Why read a novel?

Silly question really, but I guess worth thinking about. Reading a good novel, is a great way of allowing one’s mind to create images and scenes as a consequence of well written text.
It won’t come as a surprise to most of you, that I love reading historical fiction. Brilliant authors such as John Stack, Simon Scarrow, Robert Fabri, Jack Hight, Robyn Young, Anthony Riches and Stephen Lawhead, have bought be much joy.
I love the characters they create in their fiction and use contrapuntal writing to add multiple threads to a story.

Even the feelings of the characters as they interact with one another in times of yesteryear or perhaps during a battle sequence, are thrown into the mix. Such evocative text allows an imaginative person the ability to be present as the events unfold.
Though I cite historical fiction above, my blog would be incomplete if I didn’t mention the wonderful Iain Banks, may he rest in peace. His particular cyclical time warp style of prose, as in the Crow Road, was a wonderful piece of work.

The Bridge, one of my favourite fictional pieces by Iain Banks, was to me a book on self discovery. I commend the book to you and won’t spoil your fun by revealing the plot.
Have I read anything else? Well Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Jules Vernes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as some Dickens, though that was a long time ago.
I have indulged briefly in the writing of Fredrick Forsythe, Craig Thomas, Robert Harris and Clive Cussler.
Each of the above authors has a unique style and food for thought.
Just lose yourself in the text of these books and let your mind take you wherever it will.