Copywriting | Feature Writing | Hobart, Tasmania
There’s still over a week of 2022 to go – time for at least one or two more books – but I’m taking a moment today to look back at my reading diary and share a few of my favourites.
I do this every year, and it’s always great fun to remember some of the good (and not so good!) books that have passed through my hands.
Overall, this has been a great year for books! Continue reading “2022: A Year in Books”
I love reaching the end of a year and taking a moment to look back through the books I’ve read.
Starting my @ruthreadsbooks Instagram account that I use as a reading diary has been a bit of a game changer. I still keep a notebook to record everything I read each year, but having the visual prompts of the front covers is a great way to jog my memory about the books I’ve enjoyed the most. Continue reading “2021: a year in books”
Despite everything that happened in 2020 – or perhaps even because of everything that happened – I’ve managed to keep up a pretty good pace of reading this year.
There’s still a week or so left in the year, but to date I’ve read 107 books. Ten less than last year, but still not bad.
The split was 48 fiction, 48 non-fiction, 8 poetry and 3 mixed anthologies. Three of them were audiobooks, and four of them were e-books that I was sent as a volunteer reader for the Highland Book Prize. The rest were hardcopy, sourced from a combination of new and second hand bookshops, op shops, loans from friends, and free little libraries.
Additionally, I started three books that I didn’t finish – but I tend not to name and shame when that happens, because reading is such a personal thing. Message me if you really want to know…
I thought I’d share my favourite fiction and non-fiction reads, along with a couple of poetry recommendations, in case you’re looking for some reading inspiration over the holidays. (Or perhaps a last-minute Christmas present!) Continue reading “2020: a year in reading”
I’ll start this blog post in the same way that I have started almost every email in recent weeks: “How are you going? I hope you’re keeping well in these strange days.”
I don’t know about you, but I’m finding it essential at the moment to take time away from the news cycle. Although it’s important to stay up date with what’s happening, it’s all too easy to get sucked into endless scrolling of updated figures and bad news stories from around the world – and that’s not good for anyone’s wellbeing!
There have been days during the lockdown when I’ve really enjoyed getting stuck into a good book. But there have been other days when I’ve only had the attention span for essays and features. I’ve been keeping track of the best ones so that I can share them with you.
I hope some of these keep you engaged and entertained. Continue reading “12 great reads… that have nothing to do with COVID19”
I’ve been meaning for months to write a blog post about the benefits of reading as self-care. For obvious reasons, now seems as good a time as any.
Reading has always been my go-to activity.
Worried about something and need to know more about it? Read a book.
Worried about something and need to distract myself from it? Read a book.
Need to shut out the white noise of the world and remind myself how to focus on one thing at a time? Read a book.
Heaps of time to kill – at home, in a waiting room, while travelling? Read a book.
It has been clear from watching the stress levels rise across my social media feeds and in-person communities over the last few weeks that not everyone has tuned in to the life-changing magic of books yet.
That’s reasonable. We are living in exceptional times – for those working in frontline jobs, on casual contracts, or as freelancers, there are financial pressures that accompany the COVID-19 pandemic that can’t just be wished away. For those personally affected by the virus, there are even more pressing things to think about.
But for every one of us, for our own wellbeing and mental health, it’s important to have a way of taking the occasional break from the strangeness of it all – from the pressure, the panic, and the 24-hour news cycle. Books are one of the most accessible ways of doing that. Continue reading “Reading as self-care”
For a relatively small state, Tasmania has a disproportionately high number of good writers.
From emerging writers like Erin Hortle and Ben Walter, whose work you can often read in contemporary Australian lit journals, to crime writers like David Owen, historians like James Boyce, and award-winning novelists like Amanda Lohrey and Christopher Koch, there is a wonderful diversity of styles, themes and genres.
There’s also an abundance of talented children’s writers and illustrators in Tasmania, including Coral Tulloch, Christina Booth, Emily Conolan, and Kate Gordon. Continue reading “What are the best books about Tasmania?”
Have I mentioned before how much I enjoy reading? I think I might have! Once… or perhaps twice.
2019 has been an absolute cracker of a year for good books. My targeted approach of only buying and borrowing books that are on my wishlist – rather than lucky dipping from the sale table – seems to paying dividends. I’ve not encountered many duds this year at all.
We still have a couple of weeks to go, but my reading stats for 2019 are:
Books read: 117
Books started but abandoned before the end: 6
(I don’t like criticising books publicly because reading is such a personal thing, but message me on social media or email me if you want to know what they were!) Continue reading “My Top Reads of 2019”
Kathleen Jamie’s new book Surfacing landed in my mailbox last week, and I can’t wait to read it. Kathleen is a Scottish poet and essayist, and Surfacing is her third collection – following Findings and Sightlines – of what you’d probably call nature writing, although that term does little justice to her delightful touch.
I was interested to read an interview with Kathleen in the Guardian last week, which dealt with the question of whether contemporary nature writing is overly dominated by white men. (Spoiler – it is.)
That’s not to say that there aren’t some wonderful men out there, producing great work – there are, and you’ve probably read at least some of them. (Hi, Robert MacFarlane…) But the natural world is too beautiful for us to only read about it through that one narrow lens.
Unfortunately, what the Guardian piece didn’t do was highlight any of the alternatives, of which there are many. So I thought I’d take sometime to pull together a non-exhaustive list of writers, books, essays and sites that you might like to explore if this subject interests you. It really is just a way of dipping your toe in the water – there’s so much out there and if you’re anything like me you’ll discover that following one interesting link leads you to a dozen more.
Have fun getting lost in nature! And feel free to leave a comment below with your own recommendations.
The inaugural Weekend of Reading took place in Hobart over the weekend. It was a fantastic three-day event, organised by Kate Harrison and Jane Rawson, which kicked off on Friday night with the announcement of the Tasmanian Premier’s Literary Prize shortlists.
I was really pleased when Kate and Jane – who work together under the banner of Read Tasmania – asked me to take part in one of the panel discussions. Along with fellow Hobart writers Peter Timms and Ruth Quibell, I tackled the question ‘Do you need to own books to love them?’ Continue reading “Do you need to own books to love them?”
According to my blog stats, a post I wrote back in 2017 about 20 Places to Read Great Personal Essays has proved to be enduringly popular. I suspect it’s mainly other writers who seek it out, looking for publications that might be a good fit to submit their own personal essays to. But perhaps there are also a few people out there – like me – who just really enjoy reading good quality essays and feature articles online.
One problem I’ve found over the years is that I tend to lose track of those favourite reads. I save the link on Facebook, or favourite it on Twitter… but then never manage to go back and read it a second time. Sometimes I forget to save it at all, which can be infuriating if I’m trying to find it again later! I’ll remember a great turn of phrase, or a theme that resonated, but no combination of Google search terms will bring the piece back to me. Continue reading “The best essays of 2019… so far!”
Ruth Dawkins Freelance Writer 