Category: Reading

  • Share the love

    Books are wonderful things. I love reading them, I love writing them, I love enthusing about books, and over time I’ve grown to love reviewing books, too, which I do with other YA-loving friends on the Paisley Piranha site, as well as posting to Goodreads and Amazon. I read an interesting piece this week (Jenny…

  • Spoilt for Choice

    I was in enough trouble yesterday when I drafted this post. Then I went to the library. I didn’t need any more books, I wasn’t going to get any more books … but I thought I might as well have a little look, just in case. Yeah, well, all readers know how that one ends.…

  • School milk memories

    Today’s planned blog was derailed (in a good way) by a tweet. A twitter friend tweeted about plans in Scotland to return the “milk break” to all primary school children. (You can read the article here if it’s a topic of interest.) As one of the generation whose milk was “snatched” by Maggie Thatcher, this brought…

  • Previews

    I love paper books, as my overflowing bookshelves will attest. But I also have two eReaders (for Kindle and Kobo) and the feature I love best is their ability to let me read a preview before deciding to buy a book. It’s the equivalent of scanning the first page or two in the bookshop, but with the…

  • Books unread

    If books create a whole new world for readers to enjoy, then some books stand out as landmarks, familiar spots we can all relate to as a shared experience. Not to have read these giants of literature (if you are a person who reads) becomes a cause for surprise and even concern by others – akin…

  • Bias on my bookshelves

    I’ve been reading articles lately about gender bias in book reading and reviewing. It seems that men don’t read books by women, and ‘serious’ (whatever that means) publications are reluctant to review commercial fiction by women. They’ve made me think about my own bias, because if there is one, it definitely runs the other way.…

  • The Devil’s in the details

    Today’s blog was prompted by a discussion I had with friends about reviews and whether they’re actually any help to readers and whether anyone (except paranoid writers) pays any attention to them. Opinions varied with some readers always using reviews to help them decide whether or not to buy/read a book, while others paid no…

  • Why I’m no good in a book club

    Maybe people who know me would roll their eyes and mutter, “Of course” at this, but it turns out I’m a bit of a contrary so and so. I love getting book recommendations and finding new books and authors I can fall in love with, but I don’t like being told what to read. This…

  • The Comfort of Old Friends

    I got book vouchers for my birthday in November, and more for Christmas. Whilst the days have been filled with lazy holiday vibes I’ve been checking Twitter recommendations and I now have a well-stuffed Kindle. So why do I find myself dipping back into my battered paperback of Steven Gould’s Jumper, which I must have read 8…