Books I Have Loved

Books help us grow. They teach us invaluable life lessons, offer comfort and joy, a place to hide and heal for those who need it. Books make us think and feel, and sometimes even question our own beliefs. Books don’t necessarily offer instant gratification, like so many young people are used to these days. Reading takes time, but a good book has the power to make hours and days disappear. A book is like a movie that’s only showing in your head, it feeds our imagination, helps us see things in a new light. Reading is magical.

Books I have loved.

Andrew Smith - Ghost Medicine

Adam Rapp - 33 Snow fish

S.E. Hinton - Rumble Fish

Andreas Steinhofel - The Center of the World

J.D. Salinger - The Catcher in the Rye

Aidan Chambers - Postcards From No Man’s Land

Sonya Hartnett - Surrender

Suzanne Kingsbury - The Summer Fletcher Greel Loved Me

James Howe - The Watcher

Celia Rees - The Wish House

Bookish

Sometimes I really miss my mum. It's rare, but it happens. Yesterday was one of those days. I found myself remembering her large collection of books, how the bookcase and shelves would cover the entire wall in the living room. She kept her most expensive books, the heavy coffee table ones with glossy pages and beautiful colour photos behind glass doors on the third highest shelf. On a Sunday afternoon she’d sit in her favourite armchair with a book in one hand and a glass of red wine in the other. She’d have a relaxed, almost soft look on her face and it was like seeing her through someone else’s eyes. Maybe that’s who she was when we weren’t around? I remember her taking me and my sister to the library to get our own library cards and having a lively discussion with the librarian about children’s literature. We’d browse the shelves and carefully select three books each, nervously eyeing our mum whose voice seemed to fill up the entire room. Didn’t she know you’re supposed to whisper? I realise that being immersed in a book and teaching her English classes may have been the only times when mum was truly happy, and I wonder how she feels now that her job and passion has been taken away from her.