It’s funny sometimes, how my two lives – that is to say, personal and professional – which I try to keep very distinct from each other, blend in odd clashing and unexpected ways.
Right now, it’s book club.
Now, me and book club have had an odd relationship over the years – some of the books I’ve been assigned to run club on I detest (Gardens of Water most evil book ever ever written, and I was saddled with a bunch of old biddies who loved it and thought I was “too young” to understand it when in fact I understood parts of it better than they ever could…but that’s beside the point). But over the seasons I’ve found myself actually looking forward to book club, especially when I run it here – somehow the groups I get on the flagship are more…I don’t know, open minded isn’t quite the right word, but it’s the one I can come up with.
Anyway, right now we’re reading The Girl With No Shadow, which was actually my personal choice – I’ve been trying to get Head Office to let me run it for ages, but as it’s not itinerary related it was a tough sell, it was only this season I could pull it off. The thing is The Girl With No Shadow is, at its heart, about identity, and how we form the image we present to other people, and how easily that image can be changed or mutated or even stolen by another. But beyond that…it’s about magic. Real magic, not the Harry Potter kind, but straight up kitchen magic, and cantrips and horse-shoes above the door.
I can hear some of you smirking from here…and I answer the question you’re not asking: I’m behaving myself…but behind the mask of the civilized little librarian…there might just be a little trace of a knowing smile…
Not that I would ever confirm or deny any such thing of course…
Blessed Bunble
To you to sir 🙂