Welcome to the Reading Nook
Sometimes I look back at my brash and wild childhood and I am warmed by the lucky stars that reside there. Both my parents are lovers of words, thought and spirited debate and have embedded a lifelong habit of reading and storytelling into the culture of our large family. All of us love to gather together in coffee shops, pubs, at home and over social media and endlessly try to outmatch each other in our story keeping and conversational prowess.
We are talkers.
Anyone who knows me can attest to this. Due to aforementioned largeness, numerically speaking, of my family we were however, not well inclined towards monetary excellence. With that being said, we spent A LOT of time at the (free) local library as kids; renting out books and books on tape, using the free resources to write projects on Amelia Earhart and Big Cats before at-home internet was a thing. I loved our by-the-sea library with the grumpy, owlish librarians and the billions of worlds to play around in. I loved that certification of maturity denoted by the library card, how when you went from being allowed to rent three books to five at the age of thirteen well, that was adulthood. Imagination was a well fed beast in that cosy little building with the crunchy pages full of friends and magic and intrepid adventures for even the shyest of us.
Once upon a time I remarked to a friend that I cannot recall ever not reading. At every moment of my life there has been a book within reach.
“And most of all, books. They were, in and of themselves, reasons to stay alive. Every book written is the product of a human mind in a particular state. Add all the books together and you get the end sum of humanity. Every time I read a great book I felt I was reading a kind of map, a treasure map, and the treasure I was being directed to was in actual fact myself.”
In every story I read I find a piece of myself, I wrestle with my values, I cement my dreams, I question the nature of humankind. This is what I love about it and that’s what I hope to share. Reading is not an exclusive hobby for those who are intellectually superior. No matter what you read or what I read or in what form we engage with story, it is all valid experience.
This particular section of my whatever you want to call it-blog, website, vanity piece, bullshit ex-hipster cry for attention-is here because I live for books and I recently read a book that moved me so profoundly it shook my apathy and kicked my ass into a ‘ MUST make and create and just fricken do even if it is shite’ kind of realm. So, if you want to engage that’s amazing, I am making this a virtual, follow along at your own pace kind of book club. I will be picking one book each month (hopefully I can actually stick to this commitment) and sharing some questions on it as I read and then a nice little review at the end of how I felt about the book. Maybe some other bits and bobs, we’ll see, I’m sort of feeling loosey goosey about this whole thing so don’t expect consistency at least for the first while!
Also dear readers, the books will vary across many different genres, I do not discriminate between book types. Except horror. Catch me getting in a helicopter before I let my vivid and visceral imagination walk into a horror story (if you know you know).
I am so looking forward to sharing some good reads with you lovelies and hopefully receiving some good recommendations too.