Category: Bookish Posts

Bookish Posts, Uncategorized

How I Built a Consistent Reading Habit

Theodore's Bookish Thoughts

I have always been a keen reader, but I haven’t always read consistently. We tell ourselves we are going to smash through our books, that all our spare time is going to go towards reading so we can show everyone just how bookish we are… And then tomorrow comes along and nothing gets read. Which is fine, it’s only one day missed… And then another day. And another. Until the end of the week arrives and your book remains on the shelf gathering dust. Sound familiar?

It’s not surprising that many of us fail to make time for the things we enjoy doing. After all, life is busy at the best of times. And not only that, but modern life has become incredibly distracting. I’m sure we’ve all had moments where we’ve scrolled on our phones for 10 minutes, only to find that, actually, over an hour has flown by – Time that we could have used for reading! It’s important not to be too hard on ourselves when this happens, especially when you consider that this is literally what a lot of technology is designed to do. The fact you got distracted doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you, but rather that the technology is working exactly as it should.

Now, I’m not going to go into the science of how technology gets us hooked, or whether it is a good thing or a bad thing. But, I will be discussing some of the ways that I, despite this, have developed a consistent reading habit which I hope will help others do the same.

1. Set my environment

I think this is probably one of the simplest, but also the most overlooked, technique. Many of us will have at least one book (or four, or five…) on our bedside table, which is a good start. But, how often do you actually pay attention to what is on your bedside table? Do you notice which books are on there, or has your mind become blind to the fact that they are even there? If your brain doesn’t clock the books on your bedside table, chances are you won’t even think about reading… Until you’re in bed about to fall asleep, at which point it is too late.

To combat this, before I get into bed, I take a book from my bedside table and place it on the duvet next to where I lie down. This means that when I get into or lie on top of my bed, the book is there as a reminder – I don’t need to think about reading because the book is already there. There is an ironic question following this, being “How do you remember to put the book on your bed in the first place?”. Well, the answer is a combination of points 2 and 3 below.

2. Have a Prompt

The biggest mistake many of us make is to rely on our brains to remind ourselves to do something. “Oh, I don’t need to put a reminder in my phone, I’m sure I’ll remember it”. And usually, we do remember it… At the least convenient moment. We’ll remember we need to take the bins out when we’re out of the house. We’ll remember that we needed to make lunch when we’re already on the way to work. We’ll remember that we need to read when we’re already drifting off to sleep.

This isn’t always a pure coincidence, but rather in the way our brains work and the activity that goes on while we’re resting or doing something that requires less focus. Again, I’m not going to get into the science of it (If you are interested, many far more knowledgeable people have written books on this), but it is important to consider because it shows us exactly why prompts are so vital. Without prompts, we will likely forget and another day goes by where we completely forgot to read.

I don’t have any prescribed rules for prompts, other than that they should be clear and should catch your attention so you know what the prompt is for and that you actually notice it when it happens. An example can be as simple as putting a reminder in your phone to go off at a specific time. Or you can combine points 1 and 2 by (provided you don’t share your kitchen) leaving a book near the kettle/coffee machine so that when you go to make your morning tea/coffee, your book is there to be read while you wait for your drink to be done. Or it could be anything else – Whatever works for you, so feel free to experiment until you find a prompt that works for you.

3. Habit-stacking

If you have read any books or watched any videos on habit-building, you will almost certainly have come across habit-stacking (or some alternative name). The first time I came across it was in James Clear’s ‘Atomic Habits’, which it seems most people have now read, and now this idea seems to be everywhere you look. And it’s not surprising – The concept is simple, easy to implement, and very effective.

Until you stop to think about it, you probably won’t realise how many habits (whether good or bad) you already have. Perhaps you turn your alarm off, scroll on your phone for a while, get dressed, brush your teeth, make breakfast and a coffee. All of this is done before your brain has properly woken up and without having to plan where you will fit in each of these habits. That’s because all of these habits are stacked on top of each other, acting as a built-in prompt. Getting dressed is your brain’s prompt that it is time to brush your teeth, which is a prompt to make breakfast and a coffee, and so forth, and this is all done automatically.

