First Post - Why a Blog?

Over the past couple of months, I've watched my wife, Jo learn to create and develop her own Blog. (There are links to both of her Blogs in my Blog list). It's been so much fun to watch her, as she enjoys it very much. I've also enjoyed reading her thoughts on how we've changed the 'house' we bought back in 2003 to a 'home' we both enjoy sharing with each other.
One day, I decided to ask her to help me start a Blog too. As always, she was more than willing to help me get started. Last night while we watched Law & Order: SVU and the new L&O show, L&O:LA, she got me started.. Thanks, sweetie.
It's now Thurs morning, I'm back from my run and, well, while I'm cooling off, thought maybe I'd add my first post. Basically, I've been trying to decide what I want to talk about. I've always been a voracious reader. I love having shelves full of books and love having a book by my side while I'm relaxing for an evening, travelling, or in bed at night. So I figured, why not talk about books!! I'm not sure exactly what form the Blog will take, but I've a few ideas; discuss my favourite books of all time, my favourite by genre, or by author, talk about how my tastes changed, etc.
I've always liked trying to force my tastes on other folks and my favourite present to give friends and loved one are, what else, books. So why not take the chance to talk about them, on and on and on.
So there is my basic plan then; talk about what I'm currently reading, about books that I enjoyed over my life (notice I didn't say long life), how my tastes have changed, that sort of thing.
So let's start off with what am I reading at the moment. My downstairs books is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's - The White Company. (Let me digress for a moment. I usually have a downstairs book, the one I read throughout the course of the day. I also have a bedtime book. That's the one on my bedside table that I pick up when I go to bed, to help me relax before I fall asleep)

Anyway, back to my downstairs book. The White Company was originally written in 1891 by the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories. It's an adventure in the style of the Errol Flynn movies. It's about a novice monk, Alleyn, who is taking a forced leave of absence from his monastery in the south of England and gets involved with Sir Nigel Loring a knight heading off to France to lead the famed White Company in their adventures. That's all I can say about it right now as I'm only about a third of the way through it. It is interesting, sort of in a style like Chaucer's Canterbury tales, I guess. The story is made up of small incidents on Alleyn's travels; the people he meets, the things that occur. Some of the incidents are mundane, some more exciting. It seems like a slow read at times, but I've noticed that pages seem to turn quite quickly, so it's misleading.

The other book I've got on the go is City of Thieves by David Benioff.

It's a story set in World War II in Leningrad during the siege by the German army. Lev, a Russian Jew and Kolya, an Army deserter are both arrested (for different reasons) by the NKVD. Rather than being put to death, the NKVD colonel arranges a task for them. This is to find a dozen eggs for a wedding cake for his daughter's wedding. If the eggs aren't provided by Thurs (a week away), they will both be executed. It's purportedly the story of the author's grandfather, quite well written and provides both humour and horror in equal amounts as the two boys search for the eggs. Excellent so far.
Ok, well, this is my start. I've still got to get Jo to show me how to add photos or links to the books I'm talking about, but so far... hey, it's fun. Talk to you soon or just to myself. Maybe it can become a two way conversation if there are other folks out there who enjoy talking about books.