Book some quiet time

From childhood until rather recently I was a voracious reader, and similar to my love of music I had catholic tastes and would delve into pretty much anything.

It wasn't unusual for me to be partially through about four books at a time, fiction and non- fiction, working through them all like a chain smoker who has no wish to quit.

Then for a few reasons I tailed off from being knee deep in books, and very often I would have only one on the go that was being read in snatches.

This change was partly because my eyesight had slightly dipped and reading was becoming a chore rather than a pleasure.

It wasn't something I noticed as a problem at first, but subconsciously I was just setting books aside and often not going back to them.

When I did click on it as an issue I went for an eye test and sure enough I needed reading glasses.

From then I had a short spurt of getting back into books in general, but life sort of got in the way, and finding time to read was far more difficult than I thought.

That is until I made a conscious decision a few weeks ago to just knuckle down and push myself out of the not reading rut I was in.

I think the catalyst was the discussion had on Facebook about the Jack Reacher books that are written by Lee Child.

I felt I was missing out on something as a good solid percentage of people I know had read them all.

Not one or two, but had rattled through all seventeen and were waiting for the eighteenth to be released.

So what I did was have a quick look about and I bought a few.

I managed to get the first two so that I could have a good run at immersing myself in them, but while I was searching for Jack Reacher bargains I returned to the Stephen King novel 11.22.63 that I had picked at and gave it my full attention.

Within a matter of an hour the book I thought had been dragging when I was reading it in snatches came to life and I was hooked.

In no time at all I felt that I had reacclimatized myself and I could now describe myself as a reader, a lover of books, again.

From finishing that the first two Jack Reacher novels were then quickly demolished, and while I waited for the third to be delivered I started on The Yard, the debut novel from Alex Grecian.

That was torn through in record time and now my eye is on the newly delivered Reacher.

I know have ten of the seventeen of the series in my possession and I'm 'aving them large.

The reason I'm sharing all this is because the newer books that I will be reading will be getting a short review along with the live gigs, album/single releases, theatre and films that get a mention on the blog.

And I would advocate that those who have eased away slightly from reading should maybe think about losing themselves in one or two as I've found it to be a great stress buster.