Am also a great Ken Follett fan - loved Pillars of the Earth annd World without End. Also into crime and psychological novels - currently reading The Woodcutter by Reginald Hill and can’t put it down.
Also highly recommend C J Sansom series of books set in Tudor times featuring the lawyer Shardlake. Fascinating insight into that period as well as an absorbing read. Start with Dissolution and there’s another four or five books after that.
PS Still into books but my friend urging me to get a Kindle. We’ll see.
I love the Shardlake/Sansome books as well. Try his ‘Winter in Madrid’. Excellent.
Not sure about the kindle. Love the feel and smell of a book…
Wandyx
Love C J Sansom and Master Shardlake, Terry Pratchett and DEATH is favourite character there - as I’ve read them so often they’re great for appointment visits as I can pick-up & put down with ease.
Currently reading The Reluctant Fundamentalist and The food taster.
Tried audio books and kindle but prefer the feel of a book in my hands.
Helen x
Yes, like the Sansom books too.
If you like Winter in Madrid, you will love In the Shadow of the Wind. great book.
Quite liked Kate Mosse, Labyrinth and Sepulchre . Romantics might like Four Letters of love by Niall Williams.
Debx
Oooohhhhhhh this is my new favourite thread! Thetes nothing i love more than finding a new author i love and knowing i have their whole back catalogue to read!
I am entirely without shame and am happy to confirm that i am the person who has corrupted Deb/Midge into reading the Sookie Stackhouse books. I read all 11 within a few weeks and was a very hands off mother during that time, who needs to get tea on the table on time when the dallas vampires have just turned up to wreak hVoc in area 5 ? I have alwYs loved sci fi and fantasy books. John wnydham’s The Chrysalids opened my eyes to this as our set book at school when i was 13. Day of the triffids is my all time favourite book. Terry brooks’ shannarra series was another favourite.
I love most books, but during my chemo i just couldnt concentrate. However i bought The Times every day and read it cover to cover and the weekend supplements also kept me going.
I love the feel, smell and look of books. I would convert a room into a library snd go round it stroking my books if i could. Pre kids, i had to take a book a day for holiday. I am about to get an ipad2, and have been told you can download a kindle app and use it on there (?) or should i buy a kindle too?
I love this thread!
Vickie
I love books too, though chemo has meant I’ve had time to read more, but lost the brainpower to do so! I’ve been working my way through the Stieg Larsson trilogy during chemo and usually means I’m up far too late.
Some of my favourites are Kate Atkinson (especially the Jackson Brodie trilogy, or there are four books now so not sure what that is…). They’re quite easy to read and I might be tempted to go through the whole series again. I like the non-scifi books by Iain Banks book. Also like a few of Ian McEwans and some crime stuff e.g. Ian Rankin. I seem to have a thing about authors called Ian! Also like Murakami and Kazuo Ishiguro (Remains of the Day and Never Let me go). And i really enjoyed Sadie Jones The Outcast which was easy reading so suitable even for chemo brains.
Am I the only one who hasn’t read a single Harry Potter book?
Al x
Hi Vickie
I was given an ipad for Xmas and yes you can download a kindle app for free and then download whatever books you choose.
Andie
Thought i’d be able to read a book a day while on chemo, but alas that wasn’t to be, my poor brain just loses the words.
I love all types of books of any genre depending on my mood. karen Rose writes really good crime novels. At the moment i,m reading chick lit because my brain digests it easily ( what does that say about me?)and i just need to laugh. Sophie kinsella,s a favourite
Vickie - are the Sookie stackhouse books the same as true blood on tv
Maria x
Sci Fi - yup, was heavily into that when younger. John Wyndham’s books made good films but were much better in their paper versions. I recently saw Day of the Triffids, the original, and nearly bust a gut laughing at the special effects, while remembering that I was hiding behind the sofa when I first saw it.
John Grisham’s also a good “airport novel” kinda thing, along with the Jack Reacher series (Lee Childs) and loads of others that have been mentioned.
When I was in solitary a few weeks ago I know I read a book while I was in but I have NO IDEA what it was. It was a bit rubbish is all I can remember, so at least I didn’t miss a good book.
