VJ Books presents Books Reviews by Phil!
My name is Phil Sutton and I live in a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, the worlds greatest hidden treasure. W.A. is the biggest state in the world, biggest trucks and biggest railroads and of course the largest distances if you want to go anywhere. This of course means that everything is expensive and no one, especially no international authors come here so I depend on VJ Books for my newer books, and a number of smaller book sellers for my earlier books.
I have developed a great relationship with Virginia and a number of sellers all over the world so my collection continues to grow. Funnily enough, it is cheaper to buy a signed 1/1 from VJs delivered to my front door than to buy a local hardcover book here from the book shop down the road when it first comes out.
I have nearly 550 signed first edition books (12 book cases full of books) now which are mainly thriller, adventure and crime books although I am the true eclectic collector and reader. I am a member of the clive Cussler Collector's Society and he will always be my favourite author. I want and hope to get to one of his conferences in the next couple of years. He has sent me a signed draft page from one of his books which is my prize possession.
As a collector I read the email newsletters where I learn about new authors especially from VJ Books and Thriller Writers International and a couple of International book clubs which lets me know who is writing what and I then decide who to buy and try them.
I have all the books from my favourite mainline authors being Cussler, Connelly, Clancy, Grisham, Coonts, Dan Brown, Lescroart, Deaver, Archer, Baldacci, James Patterson and Lee Child.
I have started reading other authors recently which I have learnt of through the newsletters and love the change to more adventure. I have recently read Tom Cain, James Rollins, Barry Eisler, Brian Haig, W.Griffin (Police and Presidential series), John Dunning, and enjoyed Boyd Morrison, Michael Koryta and Matthew Hilton. These are only a small number of authors in my collection.
I have enjoyed Australian authors especially Tony Park. Matthew Reilly, Bryce Courtney, Mark Abernethy, David Rollins and Colin McClaren. I have a number of autobiographical books and enjoy these especially Colin Powell, what an amazing man.
I have had emails from a number of authors and some of these people have been brilliant. I have corresponded with Mr Cussler, Jeffrey Deaver, Matthew Hilton, Colin McClaren, Michael Koryta and Mark Abernethy. All brilliant people who have taken the time to be available and help me getting signed books and just to say hello.
My favourite books I could not afford to buy signed would be JK Rowlings. The Harry Potter series are just brilliant and she appeals to all ages. When a table full of coppers can discuss and enjoy her books as well as a group of teenagers it says something about her skill as an author.
My favourite books I have chased down from my early days are Bryce Courtney with The Power of One, The Bourne series by Ludlum which are brilliant, Adventurers by Harold Robbins. My best recent author was Stieg Larsson what a genius and what a sad loss. I have about 10 books to go to finish sets but I will get them and this is part of the chase. Most of these are the first of sets, so price wise they are ones I will need to be lucky with.
I have just retired on medical grounds after being a police officer for 35 years. I have had 6 spinal operations and have my complete lumbar spine fused plus 4 vertebrae in my neck fused. I can still get around and what they can do medically is amazing so most people would not know how bad my injuries are by just looking at me. For this reason, collecting and reading books seems to fit and has gotten me through a lot of bad days and I am now reading about 5 books a week. I am on large amounts of morphine daily for pain so the world of adventure reading enables me a life of escapism and it works for pain relief as it takes away the thinking of pain and you lose yourself into a good story.
Now back to my current author James Rollins as I am half way through his Sigma series and it is brilliant.
So thank you to all the authors for helping me through the last 5 years and thanks to Virginia and crew for introducing me to a new group of "friends"who share there stories with me.
Phil
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