With this in mind, you may want to consider what habits you already have and whether any of them provide the perfect opportunity to stack a reading habit (either before or after the existing habit). As an example, on a usual day, I go for an early-morning walk shortly after I wake up. When I get back, this is when I make my morning coffee and some cereal before reading my book. Since starting this habit, I barely even think about needing to read in the morning – it has become an automatic habit.

4. Tiny Habits

This is a personal favourite of mine, and I’m sure those close to me will have long become sick of me talking about ‘tiny habits’. It’s a slightly different approach to what I have traditionally seen, but it is what works best for me. 

I first came across the concept of ‘Tiny Habits’ through the work of Dr BJ Fogg (first on a podcast, and then through his book ‘Tiny Habits’) and since then it has made a big difference. There are a few different elements to this technique but, as you have probably guessed already, one of the main points is to keep the habits small enough that you will definitely carry out the habit every day. This doesn’t stop you from doing more than the minimum amount – Only that the minimum amount is initially low.

An example Dr BJ Fogg gives is that he struggled to keep a consistent habit of flossing his teeth. Using the tiny habits technique, he set a simple goal – to floss just one tooth every single day. Some days he would do more than this, but if he ever had a bad day where he didn’t feel like flossing his teeth, all he had to do was floss just one tooth. This built the foundation for his flossing habit, and over time he was able to build it up until he had a routine of flossing all his teeth.

Having used this technique myself, I have found it to be much more effective than I had anticipated – Surprisingly so. After all, I remember being taught at school that if you want to achieve something, the best way to do it is to set your expectations as high as possible so you stretch yourself further. I have seen many others setting their expectations very (but not unreasonably) high, only to crash and burn within a week, and I have experienced this many times myself. Of course, some people seem capable of constantly setting their expectations high and exceeding them – But it, like me, you have tried and failed to establish new habits in the past, I would highly recommend this technique.

So, how low does the initial target need to be? The answer is that it should be as low as it needs to be for you to be able to do it consistently. If you feel able to read 20 pages every day consistently, great! If 10 pages every day feels more realistic, then that’s also great! If you need to set it at 2 or 3 pages every day to make sure you read consistently, then guess what… That’s great! It might not seem like much, to begin with, but the results really do build up over time, especially if you are able to gradually build on the habit.

5. Enjoy the process

This one seems blindingly obvious, but many of us, including myself, have probably fallen into a trap and forgotten this one many a time. We get so caught up in maintaining the habit or exceeding our targets that we forget to actually enjoy what we are doing. And what’s the point of trying to read as much as possible, if in doing so you lose your love for reading?

In these moments, I often stop to remind myself why I am reading in the first place. If it’s a fiction book, then I am probably reading for enjoyment and so this is what takes precedence. If it is non-fiction, then I am probably reading either for enjoyment (in which case, the above applies) or to learn something, in which case, trying to read as much as possible as quickly as possible will likely only reduce my comprehension and retention of the book. This serves as a reminder to take it easy and enjoy the process. 

This is also why I have no problems with DNF’ing (DNF = Did Not Finish) a book. I read because I enjoy it, so I don’t want to have to slog all the way through a book that I’m not enjoying. People often react with horror when hearing that I sometimes DNF books, but personally I don’t see what you would get out of reading a book that you’re not enjoying, especially when I consider my reasons for reading as above (Unfortunately, this doesn’t apply when it comes to things like University textbooks…). So yes, it is ok to stop reading a book when you are part way through. Life is short, and you should spend it reading books you do enjoy!

Outro

Thank you for reading another of my bookish posts – I hope you found it useful, and best of luck if you do choose to implement any of the techniques set out in this post. If you have any other tips/advice, or if you have any comments on the points set out above, then feel free to leave a comment below. 🙂

TBT

Bookish Posts, Uncategorized

What Stories Teach Us

Theodore's Bookish Thoughts

Hello there, and welcome to another bookish post! I have a little under 100 pages left of Claire Fuller’s ‘Swimming Lessons’ left at the time of writing, and so I hope to have another book review for you soon. But for now, I wanted to take some time to write about a bookish reflection I had recently (yes, you can put ‘bookish’ in front of anything and if you think otherwise, you’re wrong).

