I love reading. What is it that I love about reading? I don’t know!
Nicholas Nickleby is the earliest book I can remember reading – or was it those Noddy comics? In school, we had a “library class” every week. I would borrow a book, finishing it in a day, from the time I boarded the school bus home until dinnertime. And then I’d languish, tortured and frustrated until the next week when I was permitted to exchange books. Awful system!
I read The Famous Five, The Three Investigators, Adventure novels, graduating later to Cold War thrillers by Forsyth, Ludlum and a host of other spy novelists. I even found a taste for proper literature as I approached the O’Levels. Our English curriculum nearly damaged me, but Dylan Thomas, D.H Lawrence, Ted Hughes, and nameless others saved me.
The Solitude of Reading and The Pleasure of Discovery
I read books alone, I shut out the world and dive in. If the book doesn’t take hold of me, I tend to switch on and off, and it can take ages to finish.
But if the book grabs me, I’ll finish it in a few sittings barely doing anything else in between lunch and dinner, breakfast and lunch, showers and work, arrivals and departures. I will not rest until I’ve reached the end – and then I’ll want to start again.
I tend to start several books at once: cycling through them whimsically. But if it’s a non-fiction book, I try to stay with it as I find it difficult to regain the thread.
But while reading is a solitary pursuit, discovering books remains a social experience.
I have discovered some great books through sweet accidents, recommendations from friends and blogs that I follow; a quote that leads to a writer who speaks of another writer; movie adaptations; interesting blurbs and covers; and lately, the Twitter Book Club – or TwitBookClub as we character-challenged Tweeters abbreviate it.
#TwitBookClub
We meet every third Saturday of the month in Dubai – yes, we are real people who meet in real life – and while my attendance hasn’t been the best, soaking up the atmosphere of gushing book lovers has been a welcome experience.
It’s a great place to generate book suggestions: we choose 4 books a month, with members typically selecting one to read. A satellite group also goes off to discuss a single book in the traditional way, reporting on it at the next TwitBookClub meeting.
We’re also present on GoodReads, cataloging/comparing our shelves and discovering new titles. I confess I have more books on my to-read shelf than my read shelf as a result of the past few months, a travesty I must address!