Cultured Views

The joy of reading

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One of my greatest pleasures is to relax with a great book. Not that I get much time at all these days though. My mother particularly encouraged my reading habit and when I was six I joined my first library and proudly claimed my own library card. That was when the cards were actually paper cards, and they wore out after a while. These days they are plastic things with a bar code.

I tend to re-read books over again; at the moment I am enjoying the All Creatures Great and Small Omnibus by James Herriot. I must have read this book about twenty times over the past twenty years…at least. But I love it as it provides an escape into a charming little world with characters and people that you rarely find these days. After this I love autobiographies ( especially by film stars ), historical books - I can highly recommend Marie Antoinette by Antonia Fraser, and poetry. I have a great little book with some of the best known poems written over the centuries. There is always something to ponder over in a poem. Try reading Character of a Happy Life by Sir Henry Wotton and see if it does not tell you everything you need to know about life. It starts…

How happy is he born and taught
That serveth not another’s will;
Whose armour is his honest thought,
And simple truth his utmost skill!

and ends…

Who God doth late and early pray
More of His grace than gifts to lend;
And entertains the harmless day
With a harmless book or friend.

This man is freed from servile bands
Of hope to rise, or fear to fall;
Lord of himself, though not of lands;
And having nothing, yet hath all.

There are more wonderful verses in between but I love the words. I often read this to my kids as well at bedtime.

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