Storytellers Are Readers (And Thank you, Nadine!)

I have now set my Sunday morning routine for the foreseeable future: Stay in bed (or half in bed) until midday, reading and sipping coffee (black, no sugar). So, please do not disturb, and the phone will be on mute anyway.

I don’t allow myself enough time for reading. Sure, I read stuff online, including on my dear little Samsung Note phone. I much prefer to write on the computer (give me my Mac keyboard over pen and paper, any time). I belong to GoodReads but don’t have much time to pay it attention.

For me, though, there is nothing like the feel of a page between my fingers, and the pleasure of turning that page, again and again… and sometimes turning down the corner of a page that is important (while trying to resist the temptation to underline, to scribble my comments in the margins, bearing in mind that someone else may read the book, and it is rather rude to do that, isn’t it).

I love the @noveliciouss tweets, too. Imaginative visuals and great writers’ quotes.

I’m old-fashioned like that. I have a Kindle, but have never really developed a relationship with it. Its hard, black screen is not inviting, to me. I much prefer the solidity of hardcover books, also; and the paper sleeves (which I never remove), with a different design than the paperback.

The book that is currently bringing a smile to my face is The Wedding, by Imraan Coovadia (admittedly in paperback). It is witty, often quite comedic – and charming – the story of a strong-willed Indian woman, who migrates to South Africa with her husband.

But more of that later. I plan to write more book reviews. You will find quite a few here on my blog, and I have several more lining up to be written.

This reminds me that I myself was the subject of an article by a Jamaican writer and blogger, Nadine Tomlinson. I highly recommend her beautifully organised and sensitive blog. The link is here. I am the September feature in her monthly series, The Storytellers. It’s Nadine’s interview with me about reading, writing, books and writing book reviews. I enjoyed talking to Nadine and really appreciated her inviting me to her blog.

As you may or may not know, I worked in the “book business” for eight years in Jamaica, first with Heinemann, West Indies Publishers and The Bookshop (both now defunct). The famed Caribbean publisher Ian Randle was my first boss in Jamaica. I spent weekends immersed in publishers’ catalogs (and reading). The retail side of things was also really enjoyable: creating displays of books; talking to (and learning from) customers about everything from black writers to science fiction to romance; rearranging bookshelves to my heart’s content; and several crazy Christmases, when we did a roaring trade. I would do it all over again.

Ah, the world of books is alluring. I invite you to step into it, some more.

The author and the reader “know” each other: they meet on the bridge of words
Madeleine L’Engle
#amwriting #reading Another one from @noveliciouss