It’s been wonderfully sunny over the past week. Besides doing garden maintenance, transplanting seedlings to their flower beds, weeding and watering (oh the watering!!!), I also spent a couple of days of just sitting in the sun reading.
Here are some pics of the beauties my garden has thrown up recently.
Every so often I go through bouts of urges to read. I read a lot usually, but these bouts mean that I bury myself in a book or 3 for practically entire days. Reading is a great form of mental catharsis for me. I suppose after the activity of gardening, and the time the outdoor pottering allows me to think and resolve issues mentally, reading helps me escape into my imagination for a bit.
Since lockdown started I’ve read 13 books, and am about to start my 14th. I’ve been reading fantasy on this most recent wave and I’ve discovered another Irish author that I really like – Duncan M. Hamilton. Both Hamilton and Eoin Colfer (one of the other Irish authors I really love to read) have had other careers besides writing. Hamilton was a practicing barrister and Colfer was a teacher. I love finding this out about authors whose writing style I like.
A good book is a good book. It’s whatever grabs you, pulls you in, and gets you invested in a well-crafted plot with characters that are rounded and developed. I find it quite liberating to find out that an author whose new books I may look forward to being published, has had (or still has) other careers. Somehow, even though people always say it, this (to me) solidifies the possibility of changing the direction of one’s life – of being able to add another dimension to the fullness of the life you live and fully express yourself (however you may want to do this). Why shouldn’t someone be a barrister and an author at the same time!
Of course, this is the positive way of looking at it. I’ve learned that most authors don’t earn enough money per book to survive on just one job (writing). I find this sad. Just think; what an exquisite imagination these authors must have to come up with intricate plots and such in depth character development! I couldn’t do that – not at all!
Maybe it’s because I can’t do what they do that I really appreciate good authors. I appreciate the opportunity they give me not only to peek into the workings of their minds, to know the worlds that have been in their heads while they were developing their stories; but also because they engage my mind and my imagination. A movie doesn’t do that for me. I love movies, and there are some mind bending ones that do make you seriously think (e.g. Cloud Atlas), but movies as pure entertainment don’t actually engage my mind or imagination. Sometimes, a book is necessary.
I’m forever grateful that there are people with the gift of imagination and storytelling out there.
Hamilton’s trilogy that I just finished, and which moved me to tears at the end, is the Wolf of the North series.
While I still have a couple more to go in the Stormborn Saga which consists of 12 books, I read most of them (the ones pictured below) before needing some new characters to engage my thoughts – hence, making an acquaintance with Mr. Hamilton’s works. I’ll get back to Valrin the Stormborn soon. Fun fact: J.T .Williams who authored the Stormborn Saga used to be a paramedic.
Little Fires Everywhere has been all over my news feeds online for some weeks now. I haven’t watched the show. My mother sent me the book by Celeste Ng last year as she found it quite good. Ng is a career writer having studied English and writing academically. I am very interested in reading her book but with all the fuss over the TV series I can’t bring myself to read the book at the moment. And before you ask, no I will not be watching the TV series first! I find that if I ever do this, my imagination doesn’t ever take full flight as I keep picturing the images of the TV show (or movie) primarily instead of having my own mind create my version of the protagonist etc. When things settle, and I can ignore the fuss about the series, I’ll read the book.
Sometimes engaging in reading a book (or many) can help create a quietness that your soul needs. I feel this way every so often. The time that gardening allows me to put my thoughts in order and work out problems also needs a stillness to balance it. I enjoy the stillness of reading very much.
I’ll add all of these to my Reading Leaves section, which is simply an ongoing pictorial list of books I’ve especially enjoyed. What are you reading at the moment? What have you especially enjoyed?
