My Life In Books

[poppyshake]

To tie in with World Booknight there is another series of My Life in Books on at the moment. Anne Robinson presents and each night two celebrities pick five of their favourite books. I haven't enjoyed the guests as much this year, there's been hardly anyone who really loves books .. you can tell .. not enough authors for instance. Anyhow, I thought we could do our own life in books .. it's fun and your choices will be a lot more interesting than theirs.

 

I've pilfered this from the blogosphere ... don't stick to one book if you can't .. rules don't apply here.

 

1. Did you grow up in a book-loving household, and did your parents read to you? Pick a favourite book from your childhood, and tell us about it.

 

2. What was one of the first 'grown-up' books that you really enjoyed?

 

3. Pick a favourite book that you read in early adulthood - especially if it's one which helped set you off in a certain direction in life.

 

4. What's one of your favourite books that you've found in the last five years, and has belonging to the Book Club Forum changed your reading habits?

 

5. Finally - a guilty pleasure, or a favourite that might surprise people!

[julie]

1. Did you grow up in a book-loving household, and did your parents read to you? Pick a favourite book from your childhood, and tell us about it.

 

Nope, no one else liked to read. I was the odd one out. My parents would read the newspaper . My kid sister hated books ,school and learning . My parents never read to me unless it was when I was a toddler and can't remember it .

My favorite book that sticks out in my mind as a little older kid(maybe 8 ? Was Homer Price .It was about a boy who was roughly my age who lived in a small town like I do. The book had a few different stories in them. My favorite was The Donut Machine,when the diner in town bought one,and this boy ,Homer,went in to help him make donuts .They had pictures of donuts stacked everyplace.

 

2. What was one of the first 'grown-up' books that you really enjoyed?

Hard one... geez, I can't remember . I remember getting my first Adult card and how excited I was,but I have no clue what the first older-person book was. Maybe Nancy Drew,but it wasnt Adult,just a bigger-kid -sized book .

 

3. Pick a favourite book that you read in early adulthood - especially if it's one which helped set you off in a certain direction in life.

 

This one may be a little beyond the age group you are asking about,but I remember reading The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy when I was much younger ,married with small kids . My hubster grew up in a terribly abusive home ,and when I read Prince of Tides, I think I understood for the first time what it must have been like for him,because he didnt like talking about it then. He does now once in awhile,but that book helped me to understand what he had gone through .

 

4. What's one of your favourite books that you've found in the last five years, and has belonging to the Book Club Forum changed your reading habits?

 

Doggone .....last 5 years ? I havent done a lot of reading in the last 5 years . I took care of my grandson from birth ,so he spent a lot of time with us. I pretty much put down the books and spent all my time with him . It's just been in the past year or so that I got into reading again after such a long break .

I'd say I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb ,and Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All by Alan Gurganus . Owen Meany fits right up there with them .

 

5. Finally - a guilty pleasure, or a favourite that might surprise people!

HHmmm ... I guess I'd have to be vague with this answer .I always think I like books that men would possibly enjoy more than ladies, but I 'm sure there are ladies out there that also like what I do .

I'd say I like westerns, history ,Civil War ....I tend to lean more towards those types of books than the ChicLit books .

[Gad786]

1. Did you grow up in a book-loving household, and did your parents read to you? Pick a favourite book from your childhood, and tell us about it.:Yes I did grow up in a book loving household and yes my mother always used to read books to me from he library.The favorite childhood book that she read to me was the-cat-in-the-hat

 

2. What was one of the first 'grown-up' books that you really enjoyed?:Well I started the joy of read myself pretty late but the first grown-up book I read that I enjoyed was.....harry potter....I don't know if that is considered grown up so ill add the one after that which was lord of the flies

 

3. Pick a favourite book that you read in early adulthood - especially if it's one which helped set you off in a certain direction in life.:I'm not adult yet so I cannot answer that and not even early adulthood....

