FREE DVDs

Advantages: Free trial, large choice, post included,new realeases
Disadvantages: see review

...I like movies and I like freebies, so when you get offered both in one swoop you?re bound to accept! I used my two week free trial with this company and remained with them for a couple of monthsbefore moving on to try many other companies free trials (and winning a new DVD player on Tesco DVD rental site on their free trial offer). I then had an email from DVDs 365 asking me to go back, and offering me a free DVD if I did so. I had just left Tesco (with my new DVD player) so I chose to go back with them. ∆◊◊ THE SERVICE THEY OFFER ∆◊◊ Basically it?s like going to a video shop and hiring films on DVD, except you don?t pay for each film you chose ? rather a monthly fee for which you can watch as many movies as you can fit in, for us this is usually around 8 a month (2 a week usually weekends...

dabmim 15.11.2004 · Read review
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Review of dvds365.com

Surprising Picture Quality - Panasonic DVD-S54

Advantages: Incredible picture quality when compared to my old non-upscaling player with a scart lead
Disadvantages: Sometimes disc drive can be really noisy when DVD's initially load.

...At first I wasn't convinced by up-scaling DVD player technology but was persuaded after reading an article in "What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision" magazine. Unable to afford a Blu-Ray player my sister and I bought the Panasonic DVD-S54 to match our parents brand new Panasonic TX-32LZD80 LCD television as their Christmas 2008 present. Admittedly it was a slightly selfish purchase as we both live at home and wanted to watch DVDs on the big new TV ourselves! We bought the player from the electrical retailer Comet for about £100 just before Christmas so there were no discounts applied. On Christmas day when opened we found a relatively small box tightly packed with the player in polystyrene packaging. All the components such as cables, remote and manuals were well presented in their own protective plastic bags, to keep them protected. The player...

bobbacon985 12.02.2009 · Read review
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Review of Panasonic DVD-S54

Perfume by Patrick Suskind

Advantages: Very atmospheric
Disadvantages: No disadvantages to a book, surely?!

...I think a lot of people will agree that this seems to have been a very popular book. Considering Patrick Suskind hasn't written very much yet people have really embraced "Perfume" as the thoroughly original and unusual read that it is. Set in eighteenth century France we follow the life of Suskind's fictional character Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. As Grenouille's character grows we become aware of his superlative sense of smell. His world seems to be utterly dominated by smell. So sensitive are his olfactory capabilities that he is disgusted by so many crudely manufactured scents worn by the rich French aristocracy. The catalyst for his maddening disgust of the smells that surround him comes when one day he smells the scent of pure unadulterated beauty. It comes in the form of an adolescent girl and, such is his hunger for this rich...

catrionagray 22.11.2005 · Read review
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Review of Perfume - Patrick Suskind

When Tigers Became Cats!

Advantages: A good folk-tale from a different culture.
Disadvantages: Younger children may take the story too literally!

...This is one of 14 books written and illustrated by Joanna Troughton in the 'Folk Tales of the World' series which are quite widely used in schools across the land as it's a stipulation that children's minds are 'opened up' to different cultures, hence that I have acquired a few of the books in the series. - The Tiger Child - This folk tale is from Orissa in India. It begins 'long ago' with a tiger cooking his food, yes that's right, cooking his food with a pot over a heap of burning wood! When his fire goes out he goes to the village to ask for some fire. Not surprisingly, the villagers are terrified of the tiger and lock themselves away. The tiger then decides to ask his nephew to go to the village to ask for some fire, assured that the villagers would not be scared of such a small tiger, a 'Tiger Child'. However...

neenn 03.06.2007 · Read review
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Review of The Tiger Child - Joanna Troughton

Review of "Master & Commander" by Patrick O'Brian

Advantages: A very good read, gives an insight into a sailors life at sea in the 1800's.
Disadvantages: This series of books is a little expensive

