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Simple, straightforward, outdated and cliched, I'm enjoying these far more than I should

Simple, straightforward, outdated and cliched, I'm enjoying these far more than I should

By the end of this all I can say is I'm relieved the book is over. I enjoyed the first few of the series, then I get the feeling the author was being paid by the page. Just seemed endless, and not much happening. Certainly didn't help that I read it slowly over a couple of months interspersed with other books. Not a favourite, and if I'd met this as my introduction to the series it would have quickly been a first and abandoned last

I think I read the entire series of these some decades ago shortly after they came out, recently found this one in a roadside little library and picked it up. Can vaguely remember the story and enjoyed it, the gentle mix of whodunnit and historic setting appeals. Shrewsbury tourism has a lot to thank EP for!

A few years ago a work colleague was reading this and I skimmed the back cover, thought I'd enjoy it if I could fit it in

Loved it, although a few times I lost track of the large list of characters and places in time. It made me want to dig out a big map of Barcelona and pore over the streets and parks

Enjoyable, if slim and a quick read. Did find it hard to match up a supposedly competent and well-traveled journalist with how he described many situations, perhaps deliberately written in the "inept english" school of travel writings

Its been decades since I read Ring of Bright Water, sometime in my early teens I think I went through many of these, Elsa, Tarka, etc. Interesting to revisit it, and to read the full set of three, even if they are slightly abridged. Really felt for Maxwell and the tension between telling the story, and suffering the publicity and invasion of his privacy as a result

Found a $1 copy lying in a discard pile at an op-shop and couldn't resist, was curious how the original story would hold up after so many years of Bond being so much a part of modern culture. I was surprised at how many French terms and words were thrown around, not just casino-related but all part of setting the scene. Misogynistic, racist, cardboard, I doubt it'd get glanced at as a first novel 70 years on!

Must have read this decades ago, then stumbled across a very cheaply made copy in a street library a few months ago and picked it up. Rubbish paper, binding is falling apart, on re-reading it I'm wondering if I ever did read this, the first of the series? Enjoyable enough, I think too much of my memories of the series and characters are from later books that I've read more than once over the years

Must have read this decades ago, then stumbled across a very cheaply made copy in a street library a few months ago and picked it up. Rubbish paper, binding is falling apart, on re-reading it I'm wondering if I ever did read this, the first of the series? Enjoyable enough, I think too much of my memories of the series and characters are from later books that I've read more than once over the years

Re-reading an old paperback copy for some quick enjoyment. Still laugh-out-loud material and any number of bits of innuendo and humour, I wonder if I noticed them all the first time through, years ago? I wonder if I noticed them all this time?

Thank god that's over. Not quite, but i came fairly close to giving up a few times and ditching it, seemed to me that the author was just padding it out to give a thin story a thick word count. Not helped by me taking almost three months to read through it a little a night every few days

Memories of reading and enjoying this sometime in school, high school English I think. I've been meaning to hunt up a copy and re-read it for years to see if its still as enjoyable. Yes it is, yes it was. I do wonder how the view presented of Roman Britain holds up to a further fifty years of archaeology

Seeing that the author died recently I thought maybe its time to read some of his work, this and The Road are the only ones I've heard of. Picked up for $3 in an op-shop, quickly readable, if gruesome and graphic as was the movie. He does capture the place and the people so well