Random Ramblings

I’ve written a fair bit on my other blog, Two Simple Lives, about how books and stories shaped my view of the world. As with most children, I was drawn to those books that mirrored my own family, solidifying my sense of cultural heritage, helping me understand and relate to my grandparents and parents who would always be a little out of place in the land to which they’d emigrated…and finally allowing me, as an adult, the cultural fluidity to move easily between two countries.

I did not grow up in a wealthy family. There was no extra money at all when I was a child. I wore hand-me-downs from my sister and from family friends, my bike had been second-hand about twenty owners before…but there were always books. Books passed on from friends whose children had outgrown them. Books as birthday and Christmas presents. Books from the library…