Bookish Mama blooms
For Libraries Week we have a guest blogger, Charlotte from @Bookish_Mama_blooms – give it a read, drop some comments below and check out their Instagram for some awesome bookish content.
It was the summer of 2018, and I realised I hadn’t read a book in a year. Going back further, I calculated that I had only read three books in the last three years – novels that were hastily gulped down in the space of a few days and then just as hastily abandoned to return to being a mother to my toddler. Having a child had been a life-changing event, forcing me to abandon many of the activities and hobbies that had previously meant so much to me. My greenhouse was full of mouldy tomatoes, the bird feeder was empty more than it was full, and all around my home were the scattered remnants of sewing projects, partly painted walls, lavender sprigs tied up and drying from curtain rails – a veritable Marie-Celeste of projects started before I had a baby.
I was willing to give up so much for this little person, but after two years I was starting to wonder if giving up everything was good for either of us. I was busy, I was exhausted, I was on the edge – and I found myself filling up the few precious moments of peace by looking at my phone. Technology was easy to digest because it was designed for the distracted person. I could read a headline and keep up with current events as I played with soft toys or warmed a little food. I could dip in and out of the lives of friends on social media as I walked the baby in a sling to get him to fall asleep. I could frantically ask questions about the pit-falls of breast feeding in the middle of the night, and other tired mamas would dutifully reply. It was a blessing – but also addictive and fairly unproductive.
As my son watched me and mimicked my actions on my phone with his toys, I began to realise the impact of my own obsession. So I came upon a simple solution: instead of picking up a phone, I would pick up a book. My reading had largely fallen to the wayside because it was something that I used to do in indulgent chunks of time. Hours lying in bed with a book and a coffee, perhaps a blanket on the lawn on a sunny afternoon. But I had to let go of that kind of reading and accept that if I wanted to be bookish again I would have to change my own habits. Pages could be read a paragraph at a time. It might be slow going, but they could be read whilst feeding, or waiting for the kettle to boil, or during those fewer and shorter nap-times.
At the same time that this new idea of swapping my phone for a book occurred to me, I was also falling deeper into an online community of YouTubers talking about books – BookTube, as it is fondly known. My dear friend, Siân, had a channel that I would always make time for - watching her videos hungrily and jealously as she talked about all the books she had read that week. It looked so fun, she seemed so easily friendly on camera. It was as if we were having a chat over a coffee, just the two of us. “I would like to do that.” I thought.
In a rush of energy I didn’t know I had in me, I set up my YouTube channel, and went book shopping. My first video was a “book haul” where I simply showed the books to camera and spoke of my reasons for buying them and my determination to read them. I would go on to make dozens of videos about every aspect of reading, and three years later I am what is known as a Middling BookTuber – my channel is small, I’m not the next Big Thing, but I interact with hundreds of followers and dozens of other channels. It’s exciting, comforting, and truly one of the best things I’ve ever done.
Soon into making my channel I also started to take my son to the local library. We had been many times to the Rhyme Time sessions, but now we were going to choose books. I felt energised by the BookTube community, who were as big on “library hauls” as they were on buying sprees. And let’s not forget that libraries offered book recommendations from those magical bookish folk: librarians! As I wandered the stacks with my channel in the back of my mind and my son’s hand in mine, I saw so many books that would be exciting to talk about and show people, even if I never got around to reading them.
My little bookworm in tow, we would make our way around to the area I had previously avoided prior to becoming a parent: the children’s section. I had nothing but my own memory of libraries to inform me of what they might have to offer my son. Needless to say I was shocked by the colourful and bustling nature of the modern children’s library. Did they have climbing frames and tunnels in libraries when I was little? I don’t think so! My son was delighted, and caught on to the excitement of choosing anything he wanted, very quickly. After playing with all the interactives on offer, we would leave with books balanced up to our noses, and begin reading them in the back of car – too excited to wait until we got home.
It took as little as a week to turn our reading lives around, largely thanks to the library. Wherever you are, you don’t have to wait for payday, or a day off work, or the weekend, because its very likely that there will be a library open near you that can offer you the right time, the right place, and the right price (FREE) for your right to read.
I’ve gone from reading zero books per year and feeling bereft of their stimulation and comfort, to averaging out at around sixty. It’s not about the numbers for me now that I know I can live in a bookish world again. It’s the act of reading, the desire to learn something new and the pleasure of understanding another person’s experience. It’s the feel of the book, and the smell! It’s the talking about the book afterwards, with people that have read it too, and loved it as much as you did. In between sorting out the dinner, singing along with a nursery rhyme or playing in the park there’s a little wedge of time where you might fit in a page. And all you have to do, is pick up the book.
