Blogtember day 12: Past, Present & Future Books...

Hi Honeys
After an incredibly busy weekend at work I'm almost caught up with the wonderful Blogtember Challenge organized for us by the lovely Bailey Jean of Brave Love Blog.

Through the daily prompts (which you can find here) Bailey Jean challenges us, and herself, to blog every day for a whole month! Blogtember is such a fun way to find new blogs to read and to make new blogging friends too.  It's still not to late to join in using the hashtag #blogtemberchallenge either on twitter or on Instagram.

Today's prompt: "Three books! One you just read, one you're currently reading and one you want to read..."

One of my favourite topics in the Blogtember Challenge is always the reading prompt, as you can see in my posts last year on five books that changed my life and in my post in 2014 where I talked about favourite audio books :)

What would the world be without books? Nope, my brain won't even contemplate such a world!  On then to my choices for today's prompt...

 Past:  Kidnapped

If I ever found myself in the position of only ever having one book to read for the rest of my life, having access to all other books withdrawn (nooooooooooo!!!!!) then I would have no hesitation in choosing my all-time, no-other-book-will-ever-replace-it, loved-beyond-all-reason, favourite book -Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson.

I first read Kidnapped as a young child, having discovered it in our local library.  I took it home, settled on the sofa and from the first page I was gripped!  The copy you see in the above photograph has my name (as it was then, pre-marriage) and is dated 3rd January 1981, written on the inside cover in my own childlike (who dipped that spider in ink & set it off walking across the page?) hand writing :) Does anyone do that anymore? Write inscriptions in books?  I don't unless it's a gift and I have to admit to feeling terribly sad if I receive a book as a gift and it doesn't have a little message written inside from the dear person who choose it for me.

In the thirty five years (I feel so old!) I've owned this copy of my favourite book it has been read & re-read countless times and never fails to make the world around me disappear completely.  It has murder, kidnapping, politics, adventure, Jacobites, a dashing Scottish hero and the breathtaking highlands of Scotland as it's backdrop!  What more could a book need?

Present:  The Time Traveller's Guide To Medieval England  

Another book I've read and re-read, it really is that good.  The Time Traveller's Guide To Medieval England by Ian Mortimer was accompanied by a three part BBC series of the same name and examines medieval England through the eyes of a modern day time traveller.

In the inner title page the book is described as "a handbook for visitors to the fourteenth century" and it does indeed read as a guide for the modern day man or woman who finds themselves visiting medieval England as a tourist.

If transported back through time, what would we see, hear, smell and experience?  Where would you stay? What would you eat? How would you dress?  How could you be certain you hadn't caught the dreaded plague?  What were the different roles played by people or different social levels in medieval society?  For sure a land-owning Lord experienced life differently to that of a peasant who would work the land, but in what ways exactly. How did the law of the land apply to each of them.

I studied history at Uni honeys and read an awful lot of history books and I haven't re-read any of them the way I have this book.  It really is that good, especially when read alongside watching the BBC series.  

Future: Still 25 Inside

I bought this book quite some time ago and, other than trying a couple of the quizzes inside, I haven't ever gotten around to reading it so I'm determined to make a start on it.  It's message is certainly positive in that it sets out to persuade women in their forties, fifties & sixties that their life isn't over!

Goals, dreams and long anticipated changes can still be within our grasp if we are only willing to believe in ourselves and in our ability to obtain them.  I'm determined to read this and see it I can get some of my mojo back to move on with some of the plans I have for our home.

So, there we have it honeys, my past, present and future book choices, have you read any of them?  I can't wait to see what you've all chosen today.  Till next time, huggles always xxx