TOPIC: Reading for Keeps

Every so often I sit on the floor to scan the books on my keepers bookshelf. You know the ones I'm talking about, these are books that have incredibly compelling or engaging characters who have evoked strong emotions within you as you read their story. The ones you'll never given away and will be buried-with-me-when-I-die books.

More often than not I'm looking for an example of a piece of writing that will help me demonstrate something I'm blogging about. And more often than not I end up with my head buried in one particular book as I find myself engrossed in the characters and their story all over again.

I end up finishing the book in one sitting, my previous task well and truly forgotten. And these are books I've probably read a dozen times or more.

Ever had that happen to you?

There's one series I've read so many times, I can no longer remember what reading I'm up to - Elizabeth Vaughan's Chronicles of the Warlands series. There are three books in it (to date) - WARPRIZE, WARSWORN & WARLORD - with a related series following them that I'm reading now - DAGGER-STAR, WHITE STAR & DESTINY'S STAR.

What makes them keepers for me? The characters and the incredible world-building. The heroes & heroines are flawed, gutsy, honorable, engaging...the sort you end up cheering or crying or sitting on the edge of your seat for with every page you turn. The secondary characters are just as fleshed out and memorable.

And the world-building lingers in your head weeks after you've closed the back cover and you find yourself talking with friends who've also read the book, wondering how the author came up with the idea for this or that. Then months later you pull the first book in the series off the shelf and read it again.

So, what keepers do you have on our shelf and why are they there?