Book addict extraordinaire (I should have called myself *BookMonster* and no I'm not Scottish by origin).... wish I had known about book crossing long before now; my husband and I must leave at least half a dozen books each wherever we've travelled (I think we're the only people who have lighter luggage on the way home than when we left).

In extremis I'll read anything (even toothpaste labels) but particuarly love historical fiction, ancient history and autobiographies/biographies (usually of artists/writers/historical figures and definitely NOT about D or down the alphabet celebrities). My favourite authors include Dorothy Dunnett (either Niccolo or Lymond being my fantasy man), Sharon Penman, Sebastian Faulks, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Dostoyevsky, Mary Renault, Katherine Neville, Tracy Chevalier, Frank McCourt, CJ Sansom, Antonia Fraser.... the list goes on and grows daily. I tried to read most of the major prize winning short-lists each year to keep up-to-date with contemporary fiction and also enjoy quasi-business type tomes such as Freakonomics and Great to Good. My poetry loves are even more eclectic ranging from ee cummings to Lear, Pam Ayres and the WW poets to Wordsworth, Frost and Keats (to name but a few).

I seem to be physically unable to buy one book at a time (or even 'only' two or three even) hence there are 17 boxes of books in the attic to be released into the wild as soon as I can find the time to label them all ...

Please bear with me - I've got a new job and 100s of books to register so will get to it ASAP. July 2008 onwards reads and wish lists etc to appear shortly...