utlander by Diana Gabaldon. The whole series, in fact.
A friend of mine lent me Outlander at the end of summer 2005. I don't usually read books that others lend me because they're not my type, but this one sounded really promising - World War II era, Scotland, history, how could you go wrong? - yet I nearly stopped reading at the point where Claire Randall mentions how full the shops in Scotland were just a few months after the end of the war. I was worried that the rest of the book might have other such discrepancies. Ha! Never have I been so glad to be so wrong (Diana is a master at historical research and accuracy) and not since The Lord of the Rings have I been so excited to have a book enter my life.
A great book affects you not only at an emotional level - when you can't let go of the characters - or at a mental level - when you learn new words and information at every reread - but at a life level.
It's a stack of dominoes - if I hadn't read Outlander, I wouldn't have joined the (awesome!) Compuserve Books and Writers Community (and its group of wonderful readers and writers!). If I hadn't joined the Forum, I wouldn't have started taking my writing seriously. Imagine, I used to finish a story or novel and just leave it by the wayside. Now I've got two fully edited novels - one out on queries! - and I'm in the process of overhauling a third. If I hadn't started taking my writing seriously, I wouldn't be blogging, and I wouldn't have met all you wonderful people!
Yay for Diana Gabaldon!
And, of course, who can resist Lord John
or Jamie Fraser?
8 comments:
Whooo Hooo! Yes! OUTLANDER is the best and so is Diana G. with all her generous help and info for fellow writers. I *love* everything she writes. And I found B&W because of her and with that, I met you, Deniz. ; )
Completely agree!! Awesome post for the 'O' part of this challenge.
Still haven't read the Lord John books yet. :ducks: They are on my list, honest.
Ooooh, Raelyn, you're in for a wonderful time with His Lordehip. ; )
Hi Deniz. I bought the whole series at a second hand book store, but my daughter ran away with the first one, so I haven't started reading them yet. And they take up so much room on the shelves. I've been told they're awesome and addictive!
Denise
I must have shelved these books time and again, in my previous job when I used to work in a library. I know I picked up a couple and read the blurb and made a mental note to get around to reading them.....
Now, after reading your prompts, I think I may well have to - will be interesting as, having done a fair amount of genealogy, I've discovered a lot about my family who were involved in the Jacobite rebellion....and beyond!
Nice to meet you, anyway - arrived here on the blog-hop via the 'surprise me' button!
Happy A-Z'ing!
SueH I refuse to go quietly!
Twitter - @Librarymaid
Awesome post.
I will probably never stop reading this series. The characters, Jamie and Clair, live. The characters are multi-dimensional and very human. These are my favorite books.
Thanks for commenting, everyone!
I'm almost ready to reread these books for the fourth time - I wish my TBR pile wasn't so high!
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