Reading Material

Cover of Five on a Treasure Island (Famous Five)

When I was much younger I used to love to read.  I was a particularly avid reader of Enid Blyton; my mother refuses to throw out my compendium of Famous Five books, even though it is, quite literally, now hanging together by a thread.  However, when I went to uni, in particular, I fell out of the habit of reading regularly for pleasure.  It was mostly a combination of not having enough time to read and knowing that, whenever I was reading for pleasure, I really should be reading something for my course.  But all that has gone now (yippee!) and now I find myself turning off the TV more (along with putting the knitting down, unfortunately) and picking up a book.  I find this pleases the cultural snob in me, as well as actually being something I genuinely want to do: I really do prefer reading over TV sometimes.  As a visual child this has sort of surprised me.

At the moment I’m rereading the Harry Potter set – I’m up to the Order of the Phoenix and I’m loving it!  I’m also delving into Edgar Allen Poe’s “Selected Tales” during my lunch break at work, I find him hard work (I’m not so much a cultural snob as to find 19th century literature readily enjoyable!) but some of his tales are particularly inspired.  I loved Murder at the Rue Morgue, with its ridiculous ending.  I won’t reveal what happens but if you have read it, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.  It reminded me of a Frasier episode, which then immediately made me want to do a dissertation on literature representations in that series.  And then quickly told myself what a stupid idea that was.  Stupid, but what an excuse to watch and rewatch my Frasier box set!  I also liked the Tell Tale Heart – I read that in the 20 minutes I get at ASDA and I also enjoyed the Pit and the Pendulum.  The others haven’t stuck as much in my head as those but I’ve started the Gold Bug and they’ve just discovered bodies with treasure…

My friends Emma, Laura and Ruth are all great readers and they always seem to know what (good) books are out and about at the moment, I’m really quite jealous of them!  However I console myself with the thought that when I do move down to London I will be able to borrow all these books!  Yesterday I wanted to find my own ideas after completing the BBC 100 book challenge on Facebook.  They think most people will have only read 6 out of the 100 books listed, I got 30.  Take this list with a pinch of salt, though, it lists Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.  I think I should have got a point off for having read that.  However it did inspire me to find a list of books that I “should” read.  I downloaded the BBC’s Big Read 100 Books, ticked off the ones I had read (I like ticking things off) and also found a MASSIVE, 1000-book long list on the Guardian, which, apparently, was selected “by the Guardian’s Review team and a panel of expert judges”.  Oo-er.  Anyway, it’s fun to look at these kind of things and I feel they will be a good place to start for when I am at a loss for what to read.  After Harry Potter and Edgar (fun fact – he and I share the same birthday!), I plan to rediscover more of my childhood with the box set of Narnia books I found whilst digging around in the back of the cupboard and to discover another classic – Anna Karenina.  It was only £2 on Amazon (+ free postage!) and apparently it’s the book you need to read when broken hearted.  When I bought it I was seriously broken hearted, let me tell you!  Thankfully, much less so now.

Any more suggestions??

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