My Book Collection:

Well, the kids are long gone back to school so there's no excuse to knuckle down to some good ol' writing and reading.
With nights drawing in and central heating keeping us cosy its a perfect time to curl up with a nice hot chocolate and a good book (but then again, it's always good to curl up with your fave read whatever time of the year.)
Over the many years of losing myself within the pages of a good story I thought I'd reveal which books that have heavily influenced me, tuning my mind into what it is today (scary thought.)
As Julie Andrews said in the Sound of Music: I will start from the very beginning, a very good place to start. Of course this may be quite an extensive list, so you have been warned :)
'I'd turn back if I were you' -Wizard of Oz.

The First books I've selected are a compilation of my favourite Ladybirds books I read as a child. Not only was I captivated by the wonderful stories but the illustrations were so beautifully painted I was mesmerised by each and every book and extremely reluctant to put them down each night when my dad said 'lights out.'

 

And a miscellaneous selection, thrown in for good measure. 

 

 

The Beatrix Potter books

 

 

 

Of course, as I grew up my reading book collection grew too:

Enid Blyton Secret Seven books

Enid Blyton's Famous Five books

 

 

Phew!! you still with me??
Of course there's more :) My love of children/teenager books did not stop when I became an adult. Maybe it's the inner child in me, but getting lost in these books was always a magical time. And on that note, I will show you more books that gets my creative mind a whizzing with inspirational ideas:

 

 

So as you can see I read quite a lot!! I think as a writer it's not only important to gain ideas and inspiration from other authors books but to also look at alternative styles of writing. Of course everyone has different tastes and what they like. Well, wouldn't it be a dull place if we all liked the same??
Anyway, hope you've enjoyed my book collections, let me know what you think and perhaps tell me what books have influenced you in the past and helped you escape into another world :)