Research On Hold and Reading

Well, the project I was working on has (hopefully) temporarily been put on hold as I wait for the contract to come through. It's later than expected and I'm wary of putting a whole lot of time into something, only to find that when it comes to the crunch, there's no deal.

I've found myself in this situation once before, and I really don't want to end up there again. Hopefully things will come together very soon and I can get back on with the project. I'll keep you posted.

In the meantime, I've been thinking about e-books. I read an interesting post from Carol recently, which mentioned the fact that you can download a sample of the book onto your kindle, or kobo or whatever to get a taste. I've done this myself in the past, although I still haven't got around to reading it yet! I'd rather forgotten about this useful aspect of e-books.

Sometimes in a bookshop you can read a bit, and decided immediately whether it's grabbing you or not but having the luxury of reading a sample in the comfort of your own home (or wherever you are travelling with your trusty reader!) does come in useful. You can get more of a feel for the book when you've got a bigger sample to try. The other benefit is that you can try authors you might not normally gravitate towards in a book shop. For free! And of course, should you find that you can't wait to read on, with a few buttons pressed, the whole book is sat there waiting for you.

I have to admit the ease with which e-books can be purchased is both useful and possibly dangerous. Impulse buying has a free reign in these situations I find!

As mentioned, I do have an e-reader but I'm not a great user of it - at the moment. I love the feel of a 'real' book in my hands. I love going to library and coming out with a little pile of goodies to start working through and I would absolutely hate to see the demise of the real book, the bookshop or libraries. Any loss of these would be tragic. But I can see the advantages and it's useful to be reminded of some of them from time to time.

Clearing Clutter - Do You Give Books Away?

I'm a firm believer in 'clearing the clutter'? Do not mistake me for a minimalist though - I probably still have as much 'stuff' as everyone else but I really don't get on if I'm surrounded by clutter. It seems to make my brain go a little bit wobbly so I try and make sure (nearly) everything has a place and that the 'stuff' doesn't get a chance to pile up too much.

Of course, this is the ideal and there are still plenty of days I'm looking a a pile of 'stuff' and thinking 'Now how did that happen?'. I do, however, take a small pleasure in sorting through said pile and either reducing or clearing it. It makes me happy, what can I say?

Now when it comes to books, I used to keep everything, pretty much. In a previous house, we took one wall of the dining room and fitted it entirely with shelves. Which I then fitted entirely with books. It looked fabulous and was definitely a talking point when anyone visited. I loved it. I could just go in and look at all my lovely books and it made me smile. When we moved from this house, we were going abroad and I had to reduce - dramatically. Although I still had plenty of boxes of books when I finished, (something the removal man just could not understand: 'Are you actually going to read all these?' he sighed. Hard to believe we were actually paying this bloke. At which point I would also add, if you value your books in the slightest, pack them yourself. Lesson learned.)

Both the local libraries and the charity shops did exceedingly well out of me from that move. Something which has continued. I probably buy less fiction than I did anyway, these days, preferring instead to try and support our support our libraries (and our bank account). I've also bought a few things on my Kindle which obviously takes up little room. But I also am now happy to give away any books that I just know I'm not going to read again.

I think this came in conjunction with the decision not to force myself through a book I'm not enjoying, something I wrote about here. What's the point in hanging onto a book you didn't enjoy, or didn't even finish? Most of my 'giveaways' now go to the Heart Foundation shop, primarily because my Mum volunteers there and it's easy to pass it on. So, not only am I making space in my house for a book that I do love, but I'm supporting a good cause. Like most things in life, just because a book isn't to your taste, doesn't mean it won't appeal to other peoples', so pass it on. Clear the clutter and do a good turn - and you can feel virtuous all day!

Do you give your books away, or can you just not bear tp part with any?

What is it about libraries that we love?

I've been thinking about libraries a fair bit lately and they are also in the news, as they struggle against cutbacks. This in itself seems a strange thing. Why are such places being targeted when the level of literacy in the UK is falling? Politicians talk about slashing illiteracy rates and yet with the other hand take away the very places that could help them, but that rant aside, I've also been thinking about what it is that appeals to us about libraries. What makes them special?

