BOOKS

[Uncle Remus]

If you like mysteries AND historical fiction, you might enjoy the Gordianus the Finder series by Steven Saylor. Saylor is a historian specializing in ancient Rome, so the background is factual, and the characters (except for the main one and his family) actually existed. A very informative look at day to day Roman life at the turn of the first millennium.

That sounds awesome. I cant wait to check it out. That's right up my alley

 

[jw24]

Not really an avid reader so to speak. But yeah, Harry Potter is my all-time favorite books.

 

[Shere_Khan]

I adore OWNING books ...... I mean well, I have books on nearly everything, all different parts of history, I have several book cabinets and occasionally I look and see books I never knew I had! It's like buying a book all over again! I love big shiny hardbacks! All my books are pristine. Once I watched a programme that mentioned Nazi occupied Jersey and said to my OH that I would love a book about it to which he said I had, there on a book shelf was a book all about it!

My problem is I start a book and then see another book and start that one instead! I have about 6 books at the moment that I keep dipping into! It's actually quite frustrating!

Regarding novels, I enjoy Patricia Cornwell, Scarpetta books, I also used to read Dean Koontz. I don't really read any other authors. I mainly go for factual books.

I am the exact same way. I am obsessed with buying books and having them displayed. Sometimes I don't actually read them for years!!! And the same as you, they are in great condition. I rarely let anyone borrow a book. Lol

 

[Shere_Khan]

I will confess, though, that my addiction is to historical fiction, better known as "trashy books". Julia Quinn, Mary Jo Putney, Victoria Alexander, Amanda Quick (the early ones, not the more recent Arcane series). Also a fan of the "chick lit" of Sophie Kinsella, although oddly I don't care for her writings under her real name, Madeleine Wickham.

Have you ever read Victoria Holt? I wouldn't call them trashy, they are quite old. But they are gothic romance/historical fiction with usually a little mystery or secret surrounding the main characters lover. They are really addicting and easy reads. She is a great writer.

 

[dave&di]

I am the exact same way. I am obsessed with buying books and having them displayed. Sometimes I don't actually read them for years!!! And the same as you, they are in great condition. I rarely let anyone borrow a book. Lol

I never let anyone borrow a book, I know they would bend the pages back too far and leave that horrible crease you get! My hearts racing just thinking about it!

 

[ChevisMickey]

So many books , so little time .

Hunger Games was good, Catching Fire was good, but not as good, and Mockingjay, WTH? Terrible.
Stephen King is always surprising, however I love his shorter stuff best. His son, Joe Hill, is just as sick and twisted (in a good way!) as papa, and Horns was so good.
Cussler (just the Dirk Pitt series), Steve Berry, Dan Brown (Inferno is my current read), and Crichton (RIP) for fun.
Neil Gaiman, as someone mentioned, excellent with American Gods and everything else.
Surprised that no one has mentioned George R. R. Martin. I've only read the ASoIaF series of his so far, yet I do not see how he can get any better.
Michael Chabon inspires.
Bradbury, Asimov, Clarke, Matheson, Herbert for a science fiction fix.
I'm just getting warmed up here, so I'll stop.

 

[Tiggerish]

I'll read just about anything. My favorite series include Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Kingdom Keepers, and mysteries by Mary Higgins Clark

I have quite a few Mary Higgins Clark books on the shelf! Tried Carol Higgins Clark, too, but daughter's work didn't grab me.

 

[Tiggerish]

Have you ever read Victoria Holt? I wouldn't call them trashy, they are quite old. But they are gothic romance/historical fiction with usually a little mystery or secret surrounding the main characters lover. They are really addicting and easy reads. She is a great writer.

Yes, I remember them well! I'm not sure if I read them, but I definitely recall Victoria Holt/Phillipa Carr, and Barbara Cartland novels from my early teens. I did read Mary Stewart. Kathleen Woodiwiss, those were good stories that I still revisit. I call my romance novels "trashy books" in a very fond manner, they're not really trashy. Judith Krantz and Jackie Collins, now those were "trashy books"!!

I also have copies of several paperback mystery/romances by M.M. Kaye, which I found in a secondhand bookstore in the mid-80s, they were written in the late 50s/early 60s, reprinted in the early 80s and are excellent stories--Death in Kenya, Death in Kashmir, Death in Berlin, Cyprus, Zanzibar...all very compelling reads. They're available used for little to nothing on amazon, I highly recommend them.

Also, how could I forget one of my very favorite series of books, James A. Herriott's "All Things" series about his days as a veterinarian in Yorkshire.

 

[Tiggerish]

I am the exact same way. I am obsessed with buying books and having them displayed. Sometimes I don't actually read them for years!!! And the same as you, they are in great condition. I rarely let anyone borrow a book. Lol

I never let anyone borrow a book, I know they would bend the pages back too far and leave that horrible crease you get! My hearts racing just thinking about it!

Lending out books destroyed my faith in people.

Since my mother retired, she devours books; unlike me, she does not like re-reading them unless she's desperate (me, I will have a character or a storyline from a particular book pop into my head and have to go and rediscover it--that's why I read the HP series every summer, I love to go back and visit those characters in their world). It's very hard to refuse to lend her books to read, neither one of us can afford to keep buying new ones at the rate she reads them, but oh, she returns them with cracked spines and it drives me insane. A few years ago, I couldn't help it, I pointed it out to her and asked her to try to not do that, so now they come back strangely twisted from her effort not to bend them too far back. Can't win, but what can you do? She's 79, so someday I'll be wishing she was cracking the spines of my new books.

