Just wanted to give a big round of e-applause to Rebecca (@bookladysblog) at The Book Lady’s Blog for the fantastic #BEAtwittyparty she organised.

I hadn’t signed up to attend, since I hadn’t worked out what the time difference was and didn’t know what 8 – 10 pm Eastern time US translated to in Australia. Fortunately, I managed to get online for the final 45 minutes and had a fun time trying to keep up with the dizzying number of tweets.

Organised for those of us not fortunate enough to get to BEA (Book Expo America) in New York, #BEAtwittyparty gave book bloggers and book lovers on Twitter a chance to get together and share their recent favourite reads and general book chat.

The tweets came thick and fast and it was almost impossible to keep up. I’m sure it’s going to take me weeks to get time to check out all the new book blogs that I discovered while chatting with everyone.

There was talk of organising a Twitter bookclub for book bloggers as well, which sounds great. Heather (@highhiddenplace) of A High and Hidden Place seems to be taking on responsibility for co-ordinating that, so make sure you follow her at Twitter to keep up to date on what is happening with the Twitter book club.

For those who, like me, gatecrashed #BEAtwittyparty and want to follow up on some of the great bloggers who were there, Rebecca has a list of blog links and Twitter names for those who sent in their RSVP on time.

If you’ve written a post-#BEAtwittyparty post on your blog, make sure you add the link in the comments below.

This week’s Booking Through Thursday question:

Is there a book that you wish you could “unread”? One that you disliked so thoroughly you wish you could just forget that you ever read it?

In my wild and crazy youth, I would finish every book I started no matter how badly written or how hackneyed or annoying the storyline. Now that I am more mature (and have far less spare time on my hands), I find myself being far more discriminating in my book selections. As a result, I really haven’t read much in recent years that I would like to erase, simply because I never let it get that far.

If I had to choose one book, it would probably be Patrick White’s The Twyborn Affair. I read this for a university subject when I was pregnant with my second child. I was already on an emotional rollercoaster (got to love those pregnancy hormones) and the raw emotions and sexual identity and gender confusion/conflict of so many characters in the novel just pushed me over the emotional cliff.

I found myself only able to read a few pages before having to put the book aside to focus on something less heartbreakingly intense. I realise that this probably indicates that the book was well written, but at the time I was traumatised rather than impressed.

I probably wouldn’t still harbour lingering scars if the book had ended differently, but having tenaciously continued through the various traumatic emotional experiences of the central character, I was left feeling less than impressed by the abrupt ending that didn’t even give me the opportunity for even a small degree of emotional closure.

If it were possible to “unread” a book, The Twyborn Affair would be at the top of my list.

Do you have a book you wish you could erase from your memory? Something that still makes you mentally shudder in pain and/or loathing? List your unreading book selections in the comments below and include a link to your Booking Through Thursday post if you have one.

There are so many great books out there and I want to read most of them. My memory is not what it used to be (and let’s face it, it really wasn’t all that good to start with), so I am going to keep a list here of books that I want to read. This TBR (To Be Read) list is a work in progress – I’ll keep adding new titles as they come to my attention and will delete books from the list once I have read them. I’m including books that I own but haven’t read yet as well as books that I have heard about and want to read.

Thanks to Rebecca from Lost in Books for the Wish List idea. You can find Rebecca’s list here. If I add a book that I have heard about in another book blog, I will include a link in brackets at the end. If you have your own reading wish list, feel free to add a link in the comments section.

Numbers

• 20,000 Leagues under the Sea – Jules Verne

A

• Adventures of Pinnochio – Carlo Collodi
• Age of Innocence, The – Edith Wharton
• Alias Grace – Margaret Atwood
• All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque
• Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay – Michael Chabon
• And the Ladies of the Club – Helen Hoover Santmeyer
• Angela’s Ashes – Frank McCourt
• Angels of Kokoda – David Mulligan
• An Imaginary Life – David Malouf
• Anna and the King of Siam – Margaret Landon
• Are you there God? It’s Me, Margaret – Judy Blume
• Around the World in Eighty Days – Jules Verne
• Artemis Fowl – Eoin Colfer

B

• Bel Canto - Ann Patchett
• Belong to Me – Marisa de los Santos (Books on the Brain)
• Best Short Stories, The – Guy de Maupassant (A Guy’s Moleskine Notebook)
• Boat, The – Nam Le
• Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Elias Canetti
• Breath – Tim Winton
• Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh

