"The time has come" the Walrus said, "to talk of many things..." Showing 951-1,000 of 1,194

[Ellie]

Sadly it's not quite tanning weather yet :-( Though, having said that, I have managed to somehow acquire tan lines during the winter....

[Howard]

Ooohhh - don't ever get me started on aircraft! You'll never shut me up. That was most of my working life, working on aircraft and then flight simulators - avionics, instruments, and autopilots. And of course I'm an airshow junkie. Good stuff, that.

[[deleted user]]

@ Angela, bizarrely it appears that I'm Juliet from Romeo and Juliet!!!!
@Hilary and Ellie - glad you both had such a good time and weather - yesterday was rather cold and rainy - a good day for housework, but the sun is out today :0)
@ Antipodes- sounds fascinating - can you fly a plane?

[Laurel]

Hope everyone's had a nice bank holiday/easter weekend! I've been stuck in my little coffee shop most of the time so although we have had sunshine - I haven't seen much of it :( Oh well, I will just have to have another crème egg to console myself lol!

Hope you enjoyed the aviation museum Ellie - it sounds great - we always used to get excited for watching the Red Arrows at the Sunderland airshow when I was little - those guys are sooooo cool!

[Laurel]

And apparently I'm Hermione from Harry Potter...

[[deleted user]]

Hope your customers were all pleasant and undemanding - have you got some time off coming soon?

[Anna]

I came out as Hermione too!!! And I was hoping to be Elizabeth Bennett! But I must admit that Hermione did always remind me of myself when I was at school.

But I'm not a complete reading addict though, only scoring 9 out of the 50 'signs'. Thanks for the links, Angela.

[Howard]

@Lee - went on quite a few 'test' flights after installing a new system or significant repair of one while working on privately owned aircraft, did get to land a twin engine Beechcraft once, after repairing the autopilot, the owner/pilot right next to me and able to take the controls if need be. I have over 200 hours 'flying' US Air Force flight simulators, both subsonic and supersonic, including take-offs and landings. Getting to fly them was the best part of maintaining them.

[Howard]

@Angela - thanks for the link to literary character. Turns out I am the Sherlock Holmesian sleuth in the crowd. We will just need to update his technological era a bit and having me jetting from one crime scene to another, piloting my own brand new Gulfstream G650. Yeah, that's the ticket! www.Gulfstream.com/products/g650

[[deleted user]]

@ Antipodes wow for the flying and double wow for being Sherlock Holmes :0)

[Howard]

Thank you, Lee. It would appear that tracking down what is wrong with the electronics in a multimillion dollar aircraft or flight simulator is quite similar to tracking down the nefarious bad guy (or gal) - it's all about the clues and paying attention to them.

[Angela]

So glad you all found your true selves :)
@Lee - you hopeless romantic, I always knew that you were a heroine worth dying for.
@Anna and Laurel - I wish I had been Hermione but I got Galadriel from Lord of the Rings!
@Antipodes - my husband got the same result and he didn't half gloat about it for the rest of the night.
A top bunch we have here if anyone tries to mess with us!!

[[deleted user]]

Galadriel! - well you do look a little elfin - I hope you don't feel the need to diminish and go to the west though :0)

[Laurel]

Antipodes - that plane looks amazing! If it's set a new speed record then you'll have plenty of time to come and pick us all up and take us for a spin ;)

[Howard]

@Angela - according to Wiki, " Tolkien describes Galadriel as "the mightiest and fairest of all the Elves that remained in Middle-earth" (after the death of Gil-galad)[1] and the "greatest of elven women".[2]"
@Laurel - OK. Y'all get together someplace and I'll be over this Friday evening. We'll go to Dubai for cocktails. Now, let me see... keys, keys.... I know I left the keys around here somewhere's...
Actually, you know John Travolta owns his own, an older model, and is quite an accomplished pilot - I heard him on a talk show once describe an emergency landing he had to make after a total electrical failure - for you Vinny Barbarino fans in the crowd.

[Hilary]

I feel really deprived here. I couldn't get the site to work to tell me my literary character- it just kept freezing. I'm hoping that I didn't frighten it in someway!

[Angela]

@Antipodes - thanks you for that! I actually am feeling quite regal and responsible now. None of you have to worry - I've got your backs.
@Lee - I don't mind looking elfin although my husband calls me a 'titch' which I think might be an English term? To me it sounds like an annoying insect.
@Hilary - maybe you are a character that is yet to be written!

