Thread: Have you ever done this.

Hi

Whatever has happened, I thought it is good for you... Now you are aware of what type of books you enjoy reading. I am sure it also propels you to read more, perhaps with books along that line of interests. Happy is the man/woman who found what they love to read!

Some years back, I stumbled upon novels written by Nelson Demille. Two of his characters, John Corey and Paul Brenner, are notoriously sarcastic and cold. I was soon stuck with these characters. Within a short period, I completed all his novels involving these two characters. And I am still re-reading them today. That said, my wife didn't like them (she's still stuck on Jack Patrick Ryan of Tom Clancy series, which I don't mind either).

My mum bought be a Simon Kernick book a couple of years ago which I read in two days and since then I've read and own all of his books apart from his most recent which I can't find in any charity shops ;[

Yes, and with quite a few authors, too.

First for me was Albert Payson Terhune when I was about eight years old.

A couple of years later I discovered Faulkner because of efforts by the upper primary Parent-Teacher Association to have his books banned. He had just won the Nobel Prize for Literature, which enraged many Mississippians, most of whom never read any of his books. Never one to refuse a challenge I read everything Faulkner had written up to that time which was almost all the canon lacking only, I think, The Town, The Mansion, A Fable, The Rievers, and maybe one or two others I've forgotten. Knight's Gambit had just been published when I started reading Faulkner, and that was the first book of his I read. Faulkner became, for me, the World's Greatest Ever Writer.

Then in 1967 came the publication of Cien Años de Soledad by Gabriel García Márquez and I had a new literary hero.

The last, or should I say latest, writer with whom I've been smitten is J-K Rowling. Those who see her books as children's literature make a mistake.

Of course along the way there have been many other writers I've admired, and continue to admire, and whose works I continue to read. Tolkien, Hemingway, Joyce, and others, but these four that I've mentioned are the ones whose works, once discovered, created a hunger that would not be satisfied until every available scrap had been read.

There are two above it all - my grandfather who inspired me to write, and John Ciardi, who taught me how.

Many years ago, I read 'Runyon On Broadway' and 'Runyon From First To Last', for the first time. Damon Runyon immediately became one of my favourite writers. I am now reading both the above-mentioned books for the fourth time. For my taste, they mature like fine wine and every time I go through them I find a few more nuances to delight me. The Courtjester