C

• Canterbury Tales, The – Geoffrey Chaucer
• Captain Coreilli’s Mandolin – Louis de Bernieres
• Casino Royale – Ian Fleming
• The Catcher in the Rye – J D Salinger
• The Cellist of Sarajevo – Steven Galloway
• The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith – Thomas Keneally
• A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
• A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
• A Connecticut Yankee in King Athur’s Court – Mark Twain
• Claudia’s Big Break – Lisa Heidke

D

• Don Quixote – Miguel de Cervantes

E

• Embracing the Wide Sky – Daniel Tammet

F

• Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
• Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe - Fannie Flagg

G

• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes – Anita Loos
• The Ghost and Mrs Muir – R A Dick
• The Goat who Sailed the World – Jackie French
• Guernsey Literary and Sweet Potato Pie Society – Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows

H

• Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Hating Alison Ashley – Robin Klein
• He died with a Felafel in his Hand – John Birmingham

I

• I Can Jump Puddles – Alan Marshall
  
• Incendiary – Chris Cleave
• Inferno – Dante Alighieri
  
• Invisible Man, The – H G Wells

J

• Jessica – Bryce Courtney
• The Joy Luck Club – Amy Tan
• The Jungle Book – Rudyard Kipling

K

• The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
  

L

• Life of Pi, The – Yann Martel
• Like Water for Chocolate – Laura Esquivel
• Little Princess, A – Frances Hodgson Burnett
• Lord of the Rings – J R R Tolkein
• Love Child, The – Fran Cusworth
• Love Walked In – Marisa de los Santos (Books on the Brain)
• Lucy Springer Gets Even – Lisa Heidke

M

• Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
• Much Ado about Nothing – William Shakespeare
• My Brilliant Career – Miles Franklin

N

• Name of the Rose, The – Umberto Eco
• No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency – Alexander McColl Smith

O

P

• Paradise Lost – John Milton
• Perfume – Patrick Suskind
• Pilgrim’s Progress, The – John Bunyan
• Playing Beatie Bow – Ruth Park

Q
R

• Railway Children, The – E Nesbit
• Reading Lolita in Tehran – Azar Nafisi
• Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
• Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe

S

• Scarlet Letter, The – Nathanial Hawthorne
• Scarlet Pimpernel, The – Emmuska Orczy
• Schindler’s Ark – Thomas Keneally
• School of Essential Ingredients, The – Erica Bauermeister
• Scoop – Evelyn Waugh
• Secret Life of Bees, The – Sue Monk Kidd
• Secret River, The – Kate Grenville (CaribousMom)
• Series of Unfortunate Events, A – Lemony Snicket
• Smiley’s People – John Le Carre
• Stepford Wives, The – Ira Levin
• Suitable Boy, A – Vikram Seth
• Suite Francais – Irene Nemirovsky
• Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, The – Alan Bradley

T

• Tarzan of the Apes – Edgar Rice Burroughs
• Trial, The – Franz Kafka

U
V

• Versace Sisters – Cate Kendall (Australia’s Biggest Book Group fundraiser)

W

• We Need to Talk about Kevin – Lionel Shriver
• When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit – Judith Kerr
• Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

X
Y
Z

Title: The Mysterious Benedict Society
Author: Trenton Lee Stewart
Publisher: Chicken House, 2009 (474pages)
ISBN: 978-1-906427-02-3
Suitable Age: 10+

Ever have one of those “why haven’t I heard about this book before now?” moments? One of the disadvantages of living in the land Down Under is that it sometimes takes a while for information to drift far enough south for us to hear about it.

So, I have only just found out about the fantastic Mysterious Benedict Society series, as the first book was only released in Australia in May 2009. In the same month, the paperback version of the second book, The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey, was released in the US and a third book, The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma is due for release in the US in late 2009.

The Mysterious Benedict Society has the same kind of feel to it as Harry Potter and the Lemony Snicket books. Action, adventure, great characters, and themes about friendship, loyalty, courage etc for those interested in getting a deeper message from the book. Before you send me heated emails declaring that it is nothing like HP, I’m referring more to the use of language and style of adventure than the content. No wizards or magic in MBS, but lots of great interaction between characters and exciting plot developments.

