Online version of my weekly parenting and lifestyle column in The Nationalist.
Tuesday 25 October 2016
Tonight I’m going to start to read a book. Not read to my children and not read because I’m studying, but I’m going to just read because I love to read. For as long as I can remember I have loved books. Loved the feel and smell of the paper. Loved the way the words flow across the pages and loved being transported to another time and place. Loved the twists and turns, the highs and lows, the loves and losses. I adore books. My earliest memories are of reading Tom McCaughren’s Run With The Wind series, followed by The Famous Five and every Roald Dahl book under the sun. I read under the covers by torch light, and while setting the table for dinner and I read on car journey’s. But since having my children, reading for sheer enjoyment is something I rarely have the pleasure of doing.
So I’ve joined a book club. This is my second attempt at doing so. I made one gathering last time around, helped to decide on a book and then never got around to starting it. This time will be different! Since opening The Baby Room, it has kind of consumed me, both my time and my mind so I’m actively searching for the mental release that fiction brings or the fact based learning that being immersed in a biography brings.
Words are really powerful. They are emotive and they are one of my favourite things, so I’m hoping that the group ethos of a book club will both inspire me to read and read outside of my comfort zone and add to my enjoyment of the book because I’ll be encouraged to engage with the material and question how and why it moves me. Reading books I might not ordinarily choose is one of the things I’m most looking forward to. Usually within a couple of pages I know if a book has me hooked. I’ve abandoned books in the past if I haven’t connected with them, but because of the discussion element of a book club I’ll plough on through and hopefully, even if I don’t enjoy the read, I’ll gain something from it – maybe being put to sleep by it is reward enough! It’s this discussion that appeals to me. It’s always great to get together with like-minded people, and I do so daily in my work, but it’s also nice to meet new and interesting people, people with a different mindset and perspective. Sometimes I’m so immersed in my pregnancy, childbirth, mother world, that I forget anything else exists beyond it, so drawing on the tastes and interests of others will be a new experience for me.
Book clubs involve a social element – food and wine – two more of my favourite things, so when I was invited to join “Women, Wine & Words – The Carlow Chapter”, I happily accepted. Our first book is “The Girl on the Train” by Paula Hawkins and I’m looking forward to getting lost on the journey.
