Book Sanctuary

Not exactly classical literature - but the first book to make an impact on me was The day of the Triffids by John Wyndam. This was a 'compulsory' read when I was in school in order to write an essay. I enjoyed it so much I went on to get hold of The Chrysalids, The Kraken Wakes and Chocky from the local library (we had no money when I was a child so buying them was out of the question).

The following year we had to read George Orwells 1984 and Animal Farm. Although I did not enjoy the style or content anywhere near as much - it certainly opened my eyes to the breadth and scope that writing permitted.

Books were few and far between for me as a child back in the late 60s and early 70s. As mentioned before - any money coming into our house with 8 kids to feed and clothe did not go on luxury items like books. It was not until I started working that I got back into books again. More about that next time.

Brian

When I was young the first author that grabbed me was Roald Dahl. His books were funny, revolting and touching all at once; children's writing at it's best.

I still remember Peter Pan being my favourite bed-time story when I was even younger, and I've still got the copy even to this day.

Thomas

So, after leaving school my first job was with WH Smith in Newport, South Wales packing books to be shipped out to newsagents etc. Completely surround by every type of book you can imagine, and which one caught my attention? Not one of them.
I was still very unsure about most things and was content just to 'potter' along quietly without the urge to expand my mind.

After numerous other dead end jobs, meeting my (future) wife and realising I wanted a job that was interesting and had some sort of future, I became a carpenter. One day, when working on a building site in Cwmbran, I noticed one of the guys always had his head buried in a book. 'Whats that' says I. 'The Hobbit' he said. 'The Hobbit? - whats that about?' was my obvious next question. When he told me I thought - OK, this guy needs to grow up - dwarves and elves sounds like a kids fairy story - and I told him so.

Luckily, he did not take offense at my ignorance and explained how Tolkien had written it as a story for his children, but it was also a great story for kids of all ages. I still wasn't convinced and told him so. In good old fashioned style, he dared me to read it and still call it just a kids book, so he lent me his copy. The consequence of that dare changed my reading habits from that point on. Once I started I found I could not put it down.

It showed me what a vivid imagination could do without boundaries. Needless to say I ended up buying a copy of my own. You know what comes next - once I found out that The Lord of The Rings was a continuation of the story, I had to have it. Never have I enjoyed escapism more. I'll talk more about that next time.

I tend to read a wide variety of books and like to try authors unfamiliar to me because sometimes they become firm favourites that you can't wait to pick up again and find hard to put down.

However, I've always been keen on mystery and can remember reading a lot of Enid Blyton 'Famous Five' and 'Secret Seven' adventures when young. One of my all time favourite books is 'Rebecca' by Daphne du Maurier and I return to that from time to time. Another favourite is 'Shadow of the Wind' by Carlos Ruiz Zafon based around the 'Cemetery of Forgotten Books' where obscure and forgotten titles lie, and the story is about the mystery that surrounds one of them. I also really enjoy reading PD James and it was lovely to see her at the Edinburgh Book Festival a couple of years ago.

At the moment I'm reading Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories which are in eight volumes and I'm now on book 7. You may have guessed I have found them quite addictive because I like his style of writing and it's amazing that they were written over a hundred years ago but stand the test of time so well.

When I'm not reading novels I tend to pore over horticultural books because I studied horticulture for 3 years and amassed a lot of books during this time and I still get lost in them on a very regular basis. I suppose I like the mystery of the natural world aswell and seeds are magical