(and yes, I have tried suggesting that she get a library card)

 

[NYwdwfan]

I had not read a book in YEARS but was traveling and read Silver Linings Playbook. I have not seen the movie but really liked the book. I read a synopsis of the movie after completion and it appears they are wildly different. But I really did enjoy the book.

 

[rsoxguy]

Lending out books destroyed my faith in people.

I saw a book displayed in the Old State House in Boston that once belonged to John Hancock. It was opened to the inside cover where he had written, "Thou shalt not steal". I have lost several books to borrowers, and have considered buying a stamp with the quote.

 

[DDuckFan130]

I had not read a book in YEARS but was traveling and read Silver Linings Playbook. I have not seen the movie but really liked the book. I read a synopsis of the movie after completion and it appears they are wildly different. But I really did enjoy the book.

They are very different but both wonderful in their own right. I will warn you that you'll be shocked at some of the changes they made, and I am the first to criticize how much movies butcher the original books. But like I said, I LOVED the movie. Maybe it was Bradley Cooper but no the acting was great

 

[Shere_Khan]

Yes, I remember them well! I'm not sure if I read them, but I definitely recall Victoria Holt/Phillipa Carr, and Barbara Cartland novels from my early teens. I did read Mary Stewart. Kathleen Woodiwiss, those were good stories that I still revisit. I call my romance novels "trashy books" in a very fond manner, they're not really trashy. Judith Krantz and Jackie Collins, now those were "trashy books"!! .

I can only find them at garage sales and used book stores, but they are still some of my very favorites.
I've been trying to read more nonfiction lately and get more educated on certain things, but it is so much more fun to read a mindless gothic romance!

 

[Shere_Khan]

Oh I also forgot to mention some of the best books I've ever read are by Robert Alexander.
In college I had a professor obsessed with Russia and she got me really interested in the history of the Romanovs.
The Kitchen Boy, Rasputin's Daughter, and the Romanov Bride are three of Alexander's books based on the Romanovs. It is historical fiction where some of the events are true but some of the characters telling the story are made up and the endings are not factual. They are amazing though! Especially The Kitchen Boy!!!!

 

[joanna71985]

I have quite a few Mary Higgins Clark books on the shelf! Tried Carol Higgins Clark, too, but daughter's work didn't grab me.

I've read some of hers too (though I prefer her mother better). I've also read books by Mary Jane Clark. I guess I just enjoy Clark mysteries

 

[Tiggerish]

I can only find them at garage sales and used book stores, but they are still some of my very favorites.
I've been trying to read more nonfiction lately and get more educated on certain things, but it is so much more fun to read a mindless gothic romance!

Oh, yeah. I'm all for being educated, and I do love my trivia and facts, but I live "non-fiction" all day at work--when I come home and want to read, let me escape into a STORY!!!

 

[luv]

I saw a book displayed in the Old State House in Boston that once belonged to John Hancock. It was opened to the inside cover where he had written, "Thou shalt not steal". I have lost several books to borrowers, and have considered buying a stamp with the quote.

I've seen book plates that say that!

Over the years, I've learned to say, "I can't lend that one out. I'm kind of attached to it." I can say it firmly enough now that people know I mean it, lol.

 

[dave&di]

Lending out books destroyed my faith in people.

Since my mother retired, she devours books; unlike me, she does not like re-reading them unless she's desperate (me, I will have a character or a storyline from a particular book pop into my head and have to go and rediscover it--that's why I read the HP series every summer, I love to go back and visit those characters in their world). It's very hard to refuse to lend her books to read, neither one of us can afford to keep buying new ones at the rate she reads them, but oh, she returns them with cracked spines and it drives me insane. A few years ago, I couldn't help it, I pointed it out to her and asked her to try to not do that, so now they come back strangely twisted from her effort not to bend them too far back. Can't win, but what can you do? She's 79, so someday I'll be wishing she was cracking the spines of my new books.

(and yes, I have tried suggesting that she get a library card)

Ah bless her! I must admit seeing a book in bad condition, pages bent and worn, does show how many times it's been read and loved! But just not mine!

 

[MOXOMUMD]

Have you ever read Victoria Holt? I wouldn't call them trashy, they are quite old. But they are gothic romance/historical fiction with usually a little mystery or secret surrounding the main characters lover. They are really addicting and easy reads. She is a great writer.

Have you read any Jean Plaidy? That's another pen name of Eleanor Hibbert, aka Victoria Holt, aka Philippa Carr. I'm not a fan of the romance novels but I do own some of her stuff. Interesting fact: She died on a cruise ship going from Greece to Egypt and was buried at sea.

 

[Shere_Khan]

Have you read any Jean Plaidy? That's another pen name of Eleanor Hibbert, aka Victoria Holt, aka Philippa Carr. I'm not a fan of the romance novels but I do own some of her stuff. Interesting fact: She died on a cruise ship going from Greece to Egypt and was buried at sea.

I haven't but I knew that was a pen name of hers. Wasn't that the name she used when she wrote a series about different queens?
That is an interesting fact! Thanks!