[I'm one of the Kindle's biggest fans, and will buy as much as I can in digital form. But there are a few books I can't get rid of. This is the first in an infrequent and limited series featuring those physical books that mean enough to earn their place in the box that moves house with us.] I loved The Faraway Tree series as a kid. The idea of …

Really enjoyed this book. I wasn't aware of the fact they came from a newspaper originally, which is only annoying because I think I've been missing out! This is a collection of 94 - not quite a million - exceedingly short plays, some much shorter than the others.

There have been lots of rumours about who would be participating in Strictly Come Dancing this year, and all I've heard for ages is people saying other people would like to do it. The best example was everyone's favourite Master Baker Paul Hollywood pausing at all the "wrong" moments in conversation with Chris Evans. It was a fine example of the art of misdirection, which only became apparent yesterday when …

Lots of great TV has returned to our screens recently: The Great British Bake Off, Doctor Who, Only Connect, etc. There is still more to come, I believe, but actually it is Only Connect that caught my attention, making me ponder why exactly it is that we enjoy quizzes that are too hard for us? With Only Connect, I wondered if it was simply that the format is completely engaging. …

I absolutely loved this. I've seen the film, naturally, and was pondering watching it again but instead I set about reading the book. It's split into three parts, each with their own journey - the first introducing the terror of the shark, the second navigating the politics of closing the beaches, and the third getting out on that fishing boat to try and dispatch the creature.

It's not been a good couple of weeks, I'll be honest. I had hoped to go out for a longer run this weekend but I only had two opportunities - one of them was far too hot to even consider and the other one... well, I went for a nap instead. You know how it is. The last six runs I have done have been thirty minutes each, and have …

This is one of those films where at first you're not quite sure what to make of it, but as soon as you settle in and just go with it, it's totally magical. I loved Emma Thompson, as I often do, despite the fact she was quite depressing throughout! I loved the way Harold Crick walked the line between comedy and tragedy, and how they shone a light on that from the point of view of a writer and literary expert. Great fun, nothing to complain about, and a nice story well told.

The iTunes Festival is currently in full swing - 30 days of live music, held at the Camden Roundhouse in London and streamed across the globe via iTunes and its many apps. There's a variety of acts available, with warm up artists appearing before more established names, and the diversity is amazing. So far we've already heard from the pop name that is Olly Murs, through the more acoustic Ed …

Presumably, this episode's title comes as an homage or a satire of Snakes on a Plane. I haven't seen the film but if it is anything like as mad as this weekend's Who outing, I'm on board. The action got going straight away, with the Doctor picking up his "gang" and heading straight to the spaceship housing the aforementioned prehistoric creatures. He referenced not having a gang before, but I …

As I tweeted earlier in the week, something I had not considered when I dreamt up this idea of trying my hand at things that the Bake Off featured, was the concept of not liking anything within a given week. Each episode is on a theme, but there are three options within each and a multitude of recipes in each option. How is it possible not to like any of …

When I was posting Trailer Tuesday a while back, the Paddington poster made me want to read the books, so I had a peek on the Kindle store and found many of them (perhaps all?) available for the device. That got me thinking, what other fab books of my youth are also available for the Kindle? The Worst Witch was one of my favourites as a kid, probably because I …

The next book I had in my list of occupation-related memoirs was this, a look at life in the mortuary of a hospital. At first glance, you'd consider this a morbid book to want to get into, but it's written so well - heartfelt, honest, and firmly with the view that this is a job that needs to be done and it needs to be done by someone who cares.

I just recently finished playing a new, actually old, game on the iPad called The Island: Castaway. I can't remember why I bought it, except that I love islands and the concept of being cast away on one. That'll probably do it. There's a video ad for the game that explains it better than I could. It's really very simple, you just run around picking things up, and interacting with …

I've been catching up on some RSS feeds recently (where I am getting down to a reasonable number of unlistened podcasts, my unread items has been creeping up), and I spotted this crazy little item earlier in the month. A DeLorean that is also a boat. It's cool, and fun, but I took umbridge with the concept almost immediately simply because of this, in the Engadget story where I saw …

I was in need of a bit of frivolity in my reading, and I knew just where to turn to. The third book in the 'trilogy' and we're following more adventures with Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent. Firstly, we have to get them off prehistoric Earth, which is where we left them, but that problem is easily handled.