I particularly enjoyed the very clever use of language in this book. There are some great puns in the character and place names (the evil LeDroptha Curtain has established his Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened on Nomansan Island).

It is so exciting to find such a clever, well written and exciting book suitable for the tween market. The four children, two girls and two boys, who are selected by Mr Benedict to work as spies at Curtain’s Learning Institute are interesting and quirky characters that tweens should find appealing. There is a great sense of fun and humour in the book running alongside the more serious themes.

I don’t want to spoil the suspense by giving away details of the plot, but I highly recommend this book for both boys and girls who love to read adventure or mystery stories. I gave it to my 10-year-old son to read and he loves it.

Now I just have to decide whether to buy the second and third books in the series from the US or wait until they are available in Australia. *sigh*

For a more detailed review of The Mysterious Benedict Society, visit Susan’s reviews at Suite101.com.

For the uninitiated, May 25th is Towel Day – the day when Douglas Adams fans around the world (and indeed universe) carry a towel in honour of one of the great comic writers of our time.

I was in my mid-teens when I first discovered the wonder that is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I think it was the first adult book that I had read that was outright funny, and it sparked my love of books that contain wordplay and clever writing. Of course I went on to read all 5 books in the Hitchhiker’s trilogy (yup – I said 5), as well as the Dirk Gently books.

I thought I’d pick a favourite Adams quote to mark the occasion. There are thousands of great turns of phrase and amusing observations in all of Adams’ books, but I have chosen one that is very meaningful to me, from The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul:

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.

What a beautifully expressed thought, from a man who gave us so many hilarious literary moments. I don’t know where Adams himself intended to go in life, but he has ended up one of the most beloved authors of a generation.

I’m obviously a highly suggestible individual, because when Lenore from Presenting Lenore suggested in her blog post today that I should sign up with Technorati, I went straight to the site and registered.

I guess I shouldn’t give Lenore all the blame (or credit) for my registration with Technorati, since I have had it on my To Do list for some time. I’ve been planning to register for weeks and it was Lenore’s point that by registering my blog I will be better supporting the Technorati rating of blogs that I follow (that are registered with Technorati) that finally motivated me to do something instead of just plan to do it.

Have you claimed your blog with Technorati? Do you list your Technorati ranking on your blog, or is it simply for your own information? Do you like to see Technorati or other rankings shown on blogs? If you aren’t registered with Technorati, is there another site that rates/ranks blogs that you prefer? (so many questions!)

What book would you love to be able to read again for the first time?
(Interestingly, I thought that I had thought this one up myself, but when I started scrolling through the Suggestions, found that Rebecca had suggested almost exactly this question a couple months ago. So, we both get credit!)
A few books come to mind for this challenge. For me, they are books I would love to be able to read again for the first time uninterrupted. I tend to have several books on the go at once and with three children, being able to read a book in one sitting is a faint and wistful memory. These are books that I wish I could savour again for the first time without interruption or distraction.

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. Such a funny, clever book. I’d actually love to revisit the whole Thursday Next series in one hit. I know I’ve mentioned elsewhere that Meredith gave me a signed copy of this for Christmas once. There’s nothing like having a friend who knows how to find you the perfect gift.

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen. I read this for the first time at high school when I studied it for my Higher School Certificate. I loved it at the time, but it would be great to read it now for the first time without the distraction of essays and assignments.

The Other Hand by Chris Cleave. Such an amazing book presenting really significant issues and themes in a very approachable way. It is such an incredibly well written book. I found myself underlining sentences (and sometimes entire paragraphs) that I found particularly meaningful or beautifully phrased. I would love to be able to read it again without knowing what was coming to experience the full impact of the issues he raises.

Hooray for Diffendoofer Day by Dr Seuss with Jack Prelutsky and Lane Smith. I thought I’d read them all. The Lorax, Fox in Socks, Marvin K. Mooney will you Please Go Now, I can Read with my Eyes Shut. The list goes on. Then I found a Seuss book that I hadn’t seen before and all the joy of reading Seuss in my childhood returned. Seuss books are always great whether its the first, tenth or 100th time you’ve read them, but finding a previously undiscovered Seuss treasure is priceless.

Do you have a book that you wish you could read again for the first time?

