Some people lose themselves in books. I found myself. books continue to help me work out how to navigate my way through this life which is mostly joyful, occasionally treacherous, sometimes humdrum but always enlightening.
Rectory Library, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham
As a child I found a second home at my local library (for which I have deep nostalgia). I worked my way through the children’s section and then graduated to the adult library, where I mostly read the classics, starting at ‘A’ – Jane Austen, the Brontes and Dickens, being at the beginning of the alphabet, set the bar very high. These books were my first true loves.
After completing an English degree I spread my readerly wings into more contemporary writing. The books seemed a lot thinner! When I became a mother, I discovered contemporary children’s literature, and feel blessed to be living in such a golden age for that genre.
Reading room at the Manchester Central Library
Today, I find myself in the north-west of England, a happy exile from the thrills of the nation’s capital where I grew up. My days consist of writing, reading and trying to make a decent fist of being a wife to one lovely husband and a mother to three amazing teenage kids.
My favourite bookbloggers:
- https://746books.com/
- https://bookjotter.com/2021/09/18/winding-up-the-week-188/
- https://librarygirlandbookboy.com/author/librarygirlandbookboy/
- https://clairemcalpine.com/author/clairemca/
- https://readershightea.wordpress.com/
When I started this blog I had no idea there were so many book review blogs out there – I just thought it was my great idea! There are some brilliant book bloggers on the web, and I am happy that I have discovered them as I launched on my own blogging journey. I have learned a great deal from reading their posts and admiring their sites. My aim is to speak to people who find it a joy, or perhaps like me, a necessity to read. People like me who find they have to carve out little spaces in their beautifully busy lives to indulge in a book.
If that is you, I promise to give you the best suggestions I can, to help you make the most of your reading time. I’ll give you mostly fiction, a bit of non-fiction, and we’ll revisit some classics from the big names which you may not yet have enjoyed. I’ll tell you what my kids have read or are reading, or what I would like them to read! We’ll hopefully have some fun along the way and share our thoughts about life and literature.
Five books I would I take to a desert island
- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
- Ulysses by James Joyce
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
- In Search of Lost Time (À la recherche du temps perdu) by Marcel Proust
- The Complete Poems of WB Yeats
Julia's books 