Saturday 23 July 2011

Bookish

That's how I was described when I was a younger version of me.  I was geek.  I was awkward and painfully shy.  I remained so until I was around 19 when I suddenly blossomed.  The shyness isn't as bad now, I've since learned some coping mechanisms.

The love of books has remained, and it was a stroke of luck to find a man who loves books just as much.  We both read every single day, be it a few pages at night in the case of Jitterbug, down to chapters and chapters in order to wind down for me.  I spend about half the year suffering from insomnia, so reading to me is a way of keeping my brain quiet until I feel tired.



I come from a family of readers - I remember my dad sitting in our old rocking chair reading to my sister and I before bed; the weekly trips to the library to get new books.  We were poor growing up (and poor in the 80s in Scotland meant being really poor), so the few books we owned were loved and adored and well-read.  We tended to get a new book for our birthday and for Christmas, and were close enough in age that we could swap when we had finished.

My sister grew up loving books just as much as I did, and we would both quite often be sat at the table, book in one hand and eating our dinner with the other.  I got into trouble a number of times for going to the library after school, which in summer isn't a big deal when it's still fairly light at 11, but in winter when it's dark by 4 and your route home takes you through a large tree-filled field it is a cause for concern for certain fathers, mine included (though I did ask that he come and meet me if he was so unhappy about it, which he declined so he couldn't have been that worried).

Jitterbug and my love of books has rubbed off on our children.  We are always getting 'new' books from the second hand book shop.  They each get at least 2 each week, sometimes more.  Bubba tends to go fr Thomas the Tank Engine books as that is what he loves, while Rose has recently become fond of Bob the Builder.  I don't think the content of books is as important as the fact that they enjoy sitting with a book and reading.

 
Reading catalogues for local businesses!

I've written before about my Kindle.  It has changed my life, quite literally.  When e-readers first came out I was very sceptical.  I didn't understand how you could have the same experience with a electronic device.  Would it not be just like reading a book on a phone or laptop, which I truly detest?  Turns out, e-ink does what it says in the tin!  I no longer wake Gremlin up with the lamp.  There will be no more book-lights snapped in half by little fingers.  The only thing I need to worry about now is keeping it charged!

On the right hand side here, you will see a book montage.  I am tracking each book I read in 2011, and will do the same next year and until I get bored.

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