Books (copy)

Since we formed our on line reading Group, The Purple Wearer’s, Coralie has taken the mickey out of what I read. She reckons that I am a light weight! My reading “genre” of choice is probably what is known in the UK as “Chick lit” IE, easy girly kind of reading!

As you will probably be able to guess, I don’t really care! I get such pleasure from reading that it doesn’t concern me if others think I am shallow. I have to say at this point (before Coralie comments) that I know she is only joking!

Some of my favourite books:

All of the Shopaholic books by Sophie Kinsella

Anything at all by Penny Vincenzi. The latest one by her called Sheer Abandon was brilliant.

Anything by Agatha Christie.

Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann

Bridget Jones diary by Helen Fielding

The prophet by Kahlil Gibran

All of the Dan Brown books. I got hooked after reading The Davinci code.

I love biographies and auto- biographies. The last one I read was by Sheila Hancock and was called “The two of us, my life with John Thaw”. I also like so called “self help” books and the “Dummies” series is good too. I have read a few of them.

I used to use books for research purposes, encyclopaedias, atlas’s etc, but these are not often used now as I look up everything on the internet. My books will always be loved and cherished though.

When I was young my favourite author was Enid Blyton. I read everything she ever wrote and loved the MalloryTowers stories and the girls at St Claire’s, both of which were stories about girls at boarding schools. When I was real young, I loved the Paddington Bear stories by Michael Bond and anything written and illustrated by Mabel Lucie Atwell. Such lovely pictures. Then of course there was Dr Seuss, remember Green eggs and Ham?How about Barbar the Elephant? I loved him too.

Christmas was always a special time for books. I always had some in my stocking, including that years annuals.These changed over the years. I think I started with something like the Twinkle annual and the Brownies annual and finished years later with Fab annual and the Girl Guides annual.

As a teenager, I got very into Catherine Cookson. I can’t really work out why now but at the time I liked her and read all of her stuff. My all time favourite though from my teenage years was Noel Streatfeild. I particularly liked Ballet shoes which is the story of the three little “Fossil” children, Pauline, Petrova and Posy. His “Gemma” stories were another favourite.

When I had my children I introduced them to books straight away. I used to show them the pictures. When they were little they all loved being read to. Out of my children, the girls are the ones that are really into reading. The boys tend to be magazine readers. Just like their Mum, all 3 girls are real book worms and are never without a book.

They were the same when they were small, although Verity was the real Bookworm. I can remember if I was asking her to do something, her reply was always “in a minute”. She had to finish the bit she was on! The funny thing is I can remember that same scenario from my own child hood, with my mum saying “can you come and help with the washing up?” and me replying “in a minute” because my nose was stuck in a book. I can still get lost in a book.

Some of my children’s favourites from when they were small and ones that hopefully I can one day read to Ellie.

The very hungry caterpillar book by Eric Carle

Don’t forget the bacon Pat Hutchins

Peace at last by Jill Murphy

Where’s my mummy? by Colin Hawkins and Jacqui Hawkins

The internet is fantastic but it will never be able to compete with the look, smell and feel of a brand new book.