I was one of those children who always had her nose in a book. I read voraciously, often staying up late into the night working my way through my latest library haul. My favourite characters – Sara Crewe, Jo March and Anne Shirley – were as real to me as my family and friends.

As a teenager and into my early twenties, reading for school and university replaced reading for pleasure, then I moved to London and my commute to and from work gave me at least an hour every day to fill with books again.

These days, no longer commuting into central London on a daily basis, I don’t have that otherwise dead hour or more to fill and it feels a little decadent (or, erm, lazy) to spend an hour a day during the week lying on my sofa with a book. Which means I’m reading less than I used to and so when I do read a book I want it to be blow-me-away brilliant, average is just not acceptable, particularly given the price of books these days.

With a long weekend away at a yoga retreat in Cornwall coming up, I should have some downtime for reading between classes, not to mention the train journey there and back. I want to take a couple of books with me and I’m hoping you can help. In return, and to give you a steer, following are some of the books I’ve read and loved of late, that I would heartily recommend you add to your reading list.

I can’t get enough of contemporary mysteries that keep me up all night like Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey or Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (an aside, but please, please, please let the film adaptation of Gone Girl be one that does the book justice, with David Fincher in charge, I have high hopes).

I love books that take me to foreign places whether they’re fiction such as Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter, a true story like Wild: A Journey from Lost to Found by Cheryl Strayed (ditto what I said about Gone Girl, Jean-Marc Vallée’s previous film was the brilliant Dallas Buyer’s Club so…) or that other category of is-it-true-or-isn’t-it or why-let-the-truth-get-in-the-way-of-a-good-story (faction?) such as Shantaram by David Gregory Roberts.

I’m mad about muso biographies like Life by Keith Richards with James Fox or Just Kids by Patti Smith.

I’ve read everything Haruki Murakami’s written (actually that’s probably not true, everything he’s published, and had translated into English would be more accurate, suffice to say I’m a big fan) working my way through 1Q84: Books 1, 2 and 3 earlier this year and I’m waiting, impatiently, for his latest Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage to be available in paperback.

And, as I shared on Tuesday, I’ll happily read a tearjerker too.

So, over to you, what should I read next? I can’t wait to hear your suggestions!

[ezcol_divider][ezcol_1third id=”” class=”” style=””]cosmo-awards-rock-my-style-best-lifestyle-blog[/ezcol_1third][ezcol_2third_end id=”” class=”” style=””]

Vote for us in the Best Lifestyle Blog Category

We are so pleased to be shortlisted in the Best Lifestyle Blog category in the Cosmopolitan Awards 2014 in association with Next! Thank you to everyone who nominated us… All we ask now is that you vote for us! It literally only takes 10 seconds…[raw]

[/raw]

[/ezcol_2third_end][ezcol_divider]