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Ms. Susan Donnelly I have always been a bookworm. I suppose that’s why I ended up as an English teacher. When still small enough to be told a bedtime story, my parents would read “Noddy” to me and, in the days before Nick Jr, the world of Toytown seemed full of colour and adventure. The first time I remember reading a “big” book all by myself, I was seven. It was Enid Byton’s “Five go to Kirren Island”, from the Famous Five series. Although she is not so popular today, Enid Blyton’s Famous Five, Mallory Towers, Secret Seven and St. Clare’s series of books fed the imagination of my generation. Her books seem a bit dated now, but they are still full of excitement and adventure. As an older teenager, I joined the library and read anything at all that amused me. I loved the P. G. Wodehouse series of “Jeeves and Wooster” adventures, which are classically witty, and fantastic for the vocabulary! Other favourite reads included Raymond Chandler and Dashiel Hamnett, the great ‘hard-boiled’ detective writers. If you like films like “LA Confidential” and “Heat”, you’ll love the mean American streets in their books. In University, I had to read lots of mind-improving literature. Some of it I loved and some I found seriously hard work, but it was all rewarding. I honestly don’t think I would ever have discovered Joseph Conrad all by myself, but if you read his “Heart of Darkness” and then watch the film “Apocalypse Now”, you will appreciate the reach of his fiction. Nowadays, I only get time to read and daydream during the holidays. I will pick up anything lying around that takes my interest. I have read a lot of autobiographies recently. As we get older perhaps we want to learn how other people have lived their lives! My first book of 2008, and one I would highly recommend is “The Life and Times of The Thunderbolt Kid” by the always amusing Bill Bryson. |
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