Welcome to the first in a series that I am running this year called a Blogger Reading Journey. We as book bloggers are slightly obsessed with books, but what I want to know is how my fellow blogger reached that similar obsession as I have. My first guest is Annabel Gaskell. She was an early and voracious reader and has never lost the habit, becoming a compulsive book acquirer too. A child of the ’60s and ’70s, She hails from the Surrey/Croydon borders and studied Materials Science at university. I worked as a proper scientist in the chemical industry for years, before my biological clock finally went ping. She took several years off work after having her daughter, and went back as a lab technician/H&S Officer in an Oxfordshire prep school. I’m a staunch supporter of literary events in Abingdon, and in the past hosted five literary quiz nights for charity in the town with our local indie bookshop. Her blog is called: AnnaBookBel and can be found here.
What is your earliest reading memory?
The Ladybird Peter and Jane series, I was probably approaching 3 years old. I started after halfway through the series, I remember the cover of 7a Happy Holiday in particular!
What was your favourite childhood book?
As a little kid, it was A Book of Princesses – a Puffin collection of fairy tales collected by Sally Patrick Johnson (I still have my copy – with coloured-in pictures!)
When slightly older, it was, and remains, Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr.
What book do you remember reading at school?
Being a strong reader before starting primary school, I was allowed to self-direct my reading for the most part there. I do remember re-reading E Nesbit’s The Story of the Treasure Seekers, as we were going to perform a play of it and I was going to be Oswald Bastable – I was always a principal boy in primary school drama!
What was the book that changed you?
Stereotypically perhaps, it’s got to be Lord of the Rings! The first ‘grown-up’ fantasy I read as an older child, and one I still revisit periodically. All of human life is in there, wrapped up in Tolkien’s world-building.
Who was the author who helped you discover a whole new genre?
It was Isaac Asimov’s Lucky Starr books for children, which I discovered aged 7, and SF has been part of my reading ever since.
What was the last book that you bought?
Launch Something by Bae Myung-Hoon – a Korean SF and political satire.
What was the last book you reread?
I joined in Chris Lovegrove’s Narniathon in 2022, so it the last was CS Lewis’ The Last Battle (probably my least favourite of the series).
What was the last book you couldn’t finish?
I have just a handful of DNFs most years, but the last was a book group choice from the Jubilee Reads list, Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai – I was bored by the lives of the privileged family in its pages.
The book I am currently reading
Dashboard Elvis is Dead by David F Ross. I’ve only just started it, but it’s going to be fun, I can tell.
Where do you read?
Mostly in bed! I read every morning when I wake up with my first cuppa, then until I fall asleep every night. Then any other opportunity to read.
What books/genres do you turn to, to get out of a reading slump?
For me, that’s a good thriller. I picked up a pile of early Alastair Macleans from a charity shop recently, and am looking forward to revisiting them.
What was your last five-star read?
We Had to Remove this Post by Hanna Bervoets, translated from the Dutch by Emma Rault. A very disturbing and thought-provoking novella about the lives of a group of internet content moderators and how their job affects them.
How many books do you currently own?
My Librarything catalogue lists over 4,500, but it’s not up to date with additions and deletions. My house is certainly full of books though! I am trying hard to keep fewer books once read, but also can’t stop buying them…
What is the oldest book on your bookshelves?
So many ways to interpret that question! I mainly read contemporary literature, but do own plenty of classics, so Jane Austen could be that ‘oldest’.
I inherited all my mum’s books, so have some lovely old hardbacks of hers, including Sholokhov’s And Quiet Flows the Don from the 1930s (lives of Russian Peasants in early 20thC – will I ever read it? Don’t know, but it was one of her favourites so I’ll keep them forever).
What book did you last buy based on the cover?
I’m a sucker for ‘spredges’ – sprayed edges – and bought this on spec – will I get around to reading it?
What book do you always recommend?
Can I pick two please?
1. Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy – three interlinked existential sort of detective stories. Unashamedly literary, but blew me away! This book also changed me and made me a huge fan of his work.
2. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke – An uncategorisable, playful, deeply resonant, scholarly, novel with the most endearing narrator set in a labyrinth sort of a museum with an ocean in the basement. Simply wonderful. I championed this in the New Books mag Book Blogger Awards in 2021 getting onto the shortlist.
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