Meet Your Librarians

Since we want you to tell us about what you like to read, we thought it only fair to tell you a little about ourselves.  So please scroll down to Meet Your Librarians.

Helen Rowe - Library & Information Services Manager

My reading tastes:  I read mainly fiction, especially anything with a strong sense of place or history. When I want something a bit different I will read non-fiction, usually popular science. And for real comfort reading I am most likely to go back and re-read some favourite 19^th century classics.

My all time favourite 5 books: 

• Elizabeth Gaskell  - North and South
• Harper Lee  - To Kill a Mockingbird
• George Orwell – Nineteen Eighty-Four
• Rose Tremain  - Restoration
• Kate Atkinson  - Behind the Scenes at the Museum

My favourite childhood book:  Any of the Just William books by Richmal Crompton

My favourite place to read:  Inside by the fire on a cold winter’s afternoon.

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Janet Stopper – Assistant Library & Information Services Manager (Adults & Communities)

My reading tastes:  In general I like to read the current, hot titles that everyone is talking about (might be Ian McEwan or Jonathan Coe for example), interspersed with the odd classic (Mrs Gaskell, the Brontes) and occasionally a crime novel (Ian Rankin, Peter Robinson). For comfort reading, I head for historical novels such as Philippa Gregory and Rafael Sabatini. I also like some early 20C, half-forgotten writers such as E M Delafield and A J Cronin.

I’m scarred by reading some science-fiction short stories years ago, which were chilling. There are also some biggies that I don’t like – this will shock you because two of them are Wuthering Heights and Gone With the Wind.

My all time favourite 5 books:

• Thomas Hardy - Far from the Madding Crowd
• W G Hoskins - The Making of the English Landscape
• George Eliot - Silas Marner, Adam Bede or Middlemarch (can’t choose so I am fudging it!)
• Barbara Kingsolver - The Poisonwood Bible
• Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird 

My favourite childhood book:  Any title from Ruby Ferguson’s series of Jill pony books

My favourite place to read:  In bed, around a swimming pool on holiday, in the garden on a sunny day.

Other information:  I would never travel anywhere without a book – what if I’m stranded or the car breaks down?  Dilemma – to re-read favourites – or to explore new titles?

Colin Brabazon – Assistant Library & Information Services Manager (Children & Young People)

My reading tastes:  Very wide-ranging! Novels, short stories (especially ghost stories), history, natural history and art. Children’s books – for my job and because I enjoy reading them anyway.  The only thing I don’t read is science fiction!

My all time favourite 5 books:

• Graham Swift – Waterland
• P.G Wodehouse – Summer Lightning
• A. Wainwright – The Central Fells
• Jan Mark – Thunder and Lightnings
• F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby

My favourite childhood book:  The Beano Annuals 1972 - 1977

My favourite place to read:  In bed first thing in the morning with a cup of tea and a biscuit – preferably with a view of Lakeland fells through the window (or the tent flap) and the promise of spending the rest of the day exploring them.

Coral De Thabrew – Librarian (Adults & Communities)

My reading tastes:  Mainly non-fiction and classic fiction nowadays, although I will occasionally read a new novel that catches my eye, e.g. The lovely bones, by Alice Sebold.

My all time favourite 5 books: 

• The Dhammapada: the essential teachings of the Buddha
• Wordsworth and Coleridge - Lyrical Ballads
• Henry Fielding - Tom Jones
• D. H. Lawrence - The Rainbow
• Dylan Thomas - Under Milk Wood 

My favourite childhood book:  David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

My favourite place to read:  Bed

Jane Carnie – Librarian (Adults & Communities)

My reading tastes:  I like contemporary fiction that is intriguing and slightly quirky.  I prefer books that are well written and not too descriptive.

My all time favourite 5 books: 

• Audrey Niffenegger – The Time Traveller’s Wife
• Alice Sebold – The Lovely Bones
• Julie Myerson – Laura Blundy
• Mark Haddon – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
• Arthur Golden – Memoirs of a Geisha

My favourite childhood book:  Any of the Enid Blyton Mystery series

My favourite place to read:  In bed on a lazy Sunday morning with a mug of ground coffee and sunshine streaming through the windows.

Lynda Conlon – Librarian (Adults & Communities)

My reading tastes: Mixed – I love a lot of contemporary novelists but have an enduring affection for post-war British fiction, e.g. Stan Barstow, Alan Sillitoe, John Braine, Iris Murdoch, because I read so much of it as a teenager.  I often prefer style over content/plot and love the writing styles of popular contemporary authors such as Ian McEwan, Joanne Harris and Zadie Smith.

My all time favourite 5 books: 

• Kingsley Amis -Lucky Jim 
• Philip Larkin - A Girl in Winter
• Donna Tartt - The Secret History
• J D Salinger - Catcher in the rye
• Graham Greene - Our man in Havana

My favourite childhood book:  Anything by Antonia Forrest or Ruby Ferguson

My favourite place to read:  In bed, post-bath

Veronica Robinson – Librarian (Adults & Communities)

My reading tastes:  Nothing too long, too hard, too complicated, too heavy going or too taxing.

My all time favourite 5 books:

• Michelle Magorian - Goodnight Mr Tom
• Dan Brown - Da Vinci Code
• J. K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
• Jane Austen - Sense and Sensibility
• Quentin Blake - Mrs Armitage on Wheels

My favourite childhood book:  Any Naughty School Girl stories by Enid Blyton

My favourite place to read:  A hot steamy bath, preferably a Jacuzzi bath.