So, what have I been reflecting on? Well, if you think back to the stories we all read as children, there is often some underlying theme – a lesson to learn – that forms the basis of each story. Those lessons could be about anything from caring for others, learning to share, or about believing in yourself and many of us (whether we realise it or not) carry those lessons with us.

But what about the stories we read as adults? We often think of them as merely being works of fiction, but even the stories we read as adults are crammed full of lessons to learn. They may be lessons about our purpose in life, understanding the daily struggles of others, or dealing with grief. These lessons may be much deeper in meaning than those in children’s books, but they are no less important.

So, why was I reflecting on this? Well, there are sometimes questions of why you would both reading fiction over non-fiction, why play make-believe when you could be learning about something ‘real’. I have always rejected this idea, but this reflection reminds me of the real-world implications of fiction. Fiction books are rarely entirely abstract from the real-world – Even fantasy novels will carry lessons that we can use in our day-to-day lives.

Not only is this form of learning entertaining, but many writers (from fiction writers to business management writers, and even many lifestyle/medical writers) are now recognising the powers of stories. After all, it’s not often that we truly connect with a fact or a statistic. Even the most shocking of statistics only stays with us momentarily before we continue with the world as normal. But the best of stories stay with us forever – I still remember how I felt when I read 1984, and I’m pretty sure that feeling will stay with me forever. And this is why they are probably the best method of teaching life lessons.

So, when you read your next book, try to pick out the different lessons the story teaches us, whether obvious or subtle. You may even want to consider how you can apply those lessons in your life – the choice is yours (just make sure you don’t take away from your enjoyment of the book). The moral of this reflection is, basically – Never underestimate the power of a good story.

This was a slightly different kind of post for you today, but it is always good to reflect once in a while, whether on global challenges or the more trivial aspects of life. If you would like to see more of these kinds of ‘reflections’, then please do let me know in the comments below, but for now, I’m off to grab myself a (decaf) coffee 🙂

TBT

Bookish Posts

Using Hampshire Libraries’ ‘Ready Reads’ service

Theodore's Bookish Thoughts

Quick Summary


Library staff picked out books in accordance with my instructions. They were very efficient in doing so, and picked out some good books which I have, so far, enjoyed. I will definitely continue to use the service.

Introduction


Hello there, and welcome to another bookish post! Admittedly, I haven’t read much in the past few weeks – I have been keeping pretty busy. I have, however, been listening to ‘Tiny Habits’ by BJ Fogg and trying out some of the techniques in there for habit-building, and it has actually been going pretty well, so I am going to re-install a reading habit using the ‘tiny habits’ method. If all goes well, then you should hopefully be seeing more book reviews from me!

About ‘ready reads’


Anyway, where was I?… Oh right, the post! I recently used Hampshire Libraries’ ‘Ready Reads’ service for the first time, specifically through Eastleigh library. I’m not sure whether any other UK libraries have a similar service, but the ready reads service basically involves the library member (in this case, me) filling out a form saying how many books they want and how often, and what kind of books they want. A member of the library staff will then pick out books to match your instructions as closely as possible.

My instructions


I chose up to 6 books every month. While I am unlikely to be able to read 6 books every month consistently, I was worried about the possibility of having books I don’t like and therefore DNF, and that up to 3 (which was the next choice down) might not be enough to get me through the month. I also don’t remember exactly which options I chose for types of books, but I believe they were:

General Fiction
Romance
Sci-fi and fantasy
Non-fiction (business and personal development books)

The books I got


To Rise Again at a Decent Hour (General Fiction) – I am about a third of the way through this book, and currently enjoying it. It is about a dentist who has had difficulties when it comes to relationships and religion, and is now having to deal with someone stealing his identity. It is a little strange, but I am enjoying it so far!

This is How it Ends by Kathleen MacMahon (Romance) – Sadly, this is a book I DNF’d after just a few chapters, because I could not get into it at all (I’m pretty sure book blogging and writing has made me much fussier when it comes to reading and reviewing books…).

The Four by Scott Galloway (Non-fiction) – I actually already have this book and it is on my TBR pile, and so probably won’t read the library’s copy. But it seems super interesting!

