Book Q&A

I saw this on even artichokes have hearts (Skye's beautiful and inspiring blog), and thought it would be a great idea to have a go myself to ease me into book blogging.

what are you reading right now?

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson and
The Earth Angel Training Academy by Michelle Gordon 

do you have any idea what you’ll read when you’re done with that?

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

The Silmarrilion by J.R.R. Tolkien

Unfinshed Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth by J.R.R. Tolkien

5 books have you always wanted to read but haven’t got round to?

Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire) by George R.R. Martin

what magazines do you have in your bathroom/lounge right now?

Mollie Makes and various crochet magazines.  Also John's Juxtapoz and Hi Fructose magazines.

what’s the worst book you've ever read?

I honestly can't think of one.  I can see the positives in most books, and there are very few that I read and don't want to read again at some point.

what book seems really popular but you actually hated?

Again, I can't think of one! 

what’s the one book you always recommend to just about everyone?

There are quite a few.  How To Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran is a must, especially for women.  I lent it to my 13 year old daughter and she thought it was brilliant too.  Anything by Marian Keyes of course, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and anything by Tolkien.

what are your 3 favourite poems?

Cloths of Heaven by Willam Butler Yeats

Tyger Tyger by Willaim Blake

All That is Gold Does Not Glitter by J.R.R. Tolkien

where do you usually get your books?

Amazon (books & Kindle store)
Snowdrops (St Richard's Hospice Charity Bookshop)

where do you usually read your books?

Regular books, in the bath mostly as it's the only time I get uninterrupted.  If it's a book I'm unable to put down, then I read every second I can - even when cooking and ironing!
With the Kindle mostly when I'm waiting for appointments (Dr etc).

when you were little, did you have any particular reading habits?

Reading every second I had.  I would read until my parents went to bed, pretend to be asleep, then when they fell asleep, read more until my eyes stopped working.  I read about 12 books a week in my early teens (borrowed from local library).

what’s the last thing you stayed up half the night reading because it was so good you couldn’t put it down?

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 

have you ever “faked” reading a book?

Not that I can remember.  Possibly Charles Dickens or George Elliott at school - really didn't get on with them, but was more likely to go home and read the whole book in one night so I didn't have to read it painfully sloly a chapter at a time in class.

have you ever bought a book just because you liked the cover?

Yes, I bought Jinx by Meg Cabot for my daughter as I liked the sparkly cover!  I've probably bought a few others becasue of the way they looked too, but that's the only one I remember.

what was your favourite book when you were a child?

I loved the Jill's Ponies books by Ruby Fegrguson, (and anything about horses), Enid Blyton, the Hobbit and the Chronicles of Narnia. 

Treasured books from my childhood

what book changed your life?

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.  This was the first book I totally lost myself in, when I was 7.  Once I'd discovered the escapism of reading, I never looked back.
And possibly even more importantly, this was the book that made me realise that I wanted to be a writer.

what is your favourite passage from a book?
From the Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien:

'All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king'


what are your top five favourite authors? Not sure I can limit it to 5!  But some of my favourites are:

Marian Keyes
J.R.R. Tolkien
Jane Austen
Philip Pullman
Douglas Adams
Susan Cooper
Dan Brown
J.K. Rowling
Sophie Kinsella

A few of my favourites

what is your favourite classic book?

I love all Jane Austen's novels, not sure if I can chose a favourite.  Which ever one I've read most recently probably.

5 other notable mentions?
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
The Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich 
Eve Was Framed and Just Law by Helena Kennedy
The Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer (also loved the Host)
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams