My journey into the arts

I've started this blog for two reasons.

• First, I want to bring a bit more focus to my reading, by recording what books I have read and and any thoughts and opinions they throw up.
• Second, I want to see if my approach to books and ideas changes as I learn more about the academic study of the arts.

I started my career with a degree in Chemistry, and the years since spent mainly in business-to-business publishing haven't weaned me from a certain suspicion that "arty" subjects are somehow less rigorous and less worthwhile. But the fact remains that what I love to do more than anything else is to read and discuss books, especially fiction, and especially children's fiction.

So I've decided to find out more. I've signed up for an Open University course "The Arts Past and Present" to start in the autumn. In the meantime I've visited the library, made a resolution that I'm only going to have three books on the go at any one time (one children's, one adult and one non-fiction) and I'm going to record what I think of them here.