Dizzy C 's Books of a lifetime

Today we are very pleased to have Dizzy C from  Dizzy C's Little Book Blog sharing her Books of a Lifetime with us! This best thing about this is that she volunteered! If you would like to volunteer, please send us an email, and we will work out the details.

Hi folks,


I am honoured to be chosen to take part in the Books of a Lifetime feature.

My reading trends are women’s fiction, historical fiction and chick-lit.

As a child there were two bookcases on the upstairs landing of our house. Every night I would choose a book or annual to take to bed.

These are some of the books that have stayed with me over the years.

Childhood

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C S Lewis

A magical story that still delights children of today. I do feel a little sad that these days some of our great literature is turned into Hollywood blockbuster films and that many children go straight to watching the film. They miss out on their own mind’s eye view the author is trying to portray.

Pippi Longstocking – Astrid Lindgren

Such a mischievous girl with long red pigtails. Such a rebel with adults that I could never be but I loved reading her stories.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl.

I am sure every child has read at least one R Dahl novel. This was my favourite and for me the most exciting. How I longed to visit the Chocolate factory. I came close last year visiting Cadbury World in Birmingham, UK. (Apparently the inspiration for this novel). I must mention Quentine Blake, the illustrator for Roald’s work.

Teenage years were mainly spent discovering music on my Sony Walkman cassette player or reading teen mags. With the exception of set text at school for my exams.

Far from the Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy.

The tale of Gabriel Oak’s love for Bathsheba but he has competition from Farmer Boldwood and the dashing Sgt Troy.

I studied this for my English Lit exam.

Adulthood

I left school at 16 and found work in offices. I took a work break to have the first two of my three children, and returned to work as a teaching assistant when they went to school

Here I found many children’s authors I had missed as a child.

Green Eggs and Ham – Dr Suess

How did I miss these as a child? Great fun rhyming books. Green Eggs is my favourite as I used to read this to the class during inside play (due to weather) and they would seek this one out to see how fast I could read it. We had fun with this one.

Digital Fortress – Dan Brown

I had a mishap and slipped a disc in my back a few years ago. I was bedridden for a couple of weeks and in a lot of pain. The teacher I worked with at school dropped off some books. Dan Brown? Not my type of book, but I read it and loved it..

My love for reading took off then. I went on to read his others and Angels and Demons was another favourite.

Some recent reads that will stay with me include

Wideacre Trilogy – Phillipa Gregory

I remember reading Wideacre in the depot waiting room whilst my tyres were being changed. I was blushing a lot thinking, ‘I hope no-one knows what I am reading here!’ 

The Secret Scripture – Sebastian Barry

Such a beautifully written novel set in Ireland in the 1920’s about a woman who has been institutionalised most of her adult life. Now in her later years The Scripture being a written account of her early life lays hidden beneath the floorboards of her room.

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox – Maggie O’Farrell.

Another book about a young woman spending most of her adult life in an institution until the home is to be closed and her great niece is asked to collect her. Her story unfolds in this wonderful novel by one of my favourite authors.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – Mary Ann Shaffer

Wow! How could a novel about the German occupation of Guernsey in WW2 being so heartwarming and uplifting. So sad that Mary Ann died before she could see the success of her only novel. A must read.