LyzzyBee

I agree too - for example Jane Smiley has written a book in each of many genres (historical, romance, family saga, Shakespeare-update, campus novel....) and I always pick up the latest one, knowing that whatever genre she's in, it'll be well written and well plotted. I do look out for reviews, eg in the Guardian at the w/e I found out about a book about Bloomsbury marriages that I'll want to get. Also word of mouth from friends and other BookCrossers, particularly. Or just wandering around in a bookshop - and I try to go beyond a cursory look at the covers, though I *will* avoid anything that looks chick-litty and have read some that I wouldn't have picked up in a shop because of that! Liz

Hi there I'm a librarian from the West Midlands in the UK, also a very active BookCrosser and I read about 200 or so books per year... so I keep a written reading journal and, more recently, a book journal on LiveJournal. I found out about this forum from comments Michelle made on a LibraryThing forum I'm on and I am a big fan of author Linda Gillard, who is the June Featured Author, so I popped over to support her this month and found all these other fab conversations. I like to read literary fiction, fiction about people moving countries and lives, and non-fiction, particularly biography and travel. As well as reading I do cross-stitch and running - currently building up to train for a half-marathon! So - hi everyone! LyzzyBee

Gosh - no - it could never have been dull, it was absolutely fascinating - enthralling even!

Hello Linda! And INVER! Hi!!! I can answer the question about Linda and her books being passed around myself, although obviously I won't claim to have the final say on the matter! I "met" Linda first through reading Emotional Geology via my involvement with Transita - and I helped get Transita and BookCrossing involved with each other right from the start. Linda has been hugely supportive of BookCrossing. She has travelled across the country to give readings and creative writing workshops at BookCrossing events. And the members of my bookrings and rays of her books are always absolutely THRILLED to hear from Linda when they review them! I get so many messages "ohh, I heard from the author, how marvellous"! Of course, BookCrossing doesn't stop sales. I just bought a copy of Star Gazing myself, even though I have a signed copy from Linda, so I could double my bookring and get 2 people reading it at a time. I have also bought numerous copies of EG for friends. And will be buying at least 2 more Star Gazings around Christmas time. Great to see the conversation here. Can't wait for the next book to come out!!! Liz / LyzzyBee