 

4. What's one of your favourite books that you've found in the last five years, and has belonging to the Book Club Forum changed your reading habits?:My favorite book of all in the last five years I think is the adventures of captain hatteras

 

5. Finally - a guilty pleasure, or a favourite that might surprise people!:Lord of the flies,most people find it brutal but I enjoy it.....but the part where piggy died was sad ....not died,the part where he was KILLED!

[Ruth]

Ooh, I love this kind of thread! Okay, here are my answers:

 

1. Did you grow up in a book-loving household, and did your parents read to you? Pick a favourite book from your childhood, and tell us about it.

 

Definitely. My parents are both avid readers and always have been. My dad taught me (and my two brothers) to read when we were very young, and my mom used to buy us a book each week. She also regularly took us to the library. I can't pick one specific book, but I loved the Famous Five stories, and later on the Malory Towers and St Clare's books.

 

2. What was one of the first 'grown-up' books that you really enjoyed?

 

Probably A Clockwork Orange, which I read when I was about 14 (on the same holiday when I read To Kill A Mockingbird). I remember it taking me a couple of chapters to get into the writing style and language, but then I loved it.

 

3. Pick a favourite book that you read in early adulthood - especially if it's one which helped set you off in a certain direction in life.

 

To Kill A Mockingbird. It was the first time that my eyes were really opened to the issues of racism and bigotry. Although my parents taught us never to judge by someone's skin colour or religion, and I went to a very multi-racial school, I had never really considered the prejudice that some people suffer. I've read the book a number of times since, and it never fails to make an impact on me.

 

 

 

4. What's one of your favourite books that you've found in the last five years, and has belonging to the Book Club Forum changed your reading habits?

 

The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood. It was one of those books that I just couldn't stop thinking about for ages afterwards, and the insiduous way in which the government took away people's rights until when they eventually realised what was happening it was too late to do anything about it. Another one was A Perfect Balance, by Rohinton Mistry. A big chunky book, but despite it's length, I don't think there was even one word that wasn't necessary. Being at BCF has definitely expanded my reading habits, more than changed them. It has encouraged me to read books and genres that previously I would not have thought of reading, and I love reading people's reviews of books they have read.

 

5. Finally - a guilty pleasure, or a favourite that might surprise people!

 

Perhaps American Psycho. It took me a while to read it, because I found it so disturbing, but it was just so well written and so darkly funny that I ended up loving it too, if that makes sense. It's certainly not a book I would recommend to everyone, and one friend of mine found it boring (all the endless descriptions of designer clothing etc were tedious to her, but I found it funny how much importance the main character Patrick Bateman would attach to such things. He lived in such a superficial world!) I abhor violence in real life, and there's a LOT of violence in this book. I actually surprised myself by liking it so much.

[bree]

poppyshake, lovely thread!

 

1. Did you grow up in a book-loving household, and did your parents read to you?

Daddy was a quiet man who always had a book with him. Not English but in our native language. Mum is a magazine flipper, but she was the one who'd buy picture books, rhyme books and children magazines(anyone know/remember MISHA?) for me. But what influenced me most was that I'd go to bed every night with my dad or grandmum telling me numerous stories off the top of their head.

I also remember flipping through pages of my little books, and somewhere along the way the blurry font came actual words and beautiful worlds. It just grew from there.

 

Pick a favourite book from your childhood, and tell us about it.

Enid Blytons - lots of them. My first books - and still dear old friends. The Faraway Tree series top the list. I love dear old Moonface, Silky, and Saucepan!

 

2. What was one of the first 'grown-up' books that you really enjoyed?

I started my first Christie and Wodehouse at 13. And they are still faithful companions.

(On the other end of the spectrum, at 14, I read Sidney Sheldon's Stranger in the Mirror and was shocked at the explicit, graphic writing. I still feel violated.

I re-read it recently and it still makes me cringe. I guess that would be the first "grown-up" book")

 

 

3. Pick a favourite book that you read in early adulthood - especially if it's one which helped set you off in a certain direction in life.

Without doubt The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. I was given a copy by my friend's mother at 16 - and it heavily influenced me. Howard Roark was an ideal.

