Spending Time

Chocolat by Joanne Harris

This is the perfect book to read at this time of the year – Easter weekend. It is beautifully written, full of rich descriptions of tastes and smells. The descriptions of chocolate are so good you can almost taste them (I have never been so disappointed in a bar of Dairy Milk!)

The story is about Vianne and her daughter Anouck, and begins when they arrive in a small village in France on Carnival Day. Its the start of Lent and to the horror of the local Priest, Vianne opens a chocolatier. Vianne stirs up the local people in other ways too, causing many to make life changing decisions.

There’s an element of magic in this book – Vianne just knows what her customers will like best. Its definitely worth a read.

Time and How to Spend It – by James Wallman

I started reading this book before the Coronavirus forced the UK and many other countries around the world into lockdown. Time, argues James Wallman, is the most precious thing we possess. In the busy, modern world we all feel like we don’t have enough time to do the things we want to do – and yet we are all guilty of wasting time – scrolling aimlessly through Facebook or Instagram, or flicking through the options on Netflix that somehow take as long as watching a film itself.

James Wallman takes you through a 7 point checklist for how you can get the most out of experiences. There are real life examples, as well as psychological and social studies to back up his suggestions. Each chapter ends with a checklist and a series of questions you can refer back to, ensuring you can get the most from life.

Two of the aspects of Wallman’s key to having an extraordinary life are “Relationships” and “Outside and Offline”. Unfortunately, due to the lockdown conditions opportunities for relationships and getting outside are severely limited. However, there are two important lessons that I’ve taken away from reading this book at this time – the first one is to make the ordinary extraordinary and the second (though to be honest I already knew this) reading is better than TV!