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I've read Midnight's Children and know what you mean about identifying with authors. What I found with Rushdie was that I could identify many of the characters and events and imagine the event happening to or around me. Not so much "I could have written that" but "That could have happened to...

stifled her swirling hair.

Well, I joined up a few days ago and have been dipping in and out of some of the threads ever since. So thought I'ddo th formal introduction bit: Why this site? Read an article in the Saturday Times a few weeks ago recommending it as an alternative source of information on books and I'm...

I read Birdsong a while ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. I have Human Traces and this will be the next book I read. Birdsong is fantsatic. It's a romance and family story set against the backdrop of the first world war. The section set during WWI is the key to the novel but the introductory...

I would suggest "Goodbye to all that" - Robert Grave's autobiography. It's not fiction but the prose is remarkable. His memory and attention to detail puts you straight into the trenches with him. It aslo introduces you to Siegfried Sassoon who has, in my opinion, written some of the most moving...

I enjoy Hemmingway - THe Old Man and the Sea is probably the best place to start. It is the most accesible because of its length and was specifically cited in his Nobel Award. His language is simple but his charaters and themes are complex. To really get into him try "For Whom the Bell Tolls"...

Good luck with Serbia and Montnegro - you'll probably have about 6 different countries by 2008

I read he column every Saturday in the Times Book Section but had never read any of her work till recently. I picked up Oranges are not the only Fruit which I really enjoyed. The story carries you along well, the charaters are alive and I almost feel I've met some of them. Although the story...

I'm probably going against the consensus but I always listen to music while I'm reading - I don't take much of it in though and often the CD finishes without me realising. TV on the other hand I can't be in the same room as.

Oh, and for Brazil I'd recommend Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paolo Freire

Scotland will be represented but not officially named so try something by Robert Louis Stevenson or Sir Walter Scott for classics; or Iain Banks, Ken McLeod, Margaret Elphinstone for contemporary. If poetry takes your fancy then Burns for the classics, McCaig of Morgan for the Modern.

If not recommended I stay away from books where the authors name is shown much larger then the book title - you know the: Dan B*own Read this rubbish and make me rich types

Let me explore another notion about fantasy worlds - if I'm getting off track let me know. What about fantasy worlds which appear multiple times in literature: One type is the generic one; which was created back in legends or far in the past where the original creator has long been...

My to read list is nearly as long as my shopping basket and "saved for later" on amazon.co.uk

may be splitting hairs but are you distinguishing sci-fi worlds from fantasy? If fantasy only here goes (in no particular order): Middle Earth (Tolkien - inspired so many others) Earthsea (le Guin) Narnia Faerun (D&D - Where would we be without it) Magnamund (Dever and Chalk - hey I liked...

I began reading Neil Gaiman some years ago when he was first writing the Sandman series. I've read most of those and then more recently picked up his novels - American Gods and Anansi Boys. Preferred American Gods; it's got humour in it but its a darker humour an had more of an edge whereas...