How thrilling – My First Tag! Thanks Romance Novels for the Beach, for giving me the chance to write all about ME! I hope you enjoy this self-indulgence as much as I did preparing it for you…
Defined as: An intense and selfish desire for something.
What is your most expensive book?
Well that is a tough one … and I hope my significant other isn’t reading this. I spent $120 on two scholarly tomes by John Rateliff – The History of the Hobbit – several years ago when researching a piece I eventually had published about The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien. I am still toying with the ideas that my first published literary piece raised in my mind, but to my shame I have gone the road of writing romantic fiction instead of scholarly analyses of subtext in The Hobbit!
Defined as: Extreme anger.
What author do you have a love/hate relationship with?
That would have to be … Australian romance author Ainslie Paton. Love the stories, hate the sex scenes. I dislike graphic sex scenes, being the modest little body that I am. But there is so much to enjoy in her books that I get REALLY MAD when the sex cuts in. Too much information. I love the Aussie-ness and the interesting and unusual job backgrounds or settings she researches well and winds skilfully into her stories, the great dialogue full of wit, humour, sadness, whatever is needed – she gets the tone right, the terrific, three dimensional characters – the sexy Alpha males but with a bit of vulnerability for the right girl and the feisty heroines that have an air of reality about them. I just hate the raunchy bits. I’ve read four (y’know, just to check) but that’s it. Sorry Ainslie.
Defined as: Intense over-indulgence.
What book have you devoured over and over with no shame?
I’m going to tell the truth here, even though it’s really boring. Jane Eyre. All time favourite. Followed by Black Sheep, Venetia and These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer.
But I have found another recent book – well, two actually – that I have already read twice. Relentless and Refuge, both by Karen Lynch. Just wow. Best YA hero ever, with a great heroine in Sara Grey. Love the dialogue, the feisty relationship, tight plotting, the everything. And love the search function on kindle so I can find the kissy bits really fast. Is that a shameless enough revelation?
Defined as: a reluctance to work or make an effort.
What book have you neglected to read due to laziness?
Lord of the Rings – any of them (also see pride below). Put down never to be picked up again at the first song of Tom Bombadil. And recent literary fiction best-sellers. I just can’t be bothered any more. I have started so many with high hopes, and just haven’t liked them. Meh. I don’t care anymore. I’m just shallow, haters, OK?
Defined as: satisfaction derived from one’s own achievements or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired.
What book do you talk about most in order to sound like an intellectual reader?
Haha, see Greed, above. I have read the two definitive works by Rateliff (the pair is titled The History of the Hobbit), Mr Baggins and Return to Bag End. I might be the only person in the world who has. Not crazy about LOTR but really liked The Hobbit. It’s not really a prequel, it’s a standalone. Right now my kids would be making a hasty exit from the room before I get wound up.
Defined as: a strong sexual desire.
What attributes do you find attractive in male characters?
Again, I’m pretty boring. Alpha males with a little bit of a feminine side going on there in the background. Well groomed, intelligent, at home in any social setting, but don’t mind getting down and dirty. I like the brave and true ones, the strong unflappable action man types that get hit for six by that special someone who drops into their life and usually drives them mad even as they fall crazy in love. The emotional still waters that run deep. The ones that seem hard and humourless but are wryly funny and kind to the chosen few. Does art imitate life? Not telling!
Defined as: a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else’s possessions, qualities, or luck.
What book would you most like to receive as a gift?
I have to speak in the past tense here. There was a book I longed to have but thought it was an impossible dream. There are only two in existence in the whole world that I know of.
I have to give a big shout out to my kids here. Hey guys, you know who you are, what the book was, and why I can’t say, you sneaky devils! But it was the best Christmas gift EVAH. xx
Tagging the following people … tell us about your reading sins!
Kate Martyn ... author 