WHAT SPARKED YOUR LOVE OF READING?

With the recent publication of Caught It, I began reflecting on the books that sparked my own love of reading. Straight away the books from my childhood spring to mind and, in particular my much-treasured A.A.Milne books. These books, I believe, are just as much lived as read. Who hasn’t followed the racing raindrops down a window on a wet day as in Waiting at the Window from Now We Are Six or avoided cracks in the pavement, like the boy in the poem ‘Lines and Squares’ from When We Were Young. I know I have, and actually, still, do. But the biggest place in my heart has to be given to The House of Pooh Corner and the game of Poohsticks . This is definitely something I will never ever be too old for.
What started with a loveable ‘silly old bear’ accidentally kicking a fir cone into a river has become this wonderful well-established childhood ritual, loved by so many. It is through this simple game, that the imaginative world of Hundred Acre Wood comes alive, becoming property for us all. Who can resist the temptation of walking across a bridge over a river, throwing in a stick, and looking to see whose stick will come out the other side first? I know I can’t . When I let go of my poohstick, I’m transported to these loved childhood books, to my own childhood and in fact to a really happy place and time. Without a doubt it is the books we love when we are growing up that shape us in a special way and stay with us always. Ultimately the books we live not just read. So why not go grab a stick, race raindrops or blow someone a kiss to catch and bring a book to life. Caught it!

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