What are you reading?

[Diane CBPFC]

I am listening to books on CD on my ipod as I am spending hours on the road/waiting for kids these days.

I just "read" The Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford - and am now 7/8th through Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet.

Both are fantastic books, probably made even better as they are read by actors. :-)

[Vulture]

I'm not technically minded enough to work an ipod, Diane, I still use an mp3 player.
I have a million story tapes from my personal cassette player days (definitely the ice age....) and I converted them to mp3 thingies (I've got about 15 gigs worth). They're brilliant for the odd times I get on a bus, or have to wait for appointments, etc. Even better to go to sleep by; I sometimes wake up and the player's still going!
They still don't replace a reading book but the player weighs about 4 oz and a book can weigh a pound or so.

[Tom]

I'm currently reading the Orange customer services website to see what they have to say about my internet connection problems. It's funny that the problems are mostly down to either me or my computer's browser settings (although I haven't changed them and I'm connected perfectly well now) - AND I received an error message '718 no response from the remote computer' when I tried to connect about thirty times earlier this evening. It's amazing that they have a definitive list of all these error messages on their site (when I finally manage to get a stable connection) yet when I click on 718 I receive a white page with a box containing "Page does not exist". Needless to say I provided feedback of 'poor' when they asked how I found their advice.

And I wonder why if I was on broadband I could call their customer services team between 7am and 11pm, but as I'm on dial-up they are only available between 8am and 10pm.

Not being paranoid, but I think they are trying to tell me something.

Inexcusable rant over - sorry about that...

Vulch, I haven't got an ipod or an MP3 player - wouldn't know where to begin with them. Takes me all my time to find the music that is stored in my mobile phone. And don't even ask about the phone numbers... 

[Vulture]

Vulch, I haven't got an ipod or an MP3 player - wouldn't know where to begin with them. Takes me all my time to find the music that is stored in my mobile phone. And don't even ask about the phone numbers... 

Now, I'm with you on the mobile phone thing, Tom. I've been with T-mobile since they were Mercury, and every 18 months or so I get offered a new phone just for renewing my contract with them. Last year I thought I treat myself to a really swish (free) phone and I gave my old-fashioned one to a grateful granddaughter. After one week of lost calls, unsent text messages, alarms that didn't go off, I begged my granddaughter to take the damn thing and let me have my old one back. She had to put all my numbers back in for me and reset my customised ring tone (grandson shouting 'answer the phone' in an ever rising agitated manner) 'coz I hadn't a clue! It'll soon be time to renew the contract again but all the new phones do everything but wipe your bum - I think I'm going to go for the two cans and a bit of string this time.

[Tom]

  I went to Buxton the other week to meet a friend and was meant to call her when I got there. Well, I know her number is in my phone but when I looked through the phone book the only number I could find was my own. Why would I want to look for my own phone number in my phone? Did the manufacturer think I might need to call myself? Maybe they were thinking ahead so if I lost my phone, I'd be able to call it, but in that case I would already have to know the number ...and I wouldn't be able to look in the phone book if I'd lost the phone anyway... my phone can bring maps up of anywhere in the world, but look for a phone number, which is the reason I've got the thing  . I found my friend the really old fashioned way... I looked for her!

I'm in a bit of a moany mood this evening aren't I?

[Tarquin Thunderthighs lll]

I don't read books, or listen to them. I have a lousy attention sp

[Diane CBPFC]

This isn't looking like too promising a start for the BP book club.

[Joan]

    I was just thinking that, Diane.  We're not very good at sticking to the topic, are we? Always going off on a tangent.  My books at the moment are "easy reading" - can just pick them up when I've got a couple of minutes and they don't require too much concentration. Mostly rereads as well, but always have one on the go.  Reading "Life Swap" by Jane Green just now.

Did I tell you that I reread (first go at about 15) Anna Karenina? Took me about three months - next is War and Peace.  Some day.

[Feather]

- and am now 7/8th through Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet.

Both are fantastic books, probably made even better as they are read by actors. :-)

Since I'm not really speaking to Mince I don't join in here much anymore, but then I saw this thread.

Diane, I have been trying to read Pillars of the Earth for several months. I am about a third of the way into it. It's not that I don't find it interesting, because I do. It's finding the time to concentrate on it. It's so very detailed.  I have read six other books --five lightweight chick-lits and one Clive Cussler action-adventure -- since starting "Pillars."    I also have the sequel World Without End to read. 

[Diane CBPFC]

Nobody else speaks to Mince either so you should feel at home here.

I just finished Pillars while the kids were in the pool for their swim club. The story was woven together beautifully.  I love having the story read to me - you should get the CDs out from your library and see if you like to listen instead of read. You can do dishes, drive, listen in the dark in bed (I have a hubby who grumbles when he sleeps if I have the light on.)

[Mince]

Feather's always telling me she's not speaking to me.

Well, I tend to read books for my students to read afterwards, so that I know they have read them.

One of my students, who is 12, read Stephen King's "Firestarter" in just over a day (500 pages), and now wants to read Christine. I really ought to warn her that many of King's other books are a little "adult" in places to say the least.

[Tom]

  Sorry, I went really off topic last night, but I was on about reading something - the internet and the phone numbers 

I like the idea of the BP Book Club. I've not read a book for a while though...

[robbie62]

my friend is a vet and he has just read a book called "the healthy dog"  he says he could'nt put it down

[Tarquin Thunderthighs lll]

  Boom-boom!

[Tom]