[Laurel]

Antipodes wrote: "@Angela - according to Wiki, " Tolkien describes Galadriel as "the mightiest and fairest of all the Elves that remained in Middle-earth" (after the death of Gil-galad)[1] and the "greatest of elven women".[2]"
@Laurel - OK. Y'all get together someplace and I'll be over this Friday evening. We'll go to Dubai for cocktails. Now, let me see... keys, keys.... I know I left the keys around here somewhere's...
Actually, you know John Travolta owns his own, an older model, and is quite an accomplished pilot - I heard him on a talk show once describe an emergency landing he had to make after a total electrical failure - for you Vinny Barbarino fans in the crowd. "


Sounds like a plan! ;)

[Laurel]

Well that's me off for the next two days (it's a lopsided weekend), I hope the sun gets out, it was so lovely last weekend when I was stuck at work and now it's forecast for rain :( Oh well, the rain can't get me in the pub!

[[deleted user]]

Enjoy your well earned time off :0) - do you do Vietnamese Coffee in your cafe? We had it in a restaurant the other day - it's made with condensed milk and the combination of all that sugar and caffeine makes you really PING! Awake.

[Hilary]

Enjoy your time off Laurel.

[Ellie]

Have a good couple if days off, Laurel.

I'm back home in the Shire of Gloucester, after a lovely week in Norfolk. Had planned to do some gardening this weekend, until I saw the weather forecast :-(

[Howard]

Hope everyone has a good weekend. Saturday will be mostly sunny, high of 84F, overnight low of 65F. Spring is nice here. Summer gets real hot and humid though.

[[deleted user]]

Rain, rain, rain and more rain here. A good weekend for watching films and reading.

[Hilary]

It's dry here at the moment and hoping it lasts when I get to my sons later as my granddaughter is having her 8th birthday party today.

[[deleted user]]

Ahhh - do little girls still have special party dresses these days? I can remember mine - a purple flowery long sleeved, floor length affair (it was the 70's). I must have looked like Margot from The Goodlife.

[Hilary]

That a very funny picture you paint there Lee. No unfortunately little girls these days look like cut down teenagers most of the time. They'll all be in jeans or leggings and sparkly tops I expect. And talking about one direction!!!!

[[deleted user]]

Oh dear - an improvement on The Bay City Rollers though :0)

[Ellie]

I would disagree, Lee, I can find no artistic merit in One Direction whatsoever :-(

[[deleted user]]

But at least their trousers are long enough. :0)

[Hilary]

You're right there Lee. The party is over - and I was right too !!. Even down to a One Direction birthday cake.

[[deleted user]]

Bless them - was there jelly and ice cream?

[Hilary]

No that seems to also have gone the journey. Nibbles, sarnis and cream cakes. I have to say it was delicious - even the One Direction birthday cake. I was told I was eating Liam, whoever he is, while the birthday girl got Harry, of course.

[Laurel]

Thanks guys, I enjoyed my weekend, went to Bishop Auckland food festival on Saturday to try loads of freebies and get ideas ;)

Lee - I've never heard of Vietnamese Coffee - sounds nice though. Ours is more Italian style (or trying to be).

Hilary - glad you enjoyed the birthday party, not sure I would want to eat a 1Direction cake though!

Ellie - at least it as nice when you were away. Did you have fun in Norfolk?

[Hilary]

Yesterday I attended a Memorial Service for a much loved member of our poetry group who died recently as a result of an accident. He had requested that his books be taken to this service and offered to those who attended in return for a donation to the RNLI (he was a retired seaman). Several of us were amazed at the selection of titles there, not at all what we'd expected to see, knowing his interests as we did, or thought we did! It made me wonder what people would make of my various books in the same situation, but at the same time what a marvellous idea it was.

[[deleted user]]

What an amazing idea - I've occasionally wondered what will happen to my books after I'm gone -that would be a lovely thing to do with them. Wouldn't work with my kindle though :0)

[Ellie]

Ugh! After my week off, this week has been spent catching up on what didn't get done last week, just in time for our mega-busy week at work :-( So not much time for reading books, let alone Goodreads :-(

So sorry, Laurel, only just seen your comment - had a lovely time in Norfolk, did lots of walking, had a trip to the seaside - Great Yarmouth, where my Grandmother was born and grew up. It was so warm I was able to go for a walk barefoot on the beach and have a paddle in the sea!! The best bit of my week was seeing how well my mum is - she was struggling to walk last year due to a hip problem, but she's be seeing a chiropractor, who has done wonders, great to see her walking 3 or 4 miles without a problem (my parents are in their late 70s)

[[deleted user]]

Glad you had such a nice holiday - down with busy work ness :0(

[Laurel]

Sounds lovely - you did pick just the right week to go! And glad to hear your mum is better with her hip now :)
Shame about work though - they obviously can't cope without you!

