Reading Rush 2020: Day 1

Off to a very good start.

My first book of the challenge was ‘A Country to Call Home’ an anthology edited by Lucy Popescu.

It’s a collection of Poems, stories and essays based on the experiences of young refugees. I used this book for the ‘Genre I want to read more of’ prompt because I initially thought this was a poetry book, and that’s a genre that I always have the best intentions with, but never quite commit myself to. Even though the book wasn’t fully poetry I’m still keeping it for the prompt as, whilst reading it, I realised it was a unique reading experience for me. Whether it was the anthology aspect, or the tales of young refugees, I’m not sure, but it was a very emotive book and definitely not of a type I’ve read before, so not only is it staying in the prompt, but I would happily read more of it. It also had some amazing illustrations from Chris Riddell.

I learnt some very important things from this book. I have been educated on a subject, i’m ashamed to say, I’ve previously paid very little attention to. I have no strong feelings towards asylum seekers, I neither bemoan them coming to this country or champion their cause, I am indifferent. If there is one thing sure to move you off that fence though, it’s seeing the journey of refugees through the eyes of a child.

The second thing I learnt, was about a publishing project called unbound.com. This is who published ‘A Country to call home’. It is essentially books published by crowdfunding. There are a number of book projects submitted on the site, you choose which one you want to donate to and how much. When the book has raised enough money to be published you receive a copy of the book (if that’s the ‘reward’ you chose) and your name acknowledged the back of the book. I love the idea of contributing to a book getting published, so that’s defintely something i’ll be checking out later.

I tuned in for Ariel and Raeleen’s (founders of The Reading Rush) first live Instagram video, but decided against joining any Twitter sprints as I was determined to finish a book on the first day, and sometimes (ironically) the Twitter sprints can be distracting.

I did find just a little time to join in on the first Instagram challenge, which was ‘Recreate a book cover’ I work 9 hour days, I have very little time to work with, nonetheless i was bloody proud of this one . .