the book club meeting
We have a staff book club at work and I absolutely love going to it. Obviously we don’t drink wine, but we do have snacks and chocolates
Read More...Tag: Bookworm
oh how i love a retelling
I have a bit of a thing for retellings when it comes to my books and movies. Whether it is a modern take on a classic fairytale,
Read More...writing is just as entertaining as reading
A question for those who write: do you find that writing is just as much fun as reading? Is it as entertaining? Can you get just as lost
Read More...the bookbinder
She tears and glues and cuts
Through cardboard covers
And the silky fabric sleeves,
Waiting for the press the set
The pages into perfect books
To sit on shelves in libraries for
The people of the bookish world.
I love watching videos of people rebinding books. And because I love beautiful books I like to see what they cover their creations with; the finished products are always stunning and they make me want to have a go myself.
There is something quite magical about a book that has been bound in a beautiful fabric and I would die to have a collection of notebooks all bound by myself in the prettiest designs.
Bookbinders fall into the same category as hatmakers for me. They seem a little bit mystical and a little bit mad – but totally genius. It’s an artform that seems to be dying and I can’t understand why. There are so many people that adore stationery, so why aren’t their more bookbinders?
Much Love
Rachel xx
The ghouls
what are you reading right now?
A little bit of book reviewing this evening. I’ve been lucky enough to read some cracking books of late so I thought it was time to share a few.
My first was Jeanette McCurdey’s memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died. This was such a sad and shocking read. I’m always super interested in the lives of child stars, and I feel really sad for the ones that go off the rails. I even find the psychology behind child stardom fascinating. And so this was a real eye opener as we saw what can really happen when children are pushed into the spotlight.
Keeping with the memoir, I then read Richard E Grant’s book A Pocketful of Happiness, all about the grief he has experienced since the death of his wife last year. He doesn’t hold back in this book and because it is narrated by him, you can actually hear his voice cracking as he talks about the moment he lost the love of his life.
Next up was Carrie Soto is Back which I devoured. I have a real love of stories about athletes and this one about a tennis star didn’t fail to impress.
I’m now on to a book called The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict. It is about an actress who somehow becomes tangled up with the Nazis before fleeing and then becoming a Hollywood star – and it’s a true story.
I’d love to hear if anyone is reading anything good that I should give a try. Have a fabulous weekend.
Much Love
Rachel xx
i don’t own no books
I don’t have a small shelf
Anywhere in my room
With piles of colourful books,
Dust jackets as decoration
And spines in a rainbow
That falls from the ceiling
To the shelf on the floor.
There’s a McDonalds advert on in the UK at the moment and it makes me incredibly sad because it says that one in five children don’t own a book. As an English teacher, I am not surprised by that statistic, but I am still saddened.
I was trying to imagine what my life would actually be like without books, and how awful it must be as a kid, to not have an adult that prioritizes books over things like cigarettes and booze.
Socially, there are probably much bigger things we can be tackling, but I am glad that McDonalds is trying to do something, because with books we understand each other a little more – and I think that is the first step in sorting out those bigger issues.
And don’t forget, that a room without books looks incredibly dull. Books and their covers are artforms in themselves. I don’t think I could live without their rainbow spines adorning my shelves.
Much Love
Rachel xx
the reading slump
The words all mix together like
A lumpy soup, luke warm and sad
They don’t excite the way they should.
The pages turn so slowly with
A painful wait between the chapters
Not sure these words are understood.
I’m in a dreaded reading slump at the moment. I have two books on the go and I’m not enjoying either of them and it is one of the worst feelings that a reader can possibly suffer.
Diving into a book gives me release from a world that is sometimes not very nice, so when I’m stuck in a bad book I feel like a door has been closed to that other world. I am quite literally locked out of the place that will make me feel better.
There is the argument that I could just put the book down and start something new, but I fall into the camp that hates giving up on a book. I do occasionally DNF a book, but it hurts my soul to do that and I would rather soldier on miserably.
I am into the last 30 pages of one of the books so I am almost there and I can’t wait to get to start another. It feels like the final few miles of an ultra marathon; not very pleasant at the moment, but it will feel worth it when I post my star rating on Goodreads.
And then there’s the fact that the quality of a book is so subjective. I’m slaving away through this novel while others are lapping it up and loving every word. I wish I could like everything, but alas, being human involves having likes and dislikes and going through little dips where reading feels like a chore.
Much Love
Rachel xx
the perfect first date
I read a tweet today that said a perfect first date would be to go to a used book store and buy each other a book. I don’t think I could think of a better way of getting an indication whether you could get along with someone in one book.
Books are so personal and they hold so many memories and feelings. I don’t think that he would have to pick me a book that I liked; I would just care about the story behind it and why he thought that it would be a good book for me.
And what a beautiful way to spend an afternoon!
When I lived in Cape Town, we would often wander down Long Street where there were just endless vintage bookshops. I could spend the whole afternoon going in one after the other and finding quirky little books that you would never find anywhere else.
Follow that with a coffee and a slice of cake in one of the cafes that plays cool jazz music and has waiting staff that are pierced and tattooed and you have yourself a weirdly wonderful date. We wouldn’t even need to talk, we could just read the books that were chosen for us and let the pages do the talking.
Much Love
Rachel xx
In a world where you can be anything, be a book nut
do you ever read a book…?
do you ever read a book
and wonder how the writer
got you so incredibly
and accurately right?
did she crawl inside your head
and have a rummage round?
or is there someone out there
who might just get the way you tick?