Title: Linnea in Monet’s Garden
Author: Christina Björk
Illustrator: Lena Anderson
Publisher: Raben & Sjögren Publishers, 2005
ISBN: 91-29-58314-4
Suitable Age: 8+ (young readers would need assistance)

Young Linnea and her elderly neighbour Mr Bloom are both fascinated with the work of French artist Claude Monet. They travel together to Paris and view his work at the Marmottan museum. They also spend two days in Giverny at Monet’s home, where they view his house, garden and the Japanese bridge that features in so many of Monet’s paintings.

The book is full of fascinating facts about Monet’s life, including information about his two marriages, children and grandchildren as well as his role in the Impressionist movement and his painting career and habits. Two of Monet’s step-great-grandsons shared their family memories and photographs with the author and illustrator, giving a personal edge to the factual account of Monet’s life.

The illustrations include drawings, reproductions of Monet’s paintings and photographs of Monet’s home, family and the plants and flowers from his garden. The drawings, paintings and photographs are prominent in the book and are arranged well to compliment each other and the text and offer a wonderful overview of Monet’s life and work.

This delightful book was loaned to my daughter by a friend who is an art teacher. Elizabeth loves art and we enjoyed reading this book and talking about the way Monet painted and the changes in his paintings as he got older. The text was a little difficult for her to read alone, especially the French terms and place names, but it was a lovely book to read together. We especially liked the reproduction of one of Monet’s waterlily paintings and the close-up image showing the detail.

Linnea in Monet’s Garden is a wonderful book to share with a child with an interest in art. For more great books for introducing children to art and artists, visit Susan’s reviews at Suite101.com:

The Art Book for Children
The Art Book for Children 2
Picture Books with Famous Artworks for Children

Title: The Terrific Times Tables Book
Author: Kate Petty
Illustrator: Jennie Maizels
Publisher: Bodley Head (Random House), 1998
ISBN: 978-0-370-32444-9
Suitable Age: 7 – 9

Learning times tables can be painful (for students, teacher and parents). We are having our own times tables dramas at the moment, so when I came across this book by Kate Petty, I thought it was worth a try.

This is definitely one for the visual learners. Covering times tables from 0 to 12, the book is full of flaps, dials, pop-ups and other gimmicks to keep children interested and reading. Each number has a theme – 0 and 1 are space, 2 is Noah’s Ark, 3 is a garden, 4 is a Halloween feast and so on through to 12.

This book is colourful and very interactive. Some of the moveable flaps would need to be handled with care to avoid damage. It is ideal for explaining the concept of multiplication to children in addition to giving them some visual memory triggers. There are also memory tricks and tips for learning times tables.

We’ve yet to see whether this book actually manages to make times tables more interesting for my son, but I’m certain that my daughter, who responds really well to visual learning, will enjoy reading this book regularly.

Kate Perry and Jennie Maizels have worked on other educational books including:

• Super Science Book
• The Magnificent Music Book
• Earthly Treasure
• Global Garden
• Perfect Punctuation
• The Wonderful World Book
• Great Grammar Book

 Inspired by Rebecca at Lost in Books, I am putting together an official “books I really want to read” booklist. That’s just the working title, you understand. I will come up with something infinitely more creative before adding it to the blog.

There are so many great books out there that I would love to read and I’m finding more great recommendations on book blogs every day. I’m constantly thinking, “I’ll have to remember that one next time I’m at the library”, but of course I never do.

I already feed my book and list addictions by keeping track of my book collection on a Collectorz.com Book Collector database. I’ve got about a quarter of my books entered so far. I highly recommend this program to anyone who wants to catalogue their books, especially the loan tracker feature on the Pro version. No more “I know I loaned that book to someone…”.

Now I’m going to put together a must read list – classics, contemporary, children’s books, non-fiction.

So that I don’t feel quite so alone in my obsessive list-making ways, does anyone else out there keep a list of must-read books? Do you just keep it on your computer at home, have a list printed out or do you have a file on your PDA, iPhone or other tech-gadget so that your list is with you wherever you go?

If you do have a list, do you have a word doc, a spreadsheet or a database file or is it on your blog? If it’s on your blog like Rebecca (you can find the link in her profile), please leave a link in the comments so that I can visit and indulge in some book list envy.