Over the years I've grown past it - but some lessons of 'the virtue of selfishness', not having a sense of entitlement, being the best you can by your own judgement, being self-made and independent as far as possible - have all seeped in and are a part of me in some degree.

 

4. What's one of your favourite books that you've found in the last five years?

Sadly not much reading in the last five years - not much new reading that is. Of the few books that I have read Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident Of The Dog At Night-time stands out.

 

And has belonging to the Book Club Forum changed your reading habits?

I've been here for only a month - and yes, it has. I haven't read as much as I'd like to have for a few years now - and being here amongst others who love reading is very inspiring. I'm suddenly looking out for books, buying them, making time to read - and review - and am really happy.

 

5. Finally - a guilty pleasure, or a favourite that might surprise people!

I have no guilt about my pleasures.

But a favourite series which may surprise (as it may be considered age-inappropriate) are all the darling William books by Richmal Crompton. William, The Outlaws, their beautiful misadventures never fail to brightnen my life. I love that riot of a boy!

[Timstar]

Great Thread!!

 

1. Did you grow up in a book-loving household, and did your parents read to you? Pick a favourite book from your childhood, and tell us about it.

 

Certainly wasn't a book loving household, but I did love kids books, esp the Goosebumps series among others. I am the youngest of four brothers so reading wasn't a big past time in the house. Parents didn't read to me as soon as I was old enough to read by myself.

 

2. What was one of the first 'grown-up' books that you really enjoyed?

 

Has to be Lord of the Rings, read when I was about 12 and realised how good and complex books could be.

 

3. Pick a favourite book that you read in early adulthood - especially if it's one which helped set you off in a certain direction in life.

 

Maybe not a favourite but certainly set me off in a new direction. Cell by Stephen King, a few years ago really got me back into reading and haven't stopped since. Also got me interested in Sci-Fi and Horror.

 

4. What's one of your favourite books that you've found in the last five years, and has belonging to the Book Club Forum changed your reading habits?

 

Not sure I could pick one, but I would have to say the Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell. I wouldn't say it has changed my habits...not yet anyway, but I have certainly found some books on here and bought them.

 

5. Finally - a guilty pleasure, or a favourite that might surprise people!

 

Not to copy the previous post but I am gonna have to go with American Psycho as well. I found the dark humour and over-the-top violence extremely funny. I loved the prose and the way he gives such a great insight into Bateman's mind.

[ian]

1. Did you grow up in a book-loving household, and did your parents read to you? Pick a favourite book from your childhood, and tell us about it.

Yes, Both my mom & dad enjoyed reading, and there were always books in the house, although I have no memory of them reading to me. Favourite books from childhood were the Mister Men series and, when I was little older, The wind in the Willows.

 

2. What was one of the first 'grown-up' books that you really enjoyed?

I remember reading Jaws after seeing it on my dad's bookshelf. I was 13, and found it quite shocking!

 

3. Pick a favourite book that you read in early adulthood - especially if it's one which helped set you off in a certain direction in life.

 

Has to be the Lord of the Rings

 

4. What's one of your favourite books that you've found in the last five years, and has belonging to the Book Club Forum changed your reading habits?

 

I think in the last 5 years I've become old enough to appreciate classics like the Bronte sisters and Jane Austen.

Being part of the forum has made me look again at book I might otherwise have dismissed.

 

5. Finally - a guilty pleasure, or a favourite that might surprise people!

 

Probably "Little Women" which I first read in my late twenties, and made me quite emotional!

[Abcinthia]

1. Did you grow up in a book-loving household, and did your parents read to you? Pick a favourite book from your childhood, and tell us about it.

 

Both my parents read but my mum read A LOT more than my dad. My mum has hundreds of books and reads at a really fast speed (which I've inherited as well).

I'm going to pick The Stone Cage. It is a re-telling of the story of Rapunzel through the eyes of the witch's familliars. It is an out of print book but my mum had a copy and I adored reading it. My boyfriend managed to find me a copy a few years back and I hope one day my daughter will enjoy it too.

