Sharing the Joy of Reading

I was recently asked in a Q and A, “What’s your most favourite thing about being an author?” My answer was, “Without a doubt, it’s meeting readers. For someone to tell me that they’ve read and enjoyed my books is very satisfying and makes all the time and effort worthwhile. I also get a huge buzz from seeing my book on display in a bookshop or library. When I was a student, I worked in a library and I would never have believed that one day my book would be on a shelf. It’s a cliché but it’s truly a dream come true.”

Now THAT’s what I call a chair for a storyteller!

That’s why being asked to host the local World Book Night (WBN) for Falkirk Libraries meant so much to me. There I was, back in Denny Library, where I once stood behind the counter issuing books to readers but this time I was the author!

The old Denny Library where I worked on Saturdays.

The stunning new library is on the same site and it’s now the centrepiece of the redevelopment of the town centre.

I’ve previously blogged about my passion for libraries and I’ve always been very vocal on social media in my belief that libraries are the heartbeat of a community and are essential as dream factories.

The gorgeous new Denny Library.

Books on the shelves of a library are full of people I’ve yet to meet, places I’ve yet to visit and adventures I’ve yet to have and my world would have been far smaller without access to my local library as a child. Growing up with weekly visits to Bonnybridge Library made me an avid reader and this love of words created the desire to become an author.

Fab mural on the exterior of Bonnybridge Library.

 

I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the written word than to hold a spoken word event and it was a privilege to spend Saturday afternoon (WBN falls on a Sunday this year so our event was a wee bit early) with poets and authors who came to share their work with the local community.

An honour to read my novel at the library I once worked in!

There were superb readings from debut novelist, Ross Sayers who read extracts from Mary’s the Name,  Emma Mooney read from her novels, A Beautiful Game and Wings to Fly, Charlie Clark read from his debut novel, Empty Dark,  Moira Martin and Anne Dromgoole from Denny Writers read their short stories, and we heard powerful poetry from Lesley Traynor, Carol Harley, Maggie Laidlaw and Janet Crawford.

 

It doesn’t need to be WBN to have a gathering of performers and it would be great to see libraries across Scotland hosting regular spoken word events. It might be another way of making sure a library remains the beating heart of a community because the worry is, if you don’t use it, you lose it!