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

There's a 'Hidden Objects' game called 'Jane Austen's Rogues and Romance' (it's a BBC game, btw) on Facebook, which I'm playing, and it prompted me to (re)read the Jane Austen novels. So far, I've finished 'Pride and Prejudice' (of which I had a very vague recollection), 'Sense and Sensibility' (which I hadn't known), and 'Emma' (which I had never finished).

We have some very good guide entries

Jane Austen, Author: A1171595

Pride and Prejudice: A847505

Sense and Sensibility: A1283195

Emma: A6084966

Apart from giving an insight to the 'hows' and 'whats' of her time, these novels are highly amusing.
The beauty is, that I can get them all for free on http://gutenberg.org , and I even have the audio versions from http://librivox.org (although some accents need getting used to), which means if I'm too tired to read or it is not possible to read, I can listen to the books.

What are you currently engrossed with?

I'm assuming i can't be done for issuing death threats against deceased authors?



WHile i can be obssesed in a book it takes a series to have me engrossed - not from quality of the book but because sometimes i regret being able to read so quickly - helpful with work, but when reading casually

Since a 700 page hardback book is finshed in around four hours i need many books - with a series i can become engorged for a good few days

I've just finished reading the published books (four out of a prospective eight) in a series called the laundry files

I never read fantasy. ever. But this series is very good, it is humourous (without that being the sole aim) and the fantasy is mixed, not with sci-fi, but with normal fiction (and the present day science) - the humour isn't compulsory, the last book was slightly darker as we head towards the obligatory doomsday (or equivalent)

The 2nd book was brilliant (as indeed they all were, but this was the most humourous at the same time) as the main character got stuck into "a hero spell", where the evil guy is protected, except one person has to become a james-bond esk character - it runs from there (and the main character is banned from realising what is happening)

Can't wait the 8 months till next book

the first AND only book I've read all way through, is 2001 space odyssey (2 year after seeing the film)

If you're lacking for literary quality I'd personally recommend Spot - rarely do writers have such a good grasp of real world matters

don't need to read to learn stuff

Interpretive dance?

I'm just over wise(I'll stop here, I'm not hijacking B'Els thread)

Oh, hijack all you want.

I'll look for the laundry files - my son loves fantasy.

I read a weird variety of stuff (and stick it all in my hootoo journal). I'm not currently obsessing over anything, though.

TRiG.

it's not rait B'El

I'm not unsubbing, as I'll be readingthe posts

"Manual"

I thought it was Spanish fiction, but as it turns out it was written by some Finnish bestselling guy called Nokia

I didn't think real s read Manuals?

I read The Hunger Games right through (before seeing the film) and as soon as the two sequels were published, Catching Fire and Mockingjay, I bought them and tried to pace myself by reading a couple of chapters only at bedtime. I made them last but now I'm sorry there will be no more. I can only look forward to the 2nd film coming out (next year I think) to see if they do the book justice.

My current bedtime reading are Star Trek novels. I like them because I know the basic characters so can hear their (actors') voices. I like wondering how I would have written a certain scenario, or introduced a funny aside. The Trek books I picked up from a charity shop, £1 for a boxful. I also got Rolf Harris' Can You Tell What It Is Yet? hardback autobiography from the same shop which I am enjoying leafing through to look at the pictures, not started reading it properly yet. It was a bargain £1.50, it had been priced at £17.99 on the inner sleeve.

I have at least half a dozen half-read books on my bedside table. I can't seem to get obsessive about anything really, perhaps if I did, I'd then have the incentive to finish reading at least one of them. At least one of them would be good base material for a hootoo entry.

They include a couple of biographies, Margot Kässman's "In der Mitte des Lebens", some French books that Toybox recommended me, "A passage to India" by E M Forster, and the third "Henry" book by Roddy Doyle. I haven't even started on the Doyle, although that is one author I could get hooked on, I think.

We didn't have much time to read on holiday in Ireland, as I was driving most of the time, and the rest of the time we were sight-seeing or out eating.

Having all those paper books still to read, there's no point in my getting an e-book reader at the moment, although I would really love one.

I'm currently re-reading some excellent Wilbur Smith novels. Elephant Song and Birds Of Prey. I'll follow them up with A Time To Die and River God.

I have a Star Trek book somewhere which I never read. I think it was boring, or the style was bad or something, not like the series at all.

>>We didn't have much time to read on holiday in Ireland, as I was driving most of the time<< - that's where audiobooks come in really handy.

I was listening to Lyric FM most of the time, as recommended by Gnomon.

I can't really stand audiobooks - I dislike the immensly slow progress (I think its the fact that i can't stand slow speech if I'm not thinking - i don't just get annoyed with allconversations)

Theres only two audiobooks that are listened to by my family - they're listened to once a year, by the family on two separate but repeated car journeys (some would say my family is predictable)

i)101 dalmations - listened on the car journey down to cornwall at christmas, its slightly longer than the car trip takes, so we normally circle the hotel for about 10 minutes
ii)Foxbusters(amazing if you don't know it), again one that works for both children and adults, an excellant book, a bit shorter than 101 dalmations i think

It's certainly a nice channel.

I love audiobooks. They while away the time I spent doing the housework (time that would be completely wasted otherwise, imo .)