Books, Books, Books...

"A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men..." Roald Dahl (from Charlie and The Chocolate Factory) 

I have a problem... my family and friends would probably call it an obsession, whereas I like to think of it as an endearing quirk; I love to read, collect, recommend, buy and review books... Sometimes I even take a wander into Waterstones just to smell that lovely, crisp and slightly woody scent of freshly printed, unturned pages (but this is a story for another post).

I started young, cutting my teeth on Little Red Riding Hood, The Waterbabies, The Fairy Necklaces and The Troubles of Queen Silverbell, before graduating on to the dastardly Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes and, of course The BFG.  I learnt midnight feasting at the school of Enid Blyton with my partners in crime the Twins of St Clares and the Mallory Towers crew, while the March sisters were my constant companions on a caravan trip through France with my family.

At school I read the standard Biff, Chip and the Magic Key books, but went through them so quickly my teacher gave me free range of the library to pick my own reading material... Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca might not be the standard choice for an 8 year old, but I liked it... a lot!

It goes without saying that Jane Eyre, Sense and Sensibility, Oliver Twist and Emma hold a special place in my heart. Controversially (for some), I've never ever got on with Pride and Prejudice, never made it to the end of the book in fact, it's the one Austen novel where I'm much happier watching the TV adaptation, Darcy's shirt certainly isn't see-through in the book!

As an English Literature student, reading at university became for the first time a form of work, hard work, sometimes even a chore... I overcame my fear of Vampires thanks to my Gothic Literature seminars by falling just a little bit in love with the fanged Count Dracula, but Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was without a doubt my favourite thing to come out of a very heavy and dark module! American Literature is something of a blur, blitzing through 200 years or so of history at lightening speed, The Crucible (technically a play, not a book) and The Colour of Water still resonate as much with me today as they did 5 years ago.

I'm now 24 and reading is back to being something I do purely for me, I often get the bus to work in the mornings just so I can get an extra 30 mins reading time in, plus the 87 is much more book friendly than the Northern Line; no #readovertheshouldernoseyparkers here!

My favourite place to read though is in the bath - my fave Molton Brown candle, radox, a glass of wine and a new pageturner is my idea of dreamy night in! Which is why I've commandeered my own little corner of the interweb, so that I can share my thoughts on the books i'm currently reading with other like minded readers; tub or no tub, I'll leave that up to you.

This week on the Tub List I have the new Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler, I'm hoping it's going to be an eyeopening look inside the mind of the glamorous (but deeply troubled) Zelda (wife of F Scott Fitzgerald) whose own literary talents were often overshadowed by her husband's.

I'll be reading it in the bath Gatsby style with a glass of fizz and some jazz playing in the background - I'm pretty sure Zelda would approve!