‘A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies…the man who never reads lives only one’ – George R.R. Martin

Hello, I’m Claire, and welcome to the Reading Nook. 

I started learning to read at the age of two. My mother tells the story of how I would take a newspaper and a pencil, and sit happily underlining the words I knew. My love of reading started then. 

My parents both love to read, so it was no surprise that I would follow their lead. As a child, I spent my days in the world of Malory Towers, wishing I could go to boarding school and have midnight feasts with Darrell and the girls, laughing at the antics of Tracy Beaker, and problem solving with Claudia, Stacey and the rest of the Babysitter’s Club. 

I spent my days in books, spending my pocket money in Easons at the weekend. It wasn’t a habit that faded with time. As I got older, and my body changed and the clothes I wanted didn’t always fit, I knew that I could always find a book to lose myself in. Books always fit, and they were never the wrong style. 

In school, English was my favourite subject and it introduced me to the charming Scout Finch, and the stubborn and head-strong Elizabeth Bennet, two girls who have still not left my side and who I’ve returned to many times over. My school years also introduced me to the writing of Malorie Blackman, and I’ll still never forget how I felt when I turned the last page of ‘Noughts & Crosses’, one of the first books that really made me think about life and the world outside the covers of my books. 

In the years that have passed, I’ve met many such authors. Jodi Picoult made my heart break time and time again. Dorothy Koomson has challenged the way I see the world, Diane Chamberlain has engrossed me with romance and hard decisions. Nicholas Sparks has taught me that love can beat all, and J.K. Rowling made me believe in magic. 

I find few things as exciting as opening the cover of a new book and travelling to whatever world the author has created. I’ve felt genuinely bereft after finishing a particularly gripping book.

And so, the Reading Nook was born. This is where I’m going to come when I’ve finished a book, and I’m going to share my feelings, and opinions about it, with the hopes of sharing each world with you, the people reading my blog. I hope you join me.