 

2. What was one of the first 'grown-up' books that you really enjoyed?

 

Carrie by Stephen King. I read it when I was about 12 and I loved it. I read it in one afternoon because I was so hooked and couldn't put it down.

 

3. Pick a favourite book that you read in early adulthood - especially if it's one which helped set you off in a certain direction in life.

 

Probably The Bell Jar. I love that book. I don't know if it's set me off in a certain direction in life.

 

4. What's one of your favourite books that you've found in the last five years, and has belonging to the Book Club Forum changed your reading habits?

 

There's been so many. Maybe Rebecca.

BCF has encouraged me to give reviews of books. Though I do not review every book I read, I try to give reviews for most.

 

5. Finally - a guilty pleasure, or a favourite that might surprise people!

 

Mog The Forgetful Cat.

 

Loved it since I was a child. I even named one of my cats Mog.

[jennybaby]

1. Did you grow up in a book-loving household, and did your parents read to you? Pick a favourite book from your childhood, and tell us about it.

 

No. We hardly had any books in the house - I started to read only because I didn't have any friends. Perhaps the first book that really shone for me was My Family and Other Animals, Gerald Durrell's story of his family's move to Corfu. Delightful book - pity he himself became a pompous bore in late middle age.

 

2. What was one of the first 'grown-up' books that you really enjoyed?

 

Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

 

3. Pick a favourite book that you read in early adulthood - especially if it's one which helped set you off in a certain direction in life.

 

I had a big rush of great books when I was around 16: Hemingway (For Whom The Bell Tolls); Malcolm Lowry (Under the Volcano); Joseph Heller (Catch 22), Catcher in the Rye and the Franny and Zooey books, Evelyn Waugh (his comic novels) - and of course Kerouac and the beat writers.

 

 

4. What's one of your favourite books that you've found in the last five years?

 

The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon

 

5. Finally - a guilty pleasure, or a favourite that might surprise people!

 

The first four Harry Potter books - sadly I fell by the wayside after that

[chaliepud]

1. Did you grow up in a book-loving household, and did your parents read to you? Pick a favourite book from your childhood, and tell us about it.

Absolutely, my Mum and Dad were (are) big readers, I can't actually remember them reading to me but they must of done. I was an early reader and spent a lot of my childhood reading, and rereading favourites. My favourite books were the Famous Fives, The Faraway Tree and Swallows and Amazons (we spent our holidays in the Lake District so they were especially poignant).

 

2. What was one of the first 'grown-up' books that you really enjoyed?

It's hard to remember the books I read over 20 years ago! I do remember however, reading Red Dragon by Thomas Harris around the time The Silence of the Lambs film came out (Red Dragon is the prequel to TSOTL) It was tense, a bit gory and and scared the pants off of me but I think it made me realise that I could read anything I wanted from then on!

 

3. Pick a favourite book that you read in early adulthood - especially if it's one which helped set you off in a certain direction in life.

I read a lot of dog care/training books in my teens and early twenties. John Holmes wrote a couple that were great for the time and definitely encouraged me to have dogs, train dogs, attend classes, run classes and basically live and breathe dogs!

 

4. What's one of your favourite books that you've found in the last five years, and has belonging to the Book Club Forum changed your reading habits?

There have been so many! Top favourites include The Book Thief, The Shadow of the Wind, Tiger Hills, A Discovery of Witches, Night Road and most recently Me Before You.... BCF has changed my habits as now I am more open to trying books I would otherwise never have heard about, or would have ignored if it were not for the recommendations on here.

 

5. Finally - a guilty pleasure, or a favourite that might surprise people!

Twilight! I know it's a bit of a marmite series of books and I really wasn't expecting to like them but I was almost forced into reading them and was immediately hook and read them all 3 or 4 times! I keep getting the urge to read them again but I'm trying to resist as I have so many other books to get through! I also really enjoyed The Host which I know isn't nearly as popular as Twilight, but I loved it!!!! There, I said it, I am a Twilight fan!!!

[willoyd]

What a good idea Poppy - I've been a bit disappointed with both choice of 'celebrities' and their books this time round - so many seem to have no real feel for books as you say.

