4 books for £1 each! First on my list which I started this weekend is Chocolat by Joanne Harris. I'm enjoying it so far and recorded the movie at the weekend too, so will watch that once I've finished the book!

Finished Stamping Butterflies - now that was a good book, and Blues, I can see what you meant about there being a bit of a dig at the Culture novels in there.

Now about to start on In Xanadu by William Dalrymple. Just back from the last holiday I feel a need to read about more travelling.

I must also get out my copy of What Colour is Your Parachute as it looks like I'll be facing redundancy later this year.

I went to the Germany meet earlier this week. I thought "I'll buy a book to read on the plane", headed to w**kerstones, picked up a selection on their 3-for-2 deal, and chose one for the trip.

My flight out was delayed 1½ hours, so I got quite a way into it. On the way back, I read quite a bit more of it. In fact, when I got home, I finished it, finally, at 0030.

I felt tired all day at work today, but it was worth it. I recommend to you Kazuo Ishiguro's latest, Never Let Me Go. It really is quite substantially good.

RF

Finished Q.

Any recommendations for the plane back home? I was in Barnes and Noble the other day and came back with nothing.

The People's Act of Love by James Meek turned out to be fantastic. It's enough of a page turner for a plane, and has enough in it to count as litratcha.