Apologies to those readers of my blog for the absence of posts in recent months. There are issues of capacity and I have been posting on Facebook at fairly regular intervals. if you would like to follow me on Facebook, please feel free to send me a friend request.

see: http://facebook.com/northumbrianroy

Recently I was encouraged to complete the 10 books that have shaped my life challenge. It was more of a pleasure than a challenge and it has evoked hundreds of ‘likes’ ‘comments’ and ‘messages’ on Facebook. Several people have asked me to put the 10 books on my blog and so here they are. As some of the recommendations come with fairly lengthy explanations, I have spared readers of what appears like a long essay or short book, if I were to post all the 10 books posts in one blog.

So, they will come one at a time over the course of the next couple of weeks. I hope you enjoy reading about the books that have influenced my life. I read yesterday an article by Andy Goodliff in the latest Baptists Together magazine, in which he cited Francis Spuffords book, The Child that Books Built. I could preface this naming of the 10 books that have shaped my life as the life and faith that books built.

I hope you enjoy these next 10 blogs and find a source of enrichment and encouragement in your own life journey
DAY 1 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

The first book to make an impact on me as a teenager.A book that has definitely shaped my life and work. Obligatory reading at school, it captured my passion for what is instinctively right and wrong. The unconventional, non-conformist Atticus Finch is the hero due to his character and morality. Every time I read it I discover more layers of meaning that feed my own values and convictions. It was obligatory reading at school – everyone should read it, whatever age.