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[Wulan]

I'm currently reading Wuthering Heights. It's 2001 edition and only has 201 pages. Sometimes I read it two or even three times per page, because I'm not good at english. I believe that If I try and keep learning, some day I can reach my goals.
I'm Indonesian btw. Anyone has ever visited Bali? I live in Java Island near Bali :)

[Nell]

I love Wuthering Heights - I can't imagine reading it as somebody without strong English though, Bronte uses so much regional dialect! Are you enjoying it so far?
I've never been to Bali, but I have a cat who is part Balinese. ;)

[Loretta]

Wulan wrote: "I'm currently reading Wuthering Heights. It's 2001 edition and only has 201 pages. Sometimes I read it two or even three times per page, because I'm not good at english. I believe that If I try and..."

Are you enjoying Wuthering Heights Wulan? I applaud your determination to read the book! It's one of my favorites! I can't wait to read your comments! :)

I have never been to Bali but I've heard that it's beautiful! :)

Enjoy your day and happy reading! :)

[Wulan]

Nicole wrote: "I love Wuthering Heights - I can't imagine reading it as somebody without strong English though, Bronte uses so much regional dialect! Are you enjoying it so far?
I've never been to Bali, but I hav..."

hahahaha I really enjoy the book. My sister who was studied English Literature suggested that I must read Wuthering Heights

[Loretta]

Wulan wrote: "Nicole wrote: "I love Wuthering Heights - I can't imagine reading it as somebody without strong English though, Bronte uses so much regional dialect! Are you enjoying it so far?
I've never been to ..."

Smart sister! :). Smart you for listening to her! :)

[Wulan]

Loretta wrote: "Wulan wrote: "I'm currently reading Wuthering Heights. It's 2001 edition and only has 201 pages. Sometimes I read it two or even three times per page, because I'm not good at english. I believe tha..."

Thanks Loretta. I enjoy the book so far. Bali is so beautiful and nice place for meditation

[Loretta]

Wulan wrote: "Loretta wrote: "Wulan wrote: "I'm currently reading Wuthering Heights. It's 2001 edition and only has 201 pages. Sometimes I read it two or even three times per page, because I'm not good at englis..."

Glad you're enjoying the book Wulan! :)

[Sarah]

Speaking of cats...mine is sitting here trying to eat the copy of Villette I'm trying to read. It is about 30 years old and has that stinky old book smell, which apparently translates to tasty for my cat, since she keeps trying to chew on the pages! Sigh...

[Nell]

I thought I was the only one whose cats ate their books! I had to take one in particular and move it because the dust cover was particularly appealing to one of mine. She also likes to bite pages, so sometimes I return library books with little half-moon marks on the pages.

[Sarah]

My cat only does it with books that have that old book smell, but she finds them irresistible! I have quite a few books with puncture wounds from her teeth. Oddly enough, she does not mess with newer books.

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

I wonder if she if trying to mark them as her own property and putting her smell over whatever smell is lurking in old books.

[Sarah]

Kathy wrote: "I wonder if she if trying to mark them as her own property and putting her smell over whatever smell is lurking in old books."

I hadn't thought of that, but it definitely makes sense, Kathy. If the books smell that strong to me, they would surely drive a cat nuts (especially one as territorial as she is)!

[Nell]

Mine only seems particularly interested in new books! Weird little kittens...

[Pink]

Nicole, that makes sense to keep your cats in, I wouldn't trust mine to go out if they were a special breed. Good luck with finishing the baby blanket, that's a nice gift for your boss, I hope you beat the ticking baby clock!

By the way, I'm enjoying Villette a lot more, I'll go and post my thoughts in the discussion thread in a minute :)

Wulan, I've never visited Bali, but I'd love to! Good luck with Wuthering Heights, I think it can be a tricky read for anyone, as it has quite a lot of speech written in regional dialect and the characters can get confusing, but it's worth the effort. People seem to love it, or hate it, so let us know what you think when you're finished :)

[Nell]

Awesome! I know we talked about how it was my next Bronte read, so I was looking forward to hearing what you think about it because you and I seem to have taste that tends to line up. I was a bit nervous when you said you weren't enjoying it!

I hope so too. I got to my halfway point on it last night, so I think I should be okay. With school nearly done I should have some more time to try and get through it. It's about three hours per stripe, and I have eight stripes left to do. Not so bad!

We're having our first truly beautiful spring day here today, and I'm stuck at work (and facing a big huge stretch of very sunny windows). Everybody sit in your garden and read a few pages for me today!

