
For a long time I didn’t think books were for me, I thought they were for clever people who enjoyed discussing the intricacies of ancient texts in coffee shops (funnily enough that sounds quite appealing to me these days). I enjoyed playing electric guitar, football and computer games and didn’t particularly care for pondering the nature of existence. That was until I was 14 and an ex-girlfriend would talk to me about the work of Orwell, Steinbeck, Hunter S Thompson, all these people I’d heard of but had never sat down with to discover what they had to say. So, in my attempt to impress her and show her I wasn’t a one-dimensional man (I probably was), I read a few. Suddenly I got it, I read Steinbeck’s ‘Grapes of Wrath’ and was captured by the lonely descriptions of the American landscape and his incredible portrayal of real human characters in the most desperate of situations. Since that moment, I have found genuine joy and peace in reading. I think in our modern world of constant stimulation it provides a break, a moment to inhabit someone else’s world. It provides empathy for people and situations you would never experience unless put there by an author.
In this meditative sense, it’s very much like jewellery making, it takes you away and forces you to focus. That’s why when I take pictures of my jewellery I like to present them on my favourite works of literature and poetry. Here are a few of my favourite books for anyone looking for a new read.
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