I've read most of Haggard's fiction and thoroughly enjoyed it. King Solomon's Mines is great. "She" is a biggie too, although I didn't care much for the character She. A matter of taste. Alan Quatermaine is a favorite character of mine and features in more of Haggard's work than just KSM.

Welcome Dagny! Thanks for your input.

Thank you. My favorite author is Balzac. I gravitate mostly to 19th Century literature. Of the modern fiction, I do enjoy quite a few mystery series. The characters are usually more important to me than the actual crime.

Do you have any particular favorites?

I read less than I used to but I still read between five and seven books a month. I usually have one or two on the go at home and one at work that I read at lunch time.

Glad to see this brought up, as I've been thinking about the subject, because of my son.

He was always the least bookish of our little family; when he was a little boy there would be times when he didn't have a book on the go, which was unheard of for his parents and sister. Still, by any kind of sane standards he was still a reading sort of boy - read for an hour or so before bed, at least. Then he went off to university, in a traditionally non literary discipline, and stopped reading for pleasure altogether. Partly due to lack of time, but also, I think, due to an attitude among his peers that reading books for fun was something that only those effete losers in Arts programs would do.

He's in his last year, now, and has rearranged his schedule to graduate a semester later than originally planned. The time pressure has eased up, and I think he's grown up some. All of a sudden, he's reading like he used to, and discussing books with me, like he used to.

I'm starting to think it's a lot like religion - get them early enough, and it will have a hold on them for the rest of their lives!

I agree. I cannot remember a time as a child when my parents didn't read to me, or once I learned to read, had me read to them before bed time. Now, I strongly believe as a result of that habit, I cannot sleep without reading at least a few pages no matter how tired or sick I am.

When my husband passed away a few years ago, I started watching movies, movies, movies - something I had never been able to do before - and only read a book occasionally. Now however, I've gotten interested in reading again and am enjoying it very much. A book discussion group that I'm in has assigned "Same Kind of Different As Me" for our next discussion. Written by Ron Hall and Denver Moore in collaboration with Lynn Vincent (I think this is correct), it is a contrast between rich and poor and how we view each other. Has anyone else read this book?

I haven't read it but it sounds interesting. I'm in the middle of reading of The Last Testament for one of my book clubs but I'm going to pick that one up as soon as I'm done.

Let me know shorstuf what you think of it. In my opinion everyone would profit by reading it...

I will. It might be a couple of weeks before I finish.

Martha - I am picking the book up on my way home tonight. I will let you know what I think of it soon!

Martha - finally finished Same Different as Me. I agree that everyone would profit by reading it. It brings home how some people are treated when they seem different from those around them. It would be interesting to see this on a high school reading list.

I used to have a commute of 8 minutes to work and read voraciously. Now my commute is 90 minutes each way I barely read at all. It must be something to do with now having three kids and a very demanding job. I tend to fall asleep within minutes if I try to read on the train.

I guess I'm a reversal of the trend because I'm reading more books now than I ever have. There are a couple of reasons for my newly found reading habits. The first is that I'm watching less television & seeing fewer movies. Neither television or movies are as entertaining as they used to be for me.

The other reason I'm reading more is I purchased a Kindle reader which makes reading a lot easier because you don't have to lug around bulky books anymore. The other advantage of a Kindle reader is I can store up to 3500 books on a small e-reader, which is the size of a slim paperback book. I was running out of shelf space to store books in my home, so the Kindle was the ideal solution. The best advantage of the Kindle is trees don't get cut down to make paper for the pages of a book.

I read much more than I used to, but I think that is because I am now retired and have time, plus I watch very little TV although we do have movie night once a week, usually accompanied by pizza. I manage 2 to 3 books a week easily. I've always been a fast reader though.