Anna Johnson Three Black Skirts

In this day and age it's hard to admit but I absolutely adore books. Though my friends -notably the younger ones- are reading less than they used to and constantly refer to the Internet I am enjoying books even more than I did in the past. I was a bit of a snob in my young years and started reading Proust when I was twelve. Admittedly there are worse things a twelve year-old can get up to but growing older has considerably broadened my taste. In times of restlessness I used to read glossy magazines. I still do sometimes but do not always find satisfaction when doing so. In my case the solution turned out to be poetry. At the moment I am reading Paroles, by Jacques Prévert. Over the years I have also grown to love 'how to-books'. They have a bad reputation and I think that's plain silly. Nobody likes to be told what to do and that might explain it but these books are generally not meant to dictate one way of life (or cooking method or accounting principles or time management rules) but are meant to help.

I particularly like Anna Johnson's books. Both in 'Three black skirts' and in 'The Yummy Mummy Manifesto' the tone is light. She does not pretend that she knows everything -quite to the contrary, she is funny, realistic and modest-and there is no moralistic tone in anything she writes. Her writing is funny and to the point. I find it easy to relate to her writing and this, in turn, helps to put in practice some of her pointers. She is witty and practical and, what I like above all, determined to be positive about things. Both her books have wonderful illustrations (the drawings are from Anna herself) and to me that's important.

So...if you can get hold of 'three black skirts'....by all means do!
And of course the Yummy Mummy Manifesto is recommended. I've found it's also a nice gift for mothers to be or young mothers.

And now I am going to tear myself away from the computer (which tends to take up too much of my time and energy) and do things that Anna might do on a Sunday afternoon, such as potter about in the house, take a long hot bath with aromatic oil, take a walk in the snow. Life is too short to waste it.