My book, My self

Comfort reading

There is nothing like curling up by the fire with a good book is there? Whether it’s with a glass of red wine or a big mug of hot chocolate, there are few things I enjoy more than spending long, quiet hours infront of the fire with my cats and a good book in hand – that is surely what heaven must look like.

So when I come across a book that describes exactly how I feel about books, it’s like a double whammy. I am currently reading Kate Morton’s new book The Distant Hours, which is a huge satisfying tome to spend my Sunday afternoon with for a start, but imagine my delight when I come across paragraphs like this:

“…I finally found myself standing at the open door of a bookshop. It’s natural in times of great perplexity, I think, to seek out the familiar, and the high shelves and long rows of neatly lined-up spines were immensley reassuring. The smell of ink and binding, the dusty motes in beams of strained sunlight, the embrace of warm, tranquil air, I felt I could breathe more easily. I was aware of my pulse slowing to its regular pace and my thoughts stilling their wings.”

 

Ahhhh. This could be me writing this. Now I know I said that one of my favourite things to do is to curl up infront of a fire with a book, but one of my other favourite things to do is to actually be in a bookshop. I swear, it’s like my own personal therapy; whatever else is going on in my life, whatever stress I am feeling, being in a bookshop is always a magical experience – row upon row of treasures all waiting to be explored. For me, a bookshop is the most powerful medicine no matter what the ailment. It’s like Christmas day every time I enter one.

 

“…I picked out favourite authors and titles like a teacher taking a roll-call. Bronte – presnet; Dickens – accounted for; Shelley – a number of lovely editions. No need to slide them out of place; just to know that they were there was enough, to brush them lightly with my fingertips.”

 

Does anyone else feel like this about bookshops? Is there really anything better? Does anything else soothe the soul better than being amongst all those undiscovered gems and familiar friends?