Welcome back, my friend. Luisa here.
Each writer has two pedals: a pedal for reading and a pedal for writing. When you can’t do one, do the other…rest is important and so is reading. It’s work.
The Novelry, December 2023
I have used Goodreads for a number of years now, not realising there was any alternative. Lately though, in the name of forever-rebellion which pierces and drumbeats my heart vehemently since turning forty, I started seeking alternatives.
I wanted a platform that allowed me to order my extensive To Be Read pile, nerdily perhaps, some greedy geekery being an essential value for my creative life.
I wanted reviews to be something I could look at if I wanted, but which weren’t thrust groin-like in my face from each simple search.
I wanted something a bit less Amazon.
And so, in discussion right here on Substack Notes (where else do I learn anything these days) my eye was captured by The StoryGraph (not an ad). A newer company, one which appears to be holding community at their hearts and one which provided at least some of my bookwormy wishes. And so, after a pretty decent run, Goodreads and I broke up, and I have skipped off into the sunset, holding hands and laughing smugly, with a rival book-toting lover.
Because we need this parallel with books, don’t we. As individuals who live to express ourselves with words; spoken, written, it doesn’t matter, the lessons are the same. The raw beauty, heartache, aching bliss and despair. We can soak up ravishing writing by surrounding our senses with the seductively articulated words of others. Without travelling an inch. How very lucky we are.
Just as we need to walk before we run, we need to read before we write.
My gentle reading challenge
In 2020 and 2021 I read 35 books, entirely non-fiction (mostly self-help). I find that quite sad.
In 2022 I dropped that effortful number to 25, but still read a rather sorry 90% self-help non-fiction.
2023 saw me keeping that comfortable challenge of 25 but having a conscious crack at clawing back some much-needed escapism by including more fiction (the dizzy heights of 15 novels no less!) mostly helped by a birthday present of some fancy Samsung earbuds and my new obsession for dog walks accompanied happily by audiobooks.
And so we land, somewhat heavily, in 2024. My utter hunger for all things creative has not been this ravenous since my tweens. Like an arty sponge I am simply devouring words ~ illustration ~ music ~ beauty, in all their forms. It is both liberating and exhausting but I am happy and I feel free and I feel spacious and I feel lighter for it. My The StoryGraph reading challenge is bravely matching this shift and I am pledging a grand 44 books; one for each of my 44 years of existence, with at least a 75% tip in favour of joyful fiction.
Some plates will have to fall elsewhere in my life to enable me to reach this vast number with consideration and balance at the forefront. But it's important to me. And so, I'm going to try.
I will endeavour, as is my way, to keep any striving for this epic number minimal and effort soft. My wish for you is that you may find the same delight. A deep desire for you to savour that world of intimate wisdom and expansive escape, that sits humbly within the pages at your fingertips. Will you take this gentle gift?
There was a great Substack piece a few days ago by
and which, if you’re a writer and a reader, I think you’ll enjoy. Here’s the full article. Russell says “I’ve always said that writing is breathing out, but reading is breathing in. You can’t have one without the other.” And, as a word lover and yoga teacher, I’m all over that ;)The waves crash onto the rocks, gulls whirling, and I watch quietly as the storm begins to build, shifting my sitting bones on my mossy seat.
It had been unbearably long. Too long since I have tasted the salted air on my lips, since the soles of my feet ached more than my heart, since my lungs filled so completely. That blissful feeling of sheer exertion mixed with epic views and exhilarating cliff edges. Whether walking the coast path or diving into the sea just a stone's throw from it, this is where my body feels alive.
Some days I need to fill my ears with the sounds of the waves, the birds, the wind. But others; it’s as if I want to close my ears even to that bliss and instead fill my head with the outpouring of someone else’s brilliant mind. I pop in my earbuds, press ‘play’ on the audiobook that sits on my phone, and allow that crystal clear voice to wash over me, promising mystery and adventure, with both a comforting familiarity and an intoxicating sense of peril.
For your notebook
Have you heard of the German word ‘schmökern’?
‘Schmökern’ is a German verb that means ‘to leisurely browse through books, often with a sense of enjoyment or without a specific goal’. It reflects the casual and pleasurable act of reading, exploring books without a strict focus, and immersing oneself in the content simply for the joy of it.
@deutsch.vocabulary on Instagram (via my German writerly friend)
Q. How can you bring some of this gentle feeling of schmökern into your reading and/or writing life this season?
or
Q. How can you read around the edges of your busy, beautiful life?
If you haven’t already please do consider subscribing (always for free, another lesson I’ve learned this winter because 1. we all already have enough financial stress, plus 2. my writing does not take kindly to any kind of pressure) to Writing Around The Edges, which I plan to have brimming with carefully and quietly crafted encouragement and with full access to any new posts and all publication archives.
Stroll gently, my loves. I'll be over here, in my soft armchair, feet tucked, with a good book in my lap and a snoring lurcher by my side.
x Luisa
P.S I would love to hear from you in a comment, with a ❤️, and/or a restack. :)
There is so much content here to breathe in, soak up and imbibe.
I need my journal and pen.
But visually it's so beautifully presented - the images, the para breaks, the whole elegant package. It's soooo inviting.
I think I'm going to love subscribing here...
This was a beautiful morning read, thank you!
I love the analogy of reading/writing being like inhaling and exhaling. I could also replace reading with life there. Living and writing feel like inhaling and exhaling. Experiencing and making sense of the experiences. Writing pictures.
Joining the echo, Substack is probably my schmökern too.