Back in the Books

One of my childhood passions was reading. I would take part in my local library’s reading contest every year and read as much as possible. And I could find no joy greater than opening a book and losing myself in a world of the author’s creation until I turned the final page.

As I’ve grown older I’ve found it much harder to keep up with the voracious appetite for books I once used to have. Adulthood has a way of using up what little free time you have and leaving you with no time to do much of anything other than sleep.

But a month or two ago I made a concious decision to try to read more often. This was simply because I felt like I was really missing the joy I’d had as a child when losing myself in a book and the healthy break it can give you from the everyday stresses of life.

And once I started I found myself slipping back into my comfortable rhythm of reading page after page, chapter after chapter until it became a daily habit for me to pick up a book every evening and read for an hour or two at a time.

As small a step as it was, when I finished my first book of 2019 I was elated. It had been a year or two since I’d read so much and I came to realise that it was something that had formed such a large part of my life when I was growing up and I’d missed it.

I think the more that our lives evolve into the digital space of phones and apps, the more I’m embracing analogue pastimes to try to get some distance between myself and the online world.

Hopefully I can keep it up and start adding more completed books to my Goodreads list. I do know that I’m going to need plenty of space on my bookshelves in the coming future!

• Books