Well, I'm still only half way through, so I've got all that crying (or wondering why I'm so cold-hearted that these things don't make me cry) ahead of me.

Shit, I've just started it. It's not going to make me too sad, is it?

Let me put it this way. If you didn't bawl at the final scene of the Futurama episode Jurassic Bark, you'll be all right.

What if I don't bawl ever?

You'll probably still cry like a little bitch with a skinned knee.

I've started reading The Turning by Paul J. Newell after it arrived, mysteriously, for me in the post last week following a few emails exchanged between the two of us. Very intriguing so far.

When I get around to reading this (it's the next book on my list after ''The Wind-up Bird Chronicle'') I'm sure to get all teary then. Damn.

Sunshine on Putty.

It's shit.

As I'd never read it and Stells compared the blubberiness in it to that of The Time Traveller's Wife, I'm reading The Secret History by Donna Tartt. So far, so interesting.

Finished reading "Yes Man" last week, and so decided to start "Are You Dave Gorman?" by Dave Gorman and Danny Wallace. So far, it's been very enjoyable.

Secret History ain't blubberifying. It's pretty good, though.

Ah no, not quite. The Secret History isn't very much like TTTW in the blubbering stakes, but in the quality and style of writing and the atmosphere the author creates. I suppose they seem similar to me because the characters in both books inhabit both a rarefied world of privilege and a more dangerous one at the same time.

Soz to mislead you but I'm v. glad you're reading one of my favourite books of all time.

During my ten day stay in hospital I read the last four books of the Hitchhikers Guide saga, not bad, but I resent the way Arthur's love is despatched in the last book,

I finished 'The Truth With Jokes' by Al Franken, interesting but damn depressing because you know the bad guys won.

And, 'The Big Over Easy' by Jasper Fforde, which I loved to bits so I purchased the four Thursday Next books of which I read the first two ('The Eyre Affair' & 'Lost In A Good Book') and am half way through the third ('The Well Of Lost Plots'). I have a new favourite author and I want a pet dodo.

He's amazing, isn't he? I was trying to read other books but I couldn't resist cracking open Something Rotten the other day to see what else happens to Thursday. It's all really great stuff so far, just like the previous three books.

I can't beleive he slipped under my radar.

It was thanks to someone on this site who last year gave out some codes for discounts on Play.com that made me purchase The Big Over Easy. It took me ages to get round to readinbg it but I'm so glad I did.

The sequel, The Fourth Bear, was published earlier this year as well if you want to check it out after you're through with Thursday's adventures. Though the next instalment in her series is due for release early next year and is currently called The War Of The Words. Sounds H.G.-tastic!

Until I Find You by John Irving

A four year old boy travels Europe with his tattooist mum in search for his estranged father. Later he grows up in Canada surrounded by women, and then becomes a famous (occaisionally cross-dressing) Hollywood star. Nearly, but not quite Irving's best, A Prayer For Owen Meany, and like all his books, very funny, very moving and compulsive. If you haven't read John Irving, do it. Probably America's greatest living author.

Took down the first 25 pages of World War Z last night.

*rubs hands together fiendishly*

*claps*

Fear not, I have just started this week. Very good so far, if I am already preparing myself for the bittersweet trauma I just know is coming.

I'm almost done with it. About 50 pages left. No tears yet...

I just told my roommate I'm going to stop reading where I am as every seems quite happy and they've already indicated what's to come and I want none of it.

Of course, I'll keep reading, but still, it'd be nice if a good story like that ended when everyone was happy, eh?

Bastards.

One of my friends does that with books all the time. I had to coerce her into finishing Catch-22 and, as far as I know, she hasn't finished The Order Of The Phoenix because, in her own words ''If I don't read it, Sirius won't die''.

Spoilered for anyone who doesn't know how it ends.

At some ungodly hour last night on the train home I finished The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Beautifully written with a lot of homage to the epic poets and the Greek tragedies in its structure and style.
I've got a great little book what Craig sent me called 'The Buddha and The Terrorist' to read, but I managed to find a copy of Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde at the library, so I'm going to whip through that before I start it.

Finished last night, and I must admit the letter made me do a little tear.

This morning, I started reading A Series of Unfortunate Events which someone has leant me. You get funny looks reading a non-Harry Potter kids' book on the tube in rush hour.

I'm currently re-reading The Stars' Tennis Balls by Stephen Fry. It was my least favourite book of his, but I'm finding it much better this time round. It might have helped seeing The Count Of Monte Cristo since reading it the first time.