[Hilary]

That's always the problem with work isn't it - it's always just waiting for you to come back.

[Ellie]

What and amazingly beautiful day it's been in Gloucester today! Been to the garden centre to formulate some plans for my garden :-) Can't actually do anything until I get my fence replaced, though. Oh, the joys of home ownership!

[[deleted user]]

Yes it's been a gorgeous day - much tandeming around Cheltenham and sitting in the garden :0)

[Angela]

Glad you ladies are enjoying some lovely sunshine :-)

[Hilary]

I log on to Goodreads through Google and this evening underneath the Goodreads details was an entry titled Why I'm Leaving Goodreads. After reading it, I have to say it contains more than a grain of truth. Until I joined the group my reading habits were very much the same as the one that the writer is now going to follow, a journal to jot thoughts down about what I'd read, if I felt like it, and reading what took my fancy at the time. Now, with the group, I read in a more structured way, but I do feel myself sometimes pressured to"keep up" with the group reads (although I accept this does not come from the group but from myself). It's an intriguing read and I wondered if anyone else had read it and what they thought.

[[deleted user]]

Just read it - I'm kind of the opposite - before I joined Goodreads I was in a kind of a rut - starting loads of books and not finishing many of them and not finding many new favourites. Having some sort of structure to my reading makes it far more satisfying for me - I've found so many great books since joining Goodreads. And my little challenges are more about finding new authors than ticking off books read. I think it also helps that I have no problem in abandoning a book if I don't like it.
I really hope no one feels any pressure to join in the group reads - they really are totally optional :0)

[Hilary]

I really don't feel any pressure from the group - it's entirely self imposed! I suppose I've always read a wide selection of fiction and non fiction, new books and classics, poetry and essays just meandered through the literary world I suppose, with any focus simply being the pursuit of a current area of interest. A bit of structure is probably a good thing and joining the group has introduced me to authors I'd never tried and have enjoyed and focused my attention on those I have meant to read for ages and not got around to ( The Idiot and The Divine Comedy for example) so in many ways it's doing me good. The problem is I want to read all the group reads as well as all the books I fancy that aren't group reads! If only I didn't also need to sleep everything would be fine!

[Howard]

I am glad I came across an article mentioning Goodreads, and that I found this group. So many great authors and works that I found, that I may not have otherwise - and people who share a love for great literature, history, and the well-turned phrase. The external discipline works well for me and I thoroughly enjoy the medium where I can track my reading.

[Angela]

Like you Hil, any pressure I feel is of my own doing. But that's only because the more I participate on the site, the more books I want to read. And there just never seems to be enough time! Like any passion, you want to expose and share the process, so I disagree with the author when she says "it uses the author, the book, and the protagonist for our own personal, selfish ends." There is nothing selfish about sharing a Rumi quote, for example, just wanting to share with like minded people a great phrase that struck a note.

And, like we've all said, how many books would I have missed out on if not for great groups like this one? Goodreads expands my life, it doesn't limit or regiment it :)

[Anna]

I first got the goodreads app so I could keep a record of books i'd read and use the barcode scanner (though a lot of my books were too old to have barcodes).
I had to give huge amount of books away when I moved to smaller house, but having them on my virtual "read" shelf makes me feel I still have them in a way.
I'm also glad I joined this reading group. it's so friendly. I won't be able to keep up with some of you readaholics out there but i've read 20 books so far this year which is about twice what I used to read in a whole year. And I like reading the threads too as I get introduced to new authors to try.
So i'm not leaving anytime soon.

[Laurel]

I agree with Hilary that there is some pressure on the site as a whole (not this group I hasten to add) to be quite competitive and to keep up with an abundance of group and buddy reads and challenges. I got a bit sucked into it myself until earlier this year when I realised I was biting off more than I could chew sometimes! But on the flip side, you get to meet some great people and get new recommendations which more than makes up for anything else. I don't get to talk about books much as I know very few people who like reading and the ones that do tend to stick to one genre of books whereas I'm a bit of a magpie! So it's great to have you guys to share what I'm reading with and to hear what you're all currently loving cos I don't have that in my 'real' life. The thing I like about this group is that I would never have come across some of the books we've read on my own - Bernardo Atxaga, Rosamund Lehrmann, Nelson Alghren, Boris Akhunin, and Michele Roberts (just from the last few months) weren't even on my radar, I had genuinely never heard of any of them before they got chosen as monthly reads or authors. So I'm always really excited to see what the next one's going to be! ;)