Monday, July 19, 2010

The evolution of reading

I grew up in a house filled with books and my parents are avid readers, so I've had a love of reading for as long as I can remember. Some of my favourite books when I was a kid included Where the Wild Things Are, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Patchwork Cat, Cops and Robbers, Fungus the Bogeyman.....I could go on.

Although I love it, reading is something that I go through stages of doing a lot of and not so much of, depending on what I'm doing. While travelling I read a lot - I took five or six books with me and continually swapped them at hostels and with other travellers. It sure made for a heavy bag, but the idea of being without a book on some of those long bus rides was not inviting. I've managed to continue this habit here in London, mainly because I spend 30 minutes on the tube each way to work. I'll usually see at least one person on my carriage with one of those Kindle things. I must admit, I view them with disdain - it's probably not particularly environmentally friendly of me, but I think one of the greatest pleasures of reading is the actual book. The feel and smell of them. So many of my childhood books were wrecked with love - probably because I took most of them to bed with me. The idea of using an electronic tool to read a book just doesn't appeal to me. Although I must admit I seldom buy newspapers or magazines anymore since it's almost all available online. And on a Sunday morning when I want to read the papers, can I really face getting up, getting dressed and walking the ten minutes to the corner store to get the Sunday Times and come back and get into bed with it? As with most people, I am not a pretty sight on a Sunday morning - see, I'm not just thinking of myself here. It would be nice though - there's something about letting the sun stream through the curtains as you sit there with a cup of tea and the paper dismantled and spread out around you. But when I can lean out of bed and pick up my laptop and have it instantly at my finger tips, why bother? And no smudgy fingers.



One thing about London that is conducive toward a society of keen readers is that the books are relatively cheap here. Many of the high street bookstores offer '3 for 2' deals and with Amazon having both new and used books online, you can always find a good deal there. I am still a big fan of books being lent, exchanged and handed on.....and this makes me slightly more environmentally friendly (take THAT Oprah!) - it's always great to share a good read with someone else. I was pretty happy yesterday to find a local store with £1 second hand books and bought My Year of Meat, by Ruth L. Ozeki, which my cousin recommended to me recently. The best books I've read recently would have to be Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman (a great selection by my Dad who has always had an incredible knack for being able to pick books for me that I've never heard of but end up loving), The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb and Sydney Bridge Upside Down (Dad again), a wonderfully written book by a New Zealand author David Ballantyne, first published in 1968, it has been out of print for 30 years until recently but very artfully written. All of these books are currently in the hands of friends. One of the books I carted around South America with me was The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield - I finished the book right at the beginning of my trip but the edition of the book was somewhat unique and it was such a great story, I carried it on the rest of my trip so I could send it to my sister when I got back. In this modern age, I'll happily use the internet for my news, weather, jobs, flatmates and movie times, but as far as reading goes - give me a good book any day.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

My summinter holiday

Right now it's summertime in London, which is awesome. It doesn't get dark till 10pm, there is an abundence of enticing beer gardens, the Clapham Common is covered with half naked people, Pimms and bbq become my staple diet and everyone is just generally so much happier. Usually at this time of year, people go away for one, or several, holidays. My summer holiday was a visit back to New Zealand. Where it's winter. So I like to think of it as my summinter holiday.

I went back mainly for my cousin's wedding, the one who was proposed to by sheep. Considering I have not been back at work long, and I'm still recovering financially from South America, two weeks was all the time that could be spared off, so I headed off on an almost 36 hour journey for the land of chocolate fish, jandals and Flight of the Conchords. Initially, I must admit, I wasn't really excited about the prospect of going home - it's such a long way to go for such a short time and the weather in London was amazing just before I left. Of course I was looking forward to seeing family and friends, but I was last home in February of last year, and in my mind, not that long ago.



I had a great time - I spent almost a week in Canterbury on the family farm, the wedding was near Rakaia, almost at the base of Mt Hutt, so I got to enjoy some of the spectacular scenery New Zealand is famous for and the wedding itself was lovely. I also spent five days in Wellington, my home city. A lot of my friends there now seem to be doing the settling down thing. One particular evening, of the five girls there, I realised I was the only single one - all of them were either buying/selling houses, living with long term partners, thinking about babies, renovating, divorcing....and I suddenly wondered when we all got so grown up. I still use the expression 'when I grow up'. Apparently, I'm already there. I also saw two of my friends who are pregnant, one of which I was bridesmaid for a few years ago, so that was pretty special. For some reason I get insanely excited being around pregnant woman. Weird I know, but I can't help it!

By the time I left New Zealand, I had made the most of my two week summinter holiday - there was plenty of booze and food involved and I relished the cheap sauvingnon blanc, incredible lamb and perfect flat whites. And I actually left feeling quite sad, which I was surprised about - and I don't think it was domestic bliss envy. London is home for me right now, but I've always felt that I have one foot back home and this was well and truly confirmed on this trip back. Maybe it won't be as long as I thought until I'm back for good....we'll see.