Habitual Reader Profiles - Page 2

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	Name: Sanchona
	City & Country: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
	Vocation / Avocation: Author

Why I'm a Habitual Reader:

As a child I loved comics, and very quickly I graduated to reading fiction. I loved my world of make belief. I would play with my friends, but I was always glad to go home to my books. I was my mother's despair. She expected me to help her with housework, when I had finished with homework etc, but I'd be buried in my novels.

I grew up in Malaysia, and as school and public libraries only carry reference books, my source of fiction was friends who could afford to buy them. I'd read everything that came to hand, classics, romance, detective, westerns, historicals, contemporary...

I remember a time when I became very curious about the furore in the media about DH Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover," but I was a dutiful daughter and would not cause my father grief. I refused to read that banned book though my friends were all giggling over it. I read the court case that would decide whether Lady C was an obscene book. That was an eye-opener for me.

I've never stopped reading. More books became readily available when I started working and earning my own money, and later when I migrated to Australia where public libraries had a galore of books on offer, not just the newly published books, but books published years and years ago! I was in book heaven.

I suspect reading a lot of books have caused me eye-strain. Now I cannot read a book through in one sitting---my eyes get blurred after a while. This little problem would not stop me being a habitual reader, not when I have myself published a novel and need to read and learn from what other authors have published.

My List of Ten: Books you should find time to read

1. Giant
Author: Edna Ferber
Her stories are panoramas and her characters larger than life. I love all of her books, especially Showboat, Cimarron and Ice Palace.

2. Atlas Shrugged
Author: Ayn Rand
I loved the idea of Robin Hood de-bunked in this novel. I love her "Fountainhead" too.

3. Sylvester
Author: Georgette Heyer
I love all of Georgette Heyer's regency. Today's writers of the sub-genre that GH has established do not quite reach her standard.

4. Word of Honor
Author: Nelson DeMille
I love all of Nelson DeMille's books. He writes with such style, his characters flawed and so believable, his plots a delight with each new book.

5. Flowers for Algernon
Author: Daniel Keyes
This is a superbly written book, a book that has been made into a movie and a tv movie -- both in the author's lifetime.

6. Queen's Gambit
Author: Walter Tevis
I know the game chess, but not the moves and Walter Tevis has written a wonderful novel where you can follow the chess moves even as you are enthralled by his flawed protagonist to the last page of the novel.

7. Taipan
Author: James Clavell
I read this book and was immediately compelled to read all of James Clavell's other books, and I enjoyed them all. I still think Taipan is his best effort. He was spot on with his characterisation of the Chinese.

8. Rawhide Justice
Author: Max Brand
It amazes me that so prolific a writer can produce such wonderful plots for all the books he wrote. He is my favourite westerns writer.

9. Whitney, My Love
Author: Judith McNaught
This book captivated me for its endearing characters and lively dialogue. I love her historicals more than her contemporary romances. Lately I fear she is repeating herself.

10. The Legend
Author: David Gemmell
David Gemmell is my favourite heroic fantasy writer. I have read most of his books. A few remain, and I'm sad there would be no more new books from him. He passed away in 2006.

Have you read any of these titles? Review one now.

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