 

 

1. Did you grow up in a book-loving household, and did your parents read to you? Pick a favourite book from your childhood, and tell us about it.

Both parents were avid readers: my mother used to read a lot of lighter fiction, my father was more into non-fiction, especially anything to do with London. Comfortably my favourite childhood books were (a) the Swallows and Amazons series (I especially loved Winter Holiday and Secret Water) and Puck of Pook's Hill/Rewards and Fairies. Both reflected a somewhat more exciting development on the sort of childhood I remember - lots of out doors making our own adventures in our gardens and in the local woods. If push comes to shove, I suppose I would probably just go for Puck of Pook's Hill as it so reminds me of where I grew up in Surrey.

 

2. What was one of the first 'grown-up' books that you really enjoyed?

Another toss-up: my father had hardback sets of Sherlock Holmes (London again - he used to lead walks on this and other London subjects) and Horatio Hornblower, and I devoured both when I was 11-12 years old. Still love them! Sherlock Holmes probably just has the microscopic edge because of the walks I did with my father and all the background information that totally fascinated me.

 

3. Pick a favourite book that you read in early adulthood - especially if it's one which helped set you off in a certain direction in life.

I did English Lit at A-level and the writer that totally grabbed me then was Jane Austen - we studied Emma. I later read Sense and Sensibility on or around my 18th birthday, and this stayed at the top of my favourites list for years - it's still close in there having reread it last year, and Elinor remains one of my great heroines. Totally changed my approach to reading, encouraging me to read a lot more of the classics, which is now probably my favourite genre.

 

4. What's one of your favourite books that you've found in the last five years?

This is a really difficult oneIf it's five years I'm limited to, then I can't choose my favourite book (JL Carr's A Month in the Country). Instead, it's not so much a single book, as an author who is rapidly growing into a real favourite: Virginia Woolf, having only started to read her a couple of years ago. If I had to choose just one, it would probably be The Years. Not surprisingly, it's one of her London books.

 

5. Finally - a guilty pleasure, or a favourite that might surprise people!

My guilty pleasure must be the Asterix series: Asterix in Britain has to be one of the funniest books about the French/British relationship ever. Given that I've got a reputation (justified or otherwise) for generally enjoying more 'serious' fiction, my favourite that might surprise people could be the Inspector Brunetti series by Donna Leon, not least because of the setting, his normality, and his characterful family!

Edited March 14, 2012 by willoyd

[poppyshake]

1. Did you grow up in a book-loving household, and did your parents read to you? Pick a favourite book from your childhood, and tell us about it.

Not exactly book loving although all of us read. Dad, who fancied himself a cowboy, read lots of Zane Grey and books about Jesse James and Billy the Kid and Mum read mostly historical romantic fiction (Winston Graham's Poldark novels .. Catherine Cookson and Helen Forrester etc. We had a lot of Readers Digest books and I read many stories which, unbeknown to me, were abridged. I can't remember Dad reading to me, although he might have done but Mum definitely did. I loved Enid's Malory Towers and St Clares book and dreamt about going to boarding school though only in theory .. in practice wild horses wouldn't have dragged me there .. I knew the difference between fact and fiction I fell in love with both The Borrowers (I have a feeling I thought this was non fiction .. I totally believed in them) and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe which I just thought was the most magical book ever, the title alone used to make me shiver with anticipation and delight. Probably the most vivid book image to ever imprint itself onto my brain was when Lucy met Mr Tumnus.

 

2. What was one of the first 'grown-up' books that you really enjoyed?

It's hard to recall, I definitely read Mum's Poldark books and enjoyed them but I think my first really grown up books were a set of Jilly Cooper's .. 'Octavia', 'Imogen', 'Prudence', 'Harriet', 'Emily' and 'Lisa and Co' which I read when I was about thirteen .. they were my older sisters. The covers are gorgeous now but our covers all depicted Jilly in various 'glamorous' guises. If it weren't for her fantastic wit the stories would resemble any old run of the mill Mills & Boon. I loved them though and thought myself really daring.

