All About Books discussion

My blue covered book is The 100 Most Pointless Things in the World

I won't take a picture as that is the exact copy I have!

A great book to dip in and out of, very funny

Sneaking in early Heather! I have plenty of blue books on my shelf, but I'm in bed now and can't see them. The most memorable one off the top of my head is The boy in the striped pyjamas, which I absolutely loved! Very sad though, but that's how I like most of my books :(

Pink wrote: "Sneaking in early Heather! I have plenty of blue books on my shelf, but I'm in bed now and can't see them. The most memorable one off the top of my head is The boy in the striped pyjamas, which I a..."

I think it's easier for me to post just before bed or I won't get to until the evening! I'm normally up around midnight so I won't be too early.

I've not read that, I'd like to. I had lots of blue books as well, it seems to be a popular colour

My copy of The Great Gatsby is blue.

I really enjoyed The Boy In the Striped Pyjamas, great read. I can't think of any blue books on my shelves. I'm in bed too though, so will have to check!

LauraT wrote: "Free download don't count!!! Half of my reading are from Gutenberg!!!! "

Why don't they?

And, only half? Should be at least 80%!

I have a few, but the first one that caught my eye was Catching Fire which I read over Christmas.

The first blu book that comes to my mind is this one:
The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa.

A Book with the Blue Cover.

Recently I had a book with the blue cover - Death Comes for the Archbishop.

Best Bargain
Picked up a copy of Dark Star Safari that was signed for £1.50

My copy of The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.

I was waiting for someone to pick that book, it's so iconically blue that I saw John Green was walking up a blue carpet for a premiere yesterday, instead of a red one.

a book with blue cover : Nick Hornby A long way down

dely wrote: "The first blu book that comes to my mind is this one:
The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa."

Interesting - my copy of that looks like this:

Here is a blue cover from my bookcases: The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd,

My best bargain was Haruki Murakamis 1Q84 which I got for free in ebook format (presumably because of an amazon error). the ebook would normally cost around $25 so I got it really cheap :)

Leslie wrote: "dely wrote: "The first blu book that comes to my mind is this one:
The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa."

Interesting - my copy of t..."

Serious hardcovers for a great classic. Publishers are all the same all over the world :D

From my best of the best shelf:

The Lay of the Land by the sublime Richard Ford.

Pink wrote: "I was waiting for someone to pick that book, it's so iconically blue that I saw John Green was walking up a blue carpet for a premiere yesterday, instead of a red one."

Haha, I'm kind of limited here. I don't have all my books with me.

Alannah, go into your 'read' books here on GR and check thru the covers:)

4th June Your least favourite book by your favourite author

Probably Emma by Jane Austen

Blue Cover:
Consider Phlebas

Least Favourite Book:
Inversions by Iain M. Banks

Mine would have to be Surfacing by Margaret Atwood. Didn't love it as much as the others

It would have to be either Emma by Jane Austen or possibly Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier.

Fishing the Sloe-Black River by Colum McCann. McCann is a fabulous writer, but with this book it helps to like short stories, which I don't. I would not recommend listening to one story after the other, as I did. They all became jumbled in my head. I couldn't keep any of them straight. Some I didn't understand. So many people and such miserable existences; I was truly saddened. Usually this author makes me smile but only one story did that for me, and this was the second to the last one entitled "A Word in Edgewise"). This book does not properly represent his ability. Just my opinion of course.

Oh Shirley, I liked Frenchman's Creek by du Maurier. It is partially biographical I have heard..

Chrissie wrote: "Fishing the Sloe-Black River by Colum McCann. McCann is a fabulous writer, but with this book it helps to like short stories, which I don't. I would not recommend liste..."

Chrissie, it's not that I didn't like it - it was ok, but not as good as the others I have read by her.

My favourite is Little Womenby Louisa May Alcottwhich I read when I was in 8th standard.

Shirley wrote: "Chrissie, it's not that I didn't like it - it was ok, but not as good as the others I have read by her."

OK, I understand. If you love an author you do get disappointed when a book isn't wonderful. I gave Fishing the Sloe-Black River two stars too.

