I treated myself to a lazy day today, hence a lazy photo. I decided I'd only do what was needed to keep the household
ticking over and no more. So the dog was walked, the cat fed, and the dinner cooked. I resisted the temptation to go down to the woods in search of autumn colour.
I also decided that I wanted to return to an old love - reading. I've always loved reading, ever since I finished reading
Enid Bylton's 'Secret Island'. The toes of my shoes began to melt in front of the fire as I read 'War and Peace' (well I read mostly 'peace' as I must confess to skipping a lot of the battle strategies!) many moons ago. In recent years I've gone through phases of reading and not reading and since joining Pbase I've been spending more time sitting in front of a computer than curled up in the company of a good author.
I'm fortunate to work with a woman who also shares a love of reading and we've introduced each other to some great writers.
Thanks to her I read Sebastian Barry's 'A Long Long Way' which tells the largely untold story of the Irish Catholics who fought in the First World War. It's an insightful, gripping, poetic and horrific story of a part of our history which has been little talked about.
I am now reading her copy of his latest novel 'A Secret Scripture' which narrowly missed out on the Man Booker prize last year. It too deals with a subject not frequently acknowledged in Irish literature - the thousand of woman (and men) who were consigned to mental institutions, often for the convenience of their families.