Hired by James Bloodworth (Non-fiction) – The author goes undercover at different workplaces and reports on his experience. His first experience is at an Amazon warehouse, which is a very interesting insight into something that many of us may have wondered about, but that we rarely get to see. I haven’t yet got to the other workplaces, but it is an interesting read, and a lot of dedication must have gone into the book.

Early Riser by Jasper Fforde (General Fiction) – I haven’t yet started this book, and so cannot comment on it yet – but it looks interesting!

You Can Beat Your Brain by David McRaney – I haven’t yet started this book. I am a little sceptical, but I will be going into it with an open mind, as you never know!

What I think about the service


I really like it! I find it very difficult to choose which books to read, partly because of the huge selection of books to choose from, and partly because of a fear of picking the wrong book and feeling like I have wasted my time (weirdly, if someone else chooses a book and I don’t like it, I don’t feel like I have wasted my time). Ready Reads means that I don’t have to worry about having to choose which books to read, which getting a range of different books to read.

While there was the inevitable book that I didn’t like, I have really enjoyed two of the books, and the other three seem like they are going to be a good read, and so I can’t fault the books chosen by the library staff. I believe it also only took a couple of days (three at most) for them to pick out the books, so they were very efficient!

So, good books selected quickly by library staff – what’s not to love? I will definitely continue to use the ready reads service while it continues to run.

Summary


I appreciate that this particular service might not be applicable to many of you. However, if it is something you would be interested in, it might be worth checking if your local library has a similar service and, if not, suggesting it to your local library. After all, libraries are always looking for new ways to attract members and get more people reading, and so may appreciate the suggestion.

If you do live in Hampshire, I would highly recommend using the ready reads service!

TBT

Bookish Posts

What I read

Theodore's Bookish Thoughts

Hello there, and welcome to the third ‘Bookish Post’ of my blog! While bookish posts are quite new to my blog (other than book reviews), I must say that I have enjoyed writing about my bookish thoughts, and I think they are here to stay!

This week, I was trying to decide what to write about, when I thought “Last time, I wrote about Why I read… Why not write about What I read?”. So, that is what I am going to write about in this post.

I will start off, firstly, with non-fiction, before going on to fiction – mainly because fiction makes up the main bulk of what I usually read. If you are not fussed about either fiction or non-fiction, then feel free to skip ahead to the relevant sections!

Non-Fiction

I don’t generally focus on non-fiction books of a particular genre. Rather, I read about something I want to learn/learn more about, or something that sounds interesting, and some of them will be physical books, while a lot will be audiobooks. Because there isn’t a particular genre that I focus on, I thought the best thing to do would be to list the non-fiction books I am/will be reading/listening to, or that I have read/listened to in the last few months:

  • The Science of Storytelling
  • The Chimp Paradox
  • Tiny Habits
  • The Subtle Art of Not Giving a ****
  • What You Need to Know About: Business
  • The Undercover Economist
  • Stephen King: On Writing
  • The Brain
  • Eyes Wide Open
  • Hyperfocus
  • Ultralearning
  • Grit
  • What If?
  • How to

While some of the books are on related topics, most of the books have no relation to each other, other than that their purpose is to teach. And that is why I read non-fiction – because I want to learn or improve. But the ‘what’ I read depends on what I want to learn or improve at the time.

Reviewing the non-fiction books I read/listen to is something I have thought about doing on this blog, and might be something I will test out at some point. If you think that this is something you would be interested in, then please do let me know!

Fiction

Now we get into the bit that I suspect the majority of you reading will be interested in. What kind of fiction books do I read?

Romance

This is a surprisingly wide category, as some novels that are pure romance, while others are mostly adventure, but with bits of romance sprinkled on top and still have romance as the main end goal of the novel. It is the latter type that I usually read and, in fact, this probably makes up the majority of the books I read.

The combination of adventure and romance, if balanced correctly, usually makes for a great novel. The adventure element is exciting, as you don’t know what is going to happen, while the romance element introduces conflict and anticipation and is often what makes readers (like me) desperate to know how it ends and makes us keep reading.