For me, I think part of it is happy memories. The town where I grew up had a small library housed in a temporary building, but they'd squeezed in plenty of books and it was always busy. Of course, back then, we were still in the era of the 'Sssssh! libraries. But I have always loved peace and quiet so it never worried me. Perhaps, psychologically, that was another part of the appeal!

My mum would take us to the library regularly when we could stock up on books. I would choose four and happily hand over my library card, feeling very important and grown up. 'Stamp Stamp' would go the librarian, adding the return date to the flap of paper stuck to the front page, and then off I would go, eager to find a comfy spot at home to sit down with my 'new' books! I was a voracious reader, and it's probably just as well that the lending limit at the time was only four, or I'd have been after getting a lot more! When I signed up to to my nearest City library a while ago, I was told the lending limit was 40 books. 40! I did enquire as to whether there was anywhere to back the car up to!

I loved going to the library after school. I couldn't wait to get through the two sets of double doors and enter that hushed little building, and veer off right into the children's section where I would look through the books and, more often than not, find one of the little red moulded seats that had a round hand hold in the back of it, and read another whilst I was waiting.

There was a particular book of fairy tales that I often used to get out. It was this big, thick orange covered book and I seem to remember there being one story about some mice and one of them comes to a sticky end. It makes me think that they were more along the lines of the Grimm brothers' tales but I can't remember if they were all like that. I don't think so, but I do remember that book came home with us a lot. Looking back now, I expect my Mum's face fell when she saw that we'd chosen the same book again. She didn't drive and we lived at the top of a hill! But she never said a word. The pros of us reading outweighed her discomfort at lugging books up the hill, at least in her eyes. Thanks, Mum x

I still love going to the library. The days of shooshing have gone, but a lot of libraries still have a quiet reverence about them. Of course, they've also had to diversify, offering computer equipment for use, dvds and audio books for hire and holding sessions for mother and toddler groups, and so on. Our local City library also screens Indie films. Books have become just one of the many things offered by these wonderful places.

I've been on a bit of a library book kick recently and I still get excited now when I know I'm going to library, 30 odd years later! If I see or hear of a book I think I'd like to read I go and find it on Amazon and put it in my wish list. That way I have a constant reference. Once I've read them (from the library), I just delete it off the wish list. Of course, when books are popular, you may have to reserve them but 50p to reserve a new release hardback is a lot better than the 10 pounds upwards you'd be paying to buy it. The excitement of a 'library notification' email dropping into my inbox is quite tangible! It seems that, when it comes to books, I am quite easily pleased.

Of course there are still books I'd like to buy. I'm a total book addict but finances and space often mean you have to compromise. It's also a great way to try new genres, and authors without worrying as to whether you are wasting your money. And, of course, the most important issue is that if we don't use these wonderful resources, we are going to lose them. That cannot happen. It mustn't happen. Libraries make people happy. They educate people, and provide a sanctuary from the noise of the outside world, mobile phones and all the other extraneous noise that it's sometimes good to shut out for a time. Don't let them disappear.

So, am I the only one who gets excited at library notification emails? Do you have happy memories of your early visits (or later ones!)?

You have to love reading

If you write, then you have to love reading. There's no getting around it. If you write fiction, then you need to read fiction, and if you write non-fiction then you're likely going to have to look up and read some stuff!

Of course, for the most part, that's not an issue. It's a natural thing for us to want to devour as many books as possible and it's likely that, if you're anything like me, the To Be Read pile doesn't seem to get any smaller, no matter how much we read.

Finding the time to read is one issue that many of us struggle with. It's so easy to get swept along in the daily trundle of life, working, housework, the garden, that although you might get around to catching up on articles and news online, sometimes you look round and realise you haven't picked up a proper book in weeks!

I've now made a conscious effort to get a book off the shelf (and deciding which one can take its own share of the time - is it just me or do you have to be 'in the mood' for certain books too?) and then make another concerted effort to actually pick it up and read it. Now, whether that's in the bath, over breakfast, on the commute (if you go by train!) or in bed, it doesn't matter. All that matters is that you do it.

So grab a book, switch off the goggle box and dive in!