Reading and books have been a large part of my identity from a very young age. My mum would ask me to pick a book and she would read it to me. I would come running through with armfuls of books; how could I pick just one?! As I grew older and was able to read for myself, going to the library was common for us. We had a small library in my hometown and looking back, I feel like I must’ve read most of the teen and young adult books on the shelves and then as an adult all of the crime books, all of them!

This left me wondering whether others feel the same and if books were such a big part of their childhood too. Earlier this year, I asked my friends on social media what their favourite book as a child was. Within half-an-hour I had 27 responses, each with their own favourite story, holding many memories. As an avid reader, it’s tough to pick a favourite childhood story, but I went for Enid Blyton’s The Secret Island. For me, there is something magical about a group of children running away to live on an island, like adults. As a grown-up, the island part sounds okay but can I live like a kid instead?

When shielding was paused in Scotland in August last year, a local bookshop in the Grassmarket of Edinburgh called Armchair Books had a day entirely reserved for shielders, you booked a slot and had the store to yourself for 20 minutes. It was scary going back outside after being indoors for many months, but what an incentive! At the end of the day, the store owner posted on social media exclaiming that shielders read a lot! This conversation helped me realise how accessible books and reading are.

There are so many different formats for books and I have to admit, I dabble in most of them. I have a different reading format for different times of day, whether indoors or outdoors and whether my fatigue is kicking my ass! If fatigue is sapping my energy, my go to is an audiobook. There really is nothing quite like someone reading a story to you, my favourite storyteller is Stephen Fry. He reads the Sherlock Holmes stories, the Harry Potter books and the George Orwell books 1984 and Animal Farm. For me, audiobooks take very little energy and I feel like I have made good use of the time listening. I quite often enjoy listening to an audiobook whilst completing word searches, though sometimes words with words can be confusing! There are many different portals for listening to audiobooks, most libraries have an app where you can borrow them; there are services such as Audible and for a subscription fee you are given a credit each month to spend on an audiobook and there are even free options if you search online. Do you know something really wonderful? If you use an app, there is often a sleep function allowing you to set the timer so that if you drop off the audiobook stops. Perfect for fatigue!

I know e-readers are a sensitive topic in the book world, but I personally love mine for the days that my hands do not play or when I am out of the house. My hands often misbehave, originally, I was left-handed. I have lost the use of my left hand but I can still wave my arm around so watch yourself! The reason for the warning is that though I have trained my right arm to do what my left arm cannot, I find that my arms have a mind of their own. For example, I can be in the middle of a conversation with Super Sarah when my right arm, unbeknownst to me, picks up the nearest drink and puts it to my mouth. Talk about leaving her in suspense! So, if my hands are being particularly tricky or I am out of the house (because you should always take a book with you when you leave the house) I use my Kindle. With the Kindle you can have backlight if you want it, I have a screen where I literally tap it, turning the page and they are small and compact so it’s easy to carry around. There are options to amend the size of the lettering and it can read out loud to you too. You can sign up for the Kindle deal of the day, Amazon will email you every day with a book available for 99p. Not necessarily brilliant for the book industry, but very useful if you have misbehaving hands and a tight budget. Most libraries have a Kindle book borrowing service too, meaning more books in the format of your choice.

The closest relationship that I have in reading is with a physical book. A paperback or hardback: signed by the author, even better. And I will hold my hands up right now (or I would if I could) and say it, I am a book sniffer! I know some people find it weird but there is nothing quite like the smells of a book, if only it could be bottled. From the musty smell of an old book to the nice crisp smell of a brand-new book, I love it all. The sturdiness of a hardback book can be a blessing and a curse, depending on the day. On a day when my hands are being tricky, I can spend most of my reading time trying to find my page after the book closed for the 20^th time. Or it can work the other way, the sturdiness of the book can aid my misbehaving hands to hold the it in place and I can easily flick through the pages if I need to, there is no consistency. I do love paperbacks too, the flexibility of the covers and the spine allowed me to bend the book in any way to read it, sorry if I made you shiver thinking about a bent spine but sometimes you just have to make the sacrifice!

Super Sarah and I have a bookshelf in every room apart from the bathroom, though we have thought about this but for hygiene reasons we have put on a shelf for now (see what I did there?). In the early days of our relationship, we shared a love of reading, passing on our favourite stories to one another and trading books this has continued for almost 18 years. Although I should point out that we have very different taste in books and quite often, we do not love the same books.  And now we have little libraries scattered around the flat!

I have decided to add a section to my website on books where I will review the stories that I have read and share the format and my experience with this. Please feel free to get in touch to tell me your favourite stories and any recommendations.