hi bookworm. LeBeaux - The trees pictured are Dracaena cinnabari or Socotra Dragon Trees (they are sometimes called the Dragon Blood Tree though some other plants in the genus have that as their 'common' name too). They are native to Socotra which is a group of islands in the Indian Ocean near the A...

Hi Dee.

Welcome from a fellow Australian.

After my grandmother's eye surgery I spent some time each night reading to her. Her favourite book was Little Lord Fauntleroy. Truly dire!

Hi Rick

I admire people who are able to wrestle with their thoughts and pin enough of them down to produce a book. (That may well be my first sporting metaphor!) Is your book fiction or non-fiction?

I would also welcome some lively (passionate even) discussions on Shakespeare and/or Chaucer. As a poetry lover I'm interested in what you consider worthwhile DireCari. If anyone wanted to discuss Beowulf I'd be more than happy to join in - I don't profess to have any profound thoughts on it though.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc!

Welcome Harrison

I can't remember the first book I read, but I can remember the first time I became totally immersed in a book. I was 8 and the book was A Tale of Two Cities. I started crying when Sydney Carton did his 'far, far better thing'. Unfortunately I was sitting in class at the time, so another first follow...

Tulkinghorn's Allegory is a painting of a man pointing his finger angrily. It is on the roof of his office. It is no doubt symbolic given the frequent references to it.

My list of the 5 greatest novels would be: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte In Search of Lost Time by Proust and for a sentimental (and 'against the rules') 6th: ...