The BESH Parlour - good reads and great gin (BYO tasty cakes)

[LaLauraDePalmer]

The Bookish Evil Selfish Hags are popping our Book Klub cherries with The Tiger's Wife...details soon to be sorted.

Good lord. Fanny. You are so much in the Annals of BESH (veh old) that even I have never spoken to you

Fuck! I meant I was veh old, not you. Twat.

Have we never spoken? Surely we have.

And no offence, because it is an established fact that I am the oldest ESH in existence.

I have checked out the Tiger book. Still debating whether I will go for it as I have a stack of Jeeves and Wooster by my bedside. Lame, I know.

[sniggers at Rie offending BESH royalty]

Ooh, hello. I'm a very very old BESH indeed - one who's rather better at reading than babymaking. Can I come back once you're done with The Tiger's Wife, please? I tried, honest. But I just couldn't get away with it and my pile of unread books is now towering over my desk, and my New Year's Resolution is to be ruthless.

Ooo look at all these Old-BESH making appearances. It is like a Jeremy Kyle reunion show ;)

I have never in my (admittedly long) life ever been referred to as royalty! If only you knew what I was really like.

If you're looking for royalty sniff out alpine. She's practically aristocratic. Or cosmosis who looks like a princess. There's royalty.

wildfig !

Blardy hell I didn't realise you lot had started without me. I have ordered TTW from Amazon as I don't have one of these new fangled Kindle things. I like a book me.

I just finished Caitlin Moran. Quite liked it.

What are people's favourite reads ever? Top 3?

My favourite books, in no particular order:

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Spike Milligan's War Diaries (technically several books)
Pride & Prejudice

I've been wanting to read Caitlin Moran's book. Determining top 3 is difficult in the best of times...near impossible when TinyTOM WON'T STAY IN BED! Honestly, this kid is seriously interrupting my wine & MN time. Must off for now, but JD Salinger's Nine Stories is up there for me, as is Aimee Bender's Girl In The Flammable Skirt. But there are SO many more that I love love love...how does a girl choose just 3?

shit. I've always felt so lame for not having read P&P (or anything Austen, to be honest) - my sister loves her, though. Hitchhiker's, too. Are you my sister, Cavelina?!

Have any of you read A Visit from the Goon Squad yet? Would love to hear your thoughts. (I loved it - it was very unexpected over and over again) Same with When God Was A Rabbit - maybe our Klub could just discuss books we've already read?

I'll be honest, it took me ages to read P&P - I was given it for my 10th birthday but just couldn't get my head round the language. Once I'd seen the BBC version a few years later I tried again and loved it. I'll be honest, I've not read much other Austen but I do enjoy the tv adaptations, and the modern updates a la Clueless.

I'm rubbish at lists because I always change my mind but my top 5 books today are (in no particular order): P&P, The Hobbit, Mister God This is Anna, All of the George R.R Martin songs of ice and fire series (cheating), and The Lollipop Shoes.

I've got When God was a Rabbit and A Visit from the Goon Squad stacked up, plus some other stuff for work. Top of my reading pile at the moment is You Before Me by Jojo Moyes which has already made about ten people I know weep real tears and they're all hardened bookish types. I'm trying to find time to read it all in one go for maximum emotional wringage.

( to Jeremy Kyle-style BESH reunion. But NB I have been out of the BESH loop for so long that if there've been any major rebrandings, apart from ski/alpine, pls to point them out discreetly for the old gimmer in the corner.)

So the rules are, we can just drink gin, eat cake, and call each other slags, whether or not we read the books? Just asking.

My top three...
P&P without a doubt - just gave it to my 11 year old neice for Christmas as I decided it was time. Now hope I haven't damaged her a la cavey.
Watership Down - if I need a cry I just re-read the last two chapters. Instant tears, without fail.
Um... hard to pick a third. Tom Jones, Jane Eyre, Anna Karenina, The Scarlet Pimpernel. Best modern book I've read is Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.
I am the world's expert in 1960s and 70s pony books. And have been known to read chick lit.

I loved all the Jill books Fanny. I also liked Pony Club books and My friend Flicka.

I think I read P&P when I was 12. But I didn't find it properly laugh out loud funny until much much later. No damage done Fanny, fret ye not.

I don't do pony books But I do heart a nice doggy tale.

I have never heard of half of these books, so at least this thread is giving me a reading list

I've only managed a few pages of TTW so far. Hope I can keep up. It's the bloody day job that gets in the way.

I am another who frequently changes her mind about fave books, but Jane Eyre is definitely in there. And Rebecca.

I was given The Help for Christmas, so looking forward to doing that at some point.

But really, I just love having an all-ESH inclusive hang out.

Figgy!!!!! Arf at Fanny being MN royalty. No ESH is MN Royalty. I spit on MN royalty. Oh wait, sorry - it doesn't exist.

Anyway, is this turning into a "Books I have read in my life" list? I'll start:

The Enchanted Wood (and two sequels)
First Form at Malory Towers (and five sequels)
Five Have a Mystery to Solve (and twenty sequels)
The Adventurous Four (and sequel)
The School at the Chalet (and two hundred sequels)....................................

Come to my arms, my beamish boy! How's tricks? I haz a new job starting next week so may never meet you at RNA highjinks.

I am currently reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo; Brain Storm: The Flaws in the Science of Sex Difference (amaze, btw); and What Katy Did Next.

Please to join too. I don't have TTW yet, or the technological means of aquiring it, but I shall have a look up the Amazon. I have started New Year with the intention of reading Dickens, after realising I had only ever read Oliver Twist in the long (without any of the words missed out) version, but I can postpone it.

I do like a book, but got quite put off after a degree in the stuff at the sort of University (not a bridge one) where lots of shouty boys had been to Eton and had worries about the emasculation of sitting around discussing books, and so shouted Ver Loudly about how clever they were and I never got a word in edgeways. I did my dissertation on Anne of Green Gables in protest.

Also can't choose favourites- I know when I finally get round to reading the fire and ice ones they will be probably be flavour of the month. I'm still not over my adolescent love affair with all things magically real- Eva Luna, 1000 years of Solitude, etc. And I loved The Gargoyle recently. I am struggling with The Book Thief, shall I persevere?

Persevere, moley? Surely that should never be a necessary word in BESH book club. I can't stand 'worthy' books that I feel I am supposed to read, and have to force myself to keep going because it's oh so important that I read this amazing, award-winning book.

And I have to admit the reason I have not yet bought TTW is that I am afeared it will feel a bit like that. Please smack me over the head and say it's a gripping read and I won't be able to put it down.

Am I wrong to suggest that BESH book club should include in-depth analysis of books like 'Five go to Kirrin Island'? We could have a lot of fun with that!

I adore the idea of a thread for chatting about books generally, perhaps with a book for joint reading ticking along in the background for those who want to join in for any one title.

I am another Enid Blyton/Elinor Brent-Dyer whore, aries. And a pony book lover too, drom and fanny. Was going to say pony whore, but that would have been a whole world of wrong.

Favourite book is too hard to say. Frost In May, I Capture The Castle, King of a Rainy Country and Saplings are currently up there. But different things speak to me at different times

I totally think we should discuss Five Go To Kirrin Island. As well as The tiger's Wife. In fact, we could discuss it while we are waiting to buy and read TTW. What did you think of it, auntfanny?