 

3. Pick a favourite book that you read in early adulthood - especially if it's one which helped set you off in a certain direction in life.

Difficult one. I will pick Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice because up until I read it I had an aversion to reading the classics. I thought that somehow they would be too complicated for me .. I didn't have confidence in my ability to understand them. My Mum actually bought me a video of the old b&w film starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier and I loved it and sought out the book. I hoovered up all the other Austens one by one and then got started on Dickens and the Brontes etc.

 

4. What's one of your favourite books that you've found in the last five years, and has belonging to the Book Club Forum changed your reading habits?

There are a couple of books that have really impressed me over the last few years and I can't really choose between them .. and in fact I could go on and on just naming favourites but the one's that stand out for me are ...

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke - This is the book that stands out for me as the one I wish I could have written. My family are always nagging at me to write a book (they probably think, because I read a lot, that I must have some ideas by now) but I know that I could never ever write a book as imaginative or innovative as this one. I possibly could write some sort of a book but it would be a story to yawn over.

The Thursday Next series - Jasper Fforde - It's been a real pleasure to read this series of books, they're clever, inventive and funny.

The Book Thief - Markus Zusack - An unusual and thought provoking book and a book that made me sob.

To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf - I just found it a complete pleasure to wallow about in her stream of consciousness .. even when I didn't understand all of it. One of the great privileges of reading is the insight it gives you into other peoples imaginations .. Virginia's is one of the most vivid and intelligent I'm ever likely to come across.

The Sisters Brothers - Patrick deWitt - This was a very emotional book for me because I have such a nostalgic love of all things western and this was probably the first really great western novel that I'd come across in ages. It's moody, funny and atmospheric. My Dad is definitely going to get the audiobook for either Fathers day or his birthday.

 

Belonging to and reading the book forum and also reading book blogs really helps me to get inspired. I don't have many friends who share my interest in books, most people can't understand my love of reading and so it's fantastic to chat with like minded people and find out that you're not weird if you don't spend all your spare money on shoes. It leads you to books you never would of thought of otherwise. I've always been scared of sci-fi .. again fearing that I won't be able to understand it but I've had very happy experiences reading John Wyndham and Jack Vance which is purely through the recommendations of forum members.

 

5. Finally - a guilty pleasure, or a favourite that might surprise people!

I don't feel guilty about anything I read but there are those that think that adults shouldn't read children's fiction so straight away the Harry Potter books come to mind. I loved reading them, I got so sucked into the storyline and characters that I could hardly wait for the next installment. I miss them and miss Jo's writing. I wish she'd write something else because I'm intrigued to see what she comes up with. Although I read them in book form (disregarding my usual rule of never buying hardbacks because I just couldn't wait for the paperback) it's been an added pleasure to listen to Stephen Fry reading them .. just sublime. I read all sorts of YA books because to my mind that's where the real adventure stories are .. the real flights of fancy.

 

I've waffled on far more than anyone else .. no surprises there then

[Talisman]

1. Did you grow up in a book-loving household, and did your parents read to you? Pick a favourite book from your childhood, and tell us about it.

When I first started school, I acuially had problems with reading, so the school informed my Mum and she started buying me books and reading them to me at home. I very quickly developed a love of reading and within a year or so my reading age started to shoot up, until by the age of 8 I had the reading of a 14 year old. I don't remember a great about the books that I read as a child, but one that does stand up was The Didakoi by Rumur Godden, which is about a young girl who is half gypsy and the prejudice that she has to face. It seemed to strike a chord with me, not because I am half gypsy, or even mixed race, but because like the character in this book, I was sensitive and different, and was also bullied.

 

2. What was one of the first 'grown-up' books that you really enjoyed? Again it is difficult to remember specifics, as I read so many different books.

 

3. Pick a favourite book that you read in early adulthood - especially if it's one which helped set you off in a certain direction in life. Mine was not exactly one that I read in early adulthood, but more late 20's, but it was nevertheless one that changed my life and my whole way of thinking - Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers. There have of course been many others since.

