I work in health research and I'm also qualified to teach English as a foreign language; I was inspired by my gap year volunteering in South Africa, an experience I absolutely adored. I was teaching at a school which had a library with an eclectic range of books, so I read quite broadly. A few years ago I spent time travelling around Central and South America, so my choice of books was limited to what I could find in book exchanges: sometimes I found some great books, sometimes some not-so-great books, but it definitely widened my reading selection a bit.

My favourite book of all time has to be Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy, such a fabulous book set in India around the time of Independence. I tend to read a 'classic' followed by a more contemporary book and I usually stick to genres I like, although I do occasionally choose something completely at random and either end up loving it or hating it.

I've sent books to:

England, Scotland, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Australia, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, Alabama, Arizona, California, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York State, Texas, Virginia, Washington State.

I've released books in:

Austria, Argentina, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, England, France, Italy (Sardegna), Northern Ireland, Mexico, Peru, Slovenia, Uruguay, Arizona, California, New York, Nevada.

How long will it take me to post a book to/release a book in every country?!

Favourite wild releases:

*Releasing Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson in New York, New York hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.
*Releasing Fictions by the Argentine Jorge Luis Borges in Buenos Aires, Argentina, close to his childhood home.

Highlights of 2014:

The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
Double Fault by Lionel Schriver
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory

Highlights of 2013:

A re-read of the Malory Towers series of books by Enid Blyton
The Brave by Nicholas Evans

Highlights of 2012:

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
Princess of the School by Angela Brazil
Carry On, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
Winter of the World by Ken Follett
Notes From an Exhibition by Patrick Gale

Highlights of 2011:

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
How To Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
One Day by David Nicholls

Highlights of 2010:

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Steig Larsson
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
Oooh What a Lovely Pair! by Ant and Dec
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Steig Larsson
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
All Quite on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Don't Move by Margaret Mazzantini
The Slap


Highlight of 2009:

World Without End by Ken Follett
*Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer, absolutely brilliant!
*The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff, very very good.
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
*Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, absolutely brilliant.
We're Not All Like That by Jeanne Goosen
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Girl With a Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson
The Cellist of Sarajevo

Highlights of 2008:

Maps for Lost Lovers by Nadeem Aslam
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
*Netural Buoyancy by Tim Escott
*Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day by Winifred Watson
*Eclipse of the Sun by Phil Whitaker
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
*An Utterly Impartial History of Britain: or 2000 years of upperclass idiots in charge by John O'Farrel
*Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Achibie

Highlights of 2007:

*The Hotel new Hampshire and Until I Find You, both by John Irving
*Oryx and Crake and The Robber Bride, both by Margaret Atwood
*Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
*We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Schriver
*Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Highlights of 2006:

*The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
*Cat's Eye, Alias Grace and The Handmaid's Tale all by Margaret Atwood
*The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory
*Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman
*Portrait in Sepia by Isabel Allende

Highlights of 2005:

*Africa by John Reader
*The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
*Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi
*The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
*The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith
*The Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer