Why are books so important in your life?

When I was setting up my website, I wanted a logo that summed up everything I loved about writing - which is pretty much the ability to look in on someone else's life, and live it (vicariously) through them. So I picked an eye, looking at the world. But then I added the flare, which for me is the excitement I feel when I meet someone new, and get a chance to ask them all about their life. Their experiences, their thoughts, their feelings, opinions... regrets. Everything.

I spent about two years trying to find a graffiti artist to help me research my book. Normally I just ask everyone I know if they know someone who might know someone... and it works. But this one was more underground, so it was a bit harder and took a bit longer. But the funny thing was when one of the graffiti artists I met took me to a shop where they sell paint, there was a well-known graffiti artist painting a commission. All I did was ask him how much it would cost me to buy a piece like the one he was doing, and he pretty much snapped my head off. He was pretty rude actually. But I found out later it was because he thought I was a cop because I was asking so many questions 🤣.

But the graffiti artist got me wrong. It's not a nosiness with me. It's a curiosity. I love people and hearing about their lives. One of my favourite things to do is people watch. I love sitting on the balcony outside the restaurants at Kings Cross, just above the destinations board. I look down at all the masses of people below and zone in on certain faces, trying to guess what they do for a living, what their life is like, if they're married or single, happy or sad.

But I know it's not possible to experience everything in a lifetime, which is why books are so amazing, because they can do that for you instead.

I could be heartbroken (and I have been), but there's a thousand different ways to experience heartbreak. When you talk about heartbreak, most people think about being told by the person they love with all their heart that they don't love them any more. But heartbreak - like every situation and feeling in life - can take on many shapes and forms. You can be heartbroken because someone turned out not to be the person you thought they were. Or maybe you've had to walk away from someone you had a stupidly strong connection with, for no apparent reason, but you just had to anyway. Maybe you're heartbroken, not because you lost that person, but because you no longer have love in your life. Or maybe the only person you've ever loved has died.

So if there are a thousand different ways to experience heartbreak, then it goes without saying, that every situation in life can be experienced in a million different ways too.

Which, again, is why I love books so much.

Every book carries a theme or story that's been written about a million times before. But it's the characters, and their feelings, their unique situations that makes the story new and exciting.

There's so many subjects I love thinking about. So many people's lives I love hearing about. So many things I know nothing about.

And writing and reading lets me address some of that.

I also love how writing can really resonate with you. Like the lyrics to a song you identify with. The same heartbreak that a complete stranger has gone through too, just like you. The coming of age song that could be your coming of age song. The song celebrating your friends, the way you celebrate your friends.

But the things I have never experienced before excite me too.

Like the rap battles in Eminem's 8 Mile. I'd LOVE to see some of those happening live. Feel the passion, the heat, the intensity... the BATTLE. Then there's travel. I could travel every day of my life and never tire of it. But that's only really something you can do if you're a multi-millionaire with no ties to anyone. So if I can't explore the Amazon rainforest in real life, I can do it vicariously through a book. Feel the heat of Havana on my face and taste the rum; walks the streets of Paris and go kite flying in Afghanistan.

All this I can do by opening the cover of a book and starting to read.

But that's not the only reason to love books.

It's the whole beauty of words too. The way they make you think and feel. The way they cleverly worm their way into your mind, and sit there quietly, waiting for you to digest them long after you've finished the book.

I've just read the chapter in Normal People where Connell's old teacher tries it on with him on a drunken night out. He talks about seeing everything in multiples. Even her eyes take on another form when drunk-- "When she looked at him she did not have two eyes, but several, and they moved around exotically in the air, like jewels."

How beautiful is that?

I think it's the word exotically, together with jewels, but when I read that sentence, I literally saw amber-coloured jewels dancing in the air around her head.

I love books for their other lives - their new and exciting cultures; their other worlds and realms. For the way a story (or sometimes, even, just a line) really resonates with me, like the author is addressing me directly. I love books for their clever imagery and comparisons, and how they can leave me lost in their world long after I've closed their cover.

What about you? Why are books so important in your life?