As I sit here on a fairly unremarkable Saturday, the dog is sleeping and the birds are tweeting, and I’m sat at a different desk, in a different place, on a different keyboard to a different computer writing this (again).
Read MoreIt’s been some time since I wrote anything here, and it’s been some time since Words & Matter was little more than a fledgling idea to write about books.
The Book of Human Emotions is a wonderful book
The truth is I haven’t been much actively into books in the last two years, although that is slowly reverting (I won’t claim any great victory or revelation yet, habits being stubborn little things to break!). Little and often may be the way, but reading and writing anything at all seems best.
There’s a sunglasses manufacturer called William Painter, and in a promo vid on YouTube, there’s a line in which William Painter himself (supposedly) says:
The only way to do a thing is to do it.
Whether he did or not is irrelevant, but because I pontificate and can fall foul of indecision, I’ve co-opted this into: ‘The best way to do a thing is to do it’. Because action and decisions not taken are worse than the occasional mistake or error. In any case, the best thing to do about not reading is reading; and for not writing…writing. And holy heck there’s tonnes to write about.
If the UK political scene doesn’t throw up some incredible readng and writing in the new decade - revelations or reflections - it would be somewhat shocking. Then there’s the climate, and I’m doing my own little bit of fictional writing inspired by the ecological trouble we seem to be getting ourselves into.
What else is there we can do? Those little changes, I’m doing those too.
But my mind is rusty to this habit still, and my thoughts a little muddled. Like puppies in a pen all bumbling soft and energetic, a mass of lovable fur….now I am writing my brain is firing off all sorts of beacons. I’ll leave this here without getting too long; except to say that I got a new book for Christrmas.
My brother bought me The Book of Human Emotions by Tiffany Watt Smith. It’s a lovely book, and shows how well he knows me. I love learning, growing deeper and broader, as a human. And I love - once upon a time, demonstrably - such delightful titles. It’s about time that habit returns.
Oh! One quick thing before I forget, if you’ve not heard about it, Strong Words magazine is excellent, the sort of book magazine I wish existed when I was a boy with a rather well-stocked local library. If you’ve not yet heard of it, do check it out.
No doubt I’ll mention that again.
Happy reading, and Happy New Year, Decade, Bizareness.
Barcelona and Spain. Who can understand such violence. There seems to be a lot of hate and horror in the world. It's all so sad and proximity, somewhat naturally, heightens awareness. The brain needs to categorise...
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I went away to France for a week and start and finished a book. That shouldn't in itself be surprising, but the fact it was only my second completed book in two years is troubling. The shame I feel is real believe me, but the sense of achievement feels addictive. And so the need to continually read once again rears its head!
Hello blessed creature, good to see you again!
The book I completed? Matt Haig's The Humans - easy to love, enjoyable, relatable, sad and heart-warming also. Do read it if you haven't. You'll likely burn through it.
I need more time for books, this site requires that at the very base level. After all, I can't write about things I know little of And so regular reading. I miss it, I love it, and I'll report back with more thoughts on that, this site and more very very soon I hope.
To those who haven't read for a while, just like me, go on. Shift the bookmark!
Peace and adventure,
Kevin
Hi all, Kevin here.
I just wanted to say hi again and thank you for returning if you checked us out before our hiatus. We'll certainly look to avoid a repeat of that (I really missed being here), and the idea is really to keep things running smoothly and consistently! So this is just a small update to say that regular pieces - likely one per weekday - is the plan for the immediate future. It might seem a bit 'half blog, half-news site', but a post a day seems sensible, and given the glut of things going on in the world of books we can't really cover it all.
What we will do is try to pick up on the news and topics we hope you'll be keen on reading about; ones you may have missed, or ones which might just freshen things up a bit if we feel that's needed. You can always help in pointing things out to us too - leave a comment below an article here, on our Facebook page or tweet us @wordsandmatter on Twitter. You can tell us your thoughts about what we're up to, what might be nice to see, or anything else. We'll do our best to get to it and see what we can do in response.
So that's that for now really. I'll be back next week hopefully - an Editor's blog at the weekend seems like it might work! So until then all the best.
Happy reading!
This is a first-person account of an unusual evening...
Read MoreWords and Matter is for people who love books. It's book news you want to read.
