For the love of books!

 For the love of books

Most people who know me always think of me in terms of my love of music.

What many don’t realise is that my love of books and reading is almost as bad. After adding two more books to my collection yesterday and once again realising I have nowhere to put them, other than on my desk, I thought I’d ‘out myself’ as a bookworm.

I love all kinds of books, but my favourites are PMA books – Positive Mental Attitude as they’re known (or laughed at by those who just think it’s American hype).

I first discovered them in the summer of 1990 when I was walking around my local newsagents. A book called ‘The Magic of Thinking Big’ caught my eye, and having purchased it and read it, I was engrossed (I still have two worn-out copies amongst my collection).

A lot of what it said made sense to me and over the years, I’ve bought and read so many of them. Books like ‘What To Say When You Talk To Yourself’ and ‘Tough Times Never Last but Tough People Do’ have helped me through some times of great adversity. 

I read my books with a highlighter pen close by and most of my books have highlighted sentences or paragraphs with ideas and thoughts that seemed relevant to me at the time. It also means I can pick a book up and just read the highlighted parts when I need some wisdom.

I also love a biography or an autobiography. I enjoy reading what makes people tick. It’s rare that I don’t pick up a morsel of a thought that helps me in one way or another.

Fiction wise, David Baldacci and Ken Follett are favourites of mine.

The problem is that my books are taking over – I can’t bear to part with them.  As you can see in these photos, they’re taking over. My bookshelf in the office is full, my wardrobe in the bedroom has books piled on top of it (my TBR’s are at the front – To Be Read).

My office has them in amongst my LPs and on top of cabinets. 

And my bedside cabinet has a pile of books I read from before I go to sleep.

Downstairs, there’s even more. Debz and Niall are avid readers too – so the books I’m showing in the photos, probably only represent around a third of what we have in the house. I also have a 4 drawer filing cabinet in the garage which is pretty much full of books!

I can’t see us not continuing to buy books – if you wonder how I find the time to read them, around 25 years ago, said that you should aim to read for 15 minutes a day. Doing that, you’d read 4-5 books a year. I’ve always read more than that, so it’s never been a problem.

The way I look at it, my Mum taught me to read very early in my life. I could read before I went to school. I’ve always liked to read.

I’m surprised at how many people don’t – there’s a whole world of adventure, emotions, knowledge and advice inside those covers, from people far more erudite than I. And I can learn from their knowledge for as little as a couple of quid. Why wouldn’t I?

And besides, what would have been the point of learning to read, if I didn’t read? It makes no sense to me.

And if you’re thinking to yourself, “for all that reading, you haven’t achieved much.” My answer would be, “Maybe not, but could you imagine where I might have ended up had I not learned what I do know for these writers?”

Feel free to post photos of your book collections. I'm always intrigued by what other people read. If you post photos, can you hashtag them #jmlt - that way I can search and find them easily.

While you're at it, comment below to tell me about your collection of books. I'd love to know what you read. I'm nosey like that!

Until next time...

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