Books

[Eagleheart]

I have loved reading books as far back as i can remember.

A world without books is inconceivable. I love them.

To get caught up in a great story is to be enchanted.

Recently,i read a novel by Jo Brand.I had no idea she had written it.I found it in a charity shop (great places to find books of all sorts). The book is called The More You Ignore Me & covers the issue of mental health problems within a family setting.It is hilarious & when i had finished it,i was so sad that i would no longer be able to see how they were all doing.

I felt the same when i read Dawn French's 2 novels.She really brings her characters to life.You start caring how life is treating them.

Yesterday,i went into Waterstones & bought myself a lovely hardback Collected works of Edgar Allan Poe.I sat down with a coffee & actually stroked my beautiful new book!

So,how do you feel about books? Do you love collecting them? Do you get immersed in a great plot?

I would love to hear how you feel about books.They are very important to me.

[Villan]

I love books, I read over 200 a year. Yes I catalogue them lol. Although these days I read on kindle and my tablet rather than physical books. I borrow ebooks from my library too.

Reading is also very important to me. I find books a great distraction / escape from 'real life'. I read a lot of independent authors these days and also enjoy interacting with those authors on forums.

I read a lot of series as sometimes I have memory / concentration issues and I find series easier to read cos of the same characters.

[Eagleheart]

I was just lying in bed reading ( Ash by James Herbert) and i remembered another great book i read recently.The Woman Who Went To Bed For A Year by Sue Townsend.It was gripping & funny & emotional.I absolutely loved it.

It's great to hear of your love of books Villan & you are so right about them being a great distraction tool.I have memory problems too & have to re-read the last couple of pages i read last,just to remind me where i was.But nothing can hamper my enthusiasm.

Have you read 50 shades? It bored me to tears & the writing was atrocious!

[mr potato]

Hi

I love buying and reading books. I have regularly picked up second hand bargains, and also love Waterstones. It is nice to relax there with a coffee and a new book. Does life get better than that?? LOL.

I have recently gone through a phase of fascination with the Napoleanic Wars, and the Duke of Wellington.

I am also into Astrology and alternate history.

I sometimes read in the library because it is peaceful there.

[Eagleheart]

I have quite a few alternative health books,all discovered in charity shops.I also seem to collect self-help books that i put on my bookshelf with the intention of reading,but i am always getting distracted by other,glorious books!

One book i did read from cover to cover was The Art of Happiness by The Dalai Lama.He is profoundly wise & inclusive of other religious beliefs.That book really helped me.Maybe it's time for me to re-read it.

Some books just stay with you forever,don't they?

[Villan]

I was just lying in bed reading ( Ash by James Herbert) and i remembered another great book i read recently.The Woman Who Went To Bed For A Year by Sue Townsend.It was gripping & funny & emotional.I absolutely loved it.

It's great to hear of your love of books Villan & you are so right about them being a great distraction tool.I have memory problems too & have to re-read the last couple of pages i read last,just to remind me where i was.But nothing can hamper my enthusiasm.

Have you read 50 shades? It bored me to tears & the writing was atrocious!

I have a few james Herbert books on my kindle courtesy of their 99p sales. I think I have ash.

No I didn't bother with 50 shades. Not my cuppa. I mostly read psychological and crime fiction with a bit of horror thrown in!

[Eagleheart]

Have you read any Phil Rickman novels Villan? He is my favourite author. His books are so gripping,i end up reading into the early hours-just 1 more chapter then i'll go to sleep!!! His books are supernatural thrillers. I savour them.xxx

[Villan]

I haven't but he is one I have been recommended by other people. I have "The wine of Angels" Merrily #1 on my Kindle and I think I can borrow the rest of the series from the eLibrary if I like it. I have so many books queued up to read, goodness knows when I will get round to it! Although now I have another recommend I will have to bump it up the order a bit...

I am working my way through the Alan Hunter - George Gently books at the moment. They are slowly being released in eBook and my library gets them soon after publication.

I just wish there was more time to read - I hardly watch tv these days...

[gandalftheginge]

I love books a great deal, they really are very sacred to me. I read using my kindle often for convince, but having a book in my hands feels so special. It feels like I have the potential to dive into another world and immerse myself in a new life, meet friends I hadn't met, see places I've yet to see. Walking into a book shop feels like walking into a holy place, its almost overwhelming. How can you choose which life to live next when there are thousands on display, each offering a different experience? Seems I really like books

Would anyone like to list there must read books? Also, we could form a mental health book club, I've always wanted to be a part of one. I'd love to have the chance to discuss characters and plots

[Eagleheart]

Thats worth thinking about Gandalf. The trouble is,i am such a slow reader,i'd worry that i couldnt keep up

I always keep a book in my bag so i can sit & have a latte & sink into the pages. Currently,my bag book is Miranda Hart's Is It Just Me? On several occasions i have erupted into noisy guffaws & got weird looks from people! I love it!!!

