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Tag Archives: books

Lavinia Goes Local

22 Sunday Jan 2017

Posted by laviniacollins in Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

books, bookshops, buying books, independent bookshop, indy books, local bookshop

16143300_10211702934358415_211032749235995893_n.jpgThis is a very exciting week for me. As someone who’s lived a life online and who, until now, has only had my books for sale online, this is a watershed moment for me. A small, independent bookshop in Topsham, a gorgeous seaside village in the south-west of England, is now stocking my books. (Don’t worry, they’re still available on Amazon!)

If you happen to be in the area, make sure you check it out. The Topsham Bookshop is an absolute treasure-trove of second hand and indy-published books with everything from old favourites in those adorable pre-loved volumes to, well, me!

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always loved a bookshop. I could lose half a day in there, and often I’ve lost my weekly budget. My local station has a Foyles, which means that every time I miss my train (which, I confess, is relatively often – timekeeping is not my forté) I find myself in there, contactless card in hand, a victim of their three-for-two book offer.

I can’t quite fall in love with a place without a bookshop, and somehow bookshops are always wonky and rickety (apart from I suppose my temptation location, Foyles) and have that gorgeous dusty smell.

Bookshops are wonderful places. It’s something about seeing all of those titles lined up and thinking there’s a world inside each of these. I hope that someone browsing in The Topsham Bookshop will have the same feeling when they see – and pick up – one of mine.

16114009_10211702933878403_1459374893633066643_n.jpg

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My Top Reads of 2015

01 Friday Jan 2016

Posted by laviniacollins in amreading, Uncategorized

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Tags

amreading, books, reading, recommended reads

I’ve been a busy gal this year, but I did find time for plenty of reading, from the informative to the erotic! Here I’ve gathered together my favourite reads of 2015 – if you’ve read something wonderful this year, do add it in the comments! I’m always on the lookout for new reads.

I’m planning to make my fave reads recommendations a regular page on the blog (you can see it here) so if you think there’s something missing from it that you’d like to make 2016’s list you can drop me a line! News about books is always good news. 

And where are your own books, Lavinia, I (possibly) hear you cry? They have their own home here – this section is for me to share what I’ve loved reading, rather than what I’ve been writing!

 

 

Great scholarly yet popular history of the ancient world! A must-read for classical history lovers.

 

Empowering erotica that I would strongly recommend for all ladies who like to be in charge. (According to Chaucer, that’s all of us, by the way).

 

 

Young Adult fantasy romance with fairies, intrigue and plenty of heat.

 

 

Truly unique mystery novel – recommended to all lovers of interesting characters and intrigue across time.

 

 

 

Great fun from the lovely Julie – strongly recommended!

 

 

 

 

Old English Intrigue, Sex and Scandal. Great historical novel with incredible period detail.

 

 

 

 

Accessible popular history of royal sexuality.

 

 

Salacious historical fiction featuring everyone’s (second) favourite crazy Emperor, Domitian.

 

 

 

Young Adult novel – I couldn’t put it down. It’s not “fun” as such, but it’s incredible writing. Not for the faint-hearted!

 

 

Don’t see your book here, and think I’d like it? Drop me a line here. 

On Falling in Love with a Book 

15 Sunday Mar 2015

Posted by laviniacollins in Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

amreading, books, fantasy, librarian, literature, love, romance

                                                                             Fall In love with a book 

What makes us fall in love with a book? Often, this question is as complex as what makes us fall in love with a person. We all have a type (I like fantasy and romance), but we have all fallen in love outside of that type in our lives (I have loved some sci-fi and crime thriller novels that I would never have thought I’d have enjoyed). 

So what is it? Because we’ve all had that moment. That book that gets in your head, that you can’t stop thinking about. For a little while, the lnandscape of that book becomes the landscape of the inside of your mind. That’\s how powerful writing is; it’s the only way we ever get close to being inside one another’s heads. And the thing is, the book you imagine – the world you imagine – is like, perhaps, what the author imagined, but not exactly like it. It’s that magical meeting-point between your own imagination and the imagination of the writer. 

I don’t know quite when the first time this happened for me was. I’ve been in love (in the literary sense) so many times now, that I don’t remember the first time, but I think I must have been seven or eight. I certainly remember that by the time I read Harry Potter (and I am youthful enough to have read them as they were coming out, but also old enough to remember a time long before the films) it was a familiar feeling, to have someone else’s imaginary world shape the inside of your own mind, just for a while. 

And at that age I hated anyone talking about books, or trying to talk about what I was reading with me. It felt too private, too personal. And part of reading – part of the reason that reading is the sanctuary of the introvert child – that is so lovely is the private element. I found it so hard to share what in many ways felt so private to me. 

Of course, I’m  largely “over” that now – it’s hard not to be, when you’re writing. You’re inviting other people in, then. You’re inviting them to come into the landscape of your own imagination. It’s not really going to be that, because it’s going to be shaped by their own ideas, their own thoughts and backgrounds and everything they have read. But it’s a deeply personal process all the same. 

And it’s a magical thing, and a wonderful thing. Reading and writing, they’re all part of the same desire. The desire to communciate and to touch the mind of another and to admit that – on some level – we are the same as someone else. They may feel what felt when we read or wrote the same thing. There’s nothing more special to that. Not to me. Falling in love with a book. That’s powerful enough to connect with writers thousands of years dead. Literature is precious; it lets us know we are human, and that is all we need to be. 

Please feel free to add in the comments below any books you fell in love with – does anyone remember the first one? 

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