Old Lad

From an early age I have loved books. I love bookshops and still feel guilty buying books on Amazon – there’s nothing beats browsing. I love the feel of books and particularly the feeling when you open the first page of a new book. I have tried using electronic readers but I can’t get away with them. They just don’t provide the same comfort of a proper book. I think this love of books goes back to my primary school. We had a head teacher who was passionate about us reading and every year without fail I used to get the same comment on my report- “Continue to make books your friends”. So I did, and read avidly – Enid Blyton, the Jennings and Derbyshire books, Charles Dickens, Treasure Island – and got lost in their worlds. For as long as I remember I have always read a book in bed last thing at night – no screens for me!

So now in retirement I have the luxury of having time to read although after a busy life it has taken some time to adapt to the idea that I don’t have to be doing something all the time. And that sitting with a book is a legitimate thing to do. I suppose over the years I have taken it for granted that we always had books in the house. I remember one of my best ever birthday presents was when an aunt bought me my first bookcase – it was a Lloyd Loom one and lasted for years. When I was working as a GP it used to make me sad about how few houses I visited had books around. There are some glimmers of hope that children may be returning to books and the current Queen’s promotion of reading May help

So what do I read now? I have always liked spy novels – John Le Carre and his ilk. It’s interesting over the years that spy novels moved away from Russia as “the enemy “ to other hotspots in the World – although I suspect now we will be drifting back to Russia. Because Edinburgh is one of my favourite places I am an Inspector Rebus fan and I think I have every copy of Ian Rankin’s novels. As I’ve got older I’ve taken to reading good travel writing especially if it involves places I’ve been to. Some of the older travel books can be very evocative. I remember when I spent the year working in Saudi Arabia reading Wilfred Thesinger’s Arabian Sands, and thinking not much had changed for the Bedouin despite the oil wealth. I currently am half way through The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard. He was a member of Scott’s last expedition to the South Pole and was part of the team who discovered the tent where Scott perished. The book was written in 1922 but the writing is superb, easy to read and really conveys what it was like in Antarctica.. I’ve recently enjoyed the Shetland series of crime novels so much so that Shetland is now on my list of places to travel to.

I find I like to have 2 or 3 books on the go at the same time. Apart from the variety it’s a a good mental exercise to be able to pick up where you left off. So put down your Kindle and “Continue to make books your friends”!