International Book Week

'This venture proved a failure'

OGM I haven't read that particular Byatt but now I know the answer it seems obvious. Hindsight is an exact science!

My first was Person Woodford's Diary. I wish I'd known him - and eaten at his table.

I'm pondering the palm.

Mice... mine was angels: 'Angels and Insects' by A.S. Byatt.really two novellas, and I'm struggling with the second. Will look for the film as it stars the wonderful Kristin Scott Thomas.
Here's another:
'This coconut palm germinated from just one coconut here at the shore of the tank'.

Actually I probably agree with a you Mamie haven't quite finished the 'eat' and I'm struggling to understand the hype.

Another one -

'Apart from Grandma's sisters from Newport there were other occasional visitors."

Yes and yes, Baubles (I thought it was nauseating psycho-babble, just about got through Eat, found Pray deeply boring and wanted to throw up over Love!)

Exactly elegran
Only asking because posters wanted to know whether we should guess one another's book titles.

Mamie Decline and Fall - Evelyn Waugh

And nobody's got mine yet even though I gave a big fat clue....

Here's another one:

After settling in the priest found himself once more in the offices of Baumgartner, by this time, Austria's minister of trade.

Mamie is that a subtle way of saying you didn't enjoy "Eat, Pray, Love"?

"They do not in themselves indicate a widespread use of Latin by the native population."

And I think Baubles' quote is from "Eat, Pray, Vomit"...

Bang on, mamie

Simon Winchester, "Atlantic", Bags.
OK, an easy one.
"He plays just too divinely," said Mrs. Beste-Chetwynde.

I remember doing this last year on Facebook, it's fun.

"I drank enough of that damn Saint-John's wort tea to cheer up a whole Russian gulag, to no noticeable effect."

Does there have to be a point? We could just enjoy ourselves. It is a social network, not an obstacle race

So, what is the point??

I asked whether the point was to guess because everyone else seemed to think so. I agree with Butter!

I should have guessed the Lindsey Davis one too, but it's a long time since I read them. That's my excuse anyhow.

The OP doesn't know what the point is other than reading random sentences. I think perhaps the idea is to illustrate how varied books are so that nobody can claim there's nothing for them.

Who cares whether it has a point other than fun?

here's another one: "It fell instead to the sailors from far away, who came thousands of miles from the Levantine coast of the eastern Mediterranean, to realise the potential for using these gastropods to make a fortune."

I like the concept - and the fun of trying to guess. Granbunny, I was really foxed! Come on everyone else, join in.

Ana I didn't think it was - I just enjoyed the concept.

Was that the point of this exercise? To guess each others' titles?
The OP didn't make it clear.

Mice it is "Corvus a life with birds" by Esther Woolfson. A really interesting and informative book.

As Mice surmised mine was by Lindsey Davis - 'the Silver Pigs' - these detective stories are set in Imperial Rome and, in this case, Roman Britain. Good light reading.

Nope, neither of those Anno. Mine was Hans Fallada "Alone in Berlin" and OH was using Alice Water's "Pasta, Pizza and Calzone".
Fallada was at hand because we keep starting it and putting it down. OH claims never to have read fiction since he was so depressed by Fallada's Little Man, What Now" - so I am not sure why he bought it.