This week's question from BTT:
- How did you come across your favorite author(s)? Recommended by a friend? Stumbled across at a bookstore? A book given to you as a gift?
- Was it love at first sight? Or did the love affair evolve over a long acquaintance?
My earliest favorite author was Enid Blyton. One of my cousins got me five Enid Blyton books when I was nine years old, and those were the first books that I read. And yes, it was love at first sight. I couldn't stop reading until I had finished all five books. Another author that I liked instantly was JK Rowling, and this time I was reading on a friend's recommendation. Others like Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie too fall into the love at first sight category.
There are a lot of authors that I didn't immediately like but over time they have become favorites, John Grisham and Sidney Sheldon, for example. They're authors that I came across in the library and although I didn't like their books immediately, now they are among my favorite authors.
I missed last week's BTT question, so here it is:
What new books are you looking forward to most in 2008? Something new being published this year? Something you got as a gift for the holidays? Anything in particular that you’re planning to read in 2008 that you’re looking forward to? A classic, or maybe a best-seller from 2007 that you’re waiting to appear in paperback?
I hardly ever read according to a plan, so there aren't too many books that I'm specifically looking forward to. But if I were to mention one book that's being realeased this year that I'm looking forward to, that will be The Solomon Key, Dan Brown's next book. I loved his first four books, and am hoping this one's as good as the others.
I also came across an Excel spreadsheet containing the list, 1001 Books You Must Read Before you Die here. It's a list taken from the book of the same name by Peter Boxall. I've read 20 books from the list, and according to the spreadsheet I must read 18 books a year if I want to finish all the books there. Maybe I'll try to read a few books from that list this year.
8 comments:
Agatha Christie is great! I didn't see anyone else mention her!
Happy BTT!
I never read books by the author Enid Blyton before, or maybe I have read her but only reconizd the books title and not remember the author name?
Happy BTTs, I hope you've a good days/weekend ahead!
Who can forget Enid Blytons and Agatha Christies?
I loved Perry Masons too.
Here is my post!
Enid's Blyton retelling of the Brer Rabbit stories have always remained with me. I made a point of finding all three books for my daughter when she was born and she loved them too. I've never read a single Agatha Christie but I've seen every TV dramatisation and all the films many times over. I keep intending to find something obscure and give it a go but I never have.
As for my own favourite authors, there are really two: Samuel Beckett and Richard Brautigan. Beckett I discovered courtesy of an Open University production of Waiting for Godot broadcast by the BBC at some unearthly hour in the morning. I was hooked from the opening lines. I now own everything he ever wrote, including DVD and CDs of all his stage and radio plays. And I own loads of books about him and his work. Although it was love at first sight, it has also been a love that has developed and matured over the years. I still don't love everything about him – his early works are impossible – but then my early works leave a lot to be desired.
Brautigan I stumbled across in a charity shop in Saltcoats. I'd never heard of him. But the books were cheap. I got In Watermelon Sugar, The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966 and Willard and his Bowling Trophies for less that a couple of quid and they lay around the house for months before I happened to pick up In Watermelon Sugar and I've never read a book like it. I don’t own everything by him, there's a couple on my Amazon wish list that no one thought to buy me for Xmas, but there's nothing he's written I've not loved.
Another fan of Christie? I must be missing out.
@OneLuvGirl: Yeah, Christie's books are very good. I'm reading a whole bunch of Hercule Poirot mysteries right now! ;-)
@Julia: Enid Blyton's the author of the Secret Seven and the Famous Five children's book series. You might have read those and forgotten the author's name. :-)
@Gautami: I read a couple of Perry Masons in school, but couldn't find other books by Gardner anywhere. :-(
@Jim: I haven't ever heard of Samuel Beckett and Richard Brautigan, but I will look around the library for books by them. It's always good to check the books that are suggested in the blogosphere. There's a good chance that I'll find some great authors that way. :-)
@Chris: You definitely are missing out, especially if you're a fan of detective stories.
Thanks for the comments everyone. :-)
thanks for dropping by my blog!
you have a great site here!
@Milet: Thank you! :-)
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