Fantasy

From some of the stories I have read/heard, fantasy novels seem to have a bad rep amongst creative class/course teachers, and have been accused of not being ‘real creative writing’. I find this to be quite a strange view of fantasy novels. In fact, what could possibly be more creative than creating made-up worlds, made-up creatures, made-up systems? In fact, what can be more creative than creating something that literally cannot possibly exist (as far as we are aware…) in our real world?

Anyway, I digress. I do love a good fantasy novel. One of the main reasons given for reading is, often, escapism, and I think fantasy novels provide one of the best forms of escapism, as they are so far removed from the real world that it seems impossible to read a fantasy novel while also thinking about the things you have to do in real life.

Admittedly, however, it is something that I don’t read very often. I don’t really know why this is. I think it might be partly because of the large abundance of choice, and partly because it is quite wide as a genre (after all, you never really know what you are going to get when someone creates a whole new world!). But it is something that I would like to try to read more of… We shall see!

Horror

I must admit that a lot of the horror books I read, such as Stephen King novels, I wouldn’t really class as ‘horror’ because I find them more exciting than I do scary. It is a very different feel to horror films (which I almost never watch – not for me!), but I enjoy them as they are almost a cross between horror and fantasy – a fantasy element, but in a real-world setting. So you get that element of creativity and escapism that a fantasy novel provides, except it is often much darker and usually has a lot more tension.

Other Fiction

Halfway through writing this list, I realised there was a problem… A lot of fiction doesn’t fit very neatly into its own genre. In fact, it seems that a large percentage of novels are usually crammed into the category of ‘fiction’, which makes it a little difficult to discuss exactly what genres I read, other than those listed above. So, I thought I would add a few paragraphs to say what I look for in a fiction book, which might at least give a bit of an insight into what I usually read, in addition to the above.

For me, a novel almost always has to have some sort of conflict/tension. Basically, if the main characters seem to go straight from A-Z without any real issues along the way which diverts their path, then chances are that I am probably not going to enjoy the story as much.

I also enjoy realistic characters. Now, this does not mean that the book has to have your normal, down-to-earth, average-Joe. In fact, that would probably be incredibly boring. But I do want the character’s actions to be consistent with who they are. If a character in normal circumstances does something completely unexpected for no reason, it sometimes takes me out of the story a little bit, because I think “But this character wouldn’t do that?”. It might sound a little pedantic… But I’m afraid I’m more than a little pedantic… Sorry!

Lastly, is pace. There are sections where the story should be creeping forward, allowing you to soak everything in, or to build the tension gradually. And there are sections that should be quick and exciting, the moments that make you say “oh my God!” in shock at what has just happened. It is something I am working on a lot in my own writing, because it is difficult to get the balance right (for me, the slower parts are especially difficult). But when the balance is right, it adds so much to how engaging the story is.

Conclusion

So, there you have it – what I usually read. Now you have had the what and the why… But don’t worry, I won’t go through the who, the where, and the when. But I do hope you enjoyed, and feel free to share what books you usually read, and to make any recommendations.

Also, as above, I have thought about doing more posts on the non-fiction books I read/listen to, so do let me know if that is something you would be interested in reading. But for now, it is a good time to grab a hot drink and a good book!

TBT

Bookish Posts

Why I read

Theodore's Bookish Thoughts

Hello, and welcome to another of my ‘Bookish Posts’! Just a disclaimer before I get started – I sat an online 4-hour exam this morning, and my brain is currently a big pile of mush… So I am going to try to keep this blog post as coherent as possible. But if anything in this post makes little or no sense… I blame exams.

With my disclaimer (excuse) out of the way, let’s get started! As you can see (well, hopefully you will have read the title), this is about why I read. Well, it is really more about what I get out of reading. If it were simply about why I read, this blog post would be as short and simple as “because I enjoy it”. Thankfully, this will not be a single-sentence blog post (a blog sentence?), but instead I will be going deeper into why I read, and exploring exactly why I enjoy reading, and what I get out of it.

