We need necessary books, books we can read the day after a funeral, when we have no tears left from all our crying, when we can hardly stand for the pain; books that will be there like loved ones… books for those nights when no matter how exhausted we are we cannot sleep, and all we want is to tear ourselves away from obsessive visions; books that have heft and do not let us down… We have no time to waste on insignificant books, hollow books, books that are here to please.

 

We want splendid books, books that immerse us in the splendour of reality and keep us there; books that prove to us that love is at work in the world next to evil, right up against it, at times indistinctly, and that it always will be, just the way that suffering will always ravage hearts. We want good novels. We want books that leave nothing out: neither human tragedy nor everyday wonders, books that bring fresh air to our lungs.

 

And even if there is only one such book per decade, even if there is only one Vies miniscules every ten years, that would be enough. We want nothing else.

Laurence Cossé – A Novel Bookstore 

Hello there. Thanks for stopping by my humble new book blog; a place I aim to populate with reviews, commentaries and general bookish chat.

For now though, I’ll be brief. I want good books. I want the splendid, life-giving books that Laurence Cossé writes so passionately about in A Novel Bookstore. I want libraries and bookshops to flourish, I want my children to be bookworms, and I want to talk to good people about how much we love literature. If this sounds at all appealing to you, do swing by once I’m up and running (a review of Anne Donovan’s Gone are the Leaves coming this way ASAP).

About the Blogger: Louise is a freelance editor and a Subtitling Team Leader for Red Bee Media. She recently completed her PhD in Scottish Literature, not because she fancied herself as an academic, but because she just couldn’t drag herself away from the books. She has worked in libraries, interned at newspaper offices and generally spent far too much time with her nose to a page. She also likes tea, music and cats.