A guide to the written word

Jan's Reading Page

I love books!

Almost anything written is grist to my mill! (Apart from romantic fiction - ick!!) But then we're all different, otherwise the world would be boring (or so they say). One of my favourite books is Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol" (I read the book every Christmas and also watch one of the 6 (or is it 7?) film versions I have! I'm not obsessed, I can give it up anytime!), I read Lord of the Rings once a year as well and have enjoyed the Silmarillion at least 8 times.

I read:

Science Fiction - from easy [E.E "Doc" Smith & Heinlein] to hard [Larry Niven] - I tend not to read the really "hard core" science fiction, I just don't have the background skills to enjoy it!

Fantasy - most things ... in fact it may be easier to say what I don't read .... "The Wheel of Time" series springs to mind!! I love Tolkein, C.S Lewis, Lloyd Alexander, Hans Christian Anderson & the Brothers Grimm (unexpurged versions - when I can!), J. K. Rowling, Piers Anthony , and Terry Pratchett - to name but a very small handful of the many and varied authors I've read (even David Eddings!). A new and very exciting find for me was Lisa Williams (who wrote "Family Bites" - a wonderfully warm and wierdly amusing book- just PLEASE ignore the artwork - ICK!). She promises me that she's writing the next one!

Comics - More details here!

Detective - Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes), Agatha Christie (mostly Miss Marple but I have discovered a fondness for Poirot only after watching David Suchet in the role!), Ellis Peters (Brother Cadfael - combining my fascination with the past AND a detective story!), Robert van Gulik ( Judge Dee - brilliant Chinese detective written by a very clever Dutch author), Barry Hughart (Master Ki and Number 10 Ox - humerous, supernatural and sparkling, just right for a tale of China that never existed)

Kids Stuff - Supposedly fiction for the younger reader, however there's a lot of REALLY good books out there. Arthur Ransome (Swallows and Amazons series), Joy Chant (Red Moon, Black Mountain), Joan Aiken (Various!), Susan Cooper (the Dark is Rising), Mary Norton (the Borrowers), Roald Dahl (take your pick!!), but there are SO many more out there!

Everything else - All the other bits and pieces I read - autobiographies, horror or ghost stories, diaries of men who served in various wars, cook books, hints & tips for a variety of things (one of my favourites is Ager's Guide to Easy Elegance), gardening books, history, endless amounts of faity tales and mythologies of different cultures ..... and I haven't stopped yet :-)

Books are great - they are a window into a variety of different places to escape to - try it - you may like the places you get taken to!

Amazon are usually pretty good. But I know there are other places. And I also enjoy Readers' Digest, it's an interesting read, with some pretty good articles and the puzzles and jokes are good too.

Jan Uzzell
januzzell@blueyonder.co.uk