The food for thought prompt this week is one book. Choose one book…. And, for me that is simply impossible! I have so many books that at one time I had a database to keep track of them. I am a very fast reader. I mean really fast. I read a 250 page book in about one and a half hours, so when I went to the library I would take out 10 books to last 1 week (bearing in mind I only read on an evening when T was in bed).
Childhood books
The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett, was my favorite book as a child. I read it over and over again. I was fascinated by the idea of a secret hiding place and the way she wrote the accents. I wanted very much to escape to a large country house and hide away. Of course I also read the Famous Five, the Secret Seven and the St Clare’s Serieses of books By Enid Blyton – oh how I longed to be sent to boarding school.
Teen Reading
As a teen I read some of Stephen Kings books as well as Jeffrey Archer. The Kane and Able series was a favorite although I suspect my mum did not know about the gang rape of Able’s sister in the book. Anne Rice and her Vampire stories and the spooky tales by Barbara Erskine kept me entertained too. I love historical fiction, things that I can imagine were real and Barbara’s tales had that element of ‘this could have happened’ to keep me enthralled.
My Library
Once I had my own home my collection of books grew. I first read Beauty’s Punishment by Anne Rice (or A N Roquelaure – the pen name she used) by accident. I thought it would be another vampire story… I was very, very wrong. And as shocked as my 19 year old self was by this book it stayed with me and I fantasised about being used for a long time before I asked Mr H to incorporate this into our sex lives.
Variety.
Mr H is a prolific reader too. He likes a different type of book to me but we do read some of the same books as well. The Dan Brown book The DaVinci Code was one we both enjoyed and Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt stories. A friend of mine bought me The Love Letters of Great Men Volume 1 which was featured in Sex and The City 2 which I really enjoyed reading, and I also like poetry from a variety of eras. As I said my library is quite vast.
Most recently I have taken to listening to books on Audible, I can lie back and close my eyes, although you do have to find a narrator you like. I think as at this moment though the books I read (or listen to) over and over are the Harry Potter collection by J K Rowling (narrated by the amazing Stephen Fry), the Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer (narrated by Ilyana Kadushin) and the All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness (narrated by Jennifer Ikeda).
I know that these may seem tame, I mean “where is the smut?” Right? Well, the thing is I have read smut. I read the The Story of O by Anne Desclos in 2009 and then after we started our D/s I read the Brie’s Submission books by Red Phoenix. Back in 2010 I even read the first of The Fifty Shades of Grey (FSOG) books. Sex in books is all very well but, the FSOG did nothing for me (from a sexy point of view) and they were so badly written I didn’t finish book 2. Looking back at them now, they are such a poor example of a functional D/s or BDSM relationship I am glad I didn’t continue to struggle through them. The only good thing that came from reading FSOG is that it enabled me to start this journey with Mr H. The Brie books were enjoyable to read, but they too were not real, they were a turn on don’t get me wrong, but ultimately not what I would want in real life.
Blogs.
These days, my favorite reading material comes from my wordpress reader. I love reading blog posts, the delicious fictional stories as well as the amazing snippets of real life that bloggers share, and I hope that my work is enjoyed in the same way by the wonderful people who follow me.
To see the books that other writers have chosen to share for Food for Thought click HERE.
Sweetgirl x
Â
Rest assured, as much as we all enjoy reading a good book, there is something special about reading blogs, and your’s is always worth a read! Whether fiction or real life, blog posts come from people we (in a way) begin to know. And that’s a special feeling. xox
Love Clive Cussler books, and I love that red brassiere!
I love books too. Anais Nin is my preferred brand of erotica. Mmm! And also… your photos are very… umm… distracting… in a wonderful way. Damn, girl!
Love the secret garden and I was a Enid Blyton devour-er!
Audio is handy to listen to when u are multi tasking too.
Did u manage to hear my last Radio More ? I know your phone was updating and I cant remember what happened lol x
I did eventually but child kept bobbing into the room so I haven’t yet heard it all!!! Memo to self… grab headphones out of bag and listen tomorrow when he is in bed!
Fabulous photo…so pretty!
How gorgeous you look, and I love you all the more now I know what an avid reader you are!
I am interested how differently you feel about blog writing versus books – I am the other way round – a blog post feels like a snack but a book feels like a meal. Some blogger’s posts though are a bit like getting a letter from a good friend, and I do enjoy yours.
I do know what you mean, about the snack vs meal, but over the last few years my ability to concentrate for a long time has dwindled (the effect of the drugs I am on) so the shorter nature of the blog suits me.
I also agree with your thoughts on blogs being like letters from friends- the longer you follow someone the more you feel you know them…
I’ve read and loved many of the books you mentioned and recently (since pet began reading to me) I’ve really gotten into audiobooks too. I used to feel like I never had time to read as much as I would like and now with the audio versions I get my fix.
OMG – I loved the secret garden too – I had forgotten that. Thank you for such a lovely memory. I devoured Enid Blyton and now my small lady is too 🙂 I love the edit here – really pretty set you are wearing x
Like you I am a fast reader, which I sometimes feel is a curse when I get to the end of an amazing book and wish desperately I had more time with it. Which I think is one of the reasons I enjoy audiobooks so much, it slows down the pace a little bit anf I feel like I spend more time invested in each book. Which when it’s a really good one feels like such a gift. I’m glad someone else found it impossible to pick just one book and I thoroughly agree with you on enjoying other folk blogs for reading pleasure these days and definitely many of us feel that way when we land here with you. Fab post x
I have read so many books over the year that I have enjoyed, but of some of them I have forgotten the names… and the one book I really wanted to write about, would have revealed my real name, so I decided not to write the post. Like you, I like to listen to books, and I should start doing that again. Love that image of you!
Rebel xox
A very enticing picture! I loved the Anne Rice books as a teen too, they really were what got me into vampire fiction! And I love Stephen Fry, so so much, and his reading of the Harry Potter books is about the only audio books I ever actually enjoyed listening to.
Oh I love Enid Blyton too. I read all the Famous Five books and so wanted to go on adventures too.
I agree about erotica too. I think it lends itself so well to short stories which is why blogs work so well for that genre. Oh and I love the All Souls Trilogy, I actually found the relationship between Diana and Mathew smokin hot
Mollyx
A very enjoyable post. My goodness you’re a fast reader. I’m a slow reader, because I linger over the words, often going back a page or two to check something. Even say lines out aloud that resonate with me. I remember reading War and Peace when I was eighteen. Took me about four months. Anna Karenia was a bit shorter thank goodness.