My name is Suzy and I'm a biblioholic too

This game of tag is really catching on, I've been tagged twice in a couple of days (by Anand and by Simba)! So I suppose I ought to elaborate a bit more. I'm a bookie. I collect them, own lots of them, read lots of them, love to be surrounded by books (one of the things I do to chill is spend time in the library).

I've put down what I'm currently reading in the sidebar, I try to have a mix of fiction and non-fiction. Right now I'm reading The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (picked it up before I knew the movie came out) and am loving it. If you're thinking about coming to a UK school, read this first. If you like it, then you'll like the UK. I'm also trying to plow my way through Accounts Demystified, which as you might have guessed is not something I picked up to read before bed ;-) It's alright though, and I hope it'll help prepare me for the finance courses in school. All books that I read, I note down in a notebook, and have been doing so since 1994, so I've got an accurate record of which books I read (NERD! I know) and what I think of them. I use a * to ***** star system of rating the books, and seldom re-read.

Books I read that had a great impact:
* Several books by the Dalai Lama. Life is suffering. For me it means that I accept life's not perfect, I'm not perfect, nor is it/I meant to be. And that's alright. Also: be compassionate, to yourself and others. Powerful stuff.
* Travel books. I love 'em and own heaps of them. My oldest is 100 years old, the newest is the one LBS gave me. I leaf through 'em and feel like I'm there. I keep all my used ones with my notes in them.
* The Handmaid's Tale, what happens when madness takes over.
* Several biographies: Pepys, Picasso, Rubens. I love reading about people's lives, I suppose it's the voyeur in me :-)
Not exactly a book, but reading that had great impact: English sunday papers. The symbol of freedom and independence, a good start to a Sunday (in combination with a nice cup of tea) and guaranteed hours of reading pleasure.