READING

My reading habits have changed dramatically over the years. More than 20 years ago, I was reading the classics while finishing my degree in English Literature and Language. I feel really privileged I got to read many of them as I feel I probably wouldn’t have otherwise. Many of them were quite intense and hard to read and I admit I struggled at times, with Joyce for instance, with others I experienced a type of joy that still lingers deep inside my soul.

After University, I started reading out of pure pleasure, more novels than anything else and fewer classics, at the same time I would read the newspapers to keep myself informed and up to date. I remember my Sunday breakfasts in Tomares, Seville. Coffee, toasts, orange juice and the thick Sunday paper to go through almost up until lunch time.

Then mobile phones came along, and smart phones with instant accessibility to news, article, and above all plenty of “rubbish” reading which unfortunately meant a great decay in my reading experience. Nowadays I am learning to stay away from my social media and back into my books, but I am far from reading as much as I should or I’d like to. The bookkeeper of Aleppo is sitting in my bedside table and I am quite enjoying it. Call me Ismail was the last one I read, only just finished it and gripped me for a good 72 hours.

Finally, I’d like to add that I only read paper books, I’ve tried e-books and reading on my mobile or tablet and though it is practical and somehow convenient, I am still inclined to choose the classical paper book.

With regards to the pictures:

1.- T his is a library, a peaceful place to read, quietly and without being interrupted. Readers here choose their own books and are usually well read people.

This picture brings me back to my times studying “oposiciones” I would sit in my village library every afternoons, I can still smell the wooden shelves.

These people would choose their own books if not assigned at school or college

2.- This is a totally different picture, in this one the reading would be an educative one, it is a tender image and takes me to my many hours of parenting my children, doing homework or simply reading night stories to them.

I am sure the people involved in the picture felt safe and enriched by the experience.

The book must have been chosen by either the mother (or lady) or the girl’s school teacher.