[Pink]

Ah a shame you're stuck at work today, but unfortunately it needs to be done. Luckily most of my work is done from home, so I can fit in reading in the sunshine, around sitting at the computer for hours.

Today I attempted to go to the beach, but the water was freezing, so I just sat on the sand for half an hour, then walked home again.

Now it's 6pm and I've got the last of a veggie lasagne in the oven for dinner. Then I'll probably catch up on some television programmes I've been meaning to watch, especially the one about the Bronte sisters, which I think is called To Walk Invisible, then an early night for me!

I hope everyone else is enjoying the last of their weekend :)

[Candace]

Pink wrote: "Ah a shame you're stuck at work today, but unfortunately it needs to be done. Luckily most of my work is done from home, so I can fit in reading in the sunshine, around sitting at the computer for ..."

Hi Pink,
Even though I don't there was anything new in the Bronte movie, I really enjoyed watching it. I wonder if Emily was really that angry? I can't think of a better word; she hit her brothers and sisters and when she told her seed for a story- she seemed to revel in someone else having so much anger built up in them!! Wasn't that great? Of course she would tell a good Wuthering Heights! Haha I enjoyed it.

[Pink]

I absolutely loved 'To Walk Invisible' and it's made me want to read the rest of the Bronte's work that I have left. I might even re-read Wuthering Heights, which I have a love/ hate relationship with, but I'm going to try Emily's poetry next. I agree there was nothing new included in the programme, but I was pleased with how it was done.

[Kathleen]

Oh, Emily's poetry--what a great idea Pink. I enjoyed To Walk Invisible too. Not surprising that their personalities were each so strong and different, like their books. I bet Emily really was that angry--Wuthering Heights just had to come from a dark place!

I can't wait to get to Villette, but I must finish Emma first.

[Lars Martin]

Pink: Yeah. I was lucky. Who knows what would've happened if the tyre had exploded in 70 k/h.

It's not in the woods, but in the mountains. I'll upload a picture to my profile so you can see the view from the veranda.
Unfortunately most of the snow had melted, so we couldn't go skiing, but I had my bike.

On thursday I will go to another cabin in another mountain. I will try to get there by bike as well. It is fun to ride. It's good exercise as well.

How did you cope with the heatwave? Did you get any walks at the beach?

[Pink]

Ah, mountains! That terrain is so alien to me, that I didn't even consider it. Just flat old England for me, at least in the South East, where I am.

I just took a look at your photos, what an amazing view!

I managed to cope in our 22 degree heatwave! My Mum called round and we sat chatting in the garden, which had full sunshine and no breeze, which tricked us into thinking the sea would be nice to swim in. Very silly, we didn't get past dipping our toes in, as it was ice cold, but we sat on the beach for a while instead :)

[Lars Martin]

Thanks. I love that view myself. It brings calm to a turbulent soul.

It's often quite windy there. The wind ruffles the treetops. Branches hits the outer wall and the stream trickles next to the cabin.

One of my favourite activities is to tuck myself into a blanket. Dim the lights enough to let the fireplace glaze the room with its yellow light. Then open up the window and let the cold wind penetrate the warm air of the cabin and read a chilling book while I sip red wine or drink a beer.

It doesn't get any better than that (unless I'm on my bike of course).

22 degrees. That sounds amazing.

You sound like a tough cookie. Swimming this early! I hardly get into the water unless IT is 22 degrees. I'm happy to hear that you only dipped your toes in it :)

That is its own bliss, though. Dipping your toes in the water for the first time this season I mean. It's like the first sip of coffee in the morning. It's the first taste of summer.

You like swimming in the ocean?

[Pink]

You've set quite a scene of chilling in your cabin, it sounds quite idyllic.

Ah and that first sip of morning coffee, bliss!

I somewhat like swimming in the sea, but only if I'm close to the shore, as I have quite a fear of being in open water, that I've never been able to get rid of.

[Alexw]

With a full moon again -all places are mysterious and romantic at the same time !!

[Pink]

And what a wonderful full moon it looked tonight. That marks the start of Passover doesn't it? And Easter this coming Sunday too. I don't celebrate either, but I think spring is a lovely time of year.

[Lars Martin]

It has grown cloudy here, so I can't see the moon. Not that I've been looking. I've had my head stuck in a book.

Spring is a lovely time. No doubt about it. It's just a shame that the pollen allergy is kind of ruining it.

[Alexw]

my head stuck in a book too but not at 2 am when moon is brightest and have family watching !!

[Lars Martin]

Alexw wrote: "my head stuck in a book too but not at 2 am when moon is brightest and have family watching !!"

You really like the moon, don't you Alex?