 

4. What's one of your favourite books that you've found in the last five years, and has belonging to the Book Club Forum changed your reading habits? Again, there are so many of them - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haines, and so many others. Belonging to BCF probably has changed my habits quite a bit in that I am more likely to read (and find) books that I might otherwise have not considered, and also explore different genres. At the moment I am doing the Reading Around the World Book Challenge, and I almost certainly wouldn't have known about this were if not for BCF.

 

 

5. Finally - a guilty pleasure, or a favourite that might surprise people! No real surprises I don't think, I don't feel guilty about any of the books that I read and I am sure what if anything would surprise people. I don't read to try and surprise and impress others anyway, but to learn more about the world and also about myself. I am not averse to the odd bit of chicklit though now and again.

[chesilbeach]

1. Did you grow up in a book-loving household, and did your parents read to you? Pick a favourite book from your childhood, and tell us about it.

Although my mum and dad weren't big readers, my mum encouraged me to read and to love books. She instilled in me a sense of pride in my books, and even from an early age I was taught to look after books as precious things - no writing or drawing in them even when I was tiny. A book was always the first option whenever I got a present for being good, e.g. after every dentist visit, every boring shopping trip, doing something to help, etc. We went to the library every three weeks and always came back with three or four books each time. I can't remember my parents owning their own books, they only ever borrowed from the library, so all the books in the house were mine (most of which I still have).

 

I don't ever remember my mum reading to me, but I do remember the fifteen minute story time at the end of every day at school, particularly with my favourite teacher who I can clearly remember her reading Danny The Champion Of The World by Roald Dahl to us all.

 

But if I have to pick a favourite book from my childhood, it would have to be The Children of Cherry Tree Farm by Enid Blyton. It had everything for me that I wanted to read about - brothers and sisters (as an only child I loved reading books about big families), set on a farm, lots of natural history - and I absolutely loved it.

 

2. What was one of the first 'grown-up' books that you really enjoyed?

As much as I was encouraged by my mum and my teachers, I think the lack of adult books in the house meant I was a later comer to adult fiction, and it was only at comprehensive school that I was given any guidance in my reading, but apart from set books in school, I didn't read much adult fiction until I was probably 17 or 18 years old. But, of the set books at school, I would have to pick my favourite book from when I was about 14, and that was actually a play Arms And The Man by George Bernard Shaw.

 

3. Pick a favourite book that you read in early adulthood - especially if it's one which helped set you off in a certain direction in life.

This is more tricky, as I can't think of anything which set me off in a certain direction. I do remember reading two books very close together at the age of 18 or 19, one which I loved and the other which felt like trudging through a muddy field - the first was Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen so that would be my favourite, and the second was Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë which made me realise that life it too short to finish books you don't enjoy!

 

4. What's one of your favourite books that you've found in the last five years, and has belonging to the Book Club Forum changed your reading habits?

My favourite book ever is one I've read in the last five years, and considering I'm not a big re-reader, to say that I've already read it three or four times, shows how much I loved it. That book is Girl Meets Boy by Ali Smith and I always describe it with a particular word - joyous.

 

I'm not sure that belonging to the reading group has changed my reading habits, but I have definitely been exposed to far more authors and genres that I would have considered before, and read some absolute gems

 

5. Finally - a guilty pleasure, or a favourite that might surprise people!

I've given up on believing in guilty pleasures, as I only read for my own entertainment, so why should I feel guilty about that? That means I have to pick a favourite that might surprise people, but I think I've been fairly open on the forum since I joined, so I can't imagine that anything I pick would be much of a surprise to anyone. Therefore, I'm going to pick a book that I surprised myself by enjoying as much as I did, and that was actually a recent read Now All Roads Lead To France by Matthew Hollis. Considering I don't generally read many books about war, I'm not particularly keen on history, I don't understand poetry and never read it, how could I possibly enjoy this book about the first world war poet Edward Thomas? Well, it was the most fascinating and interesting book, and I highly recommend it.

Edited March 17, 2012 by chesilbeach