A lot has happened in a month for Vicky and Mike. Vicky couldn't contain her excitement over the news, announcing it at Phoebe's coming home party. Everyone seemed to take it very well - I was expecting a lot more shock and gossip, but we didn't really hear any of that. (In fact, when Lynda learned of the news, she was incredibly supportive, beautifully so!) Instead, the focus of the …

Doctor Who is back on our screens as the seventh series began yesterday. With Daleks, divorce, a delightful Doctor plus a surprise special guest, this first episode had a little bit of everything. Actually, it had quite a lot of Daleks. Before we get onto the episode proper, it's worth a quick mention for Pond Life - the pre-series build up mini-episodes that featured on the BBC's Doctor Who webpage …

Mr C and I had something of a discussion/disagreement after the last baking adventure. The flatbreads were nice enough, but he was disappointed they didn't match anything that he'd seen on his TV screen. I hadn't realised it up until this point but the BBC do actually put selected recipes from the Great British Bake Off on the site, so for this week's challenge, I promised to do something that …

I'm in two minds about this one. The story was interesting enough, guided along with an intriguing selection of quotes from a book about knots. I particularly felt for Quoyle, our self-conscious protagonist, his life seemed particularly unpleasant to begin with and it was nice to journey with him as things started to unwind, relax, and get a bit better.

There hasn't been too much to report for the last two weeks, I'm afraid real life has just got in the way of my dreams of Olympic stardom. In reality, I have been training at work for two weeks, with another still to come, and it's amazing what a difference this change of pace makes. Firstly, I've been getting home from work a little later than normal. With time such …

Mr C and I have watched this together on a previous occasion, but it was so long ago that I didn't remember very much about it. We set this up as a Sidepodfilmclub, in which we watch with lots of lovely people around the world, all pressing play at the same time and live commenting the film. These are my notes from the process. We chose the film before the sad news about Tony Scott's death, and it became a tribute to him as well as a regular film club night.

Mm, it was just as good as I remember. Amazingly, it hasn't aged particularly badly - just the computers, as always. The dinosaurs still look amazing. Something I hadn't noticed in previous viewings was the overuse of a camera zooming into someone's face just before they would say something really important, or drop a one-liner like they do. 'Mr Hammond, I believe the phones are working.' Etc, etc. It didn't really detract from it, though, I love the film, I love the music, and it makes me want to re-read the book too.

I was ever so slightly disappointed that this week's topic was breads, as I had such fun with the cake last week, I was hoping for more sweet treats this time round. Nevertheless, the theme was bread based, and the options were as follows: Signature dish - Flatbreads Technical challenge - Plaited loaf Showstopper - Sweet and savoury bagels I was very, very tempted by the bagels because as we …

It's hard to know where to start from this one. It was, for one thing, a blatant and terrible rip off of Armageddon - but done really badly. The scenes (that we saw) fell into one another without seeming to be connected, things were happening for no apparent reason with no real explanation of why. And the movements of the main characters were very confusing. The two guys looked as though they were on different boats, but then were chatting in a cabin.

To tie in with the Olympics, the Kindle store held a Reading Marathon sale. Oh, how I love a Kindle sale. I delved right in, clicking my way through book after book, pondering some new purchases. I spent more than I would have liked, but equally, came out with plenty of books for my money, so I can't complain. It wasn't until I synced them with my actual Kindle that …

I picked this up in a recent Kindle sale. I like a good travelogue, but there are so many out there, it's hard to know which one to try without a bit of a prod. I love Ireland, and having just watched a lot of kayaking in the Olympics, the two things came together to make a very interesting read.

The first time I saw this trailer, I turned my nose up and thought it looked a bit stupid. I don't know of the original, only what Mr C has told me about Johnny Depp and the like. However, I heard an interview with someone, I forget who, and they said they really liked it. So I watched the trailer again and decided to give it a chance. Massively better than I'd thought it would be, and I laughed a lot more than expected. There was far too much swearing, and the occasional low-humour moment, but I could pass them up for the better things.

Pretty good, all things considered. I really did find it difficult when you're left cheering for Mark just because he is the least bad of a really bad bunch. It's a great scheme that he's got and we had fun trying to figure out what he was doing before he did it. We didn't manage to foil him, but it was good trying. I liked the direction, some of the shots were great - moody images of a big ol' container ship floating through the night.

The fantastic Great British Bake Off has returned to our screens this past week, with a brand new batch of bakers trying to impress the lovely Mary Berry and feisty Paul Hollywood. For the last two series, I've been a passive viewer - sometimes drooling, sometime awe-inspired by what the amateur bakers are managing to achieve. The showstopper challenge still impresses me every time, particular as they draw near the …

I've kept a diary on and off for years. The first diary I remember writing was in one of those exercise books where half the page is blank and half the page is lines with enormous spacing. We would draw and write about our day. I don't draw well, but I probably didn't write very well in those days either. I also recall later keeping a diary in the back …

Although I am developing a bit of a penchant for Young Adult book series' like this, I don't think I would have read it if it hadn't been on the Big List. I heard an interview with the author a while ago and knew that it was about a boy that was generally to be considered bad, and also set in a world of fairies versus humans. That was all I knew, but it turns out, that's all it is about too.

