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Read the books Jaire, and forget those dreadful films - which could hardly be less true to Tolkien!

I'd have been at a loss to answer this question if I hadn't started a book diary in mid-July, in response to a question someone asked me on Shelfari. Since then, I've read 88 books - many of them re-readings of course. I've always been a compulsive reader, and since I retired have had a lot more...

Not me. I just thought it was a case of an idealised adolescent emotional/intellectual attraction. Rowling said recently that it was implicit, and I suppose she would know - it just didn't strike me to wonder about it while reading the books.

My problem here is with Rowling, not with Dumbledore. In my view, a book, or a series, should stand on its own merits, without further explanations and glosses by the writer. By explicitly revealing such a vital fact about one of her main characters after the close of the series, she has lost my...

Another bookish Brown here! The Brown Ajah...

What I don't understand is why Rowling felt moved to make this revelation at all. What does it add to the character? How is it relevant in any way? So what if Dumbledore was gay. He seems to have been entirely celibate, at least during his long career at Hogwarts. Lucius Malfoy would have outed...

On the whole, I don't much care for filmed adaptations of books, with the exception of the BBC serialised classics - Austen, Dickens etc, which are always extremely well realised. I've enjoyed the Harry Potter series, though agree that some of the later ones must be hard to follow for those who...

Until Making Money, I was an unconditional devotee of Pratchett - but somehow, this one fell flat for me. Apart from the Chairman, the squeaky toy and the Glooper, the Pratchett brilliance was missing. No magic. I'm leaving it for a month or so, and will re-read, in the hope that the deficiency...

For me, and for different reasons, a toss-up between Granny Weatherwax and Lanen Kaelar (Elizabeth Kerner's character)-

Unhesitatingly nominate Jonathan Wylie (pen-name of a husband and wife team) for their two trilogies: The Servants of Ark: The First Named The Centre of the Circle The Mage-born Child The Unbalanced Earth: Dreams of Stone The Lightless Kingdom The Age of Chaos Sword yes, moderately...

I voted "Possibly", for there is something to be said for mercy killing in the circumstances. However, all is not lost. I recommend therapy in the form of intensive Pratchett Intake, beginning with a homeopathic dose of Wyrd Sisters, followed by Witches Abroad, Lords and Ladies, Maskerade...

After reading New Spring, I ordered the first three books of Wheel of Time from Amazon. I had trouble finishing the second, and really had to grit my teeth to get through the third. So much sameness, so much violence - bleah. I even wondered if someone else wrote New Spring, as it's so much...

Re: Oh Monty Python, I just don't get it. I'm British, and I find parts of Monty Python very funny indeed - other parts too schoolboy-humorous for my taste. I admit to finding the Parrot Sketch ROFL funny, and also the 'Knights That Say "Ni!" ' scene in MP and the Holy Grail - the punch-line is...

Love Pratchett, don't care for Tom Holt. Too much written to a formula, that grows old very fast; whereas Pratchett always has something new, witty, hilarious, and sometimes profound, to say.

Er, I was actually talking about glaring grammatical errors!

I've just started re-reading HP and the Deathly Hallows, and come across a monster of a sentence! (my bold type) "Though it was often predicted in later years that he was on the point of taking the job, however, he never had Ministerial ambitions" I can't believe I didn't notice it on a first...

Well, I enjoyed the Potter books the first time around (though I was getting increasingly irritated with the adolescent antics in books 6 and 7), BUT.... Rowling may be a talented story-teller, but in comparison, Terry Pratchett is a writer. As to his "laying into" Rowling, I doubt that it was...

David Jason? Darn, the films are already spoilt for me! :eek: I thought he was already miscast as Albert, but Rincewind? IMO, he would be ideally cast as CMOT Dibbler! (I hated Only Fools and Horses - with a passion, but can't you just see an aging Del-boy as Dibbler?) :D

Hi Marky. I joined Shalfari about a month ago, and yes, it's a really interesting place for the bookish. From the point of view of navigation though, not very user-friendly, especially for conversation between members. Hoopy Frood is a member there too - anyone else?

Belgarath, 80%, Barak second, though with the same percentage, and Silk third at 75%