1. Entertainment & relaxation

I thought I would start with the easiest, and probably most obvious one first. This is often the main reason that we read books, watch films, and play games. They provide a source of entertainment. Whether that entertainment is in the form of humour that makes us laugh, or adventure that excites us, or even romance that tugs at our heartstrings (though, my use of a cliche will probably have just the opposite effect for any writers reading this…), it gives us something to enjoy, which is particularly important when coming home after a busy day at work.

I have also included relaxation in this point because, while relaxation, on the face of it, seems like a point of its own, I think the two are actually quite closely linked. Afterall, relaxation doesn’t always have to be in the form of lying down on a bed listening to waves crashing on the beach (another cliche – sorry writers!), and I would consider reading books, watching films, and playing games all to be their own form of relaxation (unless you get angry playing games, in which case it is probably not that relaxing…). I find books particularly relaxing, as you have to focus enough attention on the book which allows you to be transported to a whole other world, which is weirdly therapeutic.

2. They connect us to others

It can sometimes be difficult to put ourselves into someone else’s shoes (cliches all round!), particularly if we do not fully know or understand their circumstances. Books, however, provide a gateway towards stepping into another person’s shoes. When you read the story, you tend to see yourself as the main character (or the person from whose point of view the story is being told), or at least as someone who is very close to this person. You feel their emotions, think their thoughts, feel their pain. In short, books develop our empathy.

While the above is most relevant for fiction books, it can also be true for non-fiction books. The added advantage of non-fiction books is that they can fill in a gap in our knowledge and understanding, which can often be a barrier in the way of empathy. Afterall, it can be difficult to empathise with someone if we don’t even know what we are meant to be empathising with them about.

3. Learning

The opportunities for learning are endless, no matter how much we learn, there is always something else we can choose to learn. Whether this is as part of a new skill we want to learn and develop, or a topic we want to learn more about and gain an understanding of, there will almost always be a book for it, starting from the very basics, to niches and deeper explorations of a topic.

One of the things I have gained from furlough it rediscovering my love for learning, and a large part of this has been reading books on the topics I want to learn (for example, I recently read ‘economics for dummies’, because I realised that my understanding of economics, what certain economic terms mean, and why certain economic steps are taken, was lacking. Now, I feel much more capable of being able to read the news and understand what it means, and try to understand why it has happened, just from reading this book (though of course, I still come across things I have to look up – which is perfectly fine – but it is much better than not knowing where to start!).

Of course, reading a few books won’t make you an expert (I am not going to claim to be an economist – far from it). But at least it is a start! And it provides a starting block from which you can build on. And you may even learn things which help you in your working life!

4. Read to write

I enjoy writing, and have wanted to write a book even when I was a child. In fact, it is still a dream of mine to one day write a book. And of course, an important part of developing your writing is… Well, writing.

However, the second most important part of developing your writing is, I believe (though this may not apply to everyone), reading. Every book is a template on how to (or how not to) do it. If we read something we like in a book, we can try to break down exactly why we like it – what elements work well. If we read a book we do not enjoy, we can try to understand what didn’t work so well. Is it just that the book wasn’t for us, or was the book missing something? If the latter, what was the book missing?

I have heard/read many quotes from authors who have said that their writing-style is basically a mish-mash of many different authors whose books they have enjoyed. This does not surprise me. There is nothing wrong with this – you are not ‘copying’ another author’s style. Rather, you are building your knowledge and this then forms your writing style. In the same way that many argue that we are the sum of our experiences – we are not pretending to be someone else, we are just us.

Conclusion

So there you have it – the reasons behind why I read. Reading is something I have enjoyed for as long as I remember, and it is something that is still very important to me to this day, but I think this is probably the first time that I have actually thought about exactly why I read, other than the fact that I enjoy it.

I hope you enjoyed my second ‘Bookish Post’, and if you have your own reasons for reading, I would be very interested in hearing them! But for now, this post is an important reason as to why you should pop the kettle on, get yourself a hot drink, and grab a book to read!

TBT

Bookish Posts

My 5 Favourite Fiction Books

Theodore's Bookish Thoughts

Hello there, and welcome to the first of my ‘Bookish Posts’! You would think that creating a new page called ‘Bookish Posts’ would be easy to do… Well, you would be wrong. It was super frustrating and took me a little over an hour (excluding the writing of this post). But I got there eventually, so here we are!

