I’m a self-confessed book junkie. I cannot live without reading a book, at least one at any given time; and often I have more than one going at any given point in time, and I shift between them depending on what kind of mood strikes me.
A lot of my mummy friends ask me how do I even manage to read anything when I have a child to care for, plus a business to run, plus many other things that we mums have on our plate every day. The answer is that I don’t know. I just know that I have to read, and I don’t feel human if I don’t, so I make time for it. Other people do other things, like taking long relaxing baths, or making time for yoga, or going for a jog in the park. And for me, it’s my books.
With this in mind, I thought I’d start sharing some of my reads with you on this blog. This month, I have 3 books going simultaneously.
First one is Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon. This book just kept coming up in several webinars and blog posts I’d read about creativity, so I decided to order it off Amazon. It is indeed a really inspiring read and helps you to stop doubting yourself and start trusting your instincts. And it’s not really about “stealing” from others. It’s about understanding yourself as a creative person, seeking inspiration everywhere, making a point of it in fact, about knowing what to do when you hit a block, and the importance of getting out and shutting your computer too.
Second one is Voyager, from Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series. It’s the third book from the series (a total of 8 at the moment) and I’m utterly and hopelessly hooked. If words like historical fiction, adventure, romance, strong female characters, and Highlands (and Highlanders) make your heart beat a little faster, and you are not afraid of crying over a book, I would strongly recommend starting on this superbly written series with so many wonderful characters and many twists and turns to the story.
Because I was a book junkie from birth, learned to read when I was 3, and have been reading pretty much non stop since then, I’ve read my way through any number of adventure & crime novels, I usually can suss out where the story is going and who is the villain pretty quickly. If a book manages to keep me turning pages long into the night, unable to put it down because I just have to find out what happens next, this book becomes very special to me. This is – and the two previous ones, Cross Stitch and Dragonfly in Amber, are among those books.
And lastly, this month I’m also reading It’s OK Not to Share by Heather Shumaker. This book was recommended to me when I shared my frustration with a group of like-minded parents about my son saying he didn’t like his daddy. I realised the responses we were coming up with were not really adequate, and wanted to dig a bit deeper, so I’m currently in the midst of understanding the importance of free play, why most kids are not ready for academic instruction until age 7 or so, and how we can teach them dealing with conflict themselves. I didn’t reach the part about hating daddy though, but I shall report back when I do.
And because every post is better with a picture, here’s one of Badcall Bay in Scottish Highlands.
P.S. All links in this post are my Amazon Associate links – so I will make some pennies if my recommendations spur you onto buying something, and I can spend those pennies on another book or two :)