1. Always look for important details. They may be the difference between life and death.

2. If somebody you trust tells you not to go somewhere, LISTEN. TO. THEM. Remember, curiosity killed the cat.

3. Best friends are not always human.

4. You only have a limited amount of time before you die. Might as well do something good with your life.

5. Villains come in many forms.

now that's a lie

there is something to say

for life experience

that I frequently deny

but with a nod to that

I will tell you

all the pages

have taut

1. you can always turn the page

2. you don't have to finish the book

3. even if you read the end, you'll never understand how you got there without the rest

4. even books recover from rain

5. people treat books the way they treat themselves

an explanation of number five:

I've never been gentle with books

I prefer paperbacks so I bend them in half

I believe in underlining and circling and note-taking and dog-earring and once I had a book that was 1000 pages long so I tore it in half and only carried around 500 pages at a time.

I have written and cut and bruised and picked-at and pinched and scrubbed and prodded and marked my skin into the cover it remains to be seen as

but I have also taped myself back together

so you have to understand

that I have read my insides twelve times over

and each time

I have learned

something new

some will keep the covers on hard covers

some will read a book once and set it down

some will use book-marks instead of store receipts and that's okay

I love those sorts of people

all I'm saying is

watch how people hold their books

because whether they know it

or not

they're holding themselves in their own hands

blood is nothing to be ashamed of

it's just the ink of our novels

Books taught me at a very early stage in my life that libraries are wonderful places, filled with all manner of escapism. As a child I was introduced to my local library at an early age and I began a love affair that lingered throughout my life.

Everything is moving into data form at the moment isn't it, and reading anything these days means having some gadget glaring at you as your irradiated eyes scan the screen.

Libraries still exist, but they are not as I remember them. They used to be havens for readers and those with inquisitive minds. These days my local library has wall to wall dvd box sets, blue rays, music on cd's and kids causing havoc in the crèche area. Computer areas line the benches, and jobseekers vie for employment, oh the days!

I can still remember people being thrown out of my library for whispering, these days Krakatoa could erupt in the Crime Section and nobody would bat an eyelid.

Libraries have definitely lost the plot haven't they?