So it’s world book day today.
I am surrounded by excited kids (both young and old) who have been getting dressed up as their favourite literary characters and it is honestly starting to feel very festive throughout Facebook and Twitter right now.
Today I’m seeing a lot of kids dressing up in “onesies” for their dress up day at school… Erm, who are you dressing up as exactly? I fear that I may be stuck in some sort of book-ish time warp… WHERE are all the Harry Potter and Hobbit photos people? Have these books and stories had their day?
I’m sorely disappointed in the lack of creativity teehee. And WHO is this “onesied” character your children all dress up as today? I’m genuinely baffled, but this may be my own fault.
Perhaps this lack of creativity is because everybody has the same secret I have held close to my chest at the mere mention of the topic of books during conversations with friends and colleagues? I always shy away from conversations about books, give me a natter about the latest films any day.
I have a terrible confession to make to you.
I don’t read.
Ok, that might be a little fib, I DO read. I CAN read. I just don’t ever really do it. Unless magazines count? I have a magazine addiction too, they just take me months to flick through, I certainly get my value for money! I’m even IN a book, with my very first recipe published in “The Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook“, so I do love books, I truly do.
My technology and blog addiction has well and truly taken over my life. I read tweets and blogs until the cows come home and they inspire me hugely, but I don’t read good, solid books. You can’t sniff a blog or rifle through a tweet, not really… unless you are just plain WEIRD.
Cookbooks count as books that I read, right?… I do a lot of recipe hunting, so I guess this could count if you wanted to be pernickety.
Pernickety… what a GREAT WORD – I need to learn more great words! (If I see “nom” or “scrummy” in one more book, magazine or blog post I may just scream) We all need to read more, even if it’s just the dictionary or thesaurus!
The very odd thing is that I have a huge book addiction… I buy them, I stack them, I let them pile up on my bedside table and I START them, but a chapter in, I put it down and get the next one out the very next time I’m ready for a “good book”. My overactive mind wanders and I can read an entire chapter without having a clue what I have just read, it’s quite the talent really for somebody with a photographic memory (normally).
I adore walking into old bookshops… the smell, oh the heavenly, musty, smell, I could spend hours looking at books I’m never going to buy or own, I just have a fascination with the spines, the colours, the photos, I’m a book lover who doesn’t read much… is this even normal?!
I don’t have a favourite genre or type of book, I’ve never read the classics and I lose interest SO easily, that I just haven’t really bothered to get stuck in. I’m always being told to read “The Hobbit” or dive into “Great Expectations” to fall in love with this Colin Firth character, but I just haven’t felt the need to, I can read all about it on Wikipedia and save myself a great deal of my valuable time… no?
After “The Great Gatsby” came to our cinema screens last year, I decided to change my habits and I READ it before I watched it. For this, I’m SO stupidly glad that I did, as I loved the story and I filled in the gaps within the quirky adaptation with my knowledge of the story fresh in my mind. I believe that as a result of reading it, I enjoyed the film even more and I know that if I had read it after watching it, I’d have filled my head with Leo and Toby sloping around in dark corners and driving fast ridiculous cars, not letting my imagination take hold… all of which in my mind is the importance of reading before watching.
So my dear readers, I offer a question to you.
WHICH BOOKS DO I NEED IN MY LIFE?
It’s World Book day… or week… or month… I need to put my iPad down and pick up a good book.
I’ve got cravings of visiting my local library, an explored cavern on my very own doorstep. I’ve been pinning cute pictures of girls curled up in awesome libraries and I need to put myself in that image myself, even if my library doesn’t look as great as the ones in those photos ; )
But what to read? What to avoid? What will change my life? What will I enjoy, but also make me look arrogant and smarmy reading it on public transport? What will make me cry? Or laugh out loud annoyingly in a public place.
I’m counting on you to make sure I don’t waste any more time on useless stories that I won’t enjoy, give me your book loves and ideas on how to enjoy reading them.
Leave me a comment below, or drop me a line via Facebook or Twitter, I’d love to natter ABOUT BOOKS – hurrah!
Book romance is a feeling I’ve never had before, I’m ready to be educated!