An Introduction
Hello and welcome to my blog!
My name is Kayleigh, I’m 23 years old and I love reading, writing and the literary world.
I started this blog because I have found it increasingly difficult the older I have gotten to find time to write and read to my heart’s content. The five minutes I get waiting in the doctor’s or in my half-hour lunch break at work just isn’t cutting it, and so I’m doing something about it. This way, not only do I get to write and read, but I get to share my thoughts with all of you too - it’s a win-win.
I miss the unlimited access to time I had when I was a child, when I could read and write as much as I wanted to. I have always loved stories, both reading them and writing my own. When I was little, I often was asking someone to read to me (as my mum reports), or when I got old enough to read myself, had my head in a book. My nan signed me up for my first library card, and I spent my summer holidays completing the summer reading challenges and walking home with a stack of books in my arms each week. When I wasn’t reading about fairies or wizards or other faraway lands, I was writing my own stories. I remember asking my more artistically gifted friends to design book covers for my latest ‘novels’, even requesting details down to a barcode, ISBN number and an ‘About the Author’ section. I gave these stories to my primary school teacher, who encouraged my work, inspired me and helped me diversify my reading material. We often left books for each other on our respective desks, returning them with little notes once we had finished, commenting on what we liked and disliked.
Since then, not much has changed. My love of reading and writing has only grown - I finished my undergraduate English degree in 2022 and have worked in a bookshop for over two years, so I now get to recommend my favourite reads to others and spend my time surrounded by books. I love speaking to and working with people who are also passionate about literature and sharing the power of the written word. My writing time has decreased as I’ve grown up, often because I feel I don’t have the time to dedicate to it as there are other ‘adult’ things I need to be doing - folding washing, walking the dogs, cleaning the sink, the list goes on. Hopefully, however, all of this is about to change. I want to write and read more consistently this year as a sort of New Years Resolution, and this blog will be my motivation. I have wanted a blog for a really long time, and it feels so refreshing and exciting to sit down and say ‘okay, so I’m actually going to do this and I’m going to do it right now’. My writing will hopefully get better with practice and I can dedicate more of my time to reading and sharing my thoughts with you. At least, this is what I hope happens - now to actually get to it.