‘Go out. You’ll get square eyes from all that reading,’ was a mantra I heard throughout my childhood mainly because my idea of having a great time wasn’t to cause trouble (ok, sometimes it was but only when it involved climbing trees and crawling through my wild meadow pretending I was a spy) or to play with Barbie dolls (that I didn’t own anyway) but to hide in a quiet corner with a book and disappear into fantastic worlds, make friends and embark on great adventures.
My books have always been my closest friends and they made me the person I am today.
The kind of person who will happily go home to read if she gets bored at a party. Or, at said party, hide in a corner with a copy of 1984.
The kind of person who would rather write her blog than go shopping.
And the person whose handbag weighs a tonne as there are at least two or three emergency books in there. Just in case Armageddon kicks in and I am stranded in a post-Apocalyptic world full of lizards running the show. I don’t mind as long as I have something to read.
All throughout my adult life my books have been my morning cigarettes and my nightcaps.
I am what I read.
Inspired by Desert Island Discs and the recent literary edition of Stylist I have compiled a list of my own Desert Island Tomes.
It wasn’t an easy choice, the list could stretch into infinity and back, so here are those very important books that shaped my life:
- Emily Series by Lucy Maud Montgomery (Emily of New Moon, Emily Climbs, Emily’s Quest) – Emily Starr was my closest friend when I was a child. A little girl brought up by her aunts dreaming about being a writer and one day achieving that dream. She was the one who made me believe that writing can be a way of life, a vocation that I could and should pursue. I used to go for long walks with my shaggy dog Gapcio and have long discussions with Emily, dreaming up new lives, plots and tribulations, drawing to myself an odd look here and there. (more…)
Poetry & Pandemonium 