Saturday 18 April 2009

A Time to read.....

Over at Hawkins Bizarre, Alis has picked up a time theme. Here's my contribution to the same:

What time to do find the best time to read?
I read any time, any place, anywhere. I always carry a book with me wherever I go - you never know when you may have a spare five minutes to fill; the doctor's waiting room, stuck in a traffic jam, waiting for teenage daughters to get ready....
Every night, in bed, I HAVE to read before I can go to sleep, even if it's just for ten minutes or so (although usually it's much much longer), and twice a week I relax in a bath with my book and a glass of wine (or a mug of hot chocolate depending on my mood). I have been known to spend up to two hours this way!

What are you spending time reading right now?
At the moment I am re-reading Bram Stoker's Dracula; I am hard at work on writing my own vampire novel and just felt I needed to get into the mood. I have recently finished reading Stephen King's epic Dark Tower series; the story tells of a mammoth quest taken by Roland of Gilead, the last true gunslinger. Roland's tale is told in seven books, most of them huge door-stopping volumes: something I could really get my teeth into. I felt bereft when it came to an end.

What's the best story with time in the title you've read?
The Time Machine by H.G.Wells. It amazes me each time I read it how so adavanced in his outlook was this great story-teller.

What is your favourite time (as in era) to read stories based in?
Mmmm...this is a hard one. I quite like reading stories set around about the 1930's - 1950's, during and after the Second World War. That time always seems nostalgic and romantic to me. But I also really like stories set in America from about the 1950's onwards.

What book could you read time and time again?
This list is endless! There are many books I do indeed read time and time again. Here are a few:
Every single one of Stephen King's books. I just constantly read them over and over and over and over and over again.
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts.
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman.
The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice.
A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun by Noel 'Razor' Smith.

What book has been your biggest waste of time?
None.
I do not have enough time in my life to waste on books I do not enjoy. If I am not engrossed in a book by the time I have read fifty pages or so, I cast it aside.

What big book would you recommend others to read?
Without a doubt it would be Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. This book was a pure impulse buy - something I rarely do. I was in Waterstones one afternoon and decided to buy three books by three authors I had never heard of, Shantaram was one of them.
The story is loosely based on the author's own experiences during the early '80s. Gregory David Roberts is an armed robber and heroin addict, he escapes from an Australian prison and makes his way to India, where he lives for a while in a Mombai slum. He sets up a free health clinic to help the poor, but also joins the mafia. Gregory David Roberts is such an excellent story-teller that in turn he made me laugh and made me cry. I urge anyone to read this book. It does not disappoint.

What's your favourite read of all time?
This is such a difficult question to answer; I have many, many favourites, but if I were on a desert island and could take only one book with me I think it would have to be The Talisman by Stehen King.

3 comments:

Linda G. said...

I really enjoyed this post, Akasha!
The Talisman is my favorite Stephen King book, too and I've read it several times.
I thought it was fun that you like reading books set in America because I'm hooked on books set in England!

Akasha Savage. said...

Linda G - me and my daughter (not so much my hubby!) both want to live in America. Her in Hollywood - she wants to be a movie star!! - and me in Portland, Maine, so I can go and have tea with Stephen King!! :)

Stewart Sternberg (half of L.P. Styles) said...

Interesting list. Tell me, have you ever read A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE by Peter S. Beagle? I think you would love it. It's about a middle aged man who has run away from the world and now lives in an old cemetery, his needs being ministered by a cantankerous raven. He ends up being a matchmaker between two ghosts and rediscovers his humanity and purpose. Charming, well written, sweet.