And I have the short sight to prove it! If I had kept a record of all the books I’d ever read it would be…mindboggling! I am not particularly proud, or ashamed of it. It is just a fact. Books are my friends, guides, spiritual advisors, coaches, and in some ways they are the bridge between me and the so called real world.
I can read any book I choose. I can read books on subjects I know nothing about….and end up a little wiser…or be more sure that I don’t want to know about them. And if it is a subject I love, then a book is a deepening into that love.
Since I spend so much time and energy…and money, of course, on reading, perhaps it makes sense to spend a bit of time making my reading more conscious and absorb it better. To use it somehow to track my rather circuitous path through this world.
I am reading about half a dozen books at the moment. I just started on one by “Miss Read” as she is called. What a deeply enjoyable read. Part of what is inspiring me to write is that I do want to say” thank you” to many fabulous authors, of whom Miss Read is one. Her books are deceptively simple tales of village life. Written from the perspective of a kindly teacher, her stories are full of delightful observation and characterization.
Set in 1950s England and moving up into the 60s, for me they are absolute gems. I have borrowed them from libraries for years, but recently realized to my surprise I did not own a single book by this lady, one of my favourite authors!
A strange state of affairs when you consider I have hundreds of books. (I must count them one day!)
And it is even stranger to think that her books may not be on sale for much longer as younger writers take their place in the ranks.
