Book Lover

Book Lover

I have written a few blogs about my love of reading, about books, book clubs and book shops. About collecting and sniffing books and about buying more books when I still haven't read all the ones I already have! My love of books and reading runs very deep. It is a love affair I have had for such a long time. I can't remember not ever reading! I do feel better for browsing bookstores, talking books at my book clubs and buying books. I totally agree with this quote. This page, Because all the books is a fab page to follow, full of lovely quotes. 

It really is! It is a mixture of mindfulness, as when your mind is on your book and the physical reading of the words, you can't be worrying. Also, you do fall for the characters and genuinely want to know what is going to happen next. You can't wait to get back into the plot and you look forward to picking your book back up again when you get home. Sometimes, when I feel a bit down or a bit bleurgh, I know I can pick my book up and feel better.

This quote is spot on!

I even found a statistics quote on pinterest so it must be true! As in the photo, the sipping of a hot drink can also add to the relaxation factor!

I can tell reading helps keep me relaxed because I do feel a bit on a low when I have finished my book. If it is a fab book, I kind of miss the characters. 

I do crave the simple things in life, such as my books, my pots and my doggy. I love this artwork from pinterest. So cosy!

I love settling down on the settee with my cuppa, my book and my doggy. Keep it simple!

I love taking photos and sharing to our book club, each new book I read. 

This quote is so true too. I still love going out but I find I am craving my Me Time much more, the older I get. My recharging my batteries time. I can be reading or just alone with my thoughts. We need this time in this busy age!

I look forward to visiting our local bookshops and market stall. These are lovely places where my friends and I always have a warm welcome, a fab book chat and go away with precious books that have grabbed our attention on that visit! 

I do love shopping but my fave shopping is for books and handmade gifts. I still want to own a book shop but for now, I am happy visiting them and reading books about them! 

Bookstores are so important and I am glad to see more opening. This quote made me laugh!

I love this pinterest quote. So true!

My weakness, really has always been books. Books and CDs, then books and cups! Right back when my great auntie gave me WHSmith book vouchers for birthdays and Christmases. I would excitedly visit our local shop and buy an Enid Blyton book. Then a Sweet Valley High book! Still have that weakness now!

One of our local bookshops, Fosters book shop, holds a fab Quiet Reading book club every month and it is so lovely to attend. We take our camping chairs and drinks and read, uninterrupted for one whole hour. Yes, one whole hour! I really look forward to these evenings! We browse the new and second hand books, read, then purchase our books. Such a fab evening! This lovely artwork from pinterest reminds me of us all, sat round, reading in companionable silence.

I love hosting my book club and the folk who come and share their love of books are amazing! Such a wonderful collection of people who care for each other. Book clubs become so much more than loving books and discussing reading. We have some brilliant discussions and many laughs but underneath, there is this shared friendship for each other. We all catch up and yes, we want to know what we have read but we also catch up on the stories of each other's lives too. I am so proud of this group. I have just started a new group too and  so excited to see this grow as well. 

I do feel that books can connect people. The emotions we feel when we read books, when we are engulfed in the story are mega. We can't hold these feelings and opinions in so how lovely to share them with people who have read the same books? I have had so many lovely book conversations with people through book clubs and book shops. 

I love recommending my favourite reads and love it even more when people say they have read and loved them. It is also lovely when they haven't heard of the books so read them on your say so and enjoy them! One of my fave books and book series is from when I was at school, Anne of Green Gables by L M Montgomery. I love Anne so much! 

There are so many books I feel the need to recommend to everyone. Another one, set in a little tea room in Scarborough and on the East coast, is such a warming read. Especially when you can see the places you have loved visiting all your life! 

I always recommend Margaret Atwood Cat's Eye. A book I read as a 19 year old at uni and it has stayed with me all these years. 

The other recommendation is from my GCSEs and this book just came alive to me! I love the nostalgia and description so much in Laurie Lee's Cider with Rosie!

I love different genres and that is why book clubs are so good. We find new genres and authors through book chats and recommendations. I pick the book I am in the mood for. I love mystery and suspense books and the authors Lisa Jewell, Claire Douglas, Lianne Moriarty, Claire McCintosh, Susan Lewis and Dorothy Koomson. My lovely friend sent me this. She has very good taste!

I also love quirky books and the authors Sally Page, Libby Page, Ruth Hogan, Rachel Joyce, Joanna Nell and Mitch Albom. 

Reading is a personal thing. We share our books and our thoughts and build social times around books. We have lovely times with other bookworms. There is also though, a special relationship between the reader and the book. Between the reader and all the characters and places that come alive when you open the book. You are never on your own. You are walking alongside the main hero, heroine of the book! Or, you have a pet snoring at the side of you whilst you read! 

It is dedicated time, me time for you and your imagination. This time, to many, is so important.

For readers, it is essential we have our reading time. For everyone, hobby time is required to help us relax and de-stress. At times, we can feel as though we should be doing something mire active or some housework but we need to, as the Mars advert always stressed, 'work, rest and play'.

They say 'time flies when you're having fun' and it definitely flies when I am reading. I think I am having half a hour but I look at the clock and it's been three hours! 

So, I am off to read but will prob be distracted! Who needs a bookcation? I do!