Day 13

Author Life Month: A Favourite Book

Believe me this has to be one of the hardest decisions I could ever make because I simply can't choose. So many books have influenced my life in different ways so that to choose just one would feel like doing a disservice to the thousands I have read so far.

The first books I really read for pleasure were Enid Blyton's Secret Seven. Growing up in South Africa they really did seem like a world away so they had massive appeal. I quickly moved onto The Famous Five and by the time I was about eight or nine I was reading Judy Blume.

My first foray into the world of adult books probably came when I started nicking my Mum's Harlequin romance novels aged twelve and by the time I was thirteen I had read Flowers in the Attic and had moved on to Jilly Cooper novels. It seems strange looking back to think that I was reading 'adult' books at such a young age but I remember just being completely bored with silly schoolgirl books that didn't relate to my life at all (not that the adult ones did either!!) so I was searching for things that were different. My reading tastes are very varied so throughout my teens I read everything from Stephen King, Kathy Reichs, Patricia Cornwall and James Patterson to name just a few.

The creation of the Kindle was definitely one the highlights of my twenties... no longer did I have to carry two or three books with me (the curse of tube travel and being able to read a novel in a couple of hours), instead I could load up my Kindle with as many books as I wanted. Don't get me wrong...I love the feel and smell of a book... just not the weight, especially when it comes to Harry Potter.

I confess I'm a complete Potterhead and JK Rowling's story, along with Dumbledore's quotes about life constantly encourage me to keep writing. And even Fifty Shades of Grey, whether you love it or hate it (it's a bit like Marmite like that), has had a massive influence on me; when I doubted myself and my stories I just kept reminding myself that Fifty Shades was originally Twilight fanfiction and if she could do it, so can I. So you see, trying to make a decision like that is impossible...I think I'll just carry on reading instead.