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Carol Longbone – Local Studies Librarian

My reading tastes:  Varied but in the main I like large doses of Science fiction and fantasy as I like “what if” books. I will read detective novels, mainly Tony Hillerman, and things that catch my eye in reviews as well as books on art and craft and cookery.

My all time favourite 5 books:

• J.R.R. Tolkien - Lord of the Rings
• Anything by C. J. Cherryh
• Nigel Slater - The Kitchen Diaries
• Ursula K Le Guin - The Lathe of Heaven
• Elizabeth Kostova - The Historian

My favourite childhood book:  The Wind in the Willows

My favourite place to read:  I’ll read anywhere, on the train, in the kitchen, in bed as well as curled up on the chair.

Louise Dean – Business Information Librarian

My reading tastes:  Wide variety of fiction, some popular non-fiction i.e. Biogs, travel guides, some stuff about music for self-education, anything else that takes my fancy. Not many magazines apart from private eye, and the occasional groan at celebrity mags in the staff room. Daily Telegraph newspaper some days, husband buys it for the crossword.

My all time favourite 5 books:

• Anna Sewell - Black Beauty,
• Audrey Niffeneger – The Time traveller’s wife,
• Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre
• Jasper Fforde - The Eyre Affair (and the rest)
• Peter Hoeg - Miss Smilla’s feeling for snow

But if you ask me tomorrow they could be different!! 

My favourite childhood book:  Winnie the Pooh

My favourite place to read:  Bed before going to sleep. If necessary I’ve been known to carry on reading until 2 because I can’t put the book down. Eating surprisingly doesn’t figure, but a good cup of tea can. Cure for insomnia? Barchester towers, Anthony Trollope. It took me 3 months to read the first 100 pages, however the perseverance paid off and I did enjoy the rest of it.

Suzanne Rhodes – Reference Librarian

My reading tastes:  I like contemporary women’s fiction (otherwise known as Chick-Lit) such as Freya North, Marian Keyes, Melissa Nathan etc but also love the classics that were the inspiration for many of these i.e. Jane Austen and the Brontes.  I also love reading cookery books, even if I don’t always get round to making everything in them.  To me, the sign of a great book is one that I can quite happily read it over and over again and where I can really get to know and identify with the characters.

My all time favourite 5 books:

• Jane Austen – Pride and Prejudice
• Emily Bronte – Wuthering Heights
• Melissa Nathan – Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field (republished as Acting Up)
• Daphne du Maurrier – Rebecca
• Audrey Niffenegger – The Time Traveller’s Wife (despite the fact that it made me cry)

My favourite childhood book:  I read anything and everything as a child so it’s hard to pick a favourite.  I love Roald Dahl, so anything by him is on the favourites list, especially The Twits.  I also loved reading my mum’s copy of Spike Milligan’s  Silly verse for kids that she'd had when she was small.

My favourite place to read:  Curled up on the sofa on a winter’s afternoon with a big mug of tea.

Rosie Scotting – Librarian (Children & Young People)

My reading tastes:  Historical and “costume drama” but not whodunits.  I like descriptions of landscapes and anything with animals, especially cats.  Crafty non-fiction.

My all time favourite 5 books:

• Mary Stewart – The Crystal Cave
• Michael Morpurgo – Singing for Mrs Pettigrew
• Rosamunde Pilcher – The Shell Seekers
• Joanne Harris – Blackberry Wine
• Nancy Turner – These is my words

My favourite childhood book:  Original Rupert, The Hobyahs, Enid Blyton

My favourite place to read:  Comfy chair with cat on knee and cup of tea, and absolute quiet!

Jemima Farmer - Librarian / Children's and Young People's Service Supervisor 

My reading tastes:  My reading material tends to be very varied.  I read a lot of children's fiction.  The adult fiction that I read tends to be books that have been recommended by family and friends.  I also enjoy poetry and plays.

My all time favourite 5 books:

• Kahil Gibran - The Prophet
• Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights
• Peter Carey - The True History of the Kelly Gang
• Radclyffe Hall - The Well of Loneliness
• Elizabeth Kostova - The Historian

My favourite childhood book:  Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne

My favourite place to read:  I mostly read in bed.  I have been known to spend the whole day wrapped in a duvet with my nose in a book in various rooms in the house.  I love to read on long plane/train/ferry journeys and on the beach of course.

Ann Rowlands -  Librarian

My reading tastes:  Wide range in tastes from "who dunnit" mysteries, historical novels, some classics, and general fiction with a local setting (for a good laugh Gervase Phinn is ideal)  to animal and country stories (both fiction and non-fiction) and down to earth with gardening books.

My all time favourite 5 books:

• Anya Seton - Katherine
• Rosamunde Pilcher - Winter Solstice
• Cynthia Harrold-Eagles - The Morland Dynasty series
• Gervase Phinn - Up and Down in the Dales
• Tracy Chevalier - Girl with a Pearl Earring

My favourite childhood book:  Wind in the Willows by Graham Greene and Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

My favourite place to read:  Cold winter day, sitting by the fire with a hot cup of tea.

Now you've seen what librarians like to read, why not see the choices of your local library staff.