My magical escape

Don't cha know it's magic.  Oooh baby it's magic.

I've said it before, I'll say it again...I'm a reader.

Give me a good book and a comfy chair (optional - I can read ANYwhere) and you've lost me.  Don't bother talking to me cos I won't hear you (just ask the LOML).  Well, chances are I will hear you but just not when you are talking.  I'll respond about 5 minutes later when my brain computes what you've said.

I've always been a reader.  I remember being 6 or 7 years old and coming home from school after the mobile library had been (very small school - council library had a bus that would visit once a fortnight) with a PILE of books.  All read within days and then re-read numerous times before the bus came again.

Back then my books of choice were horse-related.  I loved horses.  Eventually I got my own horse Bobby and that just fanned the passion even more - when I wasn't riding I was reading!

What do I read now?  Magic.  Wizards and witches and demons and elves and lots of mystical happenings.  Now, even though I love reading magical fantasy novels, I don't go in for re-enactments or role-playing or computer games based on the books.  I just like to read. 
I also want to point out though that I've been reading 'magic' books (the book shops call them fantasy novels) LOOOONNNNGGG before Harry Potter came along and introduced a whole new generation to the escapism brought on by a good wizard fighting evil powers that want to take over the world.

Back to my story.....

The first book that turned me from horses to wands was this one.....

The book that started it all.  This is the 'New Revised Edition' I was given for my 16th birthday - I also have the original version of my first read.....

 A friend of my mum's had given her a book to read and she, not being that interested, put it into the crap cupboard (like the crap drawer but higher and a lot riskier to search through!) so she could forget about it.  I came home from high school and, in a moment of teenage nosiness, found it.  What started with a quick read of the first few pages to see what it was about (why is this book here? Where did it come from? Who does it belong to? How come I don't know about it?) ended 3 hours later when mum came home from work and found me sitting on the floor in the kitchen under the crap cupboard still totally absorbed and in another world.   And so it started......

I now have the whole collection of that series (and a new one has just been released!!! I am SO excited!!!) plus a heap more by different authors.  I read them all too.  The LOML can't understand that.  'But you know what is going to happen?  Why read it again?'. 

Because...... I can escape and be taken on an adventure even though I know the outcome.  I must admit I do read fast, very fast, and because of this I tend to skip sentences, sometimes paragraphs.  So by re-reading, I tend to pick up those missed bits ('wow, never read that bit before!').  I also love the characters and the storylines and the adventures......I love it all!

Right now I'm reading this one......

.....and I have to say (as I told the LOML last night) I can't actually remember reading it before.  Fancy that.  A book I've had for years, decades even, that I haven't read.   Jackpot! It's like finding $50 in the pocket of a jacket that hasn't been worn since last winter. 

This one is about number 4 in the series - I think I have two more to read after it......wonder if I've read them?  Can't wait now.....

What do you read?