Er... um... hello folks. Seems to be the done thing in here to yatter on for a bit, which is something I don't have trouble with. Stopping is another matter, as is thinking up any sort of imaginative username... anyhow, I'm David (or Dave - I really don't mind which), 27 years old and from Worcestershire in England. (Very nice county, not [very] far from Hay-on-Wye; come and visit soon. Can I have my money now, Mr Tourist Board bloke?) 
Anyhow, on to books. I count myself enormously fortunate to have been brought up in a family who loved books, and it certainly rubbed off - making a quick estimate, I reckon I have around 5,000 in the house these days. All sorts, too - looking up at the shelf above me right now, I can see Asimov, Conan Doyle, Patrick O'Brien, Ellis Peters, Dervla Murphy, MRD Foot, Captain Scott and Marcel Pagnol. Oh, and the extremely well-thumbed "Four-Wheel Drift", a guide to the PC game "Grand Prix Legends", about which I can go on at inordinate length.
However, that's for another forum. Here I'm supposed to be going on at inordinate length about books, so I suppose the next thing to do is to give you lot some sort of idea of what I like. It's hard to compile a list of favourite books, but here are half a dozen that come to mind at the moment:
Geoffrey Willans & Ronald Searle, "Down With Skool" (and the other nigel molesworth (sic) books)
Carl Sagan, "The Demon-Haunted World"
Terry Pratchett, "Small Gods"
Lindsey Davis, the Falco series
Rosemary Sutcliff, "Heroes and History" (a wonderful school textbook about British heroes, long out of print)
You probably get the idea. And yes, I know there are only five titles there. That's because, although I don't really have a "top six" list, I do have an out-and-out number one, and that book is Watership Down. I find it amazing how many people still dismiss this masterpiece (not a word I use lightly, but entirely appropriate here) as a "kids' story about fluffy bunnies". I see that there's a review section on this site, so I won't go into huge detail here, but suffice it to say that of course it qualifies as a classic: the honour is not remotely in doubt.
Blimey, talk about rabbiting on! (Pun sort-of intended...
)
Cheers,
David.
Anyhow, on to books. I count myself enormously fortunate to have been brought up in a family who loved books, and it certainly rubbed off - making a quick estimate, I reckon I have around 5,000 in the house these days. All sorts, too - looking up at the shelf above me right now, I can see Asimov, Conan Doyle, Patrick O'Brien, Ellis Peters, Dervla Murphy, MRD Foot, Captain Scott and Marcel Pagnol. Oh, and the extremely well-thumbed "Four-Wheel Drift", a guide to the PC game "Grand Prix Legends", about which I can go on at inordinate length.
However, that's for another forum. Here I'm supposed to be going on at inordinate length about books, so I suppose the next thing to do is to give you lot some sort of idea of what I like. It's hard to compile a list of favourite books, but here are half a dozen that come to mind at the moment:
Geoffrey Willans & Ronald Searle, "Down With Skool" (and the other nigel molesworth (sic) books)
Carl Sagan, "The Demon-Haunted World"
Terry Pratchett, "Small Gods"
Lindsey Davis, the Falco series
Rosemary Sutcliff, "Heroes and History" (a wonderful school textbook about British heroes, long out of print)
You probably get the idea. And yes, I know there are only five titles there. That's because, although I don't really have a "top six" list, I do have an out-and-out number one, and that book is Watership Down. I find it amazing how many people still dismiss this masterpiece (not a word I use lightly, but entirely appropriate here) as a "kids' story about fluffy bunnies". I see that there's a review section on this site, so I won't go into huge detail here, but suffice it to say that of course it qualifies as a classic: the honour is not remotely in doubt.
Blimey, talk about rabbiting on! (Pun sort-of intended...
)Cheers,
David.
