Have a Little Patience

Written as part of the #DailyWritingChallenge on Twitter I like to think that I’m quite an empathetic person, that I try to understand what a person is going through and to be patient enough to give them time if they need it. There’s one person though that I’ve never been particularly patient with… myself. I’ve…

Reading and Sharing

Some time last year I read an article by Andy Miller about how sharing his reading had left him open to criticism and negative comments. He would take photos of the books he had read that month and regularly would receive messages suggesting he was lying, showing off, cultural gatekeeping or trying to make others…

Reading Aims for 2020

If you look back at this blog you’ll notice that for the last few years I haven’t really got around to blogging much… apart from in January. I have a tendency to start the year with a blog about reading aims or reading challenges but then for a variety of reasons (work, family, tiredness, anxiety,…

My Poetry Journey

Note: I was originally writing this with a view to release the post on National Poetry Day. However, various other life-related reasons (mostly linked to colds, bugs and a toddler) meant that I didn’t get it finished in time. In some ways though I think that this is OK and shows that poetry isn’t just…

Specialist or Generalist?

When I was a primary school teacher I saw myself, to a certain extent, as a professional Jack of all Trades. You need to be a bit of an all-rounder when you’re teaching across the curriculum and can be expected to move age groups so that one year you’re teaching number bonds to 10 to…

In A Reading Slump

Things are a little crazy in our house at the moment.  I’m in the middle of a large-scale event at work, my husband is doing GCSE marking and our daughter has hit peak toddler (“No toothbrush, no hair bobble, no sandwich, no water” etc).  I want to pick up a book and rest but I’m…

Getting the blog out of my head and onto the webpage

My blog has been so neglected. Not because I have no ideas for posts but due to the fact that I don’t get them typed up. I ‘mentally’ blog a lot, often in the shower or whilst walking to the bus stop, but this doesn’t convert into actual writing. A few weeks ago I was…

Reading Round Up- Jan/Feb(ish)

All the way through 2018 I kept planning to write blog posts summarising my reading. At the end of January I thought “I haven’t got the time now… I’ll do it quarterly!” At the end of March I decided that two summaries a year would be the way to go and I’d write it in…

Taking Time To Talk

It was Time To Talk day yesterday but, to be honest, when it comes to mental health I think any day should be a good time to talk. I wrote most of this over a week ago and have ummed and aahed over posting it as there’s always the underlying concern that admitting things about…

Book Challenges

Last year, I blogged about how 2018 would be the year that I actually managed to complete a reading challenge.  Hmmm… this didn’t really work out as intended.  I managed 12/24 from the Book Riot Read Harder 2017 list which was 1 more than I’d managed in 2016 so I suppose I’m moving in the…