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1 May 2012

mostly, I've been reading


It could be because something wonderful happened, something that made me burst with happiness and marvel at how freaking awesome life is, or it could be because something a bit shitty happened, but either way I haven't blogged, written or drawn in weeks. 


 The good, the bad, the ugly... 


 But here I am, moving on, getting back into the swing, sitting in front of the screen with the little cursor winking away at me excitedly, hello, you're back! Yes I am, but no pressure, please. 


 What I have done these last weeks is read. Gobbled up books in a delirium of other worldliness; there was a haunted stately home, a make-up artist who did it with a film star, a girl who could taste emotions in food, a woman who meddled in the lives of her friends and a boy who could see monsters. Oh, and the Hunger Games trilogy. 





 I'm an all or nothing kinda girl when it comes to reading. I'm either reading whilst blow drying my hair/as I'm ironing/during sex or I don't pick up a book for months. Which works out well as it gives my frazzled ends/burnt fingers/sex life time to recover.


 I just finished a book last night. Now I have the choice of diving in head first to another, or letting the natural ebb and flow of my reading habits take me into a book free month or two. Albeit a month or two during which I still compulsively read magazines, blogs and the back of shampoo bottles whilst I'm on the loo (in a voice like I'm doing the voice-over for the advert, you know? ...enriched with chamomile, almond & aloe vera to help eliminate dullness, revealing  radiant tones that shimmer & shine... I know you do it too).


 Maybe I should tackle, Vanity Fair, a book my A level teacher told me was wonderful and hilarious, but which I can never get into. Maybe I should read some poetry; short, sharp but hard to digest, something that takes little time to gobble up but takes up thinking space. (I bought a second hand book of love poetry a few weeks back and the inscription inside reads, To my first love, Clair, on your 21st birthday, with love, Tom XXX And she gave it away? He must have been a creep. Maybe Tom broke Clair's heart.)


 Anyway, the point is... books are medicine, books are life affirming, books are escape, books are opportunities and wisdom and encouragement, books change our worlds. 






 Books make things better. 


 So which books have you flung yourselves into? Which ones have been there for you to crawl into when you need an escape hatch? I would love to know.


10 comments:

  1. Ooh what a question! I have to say thanks for the image of you reading while having sex, that really made me laugh! I'm like you, it's feast or famine with me and books, and I've been feasting recently. Mixing humour and brutal memoir, I've just read the Lucifer Box trilogy by Mark Gatiss which is funny and clever and dirty and very English in an Agatha Christie/James Bond/PG Wodehouse kind of way (I must say Agatha and PG are big comfort reads of mine). And these have been sandwiched between The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean Dominique Bauby (dictated by a code of flickering eyelids while in a persistent vegetative state after a massive stroke), and The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, a forensic examination of the experience of being bereaved. I like books that make me feel awe about what it is to be human, and books that make me laugh. Nice to have you back. :) Rachel x

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    1. Rachel, I love Mark Gatiss (Micky luv!) so I'm sure I'll adore his novels, I'll def check them out. The Diving Bell and The Butterfly I read years ago and I remember it as being beautiful but hardcore and it's the second time in a few hours that someone's mentioned The Year of Magical Thinking to me. Weird.
      Thank you for your suggestions, and thanks for kindly welcoming me back.
      AnnaX

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  2. So happy to see you back Anna! I hope overall the good outweighed the bad.
    Books are indeed medicine - i find i keep blogging about them at the moment and yet I seem to be on a temporary reading hiatus. Books I love, so many! I would agree with Rainbow Vintage Home. The Year of Magical Thinking is outstanding. I love authors as much as specific books, Isabelle Allende, Toni Morrison, Kate Atkinson, John Steinbeck, millions to be honest!

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    1. Thank you!
      A wonderful list of authors, 2 of which I've read extensively, one a little and one not at all. So I have 2 new authors to get to know.
      Can you imagine a world without books? I love visual art but if I had to choose to wave goodbye to books or art it would have to be bye bye Van Gogh.
      AnnaX

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  3. My current obsession is Scarlett Thomas - I'm reading PopCo at the mo, which is amazing. Big book-loving hugs to you x

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  4. Hi Anna! Thanks for visiting my blog and your lovely comment. Like Rachel I laughed so hard at your ironing/sex comment! I read all the time. I must check out Mark Gatiss's titles as I'm a huge PG Wodehouse fan, so sounds right up my street. Recently I read all the Patricia Highsmith Ripley series and they are superb. And I return time and time again to Armistead Maupin for his Tales of the City series. But by far and away my favourite books are Janet Evanovich and the Stephanie Plum series. Nothing cheers me up more or makes me laugh out loud with a big snort! x

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  5. I am totally the same when it comes to reading- all or nothing. At the moment I am on a bit of a YA fiction kick so I'm reading a lot. One of my favourite books recently though was The Locust and the Bird- it had me thinking for quite a while.

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  6. Hooray, you're posting again! :D You were missed!! This is funny - I've recently realised my long-term lover "doesn't really like books." It seems very strange I've ended up with someone who doesn't touch works of fiction, when I have immersed myself in them all my life -- your post is so true. For a while, the ideas and heroes I found in books helped me to survive! I was about to start up a Sparkles & Crumbs Book Club-- where all of us literature-loving bloggers can recommend a different novel to read every month!! What do you think??

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    1. That's a wonderful idea! I would definitely join in. Do it! And my husband is the same as your long-term lover, although he would deny it! X

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