On Thursday, I started to feel ‘not great’ during the day. I’d had a busy start to the week, and not had many opportunities to escape my desk. But I thought fresh air and a run with friends would help. Scratch that; run aborted. Sore throat turning into cough. Awake most of the night. On Friday morning, I just about managed to log in for long enough to cancel a couple of meetings and went back to bed. Dosed up on Lemsip. Feeling a bit sorry for myself. Awake most of Friday night too.

At some point in the night, I turned off my alarm. No parkrun for me this morning. That would just be foolish. A bit more sleep, another hot juice and some paracetamol. Vaguely human now. And it looks a nice day out there.

Today would have been a good day to curl up with a book in that reading nook in Williamstown.

Since it’s a bit too far to travel to Melbourne, I’ll settle for a chair by the window, overlooking the canal and the bottle kilns. Definitely an alternative happy place, especially on a sunny morning.

But what to read?

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A few weeks ago, not long after we got back from Australia, we had a night out in Manchester, to see Snow Patrol at Co-op Live. It was a brilliant gig in an amazing venue. The sound was incredible. The visuals to accompany the show were haunting. The performance from the band was the best I’ve experienced, and they were brilliant at the SECC in Glasgow in 2012 and the NEC in Birmingham in 2019. Their new album The Forest is the Path has been on a continuous loop for the last couple of months.

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I’d pre-ordered The Forest is the Path and it had been delivered on release day earlier this month. It sat on the dining table for a few days; it hadn’t moved to a bookshelf yet. I’d picked it up a couple of times, but not started it; it felt the kind of book that I needed to read without distraction.

And so I did – sitting in that special place on my balcony. Reading from start to finish, with a couple of cups of coffee (my own version of a flat white), a toasted bagel and a fluffy blanket to keep me warm. I listened to songs from the album as I paused between chapters. There were some tears. The book (and the album) are filled with emotion. As I read, I circled back to my favourite Snow Patrol lyric of all

There’s joy not far from here, I, I know there is
This isn’t everything you are

Sometimes, it’s great to read without distraction. But you need the right place, right time and the right book – this week, I found all three.

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52 for 52 in 2025 #12 – weekly blogs in 2025 inspired by the books I’m reading.