The Truth

 

woman covering face with book on bed
Photo by Lina Kivaka on Pexels.com

Sometimes the truth hits me like a slap round the face with a cold, wet fish.  Deeply unpleasant with a lingering odour, but eye opening once the scales have been pulled from my eyes, if you’ll excuse the pun.

The more I write, the greater is the realisation that I need to read more, more, and even more. Education is key and that is the truth.

Writing a memoir of course also requires experiencing life so that there’s actually something to write about. It wouldn’t exactly be a bestseller if I wrote about the fluff that accumulates in my navel even if I had a social media following of tens of thousands (unless of course they too were navel gazers).

Not being a highbrow or educationally sophisticated reader, I like a light-hearted book. Bill Bryson is my latest and has me giggling happily on the train, in the bath and sometimes in the coffee shop where I’m supposed to be writing. Thankfully books are not expensive because the truth is, I need a few. I’ve pondered with a Kindle, but I worry about it falling in the bath. I don’t know the difference between an e-book and an audio book, but if they are the ones where Stephen Fry’s dulcet tones come out of a pair of headphones, I don’t think that would be awfully safe on my bicycle. So I think I shall stick to the good old fashioned paperback and remember when it falls into that bath, to fan out the pages before putting it on the radiator, otherwise one has less of a book and more of a brick and that’s not terribly easy to read.

Katie x

What do you read and where do you read?

34 thoughts on “The Truth”

  3. Bed is my favourite place to read. My concentration is better with visual rather than auditory input, so none of Stephen Fry’s dulcet tones for me. I have a Kobo e-reader that’s a bit of a dinosaur, but I’m too cheap to upgrade to a new model until the old one has fully bit the biscuit.

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  4. Spooky! My current book is also a Bill Bryson but quite an old one….the one about the history of the home. I just read it in chunks at the moment….often just before I go to sleep. Books are rare and precious things and I prefer them to my Kindle but that has its uses when I am travelling.

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    1. How funny! Yes, I’m rather enjoying Bill Bryson. I’d obviously heard of him but this is the first time I’ve read a book of his. Funnily enough I found it not in a bookshop, but in a lovely map shop called Stamford’s or something in Covent Garden (in London if you’re not from the UK). A lovely shop filled to the gunnels wIth atlas’s, maps, globes and books on travel. I spent about two hours in there! Heaven. And yes, a book whilst travelling is perfect.

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  5. I read a book, which odd ones I buy if I know I will refer to them again, or use often, but if it’s a one off read, I either will buy second-hand, or use the library.
    I like to read when mainly at home, but rare occasions have been at a coffee shop, if not the library itself.

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    1. Libraries are wonderful although in truth I haven’t been to one in a while. I hope you have a nice one with lots of chairs to be able to sit and read to your hearts content! My mother used to take me to one in the nearby town and we would take out books for my grandmother which had large writing as her sight wasn’t very good. They are such a treasure trove aren’t they! Happy reading my friend. ❤️

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      1. Libraries are wonderful and my local library feels very comfortable to be in if I want to read there. There are two levels to my local library, that had books on both floors, but also the second floor has a place where you can have snacks or a drink from the vending machines.

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  6. I don’t read books as much as I’d like. I often come across a book recommended online, head to Amazon and hover over the buy button, then remember the pile of unread books I bought with the same eagerness over the last couple of years and add it to my wishlist instead.

    I do read quite a bit online, so perhaps a day or two a week where I unplug from the devices and go back to paper is in order.

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    1. Without wanting to sound odd, there is something rather lovely about the actual holding of a book do you think? Although I must admit that when I’m reading one on the train, I feel quite old fashioned as 99% of people are on their phones. Do you remember (actually I’ve no idea how old you are, so sorry I’m being rather presumptuous!) when everyone read the broadsheets on the tube … they took up as much room as a person did! It’s obvious from the way in which you write that you’re well read – I enjoy reading your posts very much! … Favourite book of all time?

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      1. I am old enough to recall seeing men in macs with briefcases reading broadsheets on trains. I never really understood why the papers had to be so big, very inconvenient, and it’s not like they were full of large images, it was all tiny print!

        Yeh I love the feel of a book, and just being in a library or bookshop is very calming. The order of the books, the scent, just being surrounded by paper. Maybe the fact that books are made from trees is a factor??

        Favourite book? Well the first one that came to mind was On The Road by Jack Kerouac. It’s the book that gave me most inspiration and freedom as a poet and writer, and showed me yes you can cram strings of words together in long breathless sentences to make them viscerally wonderful.

        I loved his intense romanticism too, but not in a flouncy or flowery way, it’s equal parts grit and sweat and sinew too…

        Also a book of poems by Dylan Thomas had a similar impact. Such rich and sensuous writing, so physical.

        Kerouac led me to Walt Whitman poems like Song Of The Open Road, and Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, both great influences on how my writing evolved, and both full of nature too, an endearing theme since childhood and exploring fields and woods and clambering over hay bales.

        Another that comes to mind is How To Be Your Own Life Coach by Fiona Harrold, which set me on a coaching path, where I studied and became a coach then did it online for some years after, then honing down to creativity coaching, which my former blog and community revolved around.

        Finally Seth Godin’s Tribes, which opened my eyes to how any of us can build a tribe, a community, with shared goals and interests.

        From my childhood, Famous Five, Secret Seven, Mr Men, Ladybird “How It Works” books and a series of adventure books by Willard Price called Amazon Adventure, African Adventure etc were my staples.

        Well, you did ask.

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      2. Crikey! Ok so you’re now on a pedestal. Sadly I can only admit to having read the Enid Blyton books which is slightly embarrassing. I devoured The Famous Five, Secret Seven and the more girly ‘Mallory Towers’ which gave me some inordinately incorrect views on life in a boarding school. They were bliss though – the books, not the reality of boarding.
        Thanks so much for sharing … clearly I have to up my game a bit! X

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  11. The latest ebook readers have waterproof versions and I think you can connect them via Bluetooth even. I started reading on an iPad several years ago using the Kindle, Kobo and iBook apps and just love it (using a Samsung Galaxy Tab now). You can get instant word definitions and Wikipedia look ups and highlight and take notes – and save a lot of money if you read a lot, which I do (mosty non-fiction).

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      1. What DON’T I read is an easier question to answer. I’ve read very little fiction. So lot’s of science, psychology, philosophy, Wired magazine, the New Yorker, the Economist. I have an insatiable appetite for learning. Most recently I’ve subscribed to Lynda.com (now LinkedIn learning) and learning Web Design and Development. Thanks for asking!

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      2. Crikey! That’s fantastic! I like the idea of a magazine called the New Yorker; I’m moving there in June so maybe it would be useful for me too. I met someone last year who also had a huge appetite for learning, plus he had a photographic memory so retained it well. We cycled together for a few days and had many an interesting discussion. It was fascinating!

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