I like to read
I'm not even one of those people who goes through phases, something I've always found odd. I've never understood why you'd find that you spent a month or two reading and then suddenly didn't have a space for it in your life.
My reading time is; when I'm not working, cooking, snowboarding or on my laptop. Which might be because I live in a van, and so don't have a particularly busy social life. Even if at no other time during a day, I read before I go to sleep, it's a nice distraction and it's been such a long time habit, I'm sure it helps me sleep better too.
When I was a small child, I refused to learn to read. I would get mum or dad did it, although my favourite was demanding that Granny read to me every time we went there or she came to ours. I think there's even a photo somewhere of me on the sofa next to her while she reads to me! Eventually I did learn to read (I think about 5 years old) and by 11 I'd read the 3 Musketeers, the Hobbit and had started on Lord of the Rings.
I've been through a few books recently, although the best was 'American Gods' by Neil Gaiman. I'd heard it was quite hard going, but after loving the first season of the show on Amazon Prime, I decided I should probably read it. Good job too, some disagreements between producers and actors means that even if season 2 DOES make it out, it'll be quite different to the first season in feel. Definitely worth reading in my opinion:
One of my all time favourite authors is Iain Banks, or, as he was known to me for a long time, Iain M Banks, the name he goes by for his Sci-Fi, the former being his 'regular' fiction name. His style within his 'Culture' universe is amazing and immersive, clearly brought on in response to the ideas of a utopian future and in response to views on straight/gay/race and any other discrimination you might think of. The idea is that everything is controlled by AI's who all have characters and run humanity, and humanity has no boundaries on tech, style or rules.
Currently I'm not reading a Culture book though, I'm reading 'Dead Air', one of his works of regular fiction. I'm enjoying it more than I expected to as well. It is about a radio DJ who, in his mid 30's and in the wake of 9/11, is having a rather complicated year, mostly involving various women, a nazi extremist and some death threats.
Another pleasant surprise recently was 'The Genome' by Sergei Lukyaneko He was an author I'd never read anything by before, but who wrote the book 'Day Watch' which was turned into the movies Day Watch and Night Watch, which I have at home. I really enjoyed the book, and would find myself at work thinking about one aspect or another of it and looking forward to getting back to it, much as I did with American Gods. Definitely an author to check out if you're looking for more reading material. This book felt like classic Sci-Fi, but without making the mistake of putting the books future too close to the present so that, were it read in 40 years time, it could still feel moderately current.
Lastly, thanks to my neighbour, Davina's, influence I developed a love for Stephen King. I've read quite a few of his books now, but my first was 'The Stand', but I've read 'The Shining', 'Salems Lot', 'It', 'The Green Mile' and a bunch more since, all of which I have enjoyed with only a few exceptions. I liked the first half of his 'Dark Tower' series, but not the second half, and some of the shorter books like 'From a Buick 8' are just a bit too odd. He's well known for doing horror, but as anyone who has seen 'The Green Mile' or 'Shawshank Redemption' will know, clearly there's more to him than that and his writing shouldn't be pigeon-holed into genre's.
I recently read 'Doctor Sleep', aside from the Dark Tower series, his only sequel. It follows Danny from 'The Shining' and is set 20 years later as he continues to struggle with the shining, his drinking and his role in life. I read some mixed reviews on it, but in my opinion, it is definitely in the category of 'good books' from SK, and not the 'wouldn't read again' list I have.
Thanks for reading, maybe I'll do this again and list some more of the books I've enjoyed reading. I suspect with my broken collar bone, I'll be doing a lot of it over the next month or two.
My reading time is; when I'm not working, cooking, snowboarding or on my laptop. Which might be because I live in a van, and so don't have a particularly busy social life. Even if at no other time during a day, I read before I go to sleep, it's a nice distraction and it's been such a long time habit, I'm sure it helps me sleep better too.
When I was a small child, I refused to learn to read. I would get mum or dad did it, although my favourite was demanding that Granny read to me every time we went there or she came to ours. I think there's even a photo somewhere of me on the sofa next to her while she reads to me! Eventually I did learn to read (I think about 5 years old) and by 11 I'd read the 3 Musketeers, the Hobbit and had started on Lord of the Rings.
I've been through a few books recently, although the best was 'American Gods' by Neil Gaiman. I'd heard it was quite hard going, but after loving the first season of the show on Amazon Prime, I decided I should probably read it. Good job too, some disagreements between producers and actors means that even if season 2 DOES make it out, it'll be quite different to the first season in feel. Definitely worth reading in my opinion:
One of my all time favourite authors is Iain Banks, or, as he was known to me for a long time, Iain M Banks, the name he goes by for his Sci-Fi, the former being his 'regular' fiction name. His style within his 'Culture' universe is amazing and immersive, clearly brought on in response to the ideas of a utopian future and in response to views on straight/gay/race and any other discrimination you might think of. The idea is that everything is controlled by AI's who all have characters and run humanity, and humanity has no boundaries on tech, style or rules.
Currently I'm not reading a Culture book though, I'm reading 'Dead Air', one of his works of regular fiction. I'm enjoying it more than I expected to as well. It is about a radio DJ who, in his mid 30's and in the wake of 9/11, is having a rather complicated year, mostly involving various women, a nazi extremist and some death threats.
Another pleasant surprise recently was 'The Genome' by Sergei Lukyaneko He was an author I'd never read anything by before, but who wrote the book 'Day Watch' which was turned into the movies Day Watch and Night Watch, which I have at home. I really enjoyed the book, and would find myself at work thinking about one aspect or another of it and looking forward to getting back to it, much as I did with American Gods. Definitely an author to check out if you're looking for more reading material. This book felt like classic Sci-Fi, but without making the mistake of putting the books future too close to the present so that, were it read in 40 years time, it could still feel moderately current.
Lastly, thanks to my neighbour, Davina's, influence I developed a love for Stephen King. I've read quite a few of his books now, but my first was 'The Stand', but I've read 'The Shining', 'Salems Lot', 'It', 'The Green Mile' and a bunch more since, all of which I have enjoyed with only a few exceptions. I liked the first half of his 'Dark Tower' series, but not the second half, and some of the shorter books like 'From a Buick 8' are just a bit too odd. He's well known for doing horror, but as anyone who has seen 'The Green Mile' or 'Shawshank Redemption' will know, clearly there's more to him than that and his writing shouldn't be pigeon-holed into genre's.
I recently read 'Doctor Sleep', aside from the Dark Tower series, his only sequel. It follows Danny from 'The Shining' and is set 20 years later as he continues to struggle with the shining, his drinking and his role in life. I read some mixed reviews on it, but in my opinion, it is definitely in the category of 'good books' from SK, and not the 'wouldn't read again' list I have.
Thanks for reading, maybe I'll do this again and list some more of the books I've enjoyed reading. I suspect with my broken collar bone, I'll be doing a lot of it over the next month or two.
It was odd how you really struggled with reading when you started school, then suddenly it clicked & you took off. When you were in year 7 your English teacher told us that you were the most widely read child of that age he'd ever met. Of course, not having a TV might have had something to do with it!
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