Why Read?

Why read? Because it connects us to people in other places and times, it allows us to experience things we'll never experience and feel things we never would otherwise have had cause to feel. When we read we can visit new worlds and learn stories other than our own. Reading gives us empathy, it gives us ideas and escape, it gives us power. But most of all, I read because I can't not and for as long as I've been reading I've been talking to people about it. Books have given me knowledge, companionship, reassurance, and most importantly, in recent years, books have given me a whole load of actual, real life friends (I have other, non bookish friends too, just in case you were wondering) and they've given me a job doing a thing that I love. 

Six and a half years ago when I started blogging I thought my original blog was where I'd always stay - that there was no way I would ever outgrow it or not be inspired by it and honestly that's still the case, but I do feel like six and a half years is a lot of stuff. For me, An Armchair by the Sea, a blog title which I only realised wasn't actually about books at all after four years of keeping it, now feels like relics of a past life. It began as a blog solely about books and much as I tried it was always hard to break away from that, but now that I have the Ninja Book Box blog to talk about books I'd like to do less of that here. There will still be books (because as mentioned above, I can't not) but I'd like to talk about the rest of my life too. I'd like to do more of what I used to do when I first started blogging and talk about my thoughts about things and sometimes even write just for the sake of it. I'd like it to be spontaneous and pressure free and just for me. 

I won't be running any challenges or events out of this blog (if you see me trying, feel free to give me a swift kick). It's just fun. Lists don't count, because lists are fun, but I feel good about keeping this as an uncluttered thought forum. That was a pretentious sounding sentence, but it just means that there's often a lot going on in my life and lately I've been feeling like I'm making a terrible impression when I actually speak to people and I think that it's because I'm not writing any more. I've always felt like this is a safe space to get my thoughts out and maybe they make more sense here than when I actually speak to real life people? Who knows, but anyway it feels like it's necessary to bring this space back in some form, and the (incredibly inventive, I know) title change means that I'm giving myself more freedom to talk about stuff we're doing as a family - things we're growing, making, discovering - as well as what I'm reading and what I'm reading to the boys. 

If you don't know me already, the archive of the past six years is here. Onwards!