You know it would be interesting if everyone also said which was their favorite buy the author. This would help other readers. I think I would have to choose Songdogs for my favorite McCann book, but all are worth reading.

Seen that my favorite author is Fyodor Dostoyevsky the least favorite book is The Gambler.

Chrissie wrote: "Shirley wrote: "Chrissie, it's not that I didn't like it - it was ok, but not as good as the others I have read by her."

OK, I understand. If you love an author you do get disappointed when a book..."

Ah, now I haven't read anything by McCann - or not yet anyway, as I have TransAtlantic on my kindle...

dely wrote: "Seen that my favorite author is Fyodor Dostoyevsky the least favorite book is The Gambler."

The least loved my me as well!

The Complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino. Some of the short stories were so good and some were too boring. Maybe I should try once again.

Dely, it is almost impossible to pick a best author. It does depend on your reading mood but you are right that maybe Dostoyevsky is better.

He is not strictly my favourite author but one of the writers I really enjoy, but I hated Umberto Eco's "The mysterious flame of Queen Loana"

Chrissie wrote: "Dely, it is almost impossible to pick a best author. It does depend on your reading mood but you are right that maybe Dostoyevsky is better."

This is true but till now I felt strong emotions and amazement only with his books; with every book I was amazed by his skill to look into human nature and psychology. I had the impression that finally someone was able to write in words how I felt inside and what I thought. It's a long time I don't read something by him but I will always consider him the God of literature.

Dely, yeah, there really is no comparison to him.....he is like kind of highest up on the pedestal. More than all the a other authors below! But you cannot even read just him all the time.

least favourite book by favourite author?

Lisey's Story by Stephen King

Hated it!

It was hard to chose my favourite author as that changes! My favourite book by Atwood is Oryx and Crake I think.

I think this is an excellent question and thought long and hard about my choice. Some people on twitter have been quite upset by it though, found it a bit negative

Hard to pinpoint my favourite author, or at least to think of a book I haven't liked by one of my favourites. Recently I didn't particularly like The Valley of Fear though the previous Sherlock books by Arthur Conan Doyle have been a firm favourite of mine.

I'm interested to see varied opinions of Frenchman's Creek, I'm planning on reading it soon, though have heard that it isn't up to du Maurier's usual standard.

Pink, Frenchman's Creek is very different from the others. For me it was more real, more interesting details about life in France, but if you are looking for suspense, here you get less.

Least favorite is Double Fault by Lionel Shriver; one of my many fave authors.

I agree with both Shirley and Laura about Emma and Frenchman's Creek! Isn't it surprising when you discover these things :)

But my favourite author being Charles Dickens, I have to choose one of his. Of his novels, I think it's Barnaby Rudge - a shame really as it's set just up the road from here! ;)

Oh I find it so hard to pin down my favorite author but I am about to second dely on this, and go for The Gambler as well, alternatively it would be All Souls by Javier Marías or The Elephant's Journey by José Saramago or Montauk by Max Frisch. Can you tell I am not in a decisive mood?! ;)

3rd June A book with a blue cover (loved both of these)


Set This House in Order: A Romance of Souls

and

Infinite Jest

Caro wrote: "My best bargain was Haruki Murakamis 1Q84 which I got for free in ebook format (presumably because of an amazon error). the ebook would normally cost around $25 so I got it really cheap :)"

That is a great, great bargain! (and a terrific book, too)

4th June Your least favourite book by your favourite author


Sylvia by Bryce Courtenay

It just about killed me to rate a book by Bryce Courtenay with only 1 star but this book is a true stinker.
Skip this one completely but read The Power of One, Whitethorn and the Australian trilogy (The Potato Factory, Tommo and Hawk and Solomon's Song)

Day 5 05/06/2014

Tell us about a book in your possession that doesn't belong to you

I have a ton of books I just checked out of the library - hope I can get to them after all the renewals are allowed - I wish I could keep them!

The Language of Flowers
The Art Forger
The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag
The Signature of All Things

Heather wrote: "Day 5 05/06/2014

Tell us about a book in your possession that doesn't belong to you "

All my books belong to me. I have just one of the library but I will bring it back this morning. Does it count?

I have lots (30+) of books out from the library!