Rob’s Reader of the Week: Darren Owens

Rob’s Intro: What do you get if you cross a feverish reader with a warm, friendly guy who seems to have a lot of time for anybody? That’ll be Darren then, the creator and owner of popular book blog Bart’s Bookshelf, and the much honoured subject of this week’s Reader of the Week.

I’ll admit to not knowing Darren for too long, but in the short time I’ve known him, I’ve been ‘bowled over’ by his ceaseless passion for reading. He loves his books and it shows, not least in the great book reviews he posts on a very regular basis. Darren also impresses me because he shows a genuine warmth towards others, making time to both appreciate all who visit his blog and to connect fully with every quarter of the bookish community. That’s enough evangalising from me, because I know most of you know all of this already, so without further ado I’ll pass you on to the man himself. Here’s Darren:

1. Favourite Genre? Probably fantasy, although I’ve shied away from the meatier stuff over the last few years, but as my favourite authors over the last few years are mostly made up of, the likes of Gaiman, Rowling, Pratchett, & Pullman etc, it’s a safe bet. Even my favorite series I’ve read this year, The Tomorrow Series, by John Marsden which is about an invasion and war set in Australia, has a hero in the shape of teenager Ellie Linton, and a quest to perform – against the odds (attacking the invaders) (and war is hardly a stranger to a fantasy novel either!). So even outside of that I appear to have themes to my reading

Saying that, I don’t tend to pick up crime and literary stuff, I have tried on a few occasions to read a Booker winner for example and just not been able to get in to it…

2. Favourite Book? Now, I think I might surprise Rob here at least by not naming a Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett or J K Rowling book here But whilst they are all among my favourite authors, this is about my favourite book, and that is, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, by the late great Douglas Adams. Hitchhikers is very much like a good Monty Python sketch, knowing every word, every joke only makes the experience all the funnier any more enjoyable, you almost cheer the punchlines as they pile up one on top of the other.

And much like Arthur, I never could get the hang of Thursdays…

(Although I do know where my towel is, thank you very much!)

3. Why do you love reading so much? I always have, although for a few years, I fell out of the habit, but as a kid I was always reading, and that continued until a couple of years ago when my reading really tailed off to about 20/30 books a year

I love the entertainment you can get from a book and the just one more page aspect of a really good one.

4. Favourite reading place? Anywhere without a TV, for some reason I can’t read in a room with the telly on, and it’s not because I watch a lot of telly, but I find it terrible distracting. Radio, music, household noise etc don’t bother me in the slightest, but TV, argh!

5. How BIG is your reading addiction? Fairly big, I fill a couple of bookshelves and I tend to send out, around what I receive from BookMooch, my TBR pile has just crept over 90!

6. How do you normally add books to your collection? Recently most books arrive through Book Mooch, although at least 30-40 percent are bought from somewhere like Waterstones or Oxfam (and if your bookshop looked like THIS wouldn’t you?).

7. How do you decide what to read? Fairly mixed, whatever is next on the pile: reading challenge, something I’ve read a good review of, and which has whetted my appetite. If the book is part of a series, I’ll often read the next quite quickly, and if something like a Gaiman or a Pratchett gets released, then they are bumped up the TBR pile quite a bit

8. Ebooks – love or hate? Pretty indifferent about them to be honest, I have read them in the past, but for some reason something is missing from the experience, and even though I’m a bit of a gadget-hollic I’m not sure sure I’ll ever be splashing out on a Kindle or a Sony Reader.

9. Has reading inspired you to do any serious writing yourself? Serious? No! *falls about laughing*

But I have taken part in NaNoWriMo for the last 6 years and I’ve been known to dabble in a bit of fanfic.

10. What single piece of advice (or tip) would you give to fellow readers? I’d never presume to do such a thing!

Darren, It’s been a pleasure. Thanks for sparing some of your valuable reading time to have a chat with us.

Remember, Darren can always be found on his own highly popular book blog – Bart’s Bookshelf