Favourite Five Books

Friendly chat, questions, reviews, find old friends or relatives. Not limited to Sydenham only issues but keep it civil!
Eagle
Posts: 10658
Joined: 7 Oct 2004 06:36
Location: F Hill

Re: Favourite Five Books

Post by Eagle »

Is it is the early or late 40's. Could be quite different stories.
marymck
Posts: 1579
Joined: 9 Feb 2008 16:30
Location: Upper Kirkdale

Re: Favourite Five Books

Post by marymck »

Sounds interesting. I enjoyed steinbeck's travels with Charley.

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sophie
Posts: 350
Joined: 8 May 2005 16:50
Location: Sydenham

Re: Favourite Five Books

Post by sophie »

Peter Pan, JM Barrie - the first proper book (as opposed to short stories) I read. I remember reading it in one sitting when I was about 7 and loved it.

Clouds from both sides, Julie Tullis - she was a mountaineer who died on K2. The book was so inspiring (although I have never dared try mountaineering!).

Swallows and Amazons, Arthur Ransome - I loved the adventure and freedom in all of these books. These books along with the Famous Five, Secret Seven and Nancy Drew definitely inspired a lifelong love of adventure, crime, thriller books.

Save Karyn, Karyn Bosnack - this is about a frivolous girl (who was managing until she was made redundant) who gets into debt from buying loads of stuff she doesn't need then ends up advertising for people to donate to pay off her debts and selling off her possessions on ebay. It's a real life story and rings true to me in many ways (although I've NEVER had a designer dress/shoes/handbag habit!). I also like the way she has "given back". Reading this book certainly made me far more conscious of consumerism and the ridiculous amount of un needed stuff I have. I read it about 5 or 6 years ago and have been trying to cut down ever since! Her website is below:

http://www.prettyinthecity.com/about/

Postmortem, Patricia Cornwell (although I think wrote as PD Cornwell at the time) - this is the first of the forensic crime novels I read. I remember being so scared that I could barely turn the pages over at some points.


There is nothing very high brow about my list I'm afraid. I am an avid reader and am sure if I was doing this list again I would probably remember other books I'd read that have remained with me for various reasons.
14BradfordRoad
Posts: 1671
Joined: 8 Oct 2011 23:22
Location: Somewhere over the rainbow..

Re: Favourite Five Books

Post by 14BradfordRoad »

If you are keen on good biographies / real life stories then I can recommend a book
called 'Looking up' by author Tim Rushby-Smith.
Tim is a very down to earth humourous writer who had an accident as a tree surgeon
when he fell from a tree a few years back and landed on a flat roof. The fall broke his
spine and these days Tim gets through life in a wheelchair. Tims take on the whole
experience from the accident to date is driven by the reality of his situation (and that
of his young family) in a very clever, real world yet humourous approach. Parts of this book, although based on a tragic accident, had me laughing my socks off, Tim is a very clever and
very funny writer!
A most original read and not downbeat in any way. Highly recommend.

Tims Website (and blog). Lots of good jounalism, lots about the Paralympics too:

http://www.timrushby-smith.com/looking_up/

A brilliant writer. :wink:
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