Hello!

If you’re here, I have to assume you love bookshops. Like me, I expect you let yourself ‘just have a look’ every time you’re near your favourites. I expect that, whenever it’s at least nearly in the budget, you let yourself slip and fall into another little purchase.

Amongst the books I’ve bought over the years, many have been exactly what I’ve been looking for. I know myself. I know I love to be immersed in Austen’s straight-faced irony and the Brontës’ bleak British landscapes. I know high fantasy is too much for me, but that an encounter with the fae whilst researching geology in the Alps… just right. I know I love to be challenged, but never via any sort of gore. Despite this, however, I am certainly not immune to impulse.

Most readers would be lying if they said the cover didn’t matter to them. And whilst it may be true that judging literary merit by the cover artist’s skill might be unwise, there’s certainly something to be said for letting the colours and tones of a cover to draw you to the books you’ll love. But as the famous maxim tells us, this method is far from risk-free. But when we’ve picked up a beautiful tome, cradled it all the way back home, flicked through its spray-edged pages and anticipated finally being able to get into it, what happens to these beautiful books when we realise that what’s inside isn’t really for us?

This was the question that got me thinking about starting a blog; wondering about what would happen to beautifully-bound and tiktok-famous stories once the hype around their superficial features died down made me wonder about all the stories that went before. I wanted to know more about the books that informed previous generations, only to be forgotten when the next big thing came out. After all, there have been hundreds of books like this over the years, forgotten about, repressed by a particular ideology, or simply out-performed. I want to find hidden gems, learn the stories behind the books, and give attention to popular authors’ less-popular work. In short, I want to find more books I love, and share them with all of you.

As I start this blog, I don’t know yet what I’m going to write about exactly. My primary goal is to explore and to make the most of my love for reading. And I can’t wait to hear what you all think of the books I share about, too!