[Eagleheart]

Villan- there's quite a few books in the Merrily series. I've read quite a few but not in the proper order! I want to collect the full series & read them in the proper order. The first Phil Rickman i read was The Man In The Moss & it was so graphic it had me hooked from page 1.

James Paterson books are very absorbing. I find it hard to put them down.

Oh,lovely,lovely books! So many & so few hours in the day !!! ;)

[gandalftheginge]

Eagleheart, I wouldn't worry too much, I'm an awfully slow reader myself. We could chose a book a month, would that be enough time?

[Villan]

just about to leave work to go home but as i find it hard to link when at home cos i only use a tablet to log on it is best done here...

do you know this site. it is great for giving you the orders of series of books

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/r/phil-rickman/

[mr potato]

I have quite a few alternative health books,all discovered in charity shops.I also seem to collect self-help books that i put on my bookshelf with the intention of reading,but i am always getting distracted by other,glorious books!

One book i did read from cover to cover was The Art of Happiness by The Dalai Lama.He is profoundly wise & inclusive of other religious beliefs.That book really helped me.Maybe it's time for me to re-read it.

Some books just stay with you forever,don't they?

I don't read so much fiction these days, but would like to. They can have a profound effect. I read a good fiction about 6-7 years ago, and I still think about it. It was about an indigenous tribe, and was really interesting.

[Eagleheart]

Villan - Thanks so much for the link.I can now see just how disordered my reading has been!!! How on earth did you find that info? It's brilliant!

Gandalf - I suppose we need to find out if there is enough interest in starting a reading group.I mean,how many/few do we need to get a group going?I have no idea..................

Potatoes - I like books about different subjects but find reading fiction helpful in the sense that it is easy to get into.It's like taking bite-size chunks-easier to chew on & better for digesting,if you see what i mean!!

[Villan]

You are welcome. I belong to a few kindle forums and picked stuff up there. There are loads of good sites. I can come back when I am on a computer and give you more if you want. They aren't ebook exclusive btw. There's one which sends emails when authors release new books. This will work for paper books too.

Can you tell I love my reading lol

[Eagleheart]

Yep! It's really heartening to hear about others' love of books.I am so glad i started this thread-it really cheers my soul to talk about books & the effect they can have on you.Thanks for all the input.Hopefully,more people will get involved in this discussion.

[lonelyheartemma]

I never really liked reading before but in about the last year I've got really into it. I started off by reading personalised books where you choose the names. I really liked that as I got to have adventures and do things I could never do in real life like have a school prom and go on dates. To start with I read original personalised novels but you can also buy classic books and change the names so I started buying those too. I got so into the classics that I wanted to read everything else the writers had written as well. I realised recently that I have read 48 books so far this year (including plays) and I have decided to read at least 100 this year.

I really love Shakespeare a lot, my favourites so far are Hamlet and The Winter's Tale. I thought I'd prefer his comedies but the tragedies are just so involving. The Winter's Tale is supposed to be one of the worst but the jealousy and paranoia experienced by the main character was something I could really identify with a lot. Jane Austen is really good too and very funny. I really wanted to read Emma because I am named after her but it was always such a long book. But I finally read it and it's wonderful. Sometimes it's like I'm kind of cringing for Emma in the book and thinking "Don't do that! Your heart is so in the right place but it's not going to help!" but not the kind of cringing that stops me from enjoying the book. Emma is such a mixed up girl but so lovely and she only wants to help. Then I also love Agatha Christie to bits, her detectives are very different but all really good people and interesting too. Even though the detectives don't usually have a direct emotional involvement that doesn't matter because the detectives care about the people involved and Agatha Christie brings every new character to life and gives almost every book a true emotional heart so it's so much more than just finding out whodunnit.

I've got a looooong list of what to read next, a mix of authors I already love and other books that have attracted my attention for one reason or another.

I suppose in a way reading is an escape but at the same time it's more than that. It's not just running away from my life, it's running towards something new and exciting. The characters in the book become my social life, the adventures become my adventures. It is so exciting buying a new book and holding it in my hands for the first time. I actually hate Waterstones because they thought I was a thief so my favourite shop is Amazon. WHSmiths is also good, there aren't as many books but I like that- if I can't find the books on my mental list, I choose something random instead which often turns out to be a surprise treat.

Tbh I've never even seen a kindle but I don't think it would be right for me. There's just something so special about a book. Also I like reading in the bath so a kindle wouldn't be practical and computer screens make my headaches worse so reading is also a break from staring at a computer screen. But I can also see that one kindle is much easier to carry around than 20 books and it means you've always got a choice of what to read.

I'm not really sure which books I'd recommend, it depends on what you like. If you don't like reading plays I wouldn't recommend Shakespeare. But I give each book I read a star rating of 1 to 5 and here are some of my recent 5 stars.

