Day 17: Books

shinya_diey asked me about books:

We always had books in the house when I was a kid, and I'm the same now, even though I don't read a great deal at the moment. I have three bookcases, mostly non-fiction, recipe books, anthologies I've been published in, and old favourite fantasy fiction.

I remember my parents reading to me and my sister when we were little - she and I got to take turns choosing. My dad read us The Hobbit, and maybe some of Lord of the Rings as well - we taped the cartoon version, and my sister and I watched it till we wore out the tape. My sister liked the Mogg books, and she's named (by me!) after a character in a book I read (or my parents read to me, I guess) a bit before she was born. Apparently, when I was very little, I made my mum read Little Grey Rabbit to me all the time, to the point that I knew if she missed a bit, and would keep reciting the story if she stopped reading.

My favourite book is Cuckoo in the Nest, by Michelle Magorian. I borrowed it from the school library when I was 11 or 12, and then dragged my parents into every bookstore we passed the whole summer, looking for a copy. I still have the same copy, though it's starting to fall apart from being read so much. I also have a much newer copy signed by the author, who I almost got to meet. I volunteered at the Literature Festival near me a few years back, but had to come back to Bristol for one day, for the launch of the project I worked on, which was the day she was at the festival and I missed her. It was a good five years ago, and I'm still bitter, especially since she's never come back.

What else can I say about books? I love secondhand bookstores, and the random things you find there - my dad's Christmas present this year is from a secondhand bookstore. I like older, battered books, ones that feel loved, more than brand new books, and paperbacks over hardbacks, though I'll always try to give a hardback rather than
a paperback as a gift if I can... And that's me and books, I think.