A return to reading

Throughout my entire childhood and for the majority of my adult life I’ve been a voracious reader. I’ve always loved lingering in libraries and book shops.  Picking up tome after tome, reading covers and being delighted and drawn-in by cover art.

Last year, days before travelling to Iceland, I started Black Swan Green by David Mitchell and was really quite enjoying it – but then somehow I got a third of the way through and suddenly it was days and then weeks and then months, and I hadn’t read a page…

I think it was the longest I’d ever gone without reading anything.  It’s not that I wasn’t enjoying the book, I just didn’t have the inclination to sit and read.   I was still reading news articles and blogs, but the humble book just wasn’t appealing.

Finally after sitting on my bedside table for months, I got the guilts and picked up Black Swan Green and finished it.  It took a week or so and I must confess, those first few chapters were hard to get through, but when I did finally finish the book I felt an enormous sense of satisfaction. (If you like coming of age stories, descriptions of life in a small British village and 80s music you’ll enjoy Black Swan Green)

I then got the urge to start something new, and so Adeline Yen Mah’s Falling Leaves (which I purchased at a second hand book fair a while ago) was started.  I know I’m about a two decades behind everyone else on reading it, but there was something about this biographical story (which is really quite depressing and an insight how a dysfunctional family life can affect every facet of your life) which sucked me in.

I was back reading whenever I could – in bed of an evening, on days off over a long breakfast, on the lounge after work, even on a park bench one day waiting to meet Adam in town. I also I found myself back at the library, perusing books and looking for a new story to get into.

It’s been so nice to get stuck into a story once more.  I didn’t really realise how much I missed reading, until I started again. I’m loving the escapism my books are offering me at the moment, as well as that cozy solitude and comfort a good book brings.

Have you ever gone off a beloved hobby or pastime before?  Did you return to it at some stage?  And most important… what are reading at the moment?!  I’m now super keen to have a new reading list lined up and ready to go!

Have a wonderful week. x