{"id":312,"date":"2010-05-25T01:09:26","date_gmt":"2010-05-25T08:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/writeolive.com\/?p=89"},"modified":"2010-05-25T01:09:26","modified_gmt":"2010-05-25T08:09:26","slug":"my-friends-my-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/oliveobrien.com\/?p=312","title":{"rendered":"MY FRIENDS \u2013 MY BOOKS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barbara Scully is a freelance writer and fulltime home maker in South Dublin.\u00a0 She blogs from Her Kitchen Table<\/a>, writes articles which are occasionally published and personal essays which are occasionally broadcast on radio.\u00a0 She would like to be able to drop the word occasionally from her bio!\u00a0 You can follow Barbara on Twitter which she is Aurora111.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There is little that warms my heart as much as seeing my girls tucked up in bed with their nose in a book.\u00a0\u00a0 When we go on holidays they always pack a couple of books, along with the Nintendo of course.\u00a0 Life is all about balance and as long as they read, I have no problem with them playing computer games (says she who spends a scary amount of time on Twitter and blogging!!).<\/p>\n

I have always read.\u00a0 Books have been wonderful companions through all stages of my life.\u00a0\u00a0 The first books I can remember reading on my own are probably Enid Blyton\u2019s Famous Five stories.\u00a0 Although quintessentially very English, there were lots of parallels in my own childish life of the time.\u00a0 I grew up in Blackrock in a normal estate of uniform semi detached houses.\u00a0 But by scaling a wall in the adjoining field belonging to Blackrock Rugby Club we had access to the grounds of many of the very large houses on Monkstown Road.\u00a0 During summer holidays we would disappear for hours, exploring orchards and in one case a maze, the highlight being getting a chase from one of the gardeners.\u00a0 Wonderful adventures.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are two of my very favourite books from my childhood now in my daughter\u2019s bedroom \u2013 The Turfcutters Donkey by Patricia Lynch and When Marnie Was There by Joan G Robinson.\u00a0 They are like old friends waiting to be discovered again.<\/p>\n

As I a young adult I have a very clear recollection of commuting on the train into the city with my head stuck in the latest Jackie Collins.\u00a0 I can\u2019t really say that at that stage her stories mirrored my life in the way Ms Blyton\u2019s used to.\u00a0 But her lurid descriptions of sex, drugs and rock \u2018n\u2019 roll I am sure added to my general education.\u00a0 I do remember getting so involved in her books that I almost missed my station regularly.\u00a0 I also seem to remember that I would often sense another pair of eyes reading over my shoulder \u2013 much to my embarrassment.<\/p>\n

My house is full of unread books.\u00a0 Unread because I passionately believe that when I am finished a book I should pass it on.\u00a0 I have a group of friends and my mother (no doubt from whom my love of reading comes) with whom I share books all the time.\u00a0 I hate the thought of a book, which has been read, languishing on a shelf never to be opened again.\u00a0 Books bring such joy they should be read and then passed on.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

My other commandment regarding books is that life is too short to waste time reading a book you don\u2019t like or are not enjoying.\u00a0 Commandment one then applies \u2013 give it up and pass it on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But books that I have really loved are many, but among my all time Top Ten would be the following:<\/p>\n

Garden Spells<\/strong> by Sarah Addison Allen \u2013 pure escapism and joy.<\/p>\n

The Art of Racing in the Rain<\/strong> by Garth Stein \u2013 you don\u2019t have to love dogs but it helps for this great story, told by Enzo the dog!<\/p>\n

The Shack<\/strong> by William Paul Young \u2013 if you have a spiritual bent this is a beautiful read.<\/p>\n

Anything by Elin Hilderbrand<\/strong> to bring me back to Cape Cod and Nantucket! Great summer reading.<\/p>\n

A friend asked me recently how do you encourage your child to read?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know the answer to that.\u00a0 My children have all seen how much I love books and of my 3 girls, 2 read all the time and the eldest doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 But when thinking about children and books I always think of Irish broadcasting legend Gay Byrne who every year on the Late Late Toy Show gave a little speech about how important it is to introduce your children to books.\u00a0 \u201cGive a child the gift of reading and they have a friend for life\u201d he used to say \u2013 or words to that effect!\u00a0 I did try Gay, honest I did.\u00a0 And I suppose (as a certain Mr Loaf used to say) 2 out of 3 ain\u2019t bad!<\/p>\n

The photo is of yours truly and my youngest, Mia (9) heads in our books as we wait at the Airport!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barbara Scully is a freelance writer and fulltime home maker in South Dublin.\u00a0 She blogs from Her Kitchen Table, writes articles which are occasionally published and personal essays which are occasionally broadcast on radio.\u00a0 She would like to be able to drop the word occasionally from her bio!\u00a0 You can follow Barbara on Twitter which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/oliveobrien.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/oliveobrien.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/oliveobrien.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oliveobrien.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oliveobrien.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/oliveobrien.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/oliveobrien.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oliveobrien.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oliveobrien.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}