[Lilly]

I fear I owe quite some apologies to various members of this group, just dropping out like that - I know I had some arrangements about buddy reads at the time. But things just got worse and worse these last 6 months. So I'll use this thread to make a general apology to everyone who felt slighted or dropped! - I didn't do it intentionally.
First I got a concussion - so I couln'd do much anyway and using screens just made me dizzy after a few minutes, then made my head hurt. - So I never made it to the posts I had still intended. :S
Then, as a kind of "new year's present", I burned my thigh - just slept through the first two weeks, couldn't even walk properly. So things just got from worse to ... well, let's just say "wonderfull". Not exactly.
Now I'm back and fine, trying to orientate myself around the new discussions. - I just hope you're not all mad at me ...

[Loretta]

Lilly wrote: "I fear I owe quite some apologies to various members of this group, just dropping out like that - I know I had some arrangements about buddy reads at the time. But things just got worse and worse t..."

Don't be ridiculous Lilly! Your health and well being comes before any book club! Seriously, I'm sure that any members that you made "promises" to about joining them in reads would understand, completely! I'm glad you're feeling better! :)

[Pink]

No apologies needed. Life gets in the way sometimes and it sounds like you had more than enough to deal with! It's good to see you back now :)

[Lilly]

Thanks to you both! :)
I felt rather worried about dropping out like that ...

[Pink]

No don't be silly, we're here for fun reading and discussion when you have time, not to tell you off if you're busy or have other more pressing things going on!

[Melanti]

I agree! Don't worry about the group/buddy reads. Your heath comes first. The threads and books will still be there whenever you get around to them.

I've skipped out on buddy reads plenty of times for far less serious reasons.

[Laurie]

Lilly, how terrible for you to suffer two injuries back to back. I'm so glad you are better. Participation in buddy reads is never paramount over our daily real-life duties. You have had so much on your plate that no apology is necessary. Glad to have you back.

[Marian]

Glad to hear your feeling better Lilly,welcome back:)

[Lilly]

Thank you all for your kind welcome back!
I'm really glad to be posting again. :)

[Loretta]

Lilly wrote: "Thank you all for your kind welcome back!
I'm really glad to be posting again. :)"

And we're all glad and happy to see your posts Lilly! :)

[Lilly]

What a dribbely-drabbely wet day. Over here it's raining all day and I'm sitting at my desk, reading through "tons and tons" of prose poems I need for a seminar. - But somehow the lines and texts and everything just always seem to be getting longer and longer ...

Anyone round here with an experience/ liking for prose poems?

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

When it comes to technology put me in the paranoid and worrying about Big Brother category. For the most part I’m a private person and I don’t like the evasiveness and lack of transparency of technology. A small case in point, yesterday, I decided that Othello was most likely going to win the current Old School poll. I got my Kindle and downloaded Othello. Not only did I download it but I opened it to read some of the pages, Shakespeare and I don’t get along. This was done in an effort to decide if I would read this or leave it unread on the group bookshelf.

I have a Goodreads account and I have a Kindle account, I did not know they talked to each other. Now I know this occurs because Goodreads posted up that I was currently reading Othello. When I finished with my Kindle Goodreads marked the book as read and also listed it on my 2017 Goodreads Challenge. I never marked it as currently reading, never marked it as read, I didn’t list a date of reading completion, and I didn’t’ rate or review the book. All this was done behind the scenes.

I know I can go find a switch and stop this from happening in the future, I think. But that is beside the point. I did not know this happening and I did not agree for it to happen. Am I just crazy? Or do others have the same concerns. Like I said earlier, I’m distrustful of technology, which also makes uninformed. If something as simple as two internet accounts whose main focus is books are sharing information about me. What’s going on behind the screen don’t I know about. Anybody else concerned or am I nuts.

[Pink]

I don't think your nuts, I think a lot of people don't like it. My kindle app on my phone never synced with goodreads, so I've never had that problem. Although I personally don't like how my internet browsing shows up in advert suggestions on here.

I was just talking to my Mum about big brother and how much data sharing goes on. She said they must be watching her closer than she thought, as yesterday she picked out some curtains with a friend, from hundreds in a local shop, today those exact curtains showed up in an advert on facebook. She was only half joking.

[Sarah]

That happened to me recently. I apparently checked some box allowing the Kindle app to update my Goodreads feed when I set things up. Although I'm pretty sure there was another way to go about it, I was annoyed enough that I completely unlinked Amazon and all other sites from my Goodreads account. Ugh.

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

Lilly -- I agree no apologies needed. It is nice to have you back and do take care of yourself.

