All About Books discussion
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What have you just read? Opinions, recommendations & reviews
B the BookAddict wrote: "when using the 'back' button, "would my 'like' on the review be saved"?"Yes. It should. However, it MAY appear to you that it hasn't because when you use the back button it loads the most recent version of the web page you have stored in your computer's cache and not the updated version from GR's server.
Thanks for your "sleep dust" Bette! I now have Tinkerbell in my mind for some reason ... LOL! The most ridiculous things conspire to keep me awake, sometimes. Like I'll find I'm playing a Scrabble game in my head in the middle of the night - just go away, letters!!! :(
As I was reading Bel Ami, I had that goofy song in my head. So hard to get those things out once they infiltrate. Finished A Slant of Light
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Jean wrote: "Thanks for your "sleep dust" Bette! I now have Tinkerbell in my mind for some reason ... LOL! The most ridiculous things conspire to keep me awake, sometimes. Like I'll find I'm playing a Scrabble ..."That happens to me sometimes!! Or word scrambles -- in my half-sleeping state, I am unscrambling the letters to find words... Such a silly thing for my brain to be so intent on.
If I go to bed having finished a book and NOT having written the review I can't go to sleep because I am thinking of what I want to say..... And of course my reasoning gets all muddled. Sometimes when I get up in the morning, particularly when my blood sugar is very low, I will go on dreaming but walking around too. Like sleep walking, but I am practically awake. I feel awake, but am looking for things related to my dream. Very strange and quite annoying to my dear husband since I KNOW that the dream world IS the real one and he just doesn't understand this! Of course I am wrong and he is right but there is no convincing me.
Chrissie wrote: "If I go to bed having finished a book and NOT having written the review I can't go to sleep because I am thinking of what I want to say..... And of course my reasoning gets all muddled. Sometimes when I get up in the morning, particularly when my blood sugar is very low, I will go on dreaming but walking around too. Like sleep walking, but I am practically awake. I feel awake, but am looking for things related to my dream. Very strange and quite annoying to my dear husband since I KNOW that the dream world IS the real one and he just doesn't understand this! Of course I am wrong and he is right but there is no convincing me. ..."
That must be horrid when you have a nightmare:(
About reviews: I need to finish a book right before bed, sleep on it (where I'm convinced my brain constructs my review for me), then write up the review first thing in the morning. If I don't 'sleep' on a book, then my review is very mediocre.
I have this weird thing that happens where I dream I'm reading a book and realize I'm dreaming. Then, knowing I'm about to wake up, I try to remember what I'm reading so I can recall it when I'm awake. Never works.
B the BookAddict wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "If I go to bed having finished a book and NOT having written the review I can't go to sleep because I am thinking of what I want to say..... And of course my reasoning gets all mud..."Oh but it is not a nightmare! It is just like I am living in that other dream world. Last time it happened I was looking all over the house for some shelves....that of course didn't exist. Finally I just sort of wake up and realize there are no shelves, but I don't believe it if my husband tells me! I am just too stubborn.
Oh that is interesting how YOU write your reviews, Bette. Very different from me. I do think our heads work through our thoughts at night. I think the hardest reviews to write are those where the book just leaves you untouched.
Chuck wrote: "I have this weird thing that happens where I dream I'm reading a book and realize I'm dreaming. Then, knowing I'm about to wake up, I try to remember what I'm reading so I can recall it when I'm a..."Oh that is funny. I think your brain is thinking through reading experiences, don't you? How annoying that you can remember nothing!
Chrissie , I definitely agree . I have a hard time writing a review about a book that was just mediocre . If I love a book , it's much easier to gush about it . If I finish a book before I go to sleep , I frequently lay awake thinking about it and what I might say in my review . In that case I start writing it with my first cup of coffee .
If it is not before I go to bed and I love the book I usually start writing my review right away . If I'm not crazy about the book , I usually think on it for a while or overnight.
I meant with my first cup of coffee the next morning .
