If there’s one regret I have about this modern world I live in is that it’s very hard to find the time to sit down and read. I still do manage to squeeze in a chapter here and there, especially with  my Kindle – hardly anything I read is printed on paper.

Which are my favourites though? There are books that I have read, and at that point in my life I felt they were the best a book could be; like nothing could beat it – however reading them again today I find the them overly sentimental and unrealistic and I don’t enjoy it half as much (i.e. anything by Thomas Hardy).

These though I think these are my top 5 – I’ve tried to be very honest and pick books that I genuinely love to snuggle up with and devour rather than more show-offy, literary offerings. In no particular order;

• As a kid I loved Enid Blyton – The Magic Faraway Tree and The Famous Five were particular favourites
• Anything at all written by Jane Austen – if I had to pick a favourite I think I’d choose ‘Persuasion‘ – I cried real tears!
• The ‘George Smiley’ books by John le Carré  (the first of which is ‘Call for the Dead‘)
• The ‘Jackson Brodie’ series of Novels by Kate Atkinson (the first of which is ‘Case Histories‘)
• The amazing ‘Jeeves & Wooster‘ books by PG Wodehouse

See you tomorrow x
I’m blogging Every Day in May - let me know if you are too!

Do you love The Manic Street Preachers? I do! I lived by their 1996 album ‘Everything Must Go’ and my number one karaoke song for belting out at any given opportunity has to be ‘A Design For Life‘.
Well, I now have a reason to love them even more – or more specifically, the loveliest rock’n'roll blokes ever; Nicky Wire. He’s a Polaroid addict (like me) and is publishing a book containing a selection of his work from the past 20+ years with the band. How amazing is that! I love it when two loves of my life come together into one Christmas-present-sized bundle of greatness. (I do hope Santa subscribes to my RSS feed).

Death Of The Polaroid: A Manics Family Album is released this month – there’s the regular version and if you’re feeling flush there’s a special limited edition which includes one of the actual Polaroid photos!

I don’t think I’m an artist. I’m not a photographer. I’m a Polaroid freak who thinks that the colours and the vividness and the memories encapsulated in this art form are spectacular. Nothing moves me more.

(If you’re reading this in your blog reader and don’t see a video above, please click here).

I know, today’s Tuesday, but I wanted to share this extract I’ve read of a new Karen Carpenter biography by Randy Schmidt. We all know the story and hearing it again doesn’t make it any easier, but this is really well written and a stark reminder that eating disorders aren’t really about eating at all, but control and how you see yourself in the universe.

The hindsight feels so cruel – you want to be there for her, knowing what we know now and make things alright, but life doesn’t work like that. You have to take in the the culmination of bad descions and experiences and lead to the inevitable tragic concequence.

After I read it I went straight to this poem. It’s not just the swears that have meant this poem has endeared for so long…

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.

‘This Be The Verse’ by Philip Larkin