I thought I would share some reading matter this week. What are you reading? Do you read books? One at a time or can you keep up with more than one?

I can read one at a time, I think my brain would pop if I tried more! I do read kids novels to my son at night, so I kind of read two books at once, one to him and one to myself.

I love magazines but I have to have a novel to read a bedtime, reading a magazine at bedtime gives me so many ideas and inspirations, they almost stop me sleeping. Consequently I don’t get through as many mags as I would like and sometimes I don’t even get through the ones I buy before the next issue is out. In fact the new issue of The Great Discontent is due out soon, so I had better get cracking and finish this one!

I discovered The Great Discontent when I came across The 100 day Project which is hosted by the magazine and Elle Luna.  TGD is full of interviews with creative and inspiring people accompanied by a ton of photography and illustrations.  Great stuff, it is a quarterly mag which goes with my reading speed nicely.  Isn’t Sharon Van Etten’s hair gorgeous on the front cover, I might need to talk to my hairdresser about a new do!

Flow magazine have started a little weekly publication which I am in love with.  I order Flow directly from their website which means it takes about three weeks to get here as it comes from Holland.  When I order the International edition, I add in a few copies of Flow weekly.  The website gives you a little preview of the weekly, so you can choose which you want to order.  The weekly mini mag is only in Dutch, but the illustrations and general fabulousness of it, make it worth popping into Google translate to see what they are talking about.  It is a lovely little read/peruse and long may it continue!

I recently got my paws on a copy of Craft-a-Doodle by Jenny Doh to go with the Lettering books I have by the same author.  Ms Doh gathers the most inspiring illustrators for the book and I want to have a go at nearly all of the doodles in the book following the step by step instructions.  It is a perfect blend of instruction and idea generation for me.  I like to see what others have done with a hint at how they did it.  A definite ‘I can do this’ book.  I am particularly drawn to the chapter featuring Cori Dantini on drawing faces.  I love to see doodles and illustrations of faces, but I am terrified of having a go myself, hopefully with a bit of practice I will be able to draw some lovely faces.

The novel I am reading now, is ‘The Mirror World of Melody Black’ by Gavin Extence and I have nearly finished it, so I will be on the hunt for a new book if you have a good one to recommend. It has been a quick read for me because it is so good, I tend to whizz through some books and take longer on others, even though I am still enjoying them.  The characters in the book are great which is usually what I am looking for in a book, I don’t need action or ‘who dunnit’, but I do like a good character or two.  There are pockets of drama but the book doesn’t dwell, just moves on weaving the story of the people in the pages.  As I said, I haven’t finished yet, so there might some high drama coming!

I can recommend a great resource for new books which is The Radio 2 Bookclub.  I have read no end of books as featured in the R2 bookclub and they have pretty much all been really good ones.  The Mirror World of Melody Black is one recommended by them and the new book they are reading is called ‘The Gracekeepers’ by Kirsty Logan and I have just ordered it from the library,  sounds like an interesting read.

Don’t forget to share what you are reading and wanting to read.  I keep a list in my diary of books I want to read, and I am always looking to add to it.

Happy Wednesday!