Hello Mrs Bookworm

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I’ve been a book worm for as long as I can remember, I spent hours at the library as a child and even longer with my face in a book. My reading for leisure slacked a lot when I went to Uni as there were boring important books on French politics, history and linguistics which had to be put to the top of the pile. I must admit it took me quite a while to get back into reading for pleasure after graduating, I felt so free and couldn’t bear to read anything other than trash.

A couple of years on and I’m back to the old book worm I used to be. I am one of these people that gets so involved with the characters in a book that I often cry or laugh out loud. I have also been known to stay on the train for one stop longer, just so I can finish a chapter. As technology advances, gone are the days of trundling to the library with a heavy duty bag to bring back my monthly allowance of books. When e-books first hit the stores I was a bit sceptical, thinking they could never replace the smell and feel of an old book which had passed through the hands of many others.

I defied the trends and carried on with my paperbacks, borrowed from others and added to my own collection. I have a wide array of genres I love reading, depending on my moods, but crime fiction tends me be my genre of choice. I do try to steer myself towards more light-hearted books occasionally, as I must admit the crime fiction wasn’t helping with my nightmares.

Then came the trend of Fifty Shades of Grey. As everyone was talking about it I thought I ought to give it a whirl, so I borrowed the trilogy off my sister (younger sister may I add !!), but found myself reading it from the inside of my handbag on the train through sheer embarrassment. Its contents had been publicised that much, I hated others knowing what I was reading. So for Valentine’s Day that year, Luke, ever the romantic, bought me a kindle to save myself from future embarrassment.

I am definitely a kindle convert, it’s so light, compact and convenient and now I read at least a book a week. When the train is packed on the way to work, I don’t have the ‘holding on for dear life and trying to turn my pages in my book’ dilemma and it also helps to calm my anxious panic-ness that I used to experience when on the train.

I noticed from Alice's blog, The Cup and Saucer, that a few other bloggers were taking part in a book club. I downloaded the book, The President’s Hat, and read it within 2 days. We will all discuss it here on 17 October. Only downside with a Kindle this time round? The book was originally in French, but you can’t get the French version on Kindle. Which would have been great with my quest to keep up my French fluency.

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I am still trying to convince Luke that one of the bedrooms in our house should be like the photo above. Can you imagine how great it would be to have that many books to hand? To settle down in a big cosy armchair with a mug of tea on a Sunday afternoon and lose yourself in a good story?

If you have any books you think are must reads then please let me know in the comments below.