What’s really housed in Cambridge University Library’s fabled 17 storey tower? Contrary to a popular notion among students, the tower is not packed with pornography (Neville Chamberlain did rather unfortunately refer to the tower as ‘this magnificent erection’) but you might be surprised to learn that it houses a remarkable collection of so called ‘ephemera’…
Author: Rosalind Esche
I thought it was a Zombie Apocalypse book …
Have you read more or less during lockdown, or much the same as usual?
Slightly less as I’ve not listened to as many audiobooks.
Has lockdown affected your choice of reading material?
Definitely! I am reading much less non fiction and the fiction I do read tends towards escapism, even more than usual…
Reading has been one of my main pleasures during lockdown
When the first lockdown started last March, I had 50 or 60 books waiting to be read, mainly generous gifts from friends and the result of my purchases from charity shops, visits to which have been rather an addiction in recent years.
For a while I couldn’t read anything
For a while I couldn’t read anything, as I had a very short attention span. I suspect I was a bit stressed about the pandemic.
If anything as a reader I’ve reverted to type and to what feels safe
At the start of lockdown I had imagined I would read more, and I may actually have done, but it also doesn’t feel like I’m reading as much as I would like to.
Reading through the lens of lockdown
“To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.” — W. Somerset Maugham
If only I had time to read…..
If only I had time to read…..How many times have I said this? Well, as a result of lockdown, I now have plenty of time on my hands.
I read thirty books last year
I read thirty books last year, a mixture of fiction and non fiction, and some of those I had read before.
During the initial months of lockdown my reply would have been ‘’What reading?‘’
During the initial months of ‘Lockdown’ my reply would have been ‘’what reading?‘’ I had no appetite for it, or for the concentration it would require. A daily stumble through national headlines, keeping abreast and focusing on the best of the worst, was more than enough to sap my mental capacity for the remainder of the day.
The Average Boy
“When stress of weather, or the coming of long winter evenings, or any other reason gives the indoor part of life a larger importance, this indoor handy book will be found an invaluable companion.” If your children are bored being cooped up at home under the current lockdown, this may well be the book for…