[Katy, Quarterly Long Reads]

Bob -- I'd say you are not nuts. I turn off bunches of things to do with tracking on my phone also.

[Melanti]

Bob wrote: "When it comes to technology put me in the paranoid and worrying about Big Brother category. For the most part I’m a private person and I don’t like the evasiveness and lack of transparency of techn..."

Does it make you feel better to know that it's the same company? Amazon bought Goodreads a few years ago and ever since then they've been adding integration between Amazon (especially Kindles) and GR. So at least it's not two unrelated companies sharing your data.


I remember getting a pop up a few months back offering the new "automatically mark as currently reading" feature and I refused and chose for it to prompt me instead. Is it possible you got a pop up at one point and just closed it without reading it first?

Here's some instructions on where the settings toggle is: https://www.goodreads.com/help/show/5...


There are nice things about having the accounts linked, though.

It gives you an interface where you can import books you've bought on Amazon to Goodreads on a book-by-book basis. That's nice for me since I like shelving my exact edition and that means I don't have to go to Amazon to get the ASIN/ISBN and copy it over to Goodreads -- it'll just display the correct edition on the Add Books page and let me decide what to do with it.

Also, if you highlight something in a Kindle edition, once it syncs it will pop up in a hidden notes feature on your review here on Goodreads. Then you can choose to share the quote publicly or just leave it private. I use this a lot when I want to quote a passage in my review or in a discussion - that way I can just copy/paste from the private notes section to the relevant discussion instead of having to retype what might be a lengthy quote.


Bob wrote: "Like I said earlier, I’m distrustful of technology, which also makes uninformed. If something as simple as two internet accounts whose main focus is books are sharing information about me. What’s going on behind the screen don’t I know about. Anybody else concerned or am I nuts. ..."

I think for me, there's a couple of criteria...
One of the primary ones is if the company gives you a way to turn it off.

In this case, yes. You can choose not to have your Amazon & Goodreads linked, or you can choose not to sync reading progress or reading status or highlights, etc. Amazon/Goodreads does give you a fair amount of control over what you share & how it's shared. They have an annoying tenancy to have new features be opt-out rather than opt-in, but at least they do give you a choice.

The second criteria is whether the shared info benefits me personally in some way, or if it only benefits the company.

So, in this case, yes. Most of what Amazon has done has a purpose that is useful for me. Sharing progress lets Whispersync work - so I can read a book on multiple devices at once or even sync between print/audio and not loose my place. Sharing highlights (privately) gives me a way to grab quotes easily when I want them, etc. Things that I don't find useful, I turn off.

[Melanti]

Pink wrote: "Although I personally don't like how my internet browsing shows up in advert suggestions on here. ..."

Some websites lets advertisers set cookies on your machine so the advertisers can see what you're looking at online & try to tailor their ads to that. It's creepy & I don't like it one bit.

I use a browser extension to disable all third party cookies. That cuts out a lot of that nonsense, for now at least.

[Lilly]

I agree with everyone who's feeling uncomfortable with this kind of technology/ surveillance.
I didn't even know Amazon and Goodreads swap data - so Bob, your story kind of gave me the creeps. - Although I know, of course, that things like this happen all the time. I always feel annoyed by those stalkative advertisements. And I'm really distrustful of my tablet - my only device constantly linked to the internet. I never felt like this about my computer, even when I still had internet at home. But on a mobile device, there are so many processes, working in the background, that you have to turn off first thing - that really makes me feel suspicious and misstrustful. So Bob, you're not nuts and you're not alone with your scepticism.
As for Kindle, I have never noticed any automatic link to goodreads. But then I'm using different mail addresses - that might be helpful (or not). I seem to be doing that a lot. ^^
Oh, and I also don't use facebook.

[Lilly]

Katy wrote: "Lilly -- I agree no apologies needed. It is nice to have you back and do take care of yourself."

Thank you Katy!

[Bob, Short Story Classics]

Melanti, thanks for you help and information. Some of it I can understand, somewhat, and a lot of it is like trying to understand whale song. But I have a place to start from and some new terms to look up and research.

As for the bill that the senate passed, if no one can opt out, maybe those wonders of human intelligence will finally pass a law they won't be exempt from. They won't like it.

[Melanti]

Bob wrote: "As for the bill that the senate passed, if no one can opt out, maybe those wonders of human intelligence will finally pass a law they won't be exempt from. They won't like it. ..."

That presumes that they a) know exactly what they passed and how it's different from websites selling the same data and b) that they care about something other than pleasing the lobbyists.

At least there's been a big push towards encrypting web traffic over the last few years, so it's not as bad as it could have been.