Angela, it is also easy to explode about a terrible book!!! What is hard is when you know you liked a book but cannot figure out what exactly you liked! I mean I know what I feel, but figuring out why is the hard part.I understood you about the coffee :0)
How strange Chrissie - it sounds something more than taking a long time to wake up. Not narcolepsy ... maybe a sort of embryonic waking dream state?I'm in the group that can't write a review straightaway - but in addition, I can't commit easily to another read until I've written it. Tricky as they take me so long :(
"I can't commit easily to another read until I've written it"In that respect I'm like you Jean :) I usually want to write a review right after having finished reading, but would often sleep on it for the night, and then revise it the next morning.
Chrissie wrote: "Oh that is funny. I think your brain is thinking through reading experiences, don't you? How annoying that you can remember nothing! "Yeah, probably so. There is also a variation where I'm writing--I've been wanting for a long time to write a novel--and in my dream I've come up with the neatest idea for a novel. I'm writing away with pen and paper just absolutely elated that I've come up with such a great idea--I mean, it's all clearly downhill from here the idea is SO good. And I know I'm about to wake up, and I try to remember even just a sentence of what I'm writing, and I never can when I wake up. Lol, pretty funny in a way, I guess.
Completed reading another Muriel Spark novel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. An interesting book. Here is the link to my review of it: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Chuck wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "Oh that is funny. I think your brain is thinking through reading experiences, don't you? How annoying that you can remember nothing! "Yeah, probably so. There is also a variation..."
Oh how annoying. IF you can ever remember, jot it down immediately.
Jean wrote: "How strange Chrissie - it sounds something more than taking a long time to wake up. Not narcolepsy ... maybe a sort of embryonic waking dream state?
'm in the group that can't write a review stra..."
Actually I think that slow waking is related to low blood sugars. I don't know what "narcolepsy" is and I am not going to look on internet because then I will get all worried!
I also don't like to read another book until I have written the review of the last one. But sometimes I simply have to! I can't go around with no book! That is an impossibility.
Luncheon of the Boating Party is an excellent book of historical fiction! I highly recommend it. Jean, this is one I think you will particularly enjoy. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Well I have an image of my painting in my mind right now Chrissie, so I'll hop over to your review to see if I'm right! And thank for alerting me.Oh don't worry - you don't have that! It's falling asleep spontaneously at odd moments like when you're in the middle of a .... zzzzzz!
Yes! That's the one! I have a reproduction of it on my wall, and do know vaguely how it came about, but will find the book fascinating, I'm sure. Thanks for the great review :)
Jean, I didn't even know you have a poster on your wall. I just felt it was a book for you. I am glad I could help you. Thanks for explaining about that illness. I was too chicken to check it out.
My problem now is that I want to read another by the author and the ones that remain unread just don't seem all that good.....The Forest Lover - is that good? Has anyone read it?
Chrissie wrote: "Luncheon of the Boating Party is an excellent book of historical fiction! I highly recommend it."Looks good. Added to my reading list. Thanks, Chrissie.
Tracy Chaevalier's most recent book, Lisette's List was really good. Once again she is in the art world by now before and during World War II.
Nancy, I will go check Lisette's List out. Thanks.ETA, that does look good. I have been in Roussillon, a beautiful town. Lots of pines and the dirt is RED. Colorful shutters on the houses.
Angela, you liked that one too!
Chrissie - it's a framed print on the wall of my ... study? A tiny room which used to be a spare bedroom but is now full of rocks and books and Jean's stuff to make things. Chris has one too - but one of our nieces thinks its the beginning of the end to have two studies. Funny - we always used to share books, but recently we've separated them into two groups :) Do others share their bookcases with partners or family, or have their own? Sorry, that should be on general chat really :(
I have a den/study. My desk and all my books and special things. Husband doesn't come in their much. KKinda silently agreed thats my room.
Jean wrote: "Chrissie - it's a framed print on the wall of my ... study? A tiny room which used to be a spare bedroom but is now full of rocks and books and Jean's stuff to make things. Chris has one too - but ..."Jean, one doesn't just sleep in a bedroom and eat in the kitchen, by that I mean a little side discussion isn't so bad. At least that is what I think.
