I love books. No, I mean I actually love them. My books are my friends, and they have been ever since I was a child and my parents read stories to me; once I started reading by myself, I developed a voracious appetite for all things literary. I've read the great classics of literature, I've read light and fluffy chick-lit and (thanks to my somewhat disturbing fascination with criminal and abnormal psychology) I've read many gruesome serial killer books. My bookshelves groan under the weight of cookbooks, poetry books and magical encyclopedias; I worship Neil Gaiman, JRR Tolkien and Sylvia Plath (among many others) as my own personal pantheon of deities, and if you want a book about any subject at all, come and see me - I'll probably have something in stock. You name it, I'll read it.
I mean it; I'll try almost any book once. The only things I tend to steer away from these days are the 'real life' trauma books (you know, the ones with titles like 'The Girl Whose Father Whipped Her Daily With Linguine' - I don't mean to be flippant here but you know the ones I mean); Mills and Boon; Catherine Cookson and her ilk; and anything that has been written and published because it's 'like Twilight'. And I paid money for all 4 of those bloody Twilight books and read every single one, vainly hoping they'd get better. That's both money and nanoseconds of my life that I'll never get back again. Ah well...c'est la vie. And since I joined my book club at the end of last year, I've read things that I'd never have even considered before. Some of them have been fabulous and I have completely adored them, others I've hated, but new books means new worlds to discover and new friends to encounter.
I write this having come back from my monthly book club meet. We occasionally talk about the books, too...no, seriously, we do discuss them; it may not be very scientific or literary, but they are definitely talked about. This one was 'Papillon'; I'd seen bits of the film but had no idea it was a book. And not just a book, a true story! Just...wow. It was amazing; it took a while to get going, almost as if Papillon had to find his 'voice' as an author, but when he did it was just intoxicating. You can see it all so clearly - the camps, the prisoners, the escapes...it was amazing, and I would never have read it if it wasn't on our list. Next up is 'Lolita', which I picked - I've started it so many times but never finished it because I kept getting sidetracked, but Book Club disciplines me to actually finish them even if I hate them. Oh, with the exception of 'The Fraction of the Whole', which I hated beyond belief and so did everyone else - none of us finished that one! So now I will finally finish 'Lolita' and will have expanded my horizons yet further, and at least made some new acquaintances even if we don't become friends.
And that's the weird thing about books. They really do become your friends, and some of the friendships that I made in childhood endure to this day. I wasn't even five when I first met Fancy Nancy, Heidi, Ramona Quimby and Katy Carr (and became almost hysterical with delight when presented with a copy of 'What Katy Did' because I thought it was about me); over the years, I may have got older and more widely read, but there is still a very special place in my heart for these friends from my childhood. Others have come to join them over the years and our little circle of friendship has widened, but I've never lost the desire to get to know more of them and to keep reading. Goddess help me if they ever make it illegal...I'll end up forming a Resistance movement or something...
I mean it; I'll try almost any book once. The only things I tend to steer away from these days are the 'real life' trauma books (you know, the ones with titles like 'The Girl Whose Father Whipped Her Daily With Linguine' - I don't mean to be flippant here but you know the ones I mean); Mills and Boon; Catherine Cookson and her ilk; and anything that has been written and published because it's 'like Twilight'. And I paid money for all 4 of those bloody Twilight books and read every single one, vainly hoping they'd get better. That's both money and nanoseconds of my life that I'll never get back again. Ah well...c'est la vie. And since I joined my book club at the end of last year, I've read things that I'd never have even considered before. Some of them have been fabulous and I have completely adored them, others I've hated, but new books means new worlds to discover and new friends to encounter.
I write this having come back from my monthly book club meet. We occasionally talk about the books, too...no, seriously, we do discuss them; it may not be very scientific or literary, but they are definitely talked about. This one was 'Papillon'; I'd seen bits of the film but had no idea it was a book. And not just a book, a true story! Just...wow. It was amazing; it took a while to get going, almost as if Papillon had to find his 'voice' as an author, but when he did it was just intoxicating. You can see it all so clearly - the camps, the prisoners, the escapes...it was amazing, and I would never have read it if it wasn't on our list. Next up is 'Lolita', which I picked - I've started it so many times but never finished it because I kept getting sidetracked, but Book Club disciplines me to actually finish them even if I hate them. Oh, with the exception of 'The Fraction of the Whole', which I hated beyond belief and so did everyone else - none of us finished that one! So now I will finally finish 'Lolita' and will have expanded my horizons yet further, and at least made some new acquaintances even if we don't become friends.
And that's the weird thing about books. They really do become your friends, and some of the friendships that I made in childhood endure to this day. I wasn't even five when I first met Fancy Nancy, Heidi, Ramona Quimby and Katy Carr (and became almost hysterical with delight when presented with a copy of 'What Katy Did' because I thought it was about me); over the years, I may have got older and more widely read, but there is still a very special place in my heart for these friends from my childhood. Others have come to join them over the years and our little circle of friendship has widened, but I've never lost the desire to get to know more of them and to keep reading. Goddess help me if they ever make it illegal...I'll end up forming a Resistance movement or something...
No comments:
Post a Comment