I enjoy reading and re-reading Harry Potter for something just to put in front of my eyes. I’ve read them so often they’re familiar friends that don’t need a lot of concentration. Similar with Twilight, more concentration needed for The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, they’re all books that I’ve read more than once. Wouldn’t bother re-reading any of the crime novels though, however enjoyable they are first time round.
ROOM was a recent read and I really enjoyed it. Very thought-provoking.
And my Kindle has had me reading some complete crap as well as some good stuff - well it’s free! Currently reading the Dominion series by Robin Parrish. Undecided, but good enough to keep me reading.
I’m reading pretty much anything at the moment, so some very good suggestions, and three pages on the forum in only one day!
The daftest thing I have on my Kindle, which I was reading while waiting for my re-excision? The NICE Guidelines for early breast cancer! I kid you not, that was what I was reading before my op. Barking. Completely barking.
Sansome and Mosse are two of my faves also. Sorry to lure you into more reading alto. Glad you could join me lol
x sarah
True blood is based on the sookie stackhouse books, but the books are even better. I have a terrible crush on eric the viking vampire sherrif of area five :-). You can get the first ten in a set for about twenty quid at the book people. The 12th is out next month.
Cm, i enjoyed the jack reacher books too. And did you see the eddie izzard tv series for day of triffids last year? They changed it loads, was gutted.
I also love reading my cook books, esp nigella’s domestic goddess one. Makes me content just reading about the lovely food.
I do read the classics too by the way! But at the moment its mainly the vampires.
V
dont know how you all get on with the kindle i like to turn a page, feel the book.
Dont like fiction much these days i prefer facts, biography but most of the time im always studying something so reading things like dog psychology.
The Clan of the Cave Bear series, Jean Auel, has just written the final one after 20 odd years!!
Not an easy chemo/hosp read but really absorbing.
Plot - 8/10
Ease - 3/10
Love this thread, have read loads already mentioned but lots of lovely new ideas too!
Wandyx
As a long time on chemo gal I tend to stick to short stories at the moment. Carol Shields, Alice Munro, Helen Simpson, William Trevor amongst others. Nice thread. x
Oooh - Jean Auel - must re-read those now the last one’s out. I was thinking of getting Lord of the Rings on my Kindle to keep me going for a while longer.
it’s strange but I was very much a “real book” person before I got the Kindle and tbh I didn’t really want one, but it was so convenient for taking into hospital. Then I worked out how much it would cost me to buy all the books in paper format that I wanted to read and the (non-existent) space they’d need on the shelves and realised there was no way I could have them all!
I will agree that it’s very annoying if you just want to flick back (or forward 
) a few pages to check something but really I’m a convert now. There’s no way I’d have read all the books I have recently if I didn’t have it. And of course, when you buy then you have them immediately!
Jane xxx
not my usual choice,but just finished “wesley the story of a remarkable owl” by stacey o brian.couldnt put it down! alex xx
Just downloaded 6 new books to my i-pod (I know, it’s too small, but I have used it quite a bit for reading on planes) for less than £7 in total, so will have plenty to read when waiting around the hospital on Tuesday! Finally persuaded to try Stieg Larrson, so looking forward to a good read.
I have a house overflowing with books, but there is nothing like the feel of a book in your hand. In “proper” books I am currently reading Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver - not easy to get into although beautifully written, and I have only completed the first two chapters so far, but I loved The Poisonwood Bible, and seem to remember that was slow to start too.
bumped for you x
The Tent The Bucket and Me.
Really funny, to the point i had to apologise to the woman next to me on the plane for my guffawing.
One womans real life memories of 70s holidays with her parents. being a child of the 70s myself and still remembering when ‘abroad holidays’ were a novelty, this rang a few bells.
Story 10/10
ease to read: probably 10. i did read it before bc and all the lovlies that accompany it.
Alto I too was very anti-Kindle…until I got one.I love the fact that I can take hundreds of books wherever I go.I have it ‘as well as’ not ‘instead of’ real books.
My one worry is about the public libraries-I used to go once or twice a week before I had my Kindle but now I rarely visit.