Reading

I love reading and when I retired four years ago I thought I would have oodles of time to read. Not so, I'm afraid. At the time I retired I also discovered knitting on the internet. I've always knitted quite a lot but once I was exposed to all the beautiful knitted things on the net my passion grew that much more. (Note: I said passion, not obsession).

It became a real dilemma. Do I take the time to read or do I knit instead? And then, fortunately, I discovered audiobooks and now I can do both! The first audiobook I listened to was Alan Bennett's The Uncommon Reader. What a delight. It is read by the man himself and he has such a wonderful witty turn of phrase. Since then I have listened to Emma and Persuasion and currently I am listening to Jannette Turner Hospital's Due Preparations for the Plague.

I am finding that the selection of audio cds in my local libraries leaves much to be desired. I intend remedying that by making them constantly aware of the need to broaden their range. Fortunately things like Librivox exist and that gives me access to free downloads of many of the classics. The readers can be a bit patchy but its better than nothing.

I've also been able to augment my listening needs with the many great podcasts out there - usually the knitting ones. Craftlit in particular is a great find - combining literature and craft! Currently we are doing Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I last read that as a teenager and I'm finding that I'm enjoying much more this time round.

Of course I still have to make time to simply sit outside and listen to the bush breathe.......