The Winter's Tale (William Shakespeare)

The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side (Agatha Christie)

The Prisoner in the Opal (A. E. W Mason)

The Importance of Being Earnest (Oscar Wilde)

Black Beauty (Anna Sewell)

I also enjoy children's books, teenage books (but not the modern violent ones), chick lit, autobiographies (usually sports people and actors) and romantic fiction. I love reading about nice interesting people (or horses as in Black Beauty), the kind of people I'd enjoy spending time with. And when I read about them it really feels as though I am spending time with them.

[Eagleheart]

Wow LHE,your enthusiasm is a beautiful thing to read! I love how passionate you are about the books/plays you have read & enjoyed. I have to admit that i just cannot see the appeal of shakespeare. I admire how much you enjoy his work. I think i am not clever enough to understand his style of writing. Thankyou so much for sharing your love of books.xxx

[lonelyheartemma]

I was going to say we're all different (until I read this thread I didn't see the appeal of some writers based on this thread but in a way I love them now because I know they make my friends happy, that's the best thing any book can do) but I actually think we're all the same.

We read what we love, what speaks to us, what gives us happiness and enjoyment (something we all have too little of so we all have to clutch at what we can find, wherever we find it. Even if it does make me feel like a pretentious snob (which I know you didn't say Eagleheart, it's my bpd that's saying it, it says I only said it to impress you all when actually I said it because I really really really want a friend who likes the same books as me and I'll never find one if I don't say what I like).

[gandalftheginge]

Wow Em, that's a huge amount to have read! Sounds like you've read some pretty classic books to, you should be proud!

I've not heard of those personalised books at all, how do they work?

I think I maybe finish one book a month or so, but sometimes I also read comics which I can read a lot faster.

My favourite series is The Dresden Files, it's about a wizard/detective in modern day Chicago. The humour is really good and it's got a really cool pulpy feeling to it. I also love Phillip Pullmans His Dark Materials trilogy and Cynthia Voigts Homecoming series.

[Eagleheart]

LHE- I am sorry if what i said made you feel bad. I think the real reason i don't like shakespeare is because my mother used to quote long passages from his plays & put on a stupid posh voice. Yeah,i am starting to feel that revulsion just writing about it.

Have you read The Woman In White by Wilkie Collins? I absolutely loved it.

[lonelyheartemma]

Eagle that makes complete sense to me. My mum always quotes poetry in a silly voice and I think that's one of the reasons why I can't stand poetry. There are poems I like, though not many of them but I have trouble reading poetry without hearing her voice- and that's not helpful at all when I really want to stop hearing it. I think it probably is possible to learn to love these things and exorcise the voices in our heads- but getting to that stage would involve so much agony, I really don't want to go through that so there's no way I'd suggest you did the same with Shakespeare. There's enough pain in our lives already without creating more pain in reading, which is our warmth and comfort.

I haven't read The Woman in White yet but I'd like to. I have read another book by Wilkie Collins called The Moonstone and really enjoyed it. Thank you for reminding me of The Woman in White, that's going straight on my reading list!

Ash I'd forgotten all about The Homecoming! That's actually something I did enjoy reading at school though I only read the first book. I really identified with the character Maybeth (I have got the right book haven't I?). She's a character who's really stayed with me, a character I still think about, a girl with ability and potential but unable to realise it. The Dresden Files sounds interesting, I love detective fiction.

With personalised fiction a writer writes the story but then you choose the names of the characters along with hair and eye colour so it can be you and your friends/family/favourite actors or musicians or fictional characters/whatever you like! In some books you can also choose the name of the town you want to live in, your online screen name or nickname, the name of your pet (which I had trouble with as I don't have one) or the name of the hero's car. Usually you can only choose names for a couple of characters but the stories are mostly based around them, anyone else in the story is basically a bit-part. In other books things can become even more detailed so it includes your perfume, the length of time you've been with your boy/girlfriend, favourite food and flowers, the newspaper you read, your favourite colour. Then there are others where there isn't anything personal, but you can choose names for up to 20 characters so there's a place in the book for even more of the people you love.

[Eagleheart]

So sorry i've not been on to respond to your last post LHE. It's interesting to hear that your mum does the same thing as my mother. She also used to put on Beethoven LP's & would conduct along to them.I am cringeing just thinking about it.

It's sad that parents can do so much to put you off things that would otherwise probably be enjoyable.

My mother was a pretentious snob.She looked down her nose at pretty much everyone.She would make a big show of reading books by Stephen Hawking & others.Honestly,she has put me off so many things.

I absolutely love the art of the Pre-Raphaelites & have a couple of big books of their paintings.Every now & then,it's nice to get them off the shelf & bask in the beauty they created.I really want to get hold of a book about the art of Caravaggio.The way he depicts light & shade on the body is astounding.Art books are brilliant!

[mert]

My favourite most moving book that just draws you in and makes you constantly think and worry for the characters in 'the shadow of the wind' read it 3 times, once when I was in hospital and it really helped transport me to a different place... Carlos Ruiz saffron is amazing. All his book are special... Sorry for jumping in on the post!,,