..."Master & Commander" is the first in a series of books by Patrick O'Brian. The story is set in the year 1800 and follows the story of recently promoted Captain Jack Aubery RN and his new acquintance Stephen Maturin. Captain Aubery takes command of the 'Sophie' and persuades his new friend - Stephen Maturin - to join as the new ships surgeon. Jack Aubery proves to be an able captain both in seamanship and in battle. We are told of gripping accounts of his battles - most especially against the Cacafuego where Capt. Aubaery gains the reputation of becoming Luck Jack Aubery. Stephen Maturin gains a reputation of a most learned surgeon, and in later books uses this to disguise his real brilliance as an intelligence officer causing mahem against the Napoleonic movement. This is a gripping book and along with a good plot line it...

sbenbow 12.07.2000 · Read review
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Review of Master & Commander - Patrick O'Brian

Russian Revenge

Advantages: superb story, well written
Disadvantages: Conclusion not as dynamic as it could have been

...Background: I discovered this book while looking around a local charity shop the other week. I am a big reader and I was very impressed with both the variety and the quality of the books they had on sale. In the end I purchased three for just £3, which I thought was a great deal as the books looked practically new and all sounded on first glance interesting. About the author: Patrick Lennon was born in Cambridge in 1964. Following a successful career within a variety of Multi-National companies in different countries, he turned his attention to writing. He does this together with running his own business in Berkshire. It is his crime fiction writing that makes people sit up and take note of his name. So far he has written three highly acclaimed books with a new one due to be published in January 2010. Synopsis...

CPTDANIELS 29.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Corn Dolls - Patrick Lennon

YAMAHA DVD-S 557 this is THE DVD player of all time.

Advantages: Brilliant DVD player, perfect quality
Disadvantages: cant think of any

......

plainpaul 22.02.2009 · Read review
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Review of Yamaha DVD-S 557

A Chinese Folk Tale.

Advantages: Introduces children to a different culture and the concept of folk tales
Disadvantages: No guidance given as to where to read about the other adventures

...This is one of 14 books written and illustrated by Joanna Troughton in the 'Folk Tales of the World' series which are quite widely used in schools across the land as it's a stipulation that children's minds are 'opened up' to different cultures, hence that I have acquired a few of the books in the series. ♪♪♪ Monkey and The Water Dragon ♪♪♪ The story was originally written in the 16th century by Wu Ch?eng-en. This book is about one of the adventures that Tripitaka, the monkey and the pig get up to on their way to India to re-claim the Buddhist scriptures and return them safely to China. Before I read this to the children, I tell them how the goddess Kuan-Yin chose Tripitaka for this long journey but since he wasn?t very brave, she gave him two servants to protect him, the mischevious monkey...

neenn 09.08.2007 · Read review
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Review of Monkey and The Water Dragon - Joanna Troughton

A sweet and sometimes sad song, well played

Advantages: I enjoyed this, a good few hours of entertainment and an easy read
Disadvantages: Won't be to everyone's taste but it is in the end just a book about people

...I picked up another Patrick Gale ? called ?Notes From An Exhibition? ? and read it very quickly and with considerable pleasure. So when I noticed that I had another of his books on my shelf ? Rough Music ? I was pleased and was anticipating a pleasurable read. I was not disappointed. The two books are both largely set in west Cornwall which must be an area that the author knows and loves; the descriptions are too rich and emotive to be other than those of a long-term fan. Both books have a woman with a mental illness amongst the central characters; both revolve around family and the strains and stresses ? the family fault lines, as it were ? which from time to time emerge. Both have a gay man as one of the central characters too, but they are for all that very different stories. Other than also, in passing, recommending it, I shall...

andyk910 19.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of Rough Music - Patrick Gale

Gale Whips Up A Storm

Advantages: Brilliantly written
Disadvantages: A little confusing at the start

...Notes from an Exhibition was one of the many books that I purchased with book vouchers a friend gave me for my birthday. Although this event was over 6 months ago now I have just finished reading the book. Now although I enjoyed reading the book and found author Patrick Gale's style to very pleasant to read I don't think it is a book that I could read again. So what is the book about? Well the book tells the story of a famous artist called Rachel Kelly. Rachel is bipolar and so her moods can be rather erratic although it is these moods that she accredits some of her best work to. Throughout her life she has remained an enigma to her husband Anthony and her four children and so it is only after her death that they can truly begin to understand her. After leaving a strange message on the answer phone of one of her children Rachel...

MI9to5 26.11.2008 (16.02.2009) · Read review
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Review of Notes from an Exhibition - Patrick Gale