It was 10 years (and 2 weeks) ago, after a few months of deliberation and speed-learning WordPress, that I published this website and my first book review. A lot has changed since then, not least the amount of time I dedicate to blogging, but some things thankfully remain.

Books are still a source of comfort both to read and to discuss. I find online book communities are still a kind, gentle place to be, even if very few interactions happen on the blogs themselves now. I still buy books faster than I read them and I still want to know about all the latest releases even though I can’t possibly keep up with them all.

The main thing that slows down my reading is still the brain fog and fatigue that stems from my having lupus, which I first mentioned on here in my fourth post. So it was never only about the books. You can trace my various hobbies and interests of the past decade through this blog. There are posts about cooking, knitting, photography, theatre, live music, TV and film. (There’s surprisingly only passing mention of pub quizzes, so clearly that’s a topic to come back to.)

But books are still my great love. Big books, small books, literary fiction, genre fiction, non-fiction, comics and graphic novels. Right now I am, like much of the world, suddenly working from home for the foreseeable future and it is a great comfort in all the uncertainty to be surrounded by my books. As I said back in my first post, books are an escape – an often necessary and welcome one.

I hope you are all staying safe and well.