October Origins - Bookworm

Sir Christopher Wren once said "choose an author as you would choose a friend" and that kind of sums up the feelings I have for books, they're something to treasure and enjoy just as our real life friendships.

Although it wasn't always that way, whilst I had books when I was growing up I was not an avid reader, that all changed with the influence of Star Wars (see this blip). For Star Wars fans there had been nothing since Return of the Jedi, but that all changed when 'Heir to the Empire' written by Timothy Zahn was released. It was an opportunity to read the continuing stories of Han, Luke, Leia and co, an opportunity for me which was too good to miss. This one book ignited the flame that has never left me, if you could see the number of books I have in my house now, you wouldn't need to go to a library ever again. Lol!

As with my music tastes I have an eclectic taste in books, science fiction, crime with Ian Rankin, Kathy Reichs, Patrica Cornwell and Peter Robinson, spy thrillers with Tom Clancy, thrillers with Lee Child, history, space, business, and sports biographies from John McEnroe to Bobby Windsor to Vince Lombardi. You name it I've probably read it!

Books for me are magic; you can read the inset on the cover to give you a flavour of what the book is all about, but until you start reading it you just don't know what it's going to be like. A good book can grip you from the start and you don't put it down until you've finished it, I often do this with my Christmas presents, which are usually books these days. Then other books can be slow starters, it takes a while to get into them but eventually they take off; only once have I stopped reading a book never to return to it and that was only recently.

And they have to be proper books, not these e-books! For more on that read this blip, I'm sure my Twitter mate GarHop will disagree. Lol!

Reading is brilliant! It gives you the opportunity to escape from the humdrum of normal life by venturing to far off countries or galaxies, it gives you the opportunity to learn new things or learn from the past or re-discover old stories or feelings.

So go on I encourage you to read and take heed of Wren's words!

This Origins blip was brought to you by PontyCyclop's October challenge.