Season 1 | What Are Reading Then? Directory |

Welcome to “What Are You Reading Then?” This is a new features series concerning the books we read, the books we review, the books we buy and generally why we have bought them or read them. What we think … but equally it’s a bit of book fun with some topics and quizzes thrown in.
I mean, principally that’s the main reason we read isn’t it?
Entertainment – we want to be entertained, we want to learn and we wish to acquire knowledge. Then on the other side we seek high adventure, escapism and stimulation for the ol’ grey matter. As bloggers we read to encourage our brains to create new ideas and to help us move forwards, to become better thinkers, to become better writers and reading books encourages and motivates that further.
This series is part of a new series titled Bloggers Glossop which starts later on this year, but more on that in the next couple of months, for the time being let’s look at today’s episode and a bit of light hearted entertainment.
I should imagine like me that you have throughout the years read hundreds of books – these books will have inspired, motivated, enthused and maybe driven you. They will have endeared you to the authors, awarded you entertainment and escapism and many will maybe have created you, moulded your personality, made you understand you on a different and deeper level …. ?
So, if l asked you today to list 10 Books that over all your years of reading you would not hesitate to pick up again and read for the umpteenth time you would list … ?
My Top Ten Books of my Life of Reading Are:
Creative Imagination
The Magic Faraway Tree – Enid Blyton – 1939
Bimbo and Topsy – Enid Blyton – 1969
Smokey Joe the Fish Eater – John O’Grady – 1972
Harry Potter Book Series – J.K. Rowling – 1997 – 2007
Impactive/Thinking Reading
Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien – 1954
Gorrillas in the Mist – Dian Fossey – 1983
Catch 22 – Joseph Hellier – 1961
The 120 Days of Sodom – Marquis de Sade – 1904
Motivational Reading
The Art of War – Sunzi – 5th century BC
The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck – Mark Manson – 2016
So there we go, obviously NOT a definitive list and very broad genre wise, l am not sure if a listing of 20 would have me covered properly, perhaps 50 would describe my life significantly – however – these are ten that made an impact on my life for various reasons. But maybe somewhere further into the series we can look at the Top 25 books that made you the writer you are!
Those are mine, what would your 10 look like?
Let me know below in the comments section or should you wish create a post, be sure to drop me a link – so l can read your reading list too!
However, catch you next episode – thanks for reading – Rory

Ooh thanks for including Anna! 😍
Always a pleasure 🙂
Not a complete list, but many more than 10 books…
The Lord Of The Rings
The Dark Tower series by Stephen King
Farenheit 451
1984
Kent Family Chronicles by John Jake’s
Xanth series by Piers Anthony
Catch 22
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
Ah l see Catch 22 made a madcap moment impact for you too Grandma 🙂
Plus LOTR 🙂
Admittedly F451 and 1984 were faves of mine – but maybe of the Question to Craft a Writer’s Mind we can list them 🙂
I don’t read as much as I did, but my list would include (with authors if I can remember)
Where the Rainbow Ends : Clifford Mills
Bad Luck and Trouble : Lee Child (before Tom Cruise was cast as Reacher)
Absolute Power : David Baldacci
Remember When : Judith McNaught (wore all the gilt off the cover title on my copy)
Dances With Wolves (excellent 3 and three quarter hour extended edition movie)
The Abyss (likewise as above with extended edition movie)
Winnie the Pooh: A. A. Milne
Little Women: Louisa M Alcott
Any of the Alien franchise
Precious Time : Erica James
and two in particular by Sandra Brown:
Breath of Scandal
The Silken Web
My blog post: http://sparksfromacombustiblemind.com/2020/03/08/reading-rory-style/
My personal “have read and greatly admired” list is so long I couldn’t include it AND the ones I did choose were to fit your categories more than my ‘top ten’ as such. We’d be here all day if I tried to figure out which were absolute favorites. Two which pop to mind (which I didn’t list on the list) are “To Kill A Mockingbird” (I read that at least once a year) and “A Christmas Carol” – I do read that at least once a year – the original text too. Love me some ‘archaic’ (old) language books – I love original Shakespeare the same way — I can read his plays and be so fulfilled! Thanks for this great budding series Rory! I see wonderful success with it coming your way! 😀
To Kill a Mockingbird is distinctly clear message book with an excellent tale – l too have read this a few times over the last twenty years 🙂
I had written a much longer answer to this post Melanie, sadly however for some reason WP ate it … 🙁
So here’s is now my shorter response 🙂
I have read not hundreds but probably thousand books. But for the life of me I cannot recall titles!
Read quite a bit lately! I’m wanting to do mini-reviews eventually.
Hey Sa 🙂
Excellent 🙂
I’m cheating on the first few
The Lord of the Rings – Omnibus
Elric Omnibus – Michael Moorcock
Any Terry Pratchett book
Any Patrick Moore book
Any Spike Milligan
The Trickster – Muriel Gray
The Boys of Everest – Clint Willis
Cosmos – Carl Sagan
That’s an excellent list … reminds me how l used to read Carl Sagan and Eric Van Lustbader side by side as a kid growing up and discovering the inner self.
I read through Terry Pratchett’s entire collection [as it stood] one summer in 2007 – awesome writer!
I used to read [and watch] Spike Milligan as a youngster, another wonderfully funny inspirator and writer, …. brilliant list.
10 is nothing to readers as a number , l have read hundreds/thousands of books since l turned 5 and started reading Ladybirds collection books for myself.
I was trying to think collectively last night of a number where you could say you would travel from one point to the other where upon in that period of time – which books defined you?
From 5 – 15 l read Ladybirds to Pan Horror – the latter defined me during my teenager years in such a way that l started writing horror stories for a hobby and made extra pocket money.
So during those ten years it is safe to say that the genre of horror ‘defined me’ … and yet l read some weekends from the age of 12 – 17, 6 books in 2 days, plus 12 books from Monday to Friday ha ha – so yes, 10 is nothing as a figure in the world of the reader 🙂
Wonderful question! I pondered a while yesterday. So, let’s see –
Winnie the Pooh, Milne
Harry Potter, all
The Little Prince
A Gift from the Sea, Lindbergh
Alexander Stoddard, she is one who lives not decorates
On Chesil Beach, McEwan
Cannery Row, Steinbeck
The Fires of Spring, Michener
Beauty, John O’Donohue
Elizabeth and Her German Garden, Elizabeth Von Arnim
Too many to count really and so hard to narrow down but these are all defenitely favorites that have affected my thinking. Thanks for the great question 😊
Hey Suzanne, that’s a great line up and some of those would be on my all time 100 list 🙂
Kind of an always growing list, right 😄
Oh wait-one more 🙃
You’ve mentioned Enid Blyton before and I’ve never read her so when I ran across The Enchanted Wood recently I picked up. 😊
You … yes Suzanne – your mind will love it 🙂
It will l think inspire you to start writing 🙂
Super 😊