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What is your favorite time or place to read?
What makes you enjoy a book?
Do you like to read outdoors, before bed or on the bus on your way to work?
Do you focus on character development, thoughtful messages, or the level of intrigue a plot generates in you?
What is your favorite time or place to read?
I would like to invite 
When I’ve had a particularly bad day I like to rove my Kindle library for something interesting. This library is rather robust because I have a subscription for Kindle Unlimited, which I maintain on behalf of my mother; she’s a voracious reader and can often read two or three books a week. Her favorite subjects right now include African History and Tudor history.
My love of books and reading was fostered by my mother who read to me as a child and instilled adoration and wonder in me for the stories of my youth, which included books by Dr Seuss and Enid Blyton. Like 
I devoured the Nancy Drew detective series as a teenager, it entrenched my fondness for a grand story with an ending you couldn’t quite fathom. However, as I grew older and embarked on my English studies at University, my tastes developed. The books on my “shopping list” evolved and I discovered authors I worshipped as if they were real gods. I would “find” an author then spend weeks reading, late into the night, everything they had ever penned. I read (The Magus) (The Collector) John Folwes, (Brave New World) Aldous Huxley, (Catch 22) Joseph Heller. I read on busses and trains, late into the night and, sometimes, on consecutive days and nights in a row.
My mind expanded, my education truly began. I took up a job as a book reviewer for a well known website, and began reading indie authors' works. Let’s just say, this wasn’t work at all, rather it was FUN. I discovered Alice Clayton and a host of self published authors; I laughed, I cried, I lived. I truly lived. Perhaps not in the real world, but I reckon I learned every trick to make that living possible.
Sadly, there are so many authors that have influenced me, I wouldn’t possibly be able to mention them all, but the pivotal culprits include (The Shining Girls) Lauren Beukes, (Gone Girl) Gillian Flynn, (And The Mountains Echoed) Hosseini Khaled, (Wolf Hall) Hilary Mantel and most recently (Verity) Colleen Hoover, (A Gambler’s Jury) Victor Methos, (Chasing the Star Garden) Melanie Karsak, (Surviving Michael) Joseph Birchal and (The Unbearable Lightness of Being) Milan Kundera.
What makes you enjoy a book?
In books I love a well rounded story, one in which the words transport me, effortlessly, towards the conclusion. I admire authors who can turn a sparkling phrase and I abhor gratuitous sex and violence.
Do you like to read outdoors, before bed or on the bus on your way to work?
I’ve been known to shirk my duties and “disappear” into a book, and I’m not fussy about the setting, indoors, outdoors, in bed or sitting at my desk pretending to work (please don’t tell).
Do you focus on character development, thoughtful messages, or the level of intrigue a plot generates in you?
Finally, there’s no telling what makes a book rock your socks, it’s far more a combination of attributes; the tragic character, the emotive descriptions, the evocative connections to aromas that perfume you directly into the setting as if you were really there. Honestly, if we could bottle the formula we’d all be authors of renown, but that’s not possible, it’s a spontaneous outpouring of passion that sets them apart, and it can’t be copied or even described. That’s their genius, their magic!