Skip to main content

#FictionFriday Is The Wind Beneath Your Wings...




Welcome to  #FictionFriday, where we ask Yeovil College staff to share their thoughts, opinions and just plain random tastes in books.
Each staff member selects questions to answer from a finely honed and crafted selection, designed to entertain and educate us about their reading lives.


Today we're talking to Wendy Rake, our IT Services Business Admin. She doesn't have a Hogwarts House yet so we need to acquire a Sorting Hat, pronto! (or Pottermore offers a digital version for all you Muggles out there). 


What's the first book you remember reading, or being read?

 "It was 'The Rat-A-Tat Mystery by Enid Blyton - I read it so many times, and still jave the book. It led on to me reading so many more of her wonderful books."

What is your favourite book of all time?

"This is a really hard question, but right up there is The Belgariad by David Eddings - the first in a brilliant series of fantasy books. I also love The Dark Tower series by Stephen King."


Name one book or author that you really can't stand.

"John Fowles - The Magus. I still have nightmares." 


Which character in a book do you think is most like you?

"Lucy from the Peanuts cartoons (lots of people will agree with this!)" 

Which book would you love to be in or live inside its world?

"I think it would be lovely to slip into the world of Derek Tange who, along with his wife, Jeanie, gave up their jobs in London to buy a daffodil farm in Minnack, Cornwall. He wrote books about their new life and all the animals and people that came into it."
Which literary character would you want to date, and why?

"Not sure I'd want to date him, but I would love to meet Roland from the Dark Tower series - just to see if he matches up to my image of him."
What's your favourite book adaptation in film or TV?

 "The Secret Garden and A Little Princess (both written by Frances Hodgson Burnett) 

Would you read the book before watching an adaptation, and does it matter?

"Book first for me, or when I read the book afterwards I can only imagine the film's characters."
Who is the best villain in a novel?

"Usually the villains in the Jo Nesbo books are really scary." 

What's your favourite children's book?

"There are two that I can't separate: "Rosie's Babies", which is a book about a little girl (Rosie) acting out her thoughts with her dolls about the new baby that has come into her world; and "Christmas in Exeter Street" about a Christmas Eve when lots of people come to stay in one house, and what they all bring to share for Christmas (Bay Lilly Lou brings her smile). Both books are treasures in our house." 
What book would you recommend to someone else, and why?

"All of the above, but also "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey - hard hitting, but unable to put it down. Jo Nesbo books are also a great (if gruesome) read."
Who's your favourite cartoon character?

"Snoopy." 

Who would play you in a film of your life?

"Bette Midler may be loud enough!" (YC Reading would like to sing Did you ever know that you're my hero...) 


Where is your favourite place to read?

"In bed." 

Thanks Wendy! If you also love Jo Nesbo's gripping thrillers,also loved Enid Blyton or you'd like to comment (nicely) below, log in with your Google account and join the conversation.
Alternatively, you can always tweet us at @YC_Reading using the hashtag #FictionFriday with what you think of choices!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

1st Prize Winner, Nick Barton's piece "The Stranger's We've Become"..

I liked to think we’d spend our last night together singing songs not to mourn or regret, but to smile. With no birds outside to hear us, I wanted the stars to gather in constellations above to listen. But, that’s not what happened. Instead, under a hanging light bulb, Stacy and I read in silence while the world outside hummed on without a passing thought as to what we were doing. The quiet between us went on and on until I gave up reading altogether. Watching her reflection in the wardrobe mirror, she sat on the comfy sofa, her knees hugged to her chest and her headphones pressed against her ears made her look awfully cute. She read a paperback open against her thighs and I knew she could see me watching. When I turned around to glance at her, she said without looking: ‘Stop being so needy, I’m reading your book.’ I went back to my story and she hadn’t even broken through ten pages. Last week I read a novel and said she’d love it and I kidded myself into thinking sh...

Norwegian Wood Book Club Member Review

Why I Chose… “Norwegian Wood ” (Haruki Murakami)   The question every reader both loves and dreads to answer is this one – what’s your favourite? There are never any short answers – and very often, the result is a  long list.   There are books which you read every summer, or every winter. The ones that remind you of being five, or fifteen, or your college years or your first love. The books we remember fondly are the ones whose lines we memorise and drop into conversation; whose characters we wish we could be like; the ones whose worlds are those we could almost step into, which strike a chord so deep we feel we’ve always known them and afterwards change our perception slightly of our own world.   Norwegian Wood is one of those books.   It is a bittersweet tale of looking back, of an acutely felt nostalgia for past youth and past loves. From hearing the Beatles song, “Norwegian Wood”, Toru Watanabe is reminded of his first love, Naok...

'The Husbands Secret' Book Club Review

The general consensus as a book club was the book was easy to read due to the author’s easy style of writing.    Deep moral life issues are addressed in the book.   There are too many important issues in the story plot to give gravitas to life changing events and actions and the moral issues of:   Forgiveness; Guilt; Parenting; Marriage; Infidelity; Secrecy; and ‘what if’ scenarios. Comments from the group I enjoyed reading “The Husband’s Secret” and the author hooked me into the story very quickly.  Whilst searching for a piece of the Berlin wall for her daughter, Cecelia finds a letter from her husband with a note to read only after his death – what should she do?  What would you do?  After reading it the lives of the three main characters become inextricably linked.  At first I thought there was too much going on but very quickly got involved with each of the characters.  Cecelia is very organised and Tupperware stalwart – a pill...