Whilst my previous posts on this subject have been bullet point notes of things that have stood out for me, I can't do the same for this one. Already, the specific details are beginning to fade from my brain, and we're only one day post-Olympics. Mo was brilliant, obviously. There were some great final moments in the modern pentathlons, weird as they are. Tom Daley's diving on Friday was fantastic, …

I renamed the category for these posts a while back, opting to call it the Running Diary. As that is the case, here is a true day by day diary of last week's workouts. Monday Definitely in the mood for a run today, having not been out since Wednesday. It was a busy weekend, so no real time to hit the pavements. Went out for thirty minutes, felt good, relatively …

The book is made up of several chapters detailing what it is to take a gold medal at the Olympics - how much work goes in to it, all the unexpected things that come along with it, and what it's like to try and stay at the top of your game. Michael Johnson talks us through his own career history, as well as interviewing other top athletes from track and field, plus swimming and cycling as well.

Really enjoyed this one. The series continues to grow on me, although it continues to be not quite for my reading tastes whilst being a subject matter that I adore. This one felt a lot more serious than those that went before, not in terms of the level of peril our characters were in but more in philosophical thoughts of the world they're in.

As with my previous post, here are just some random thoughts from the last few days of competition. The Men's 400m final was brilliant. Not only were there twins in the race, but they crossed the line at almost exactly the same time! They came 5th and 6th and were just two hundredths of a second apart! Of course, you can't talk about brothers without mentioning the Brownlee duo who …

Firstly, I can't quite understand where the last two weeks have gone. These are meant to be weekly updates but they keep turning into fortnightly ones because the days are escaping me. It felt like it was going to be a really good week/fortnight for running this time, although now I look back I didn't go nearly as much as I had thought! After running on Sunday, I also went …

I'm so glad I finally found my way to read all about Mma Ramotswe's adventures. There's something so gentle and endearing about both the character and the way the stories are told, and yet it's so different to anything I've read and the world I live in; it was a bizarre mixture.

This month the troubles at Brookfield came to an apparent end, so towards the end of July we had a glimpse of other impending storylines and a reminder that there are other people in Ambridge too! But, of course, the fire at Brookfield farm really was the key point of the last few weeks and still has some repercussions to come. Fired up At first, everyone was abandoning the farm …

I went through a bit of a phase reading these true life occupation-based memoir-style books a while back, and I must have picked this one up at the time. I remember it was very popular in the Amazon Kindle charts for a while but I've only just got round to reading it.

With the Olympics taking over everything, I thought I'd spare five minutes to note down some thoughts on what I've seen so far. These are just scrabbled notes, not arranged in much of an order, Opening Ceremony Highlights Rowan Atkinson's moment of glory was fabulous. The ability of one man to captivate what turned out to be an audience made up of 26 million is so good. I'm sure there …

Oh. so. good. And I do love Ben Whishaw! Cannot wait.

Most people know of the Stepford Wives concept but I hadn't read where the idea came from, and now that I have, I realise I didn't understand it fully. Starting with the arrival of a new family into Stepford, this short book charts Joanna's life as she gets to know the town around her, and finds out she doesn't like it! Weird things are happening, the wives are too good to be true, and Joanna wants to know why.

A collection of short stories from various different writers all focusing on the glory of the library. It doesn't sound like an amazing read, and I can't remember what prompted me to buy it in the first place (I was probably swept along in an Amazon sale somewhere). However, there are some glorious little nuggets in there, along with some that may or may not have been included just to fill the space.

It's a short book, which makes it easy to digest, and split into handy bite size chapters. My only issue with the book is that my cultural knowledge doesn't live up to the challenge. I didn't recognise many names, and I had to look up a lot of the films to get a frame of reference.

The story itself is fantastic, part ghost story, part mystery, part romance. It's over before it begins, of course, but along the way there are some lovely descriptions and plenty of engaging words (some of which I had to look up in the dictionary). It was playful and delightful and yet creepy where it needed to be. I loved it.

I started this one immediately after finishing the second book in the series, and got stuck in. They are such page turners, and the time travel is so enticing that I read it in just a few hours (not all at once). I wasn't quite so keen on how many other characters were brought into the picture in this one. It's fun to see the time travellers interacting with others, but having to convince people about time travel over and over isn't as much fun.

There's just a day or so left before the 2012 Olympics gets underway (or if you're a football fan, they already have!) and I'm excited! I've only really got into the Olympics over the last couple of games, I paid more attention at Beijing than I have before, and I'm really looking forward to watching as much as possible this year. It helps that we'll have day by day threads …

I read the first book of this series a while back and although I enjoyed the time travel subject, I wasn't completely sold on the book itself. However, I was always going to give the second one a go and when I couldn't decide what to read off my list, I thought I'd head back to my favourite sci-fi concept.

Fresh from my experiment with the free taster teabags that Twinings send out to potential customers, I decided to go with the same company for my next purchase. I've never really understood the idea of nettle flavoured things - aren't they those irritating plants that make walks in the country just that little bit more dangerous? So, Nettle and Sweet Fennel. I bought this before realising it was quite so …