I am glad to have got it sorted, and I am excited to now be able to share my non-review bookish thoughts – the first being my 5 favourite fiction books. This (as you would expect) was very difficult – firstly, because the moment I tried to remember what books I have read, I forgot almost every book I have read (typical!); and secondly, once I was able to remember the books I have read, it was even more difficult to cut the list down to just 5 books.

After much deliberation, however, I did eventually face the challenge, and was able to bring it down to just 5 books. So, let’s get started (not in any particular order)!

1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I was tempted to choose ‘the Complete Sherlock Holmes’… But, that would have been cheating (given that it is several books in one). However, there was no way that I could have a post about my favourite fiction books without mentioning a Sherlock Holmes book. They are some of my favourite books by my favourite author, and while I rarely read a series of books in one go, I very happily read the Complete Sherlock Holmes in one go (not in one sitting, that would be insane!).

But I was still stuck between whether to choose The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, or The Hound of the Baskervilles. In the end, I opted for the former. This is mainly because The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes manages to tell 12 different stories, while making it seem like you have read 12 books by sucking you into each story. I also think being able to come up with what is often a highly bizarre (but believable) story, and include a logical explanation that leaves you thinking “how did I not think of that?”, not once, but TWELVE times is incredible!

2. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

This book is a lot of things. It is heart-breaking, while also being heart-warming. At times it will fill you with anger, and at others it will fill you with pride. But all of it is simply brilliant.

As you can probably tell, this book is full of emotion, but it is so wonderfully well-written, and the story so well told, that the emotion is not overdone (though it is powerful!). It must have been about 3 years since I read this book, but it is one of those that stays in your mind for most (if not all) of your life – it is well worth a read!

3. 1984 by George Orwell

I feel as though this is a book which will be on most people’s lists of favourite fiction books… And for good reason! George Orwell (fun fact – his real name is Eric Arthur Blair) literally creates a whole new world, with a completely different political (well, it is full of thought-control, so not really ‘political’ anymore…) system which is bizarre, terrifying, and… believable. The way that the whole story is put together makes it easy to believe how such a system could exist without people rebelling. I hate to imagine how much time must have gone into just thinking about the system before even beginning to write the book!

I also still remember feeling almost genuine panic at some of the twists in the book – so unexpected that they caught me completely off guard. While I won’t spoil anything – you should (if you haven’t already) read this book to find out the twists for yourself. It is no surprise that this book makes most people’s lists.

4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Here is yet another classic. I still remember being in secondary school, and my English teacher asking if I had read To Kill a Mockingbird. When I said I had heard of it, but neither read, nor knew what it was about, my English teacher got the book from the bookshelf at the back of the classroom, loaned it to me, and told me to read it. And I did.

It has been a long time since I read this book, and it is one I need to re-read again soon, and so there is a lot from the book that I don’t remember… But there is also a lot from the book that I do, and probably always will, remember. I remember that I loved this book and raved to my English teacher about how good the book was the first day that I was in school having finished reading the book.

It is incredibly powerful, and I am pretty sure that almost every aspiring lawyer who read To Kill a Mockingbird immediately felt that they wanted to be like Atticus Finch.

5. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

It is this fifth choice that was the most difficult, with several books fighting in my mind to be in the top 5… But in the end, I felt that a list of my top 5 fiction books would be incomplete without a Harry Potter book. I remember that I used to read a lot of books when I was younger, but I don’t really remember what it is that I used to read (other than the books we were required to read). What I do remember, however, is standing in the dinner queue, reading Harry Potter, waiting to be let into the food hall (which others saw as being super weird…).

I will say that I don’t think this is the BEST of the Harry Potter series. But, this one makes it into my favourite fiction books, because this is where it all started – this is the book that creates the whole wizarding world, and brings the characters to life, and that is simply (pardon the pun) magical.

Though I do need to read them again, because I am not faring very well at the Harry Potter sections of Zoom quizzes…

Conclusion

So, there you have it! My 5 favourite fiction books. It is difficult to see any books I read breaking into my top 5, given the quality of these books, but you never know! I am going to keep on reading to find out.

So time to pop on the kettle, and open another book!

TBT