Sunday 13 March 2011

Share your desert island reads

If you were stranded alone on a desert island, what books would you love to have as company and why?

Some of my favourites are : 
  • A Spring Affair by Milly Johnson – this fabulous book about clutter clearing is one of the most inspiring books I think I ever read!
  • Let’s Meet on Platform 8 by Carole Matthews – made me laugh, made me cry – what a great read!
  • The Trials of Tiffany Trott by Isabel Wolff – this was hilarious, so many laugh out loud moments which got me some very strange looks while lying on my sunbed around the pool!
  • The Lake House by James Patterson – the first book I ever read of his, it was amazing, unusual, unexpected – made me read every other book he’s ever written. 
  • Fish! By various writers – all about boosting morale and improving results, a great motivating read for self help and to pass on the secrets to your colleagues.
These are just a small selection of the most memorable of the millions of books I've read over the last few years.  Why don't you share with me, what your desert island reads would be?

4 comments:

Janice said...

I just looked at my bookshelf and imagined what I'd 'grab' if I had just one minute to leave for a desert island (what a fabulous thought!). I'd have to take the book I won this week on Debs Carr's blog, The Scarlet Kimono by Christina Courtenay. Then I'd have to take my Kindle with Jane Lovering's, Please Don't Stop The Music on it, which I'm half way through and loving. Two other books on my Kindle waiting TBR are To The Moon and Back, by Jill Mansell and Jo Jo Moyles RNA winner, The Last Letter from Your Lover. I'd also HAVE to take some favorites: for starters - A Jilly Cooper, Riders, Rivals or Polo. Eileen Ramsay's classic time slip which is soooo beautifully written, Someday, Somewhere. Kate Fenton's wild moorland love story, The Colours of Snow. Oh heck - I might have to just stay at home next to my bookshelves!

Kim The Book Worm said...

Thanks so much Janice for sharing your choice of books. Not sure about Kindle's myself. I like to feel a book in my hands - I may be a bit strange!

I have already read a couple of your selection , I'll have to check out the others.

I'm actually now wishing that I could take a suitcase full of books and lie on a gorgeous sandy beach somewhere very hot and very sunny. Sounds like my idea of heaven actually! Thanks again Janice, hope you'll join us again soon x

Unknown said...

My absolute desert island books are:

Birdsong By Sebastion Faulks - set in present time and during the first world war, first book I'd read of hisand by far my favourite, tells very graphicly but tenderly how the men had to cope in the trenches with a tragic weaved into it.

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon - a spooky, tragic story set in Barcelona just after the civil war, full of tragedy, doomed love, sadness and happiness where the centre of the book focuses on the bookshop of Sempere & Sons. The character are alive and jump out of the page at you and it makes me want to go to Barcelona!!! Just a wonderful book!

The Time Travellers Wife by Audrey Nifennnurger - a really unusual book, beautifully written and told. It tells of the love story between Henry and Claire, but Henry is a time-traveller who travels into different parts of life both past and present. Don't be put off, its not in anyway a sci-fi but a beautiful story of 2 people who lives are inextricably entwined with each anothers.


The Historian by Elizabeth Kostovo - This is a great story about the hunt for Dracula who is still around now! Its set in America, Turkey, France, communist Bulgaria and communsist Hungary. Dracula had a liking for modern scholars but if they get too close to finding him the consequences are devastating! Told from the eyes of a 17yr old girl who follows her father and mother on their hunt for Dracula!

Stasiland by Anna Funder - Its a factual book about the secret police (stasi) in est germany. It tells us about how the stasi affected ordinary people and their lives - its absolutely heartbreaking. Its told so well and as soon as I read the first line I was hooked as the auther tells us how she is hungover and steers herself like a car through crowds of people.

The Good German by Joseph Kanon. Its set in Berlin just after the war at the time of the Potsdam Conference. A american war reporter is sent to cover the story. The main story arc is about the allies and the russians race to search for the german rocket scientists, but there a a few side stories which are quite harrowing and depict a Berlin where life is cheap and what people had to do to survive the war!

There are so many books I love - I could mention more!! But I just couldn't be without these books, they touch me the most leave me thinking about them long after I've out them down.

Kim The Book Worm said...

Thanks Julie, for sharing these fabulous books with us. I know a few people who've read the Time Travellers Wife and have thought it wonderful. I've never read the others so I'll look out for them. It's so hard to pick your favourites. Great to have so many recommendations to look forward to. I always like to have a big heap of books at the side of my bed to choose from for my next big read. I think part of the fun is reading the front and back covers and deciding which ones next!

Thanks again x