I LOVE BOOKS!

 

I LOVE BOOKS!

 In this blog I would like to share what I am currently reading as well as try and compile a list of books I have read and put my own opinions on them out there to share. You can comment back, of course, and tell me what you are reading and/or give your opinion on something I have read.

I have always loved to read and was in fact reading fluently when I was at Kindergarten (I clearly remember sitting in the 'book corner' with the other children and reading to them all, yes, what a showoff!) although my Mum and sister both deny having taught me to read! My brother was also reading before he went to school but I know that I taught him - see, I was a teacher even back then!!!

I clearly remember my Prep Teacher, the lovely Mrs Dalton, asking me to read for Miss Ganly, one of the other teachers. She gave me the old Victorian reader "HOLIDAYS" (remember that one) which wasn't a "Prep" reader and I eagerly prattled off page after page for Miss Ganly who stood there with her mouth open. 'See, I told you, what do I do with her now?' Mrs Dalton said to Miss Ganly!!!! Well I assume she enjoyed having one less child to worry about in an extremely overcrowded 1967 classroom and let me read to my hearts content!

I have often, over a very long teaching career, told the children in my classes, that I don't remember when I first started to read at night before going to sleep but it has become an ingrained element of my going to sleep routine. So much so that I use it as an indicator for when I am not feeling well as it is so unusual for me not to absolutely have to read before shutting my eyes! I find it interesting that when I am particularly hyped up and my brain is in overdrive, and I find it difficult to sleep, I also find it very difficult to read!!!

At the moment I am whizzing through GUILTY PLEASURES which is the first in a long string of books by LAURELL K HAMILTON about a vampire slayer called Anita Blake. I think it said on the blurb that this is Buffy the Vampire Slayer for grown ups but having never read or watched anything about Buffy I can't compare it. 

It is graphically gruesome and I'm enjoying it immensely. I always like a book to whisk me away effortlessly and this certainly does that. Perfect escapism for when your head is not in such a good place as is sort of happening at the moment! And Anita Blake is an out there woman with a very interesting job - certainly not a blushing violet - and I find myself liking her, and especially her little dialogues with herself, very much.

Since writing this I have finished Guilty Pleasures and launched into the next book, THE LAUGHING CORPSE, 

which was more about zombies (yick!) than vampires but still gruesomely enjoyable and have just started book 3 in the series, CIRCUS OF THE DAMNED.

 i can see myself reading these one after the other now. I have had a substantial break between book 2 and 3 as I stumbled across Laurell K Hamilton's Merry Gentry series and read them, basically without taking a breath, but I will devote another full post to them later!

I have also been reading this rather odd book THE MAP OF TIME by FELIX J PALMA. It is set in Victorian England and whirls characters such as Jack the Ripper and HG Wells, to name a couple, into the same tangled story. i must admit I have put it down in annoyance a number of times but I keep coming back to it and continuing as I can't imagine how the author is going to tie it all together at the end. Perhaps he won't and then I'll be really annoyed!!!