The explorer in me likes to travel to far flung places and experience new sights, sounds and people.
The detective in me likes to try to figure out who has committed a crime and why.
The romantic in me likes to find out how people got together, the rocky road they’ve travelled and how it all ended.
The historian in me likes to know what life was like in the olden days and how things have changed.
The psychologist in me works overtime trying to understand people’s behaviour.
And all of this I do through reading.
As far back as I can remember I’ve always enjoyed curling up with a good book. As a child I made regular visits to the local library with my parents and my brother. We each had three tickets and were given time to wander around looking through all the books and making our selection. My childhood favourites included the Nancy Drew and Swiss Chalet School series which I devoured. Three books that I owned and loved were Pollyanna, Helen Keller and Heidi. I remember the night I was coming towards the end of Heidi (a red leather-bound book with full page pictures scattered throughout). I was determined to get to the end but my mum came to tell me it was time for lights out. I asked for another ten minutes which were granted. Then the light was switched off….and after a few minutes I closed the door and switched it back on and kept reading. It was switched off again and so I got up and found a torch and hid under the covers…I got caught but persevered. I was so engrossed in the story I had to get to the end.
Over time, as I grew up it became harder to find time to read other than in bed at night. Holidays became a treasured time where I could catch up. I remember working my way through the catalogue of books by Catherine Cookson – old fashioned but I loved them! – and a series by Maisie Mosco about a Jewish family (the first book was Almonds and Raisins). As an adult this continued and I’d read anything I could get hold of – chick lit like the Sophie Kinsella Shopaholic books or crime thrillers like Ian Rankin’s Rebus books and Val McDermid’s gripping novels. One of the most relaxing holidays I had was a week away on my own where I got through 6 books in 7 days!
When I moved to Kenya, I had no television for the first year I was here and read quite often in the evenings. Then I moved to Nairobi, started watching TV and tweeting and lost the art of reading. Constant skimming of 140 character messages made it hard for me to focus on a book. Then I met Aleya Jamel of the Reading Revolution and had an exciting conversation about reading and how great it is. I realised I had been missing my escapism and picked up a book and started to read. It took a while but I got into it. Then I had a few days break at coast…finished the first book, bought another and finished it and started on a third which I’m now working my way through.
Now I remember why I love reading and I’ll never go back to that bookless place again!
