A to Z Challenge - Favourite Books - Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. The whole series, in fact.

A friend of mine lent me Outlander at the end of summer 2005. I don't usually read books that others lend me because they're not my type, but this one sounded really promising - World War II era, Scotland, history, how could you go wrong? - yet I nearly stopped reading at the point where Claire Randall mentions how full the shops in Scotland were just a few months after the end of the war. I was worried that the rest of the book might have other such discrepancies. Ha! Never have I been so glad to be so wrong (Diana is a master at historical research and accuracy) and not since The Lord of the Rings have I been so excited to have a book enter my life.

A great book affects you not only at an emotional level - when you can't let go of the characters - or at a mental level - when you learn new words and information at every reread - but at a life level.

It's a stack of dominoes - if I hadn't read Outlander, I wouldn't have joined the (awesome!) Compuserve Books and Writers Community (and its group of wonderful readers and writers!). If I hadn't joined the Forum, I wouldn't have started taking my writing seriously. Imagine, I used to finish a story or novel and just leave it by the wayside. Now I've got two fully edited novels - one out on queries! - and I'm in the process of overhauling a third. If I hadn't started taking my writing seriously, I wouldn't be blogging, and I wouldn't have met all you wonderful people!

Yay for Diana Gabaldon!

And, of course, who can resist Lord John


or Jamie Fraser?


Comments

Zan Marie said…
Whooo Hooo! Yes! OUTLANDER is the best and so is Diana G. with all her generous help and info for fellow writers. I *love* everything she writes. And I found B&W because of her and with that, I met you, Deniz. ; )
Raelyn Barclay said…
Completely agree!! Awesome post for the 'O' part of this challenge.

Still haven't read the Lord John books yet. :ducks: They are on my list, honest.
Zan Marie said…
Ooooh, Raelyn, you're in for a wonderful time with His Lordehip. ; )
Denise Covey said…
Hi Deniz. I bought the whole series at a second hand book store, but my daughter ran away with the first one, so I haven't started reading them yet. And they take up so much room on the shelves. I've been told they're awesome and addictive!

Denise
SueH said…
I must have shelved these books time and again, in my previous job when I used to work in a library. I know I picked up a couple and read the blurb and made a mental note to get around to reading them.....

Now, after reading your prompts, I think I may well have to - will be interesting as, having done a fair amount of genealogy, I've discovered a lot about my family who were involved in the Jacobite rebellion....and beyond!

Nice to meet you, anyway - arrived here on the blog-hop via the 'surprise me' button!
Happy A-Z'ing!


SueH I refuse to go quietly!
Twitter - @Librarymaid
Androwson said…
Awesome post.
Sverige said…
I will probably never stop reading this series. The characters, Jamie and Clair, live. The characters are multi-dimensional and very human. These are my favorite books.
Deniz Bevan said…
Thanks for commenting, everyone!
I'm almost ready to reread these books for the fourth time - I wish my TBR pile wasn't so high!