Five questions answered by the BookshelfTracker community

Be sure to follow Parker on Instagram @modern_gistory

1.) Did someone read to you when you were a child (who, what, when, where, why)? 
I have vague memories of my father occasionally reading to me. I’m sure mum did too. But the much stronger memory is of me devouring books on my own before bed each night. DK Eyewitness books were my weapon of choice. I was obsessed with history and non-fiction and deciding which book to take to bed each evening was often the hardest choice I faced on the daily as a child.

2.) What’s the first book you remember reading that had a lasting effect on you? 
Most books I’ve read have left a mild impression. However, it was ‘The God Delusion’ by Richard Dawkins that hit me hard. Growing up in a Christian home in a small rural town, questions weren’t something given a lot of credence. This book taught me to question. For a time it confiscated my faith but it slowly grew back.  It’s taught me a lot about balancing fact with faith which I’m sure is the total opposite of what Dawkins was trying to achieve. Notable mentions are ‘Jurassic Park’ by Michael Crichton (much better than the film & the film was incredible) and, for a classic, ‘The Great Gatsby’ although I never did uncover the importance of the oculist watching the valley reference.

3.) What genre(s) do you love?
Until two years ago, I’d read a collective total of about six fiction books. My gears have always turned in favor of non-fiction, namely historical. But then I decided to give it a crack (in secret of course. I couldn’t spoil my reputation as a purist). Man, I fell in love with it. First, it was Bernard Cornwell’s ‘Last Kingdom’ series, then moved on to ‘Everyone in my family has killed someone’ by Benjamin Stevenson. By then I realized I was really into historical fiction and mystery/thriller. So I gobbled up ‘The Club’ by Ellery Lloyd, ‘Agincourt’ by Bernard Cornwell and just kept going. I’ve read more books in the last two years than the twenty before it! I usually have two on the go; a thriller fiction partnered with a no-nonsense non-fiction. To maintain that purist streak.

4.) Has a book ever changed your life?
Yeah, my university textbooks were so expensive I could barely afford to turn the lights on to read them. Seriously though, maybe ‘The Prince’ by Machiavelli besides the aforementioned ‘God Delusion’.

5.) What attracts you to a book? The cover? Podcast? Recommendation from others?I rely heavily on recommendations. I hate wasting my time on a crap book and I hate even more not realizing it’s crap until the end. Otherwise, as a Kindle user (sorry about that) the algorithm works nicely for making recommendations based on what I’ve read and the rating I’ve given. Sadly, covers are important to me too. I can’t abide the proverb. It’s part of the experience and if it’s neglected, it has an impact.

*BookshelfTracker is an app that lets you organize the books you own, track who you lend them to, and more. Learn more on our website bookshelftracker.com