Oooh. Exciting news for hardcore Sci-fi fans. Peter F. Hamilton returning to the Commonwealth universe in his next book.

Didn't the last page where she's sitting all alone at the end of her life, knowing that she'll see Henry again and she's waited fifty years to see him make you do a cry? I don't know why, something about that just got to me.

Less so, for me. I find the idea that she's been sitting wasting her days waiting for him since he died, even though he specifically told her not too, a bit...pathetic is too harsh a word, but something like that.

Gah, so much spoilerage...must resist...until I have read the book...

Hmm. I didn't get the impression that she'd been sitting wasting her days. Just the opposite in fact, that she'd led a full, creative life in all respects except when it came to love. And for me, the idea that you get to see the person you love, taken away from you by death, one last time is unbearably happy/sad.

Sorry, maian, have you just combusted?

I'd agree with this interpretation, or at least, that's how I saw it. I also did a cry at the end, so I'm a sap like you, Stells.

Holy shit, that's one hell of a timeline!

I quite like the idea that Oscar could be one of the main characters in the new books, (very nearly) fresh out of his suspension sentence.

Yeah, that's an excellent idea. This is also something to look forward to:



Did you know that Misspent Youth featured an early incarnation of the Commonwealth universe?

On a similar SF note, Alastair Reynolds has a few things in the pipeline including more from the universe of Revelation Space.

Yep, at one point Ozzie mentions that he was married to Annabelle from Misspent Youth and Jeff Baker is mentioned a couple of times when people are talking about the formation of the commonwealth from the advent of rejuvenation technology.

Oh, I didn't read it because I heard it was shit!

Autumn 2007. Bloody hell.

Part of me is also hoping that because the discovery of Tochee's planet is mentioned in the timeline he might reappear as a character. That would be fun, Tochee, Ozzie and Orion back together 1500 years down the line.

Have to sort of agree with Ellie here. I found it a little more bitter than sweet. And sorry to disappoint Stells, but no little bitch with a skinned knee here

Finished Something Rotten last night. Brilliant. Just as funny and clever as the previous books though I found the chapter with Landen as the narrator surprisingly affecting and emotional, likewise the final chapter with ''Gran's'' death.

Started The Fourth Bear now because I won't be able to read any other books 'til I'm through with Fforde's stuff.

Dammit. I really shouldn't read spoilers about a book that I'm two-thirds of the way through.

Finished the first volume of 3 books from A Series of Unfortunate Events. Funny, dark, well written kids' books. I plan to take a break before I carry on with any more, though - didn't realise there are 13 in total! I can see the plight of the Baudelaire orphans maybe becoming a little repetitive, though.

They're sort of the Scooby-Doo of kid's literature. I read a few of them before giving them to my niece. They're maybe not so much repetitive as predictable.

Having just finished the Time Traveller's Wife, my dear friend Natalie has sent me a book that I guess I now have to read.

After a rather interesting and heated theological debate, as we often have, Natalie (my very favourite Christian) offered that I will eventually have to give up agnosticism in favour of either the acceptance of some form of belief in a god or gods, or atheism. I disagree, but for the sake of argument, and in the interest of developing my basis of knowledge to make informed decisions, I have promised to read The Case for Christ in which a journalist seeks to disprove the existence of god and ends up discovering what he believes to be irrefutable evidence of god's existence. Should be interesting.

Don't worry none, neither of those things is a major spoiler as they revolve around massive plot points, and I do mean massive. So there isn't that much spoiled for you.

Oh aye, I realised that, I just hate knowing anything about what happens next in a book.

Finished Brainless: The Lies & Lunacy of Ann Coulter. It dissects her insane reasoning without attacking her as a person (mostly), which is more than can be said about her tactics. Some of the statistics she uses in her arguments are based on data that's over a decade old! There just aren't words enough to descibe how her continued popularity offends me.

I've recently finished 1984 for uni and don't have much to say on it - it's interesting, but I'm not fond of books that are written in/about such clinical ways so I didn't really connect with it.
Plus I kept confusing it with Brave New World even though the stories are quite different, the worlds and 'heroes' are similar.

Oooh. Must find and read. Although it might make me explode in rage.

I'm now reading the book you sent me Craig - The Buddha and the Terrorist by Satish Kumar, and enjoying the retelling of a very old Indian/Buddhist legend. The ending of Something Rotten was ace, I finished it last night in bed.

I am reading 'Nature' by Ralph Waldo Emerson for my course. Heavy going so far too.