Five books that have made an impression

I’ve just had a blogging Booker Award presented to me by Rosalind from Rosalind Adam is writing in the rain . My task is to list out my top five favourite books of all time and then pass the award on to five more bloggers. Ho hum...so many to choose...and what comes to mind are the ones that have left a real imprint on my memory.

Let's start with Annie Proulx's Shipping News - fantastic gritty descriptions. Forget the film which was a very poor rendition. read the book!

Got to have Rose Tremain's - well would love to choose one of her really intricate and deep books but I loved "The Road Home" for its perspective of east european migrant workers.

Not all men - next is William Trevor's "Felicia's Journey" - a rare full length novel as opposed to short stories - also brilliant. The film version of this with Bob Hoskins is surprisingly good too. 

Oh another man - Jim Crace and "Being Dead" - gruesome in some ways and poignant in another - this traces the life of a couple back from their dead bodies on the beach as they putrify. Is better than it sounds..

Finally - and again not a laugh a minute but it has to be Manil Suri's "The Death of Vishnu" - what an insight into status and servitude. A must read book.

I'm going to pass this award on to the following bloggers:

[Apologies if you've already received one.]

Ron Easton Dads Unlimited

Susan Gorley

Debra Harris Johnson

D G Hudson

and Dee

The reading bug with Dick and Dora

Dick and Dora 1960ish

Tracing my love of reading takes me back to my first book experiences as a five year old. I am told that on the first day of school rather than cling to my almost tearful, worried Mum I ran over to the book corner and got ensconced without a backward glance. My learning to read schemes must have given me something despite the fact that they look pretty dreary half a century later. In 1960 infant reading schemes in the UK were split between readers that involved Janet and John and those that involved what was probably the older - Dick and Dora. Our school was in the Dick and Dora camp. Just look at the wonderful pictures!

I was an avid reader and devoured Enid Blyton especially but also liked the Just William books, Arthur Ransome  and Jennings and Derbyshire. Having read them all I had to have permission to move to the adult section of the local library before 11 and then had authors like Gerald Durrell, Conan Doyle, Wodehouse and Wheatley to pursue. Not really any adolescent fiction then. Much more choice now of course. When I started on the A level English route my teacher gave us a book list that she said would make us book snobs for the rest of our lives. It contained, of course, the Huxleys and Hemingways of the world. I can recall feeling distinctly guilty reading Jacqueline Susann at 18 when I started to deviate from the list for some light reading.

so much to read....!

I decided not to do a degree in English because I was worried that it would take away all the pleasure I got from reading by analysing them out of existence. Now my biggest worry is not being able to remember books after I have read them - even books I have loved. I cannot even recall them long enough for a good discussion about them, unless I record as I go along. Feel like a goldfish brain sometimes. I have even been known to choose the same book again unaware I have read it until my partner tells me.

Still whatever my memory I do agree with this quote from George R R Martin:

"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one."