Beauty is…

I would like to talk about the beauty of books.  Now I know not everyone would have had the same passion I had for reading when I was younger.  I think I’ve told you that I devoured the books I accumulated whilst also raiding the bookshelves of my friends and family.  Mostly I enjoyed them but there were some I didn’t - which is probably the same for everyone!

Although I loved reading most fiction works, I didn’t read any manuals, because, quite homestly, they bored me to tears and I couldn’t follow them and do what was suggested.  Some of the books I read were well written and others were like “WHAT on earth am I reading?” and it just didn’t make any sense to me.  If you tell me to attach A to option B, I would look at it in horror `because I couldn’t even work out what was A or B.  I also didn’t read poems from when I was about 8 to my last school exams in English Literature.

And can I tell you something?  I didn’t just love the actual stories in the books, although the stories inside might range from frantastic to terrible.  The first thing I do is when choosing a book is to take it in my hands and see if I can hold it easily in one hand and if the book FEELS luxurious.  Then if all these are right, I look at what the story is and that determines whether I read it or not.  I open the book about somewhere in the middle and read 2 pages of it, and if it is readable I set about reading it from the beginning as soon as I can.

You see, all of us have different ways of choosing a book and that is mine.  I don’t know what your criteria are for your choice, but now you know mine,.  When we had children I always wanted them to understand the grace and beauty of a well written book.  In consequence Johnathan learned to read at a really young age and in the final year of nursery, he was reading books to other children there.

 I can’t tell you what to read.   I can make suggestions to you of what i found emjoyable and why.  At the end of the day, what I enjoy may not be what you do.  And you know what?   That’s ok.  There are enough writers that cover a multitude of different styles and tastes.  I keep trying to remind Johnathan that we are all individual and all behave differently for different reasons and we write  in various ways because of it.  

So why not go on out there and find a book you want to read with the criteria you want to use and have fun reading it?