Skip to main content

Prescription: A Book A Day

When life gets a little wobbly for me, when I look around me and there's this rather large mote of emotion or troubles or stress I begin to build myself a bridge. It takes time, care and patience; each book a brick that has to be selected carefully. Sometimes rain will lash down and threaten to flood my little island, but as yet the banks have held. With each book, I get closer to the mainland, and I get more determined to get there, a smile growing on my face. The books slot together perfectly, each adding a stitch to my patches until I become reasonably fully formed again. (No one ever is fully formed though, don't be silly!)

Recently books that I wouldn't have dreamed of approaching have helped me more than I could've imagined. As cathartic as book shopping is, the real joy comes when you sit and fall into another world and then hit a passage or a feeling or a thought that reveals the sun to you. Out from a cloud, comes this clarity. And it's wonderful.

Reading is honestly the best medicine I have; I learn, I grow and I heal. Plus, the stories I read make me smile, they make me laugh and cry and introduce me to worlds that I could never have imagined. When I read I am escaping, but by reading I am found.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Librarian and a Penguin

These past couple of days have been very poignant for me. I heard of the passing of Mike Sutton, who worked at Harrogate Library and showed me the ropes as a bright eyed and bushy tailed fifteen year old on work experience. That week's work experience introduced me to the Young Volunteer scheme which I was part of for about five years; I met so many great people through it, had some laughs and grew as a person. Not to mention that over the years Harrogate Library has been a big staple in my life: providing me with books, friends and a place where I did most of my revision back in my A Level years.

Mike and I spoke now and then, in person and every now and then online. No matter how he was feeling, he always greeted me with a smile when I came into the library and asked how I was. I also am so very aware how much he meant to his colleagues, who will miss him incredibly.

The past couple of days I've also been reading a beautiful and sweet little book called The Penguin Lessons b…
Post a Comment
Read more

The Big Smoke: A Little Pilgrimage

Three weeks ago I began an MA in The Contemporary at the University of Kent, in Canterbury. I was somewhat familiar with the place prior to arriving, having applied here at undergraduate level and attended two open days (one of which was where I met one of my closest friends, Jess), and also visited said friend (who I now live with) (weird.) Nevertheless, the new place with new people and new reading lists have kind of kept me bogged down.

Admittedly, I was so scared and shy to begin with. It all felt very alien to me (even my own shyness, since I'm not usually very shy - or if I am, I manage to hide it well) and after my first seminar I felt very, very out of my depth. I had to sit and breathe and think "can I actually do this?"

Turns out this is completely normal. Not only did most other people feel like this, my first seminar was massively hindered by the fact I was so ill with the infamous Freshers' Flu so I didn't feel very alive and with it. And for some fe…
Post a Comment
Read more

Today I am: a fire-breathing Queen

As you can probably guess from my lack of posting, Master's degrees are hard. Speaking to my fellow MA buddies, we can't quite pin-point what it is that is making us perpetually stressed but there's just something about them that seems to eat up all of your time ever. And don't even get me started about 'thinking about the future'.

I somehow forgot that one of my favourite things to do to relax is to take a bath. Earlier last term when our shower broke (yay student housing), we were confined to baths - and I vowed that I would take more as soon as the shower was fixed and not just fall back to showering. But alas, I did. 

Baths have always been kind of special to me; forever have they been places of chats, giggles, relaxing, music, and such a treat. For a couple of years I couldn't get out of the bath unassisted because of my back, so to be able to leap forth out of the tub with a gracious gazelle-like leap (I lie) is a privilege. I also used to not be able t…
Post a Comment
Read more