Y Ddraig Goch

Aug 06 2025 - For the love of literature

Prompt: For the love of literature. Write about this in your Blog entry today

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I haven't always enjoyed reading. I hated it until I was about thirteen and even then, it was only for English Literature classes and coursework. I always struggled with words, pronunciation, and definitely reading out loud - which seemed to be what my teachers loved to torture us with. It wasn't just reading, I was bad at spelling as well.

That said, I was good at it - not great... good. I even got a poem published in some national poetry things... I still have the book somewhere. I did love Shakespeare - and not the usual Romeo and Juliet, or Midsummer Night's Dream. I liked Richard the III, Macbeth, and Othello.

That being said something must have switched at some point because I can still remember the titles of some of the books I read - A Town Like Alice, and The Chrysalis.

For some unknown reason, I also decided that taking English Language in college was something I should do. I spent three years studying international authors like Balzac, Ibsen, and Achebe. I tried... so hard... to like Austen... My friend was OBSESSED, but I just couldn't get into her writing. Bronte, however, Wuthering Heights is still one of my favourite books of all time. I think it's what cemented my obsession with the anti-hero.

That is where my love of reading really started and where I started to diversify and found my home in Sci-fi, Supernatural, and Horror... King will always be King as far as I'm concerned. Now, I find reading a safe haven. It's a place to escape to when I don't want to think about the real world. I get to bury my head in the pages and switch my brain off. Or at least dull it down a bit.