About me

With my Banquet of Books reading challenge getting underway on Monday, 2nd July (you can find out more about how it all works in this post), I thought that it might be good to introduce myself to you.

My name is Angus, and I'm a 17-year-old college student in the north of England, where I study both Englishes, History and French. I'm going to be doing my A-Level exams this time next year, which is scary but exciting at the same time!

My love affair with literature began with the simple but engaging stories that I read in the first few years of school. The Chronicles of Narnia and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory were early favourites, and indeed I remember a moment of immense trauma one time when my primary school was selling some old books and I came across a gorgeous hardback edition of the latter and agonised over whether the beautiful illustrations and lush colour cover were worth the fact that I already owned a copy.

As is often the case, the cycle of creativity kicked in, reading gave way to writing, and I had some of the happiest times of my life writing stories with my friends, and later solo. Perhaps something imbued in those beautifully-crafted tales glided off the page and connected with my brain. I don't write as much as I used to anymore, but reading remains my favourite pastime and deepest passion.

A few years ago, I decided to start reading some of the classics, with those beautifully-designed and lovingly-produced new Penguin Clothbounds; so far, I've found a particular affinity for the Brontë sisters' stories, which are wildly different yet (I believe) products of similar energies. In fact, I'm putting the finishing touches to coursework about The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in between writing these posts! There's no shame, either, in succumbing to the adrenaline rush of spooky fiction, with Frankenstein, Dracula and the collected stories of M.R. James taking me on wild spooky rides over the past few months.

We've just finished studying The Importance of Being Earnest in class — full confession: I wasn't its biggest fan, to put it mildly, but I can see how it gained its contemporary popularity. Twelfth Night, too, has kept us entertained for several months in school, although after reading its near-contemporary The Alchemist (by wordsmith Ben Jonson), I find myself wishing that the government had plumped for the latter in the A-Level syllabus — it's arguably a trickier read in terms of archaic lexis, etc., and its speeches would all be considerably condensed if it was written in 2018, but the richness of its comedy more than makes up for that, in my opinion.

I think that's more than enough for now; I hope you feel as though you've gained an adequate insight into my relationship with books so far. I'll see you next Friday to announce the books I'll be reading for the first week of the Banquet of Books challenge!