Reading is one of lifes greatest luxuries, something I must confess I don’t dedicate enough time to in regular life. My daily reading is built into my commute, 15 minutes in the morning, and 15 minutes on the way home. My godfather told me when I was young, that reading 20 minutes of fiction and 20 minutes of non fiction a day will make one a profound reader and writer. I’de love to aspire to this, but am only managing the one sesh of 20 mins a day so far!
However, that’s reality - the place we vacated Monday 23rd, we’re in unprecedented isolation times… and I’v been making the absolute most with my gift of time: waking up and reading for 2/3 hours a day, sometimes having another session in the evening.
So I thought I’d keep a note of what I’m getting through…
It’s important to note, that I tend to read 4/5 ongoing books at once, one fiction and a few non-fictions, reading a few pages here and there. So I’m half way through 5 books at any one time!
Reading List
📖Still Life With Woodpecker - Tom Robins
An extremely abstract tale of a Princess who falls in love with an outlaw. The levels of creativity in the writing are bewildering and brilliant.
📖Plantain Papers - (Magazine) Issue 002
I read this front to back, it has brilliant recipes, stories, articles all from POC, this episode was focused on “self-care”.
📖The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
This was one of the first movies I ever watched as a kid, and I remember how when I was aged 5, the beautiful music in the ending credits made me cry. I read this front to back in 3 days! The power of the gift of time. Stunning descriptions of animals, plants and flowers, and the over all moral of the story, that nature is the best thing for happiness and health seem really pertinent at the moment!
📖 Farenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
A book set in a future whereby we live between 4 TV walls and firemen are hired to burn any remaining books! WILD.
📖 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
A anthropological piece following Conrad on his journeys through the Congo via rivers. The book certainly confused me in places, and had me marvelling in others.
📖 Music, Culture and Conflict in Mali - Andy Morgan
I loved this book, it’s factual and simply uses paragraphs from news across the years to explain the situation in Mali, particularly since the 2012 Al Qaida takeover. In formative, and super easy to dip in and out.
