Arming yourself for 2021

So, what are we thinking about this new year of ours?! Have we leapt energetically into a promising unknown? Or are we hiding under our duvets, warily waiting for what is to come?

It’s a constant push-pull, isn’t it? One the one hand, the yearning for something new, for real people instead of screen versions, for trains heaving with people and bound for exciting destinations. On the other hand, the craving for things that don’t constantly change, that are anchors in a world throwing ever-new and scary things at us.

Comfort-reading is called for

‘New’ vs. ‘the same’ — it’s a little like reading if you really think about it. Here I was, ready with a pile of brand-spanking new books to liven up the government-prescribed peace and calm during the holidays. And then I didn’t touch any of them! Instead, I went straight for my special shelf of old favourites. For three whole weeks, I re-read books that I’ve always loved, and it was amazing. I must have read The Shell Seekers at least five time and I still find myself rooting for the Penelope and her children every time. Or Joanne Harris’ Chocolat, which is so magical and rich, like sweet, dark cocoa. Jane Austen’s Persuasion, such a triumph of smarts over flashiness (and, surely, Austen’s best). Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim, beautiful and sunny and uncluttered. The list goes on…

Are you a Re-Reader or a Wouldn’t-Dream-Of-It?

Now, you might be firmly in Camp Life’s-Too-Short-Nikola — which, by the way, I totally get, there are just too many good books to discover — but I still think that every now and then, nothing but a good old Georgette Heyer will do. It’s a bit like putting on a pair of old shoes that are way past a respectable outing but fit you so well they’re almost a part of you. Like seeing an old friend after ages apart and remembering exactly why you were always so close. You’ve lived through these dog-eared, read-to-bits stories, anticipating favourite passages and reconnecting with characters, feeling a swell of relief that they’re exactly as you left them. And you’ve lived a whole life with these stories, too, remembering perhaps the refuge found in Gone with the Wind after a particularly sad heart-break or that glorious summer holiday when you found an old copy of The Thorn Birds left behind by a previous guest and life was never the same.

Are you a Re-reader or a Wouldn’t-Dream-Of-It? And if the former, what is your go-to book in times of trouble? Click here and tell me all about it!