The pleasures of reading

One of the great things about travelling by train - and by bus to work in the morning - is being able to read and going to Toulouse was no exception. I enjoy picking up books in railway stations - the selection is often much better than you imagine and I'll end up reading something I might not have come across or bought otherwise. One recent example for me was Camilla Gibb's Sweetness in the Belly it paints a wonderfully evocative picture of Islam as lived from the inside - Lilly the main character speaks of life and spirituality and love - as well as exile and violence and war. A very, very different Islam from the one spoken of in the media so often. It was a satisfying read and was equally evocative of the London of the 1980s, reminding me of the Somali women I used to work with.

Anyway more about reading some other time, books are my main escape from reality and help me maintain some kind of grip on sanity!