To answer your question: some shelves of our bookcases are more oriented to one or the other of us. Per has a whole shelf on model railroads and there I never look.... We have taken our best room, that is the living room, and turned it into a common library. Books and desk and the computer, but we do share it. We don't have a TV..... and that is the only room for entertaining, but how often do we do that?! Never. He does have a special room for modeling. Some hobbies need space. Reading doesn't, particularly with audiobooks.
Just finished The Lost Painting, a very good book I read because of Petra's review. I spent hours online looking at images that were described in the book. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...Petra's review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I think because our tastes overlap so much, a lot of our books were shared - and still are. Now the only difference is that they are not all downstairs in the lounge but ... assigned to one upstairs room or the other. (We decided at about 18 years old that it was silly to keep duplicates.)Yes, often a study is more of a "den" for solitary activities, I think. Some hobbies definitely need space :)
Just finished A Slant of Light. Jeffrey Lent is one of my favorites . 5 stars from me . My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Thanks everyone for the wonderful reviews, I've added alot of these books to my shelf.
Finished reading Mrs. Dalloway. Here is a link to my review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The mention of not sharing your desks makes me realise I get very twitchy when someone tries to reorganise my stuff! That could be why we split the books up in the first place. Interesting Sandy, the compromises you make :)
Thanks , Julia . I have it on my very long tr list.
My husband and I keep our books in separate places as well. I turned one of my sons old bedroom into a reading room/study.
Mod
We keep the books together, but we have so many that some HAS to go into the kids rooms!!! For istance Massimo has all King's novels and Tolkien's, Marta Rowling's and Lucy Maud Montgomery's
I keep my books in my bedroom. There's a running joke at home in which it's referred to as "the library": books and textbooks everywhere, even the occasional "learning is fun" sign.
I'm finding this really interesting! My uncle had a room probably "worse" (better?) than yours Charbel, as he'd put bookshelves to fill it completely. They were all parallel and you could just walk through different "aisles" in the room. There wasn't room for anything else though. As a child I used to love exploring in there!
Julia wrote: "Just finished The Nightingale 5/5https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."
Glad to hear this since I plan on reading this next. In a way I don't want to because I have really looked forward to this book and when I finish I have to wait for another book I am looking forward to.
Finished White Noise by Don DeLillo. My review is at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... Finished Family Album by Penelope Lively. My review is at:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
A blast from the past: a novel I read late last year for the second time, The Hour I First Believed by Wally LambMy review is at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Jean wrote: "The mention of not sharing your desks makes me realise I get very twitchy when someone tries to reorganise my stuff! That could be why we split the books up in the first place. Interesting Sandy, t..."Oh, me, too. With J, I was like "do not touch/move/alter/or even breathe on a thing on my desk", lol! He said I was tribal about my desk,lol!
LauraT wrote: "Diane S. wrote: "My husband and I keep our books in separate places as well. I turned one of my sons old bedroom into a reading room/study."We keep the books together, but we have so many that so... We keep the books together, but we have so many that some HAS to go into the kids rooms!!! For istance Massimo has all King's novels and Tolkien's, Marta Rowling's and Lucy Maud Montgomery's
"
I love your children's names, Laura!
It took me a while to understand this. For a while I was puzzling over the author's name which seemed unfamilar - "Marta Rowling"! :D
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I think it's just personal preference, as others have pointed out. Gill's suggestion of usin..."
Jean wrote: "Bette - I read your comment last thing and it stopped me sleeping last night! How silly :(
I think it's just personal preference, as others have pointed out. Gill's suggestion of using the back ar..."
Perhaps, I commented incorrectly. I probably should have said "Is there a correct way to link to reviews?"
Fair enough. I should point out that a) I had no idea of the right click function for these review links. And I wondered when using the 'back' button, "would my 'like' on the review be saved"? So, this also led to my frustration with the 'one word' review links:(
Personally, I like the 'gobbledegook' links since when posted, have the words 'review' and 'show' in them. But as Jean says, it is "horses for courses".
Jean, I'm sending you a few extra hours of 'sleep dust', lol:D