My name is Garvan and I’m your host. Here’s a little about me:

I’m an Irish father of three living on the Central Coast of New South Wales in a little beachside village called Copacabana. I’m a tragic Batman fan and have been reading and collecting comics most of my life. I’m 51 now, and should know better. In my defense, I have started to read and enjoy books proper.

About two years ago I started reading.

Up until then my common refrain when friends would recommend a book was “Does it have Batman in it? If the answer is ‘No’ then I’m not interested”. Actually, ‘Does it have Batman in it?” was the working title for my Instagram page.

I bought Raymond E Feist’s Magician in Big W in Queensland for $12, thinking that if I didn’t like it it wasn’t an expensive mistake, and if I did like it the 850 or so pages would see me through my two week holiday in the sun. I devoured it, carrying it to and from the pool multiple times a day. On the beach, on the bus – it came with me everywhere. It got splashed with pool water, sunscreen, coffee and beer and I didn’t care. My collector gene, fully fledged when it comes to comics, hadn’t surfaced yet when it came to books – I was a tourist, jut visiting this bookish land. I’m not sure I even had plans to take the book home with me.

Next came “Where the Crawdads sing” by Delia Owen and I was fully hooked. I had no expectation that I would like a romance story, a story of isolation, of self discovery and deceit as much as I did. I fell in love with the pacing, the incredibly vivid language and how attention to tiny details in nature could be used so effectively as an allegory.

Then came Goodreads and the Goodreads Challenge, and soon I was planning on reading a book a month. And now this, and of course that.

What can we expect?

I’d love for this page to attract people who like to read and enjoy books that reward the reader – beautiful prose, compelling character arcs and intelligent and original subject matter. I read a wide variety of genres, and almost always find something beautiful about the books that compel me to finish them.

Great books you might not have come across elsewhere

I like to read modern literature, classics and vintage literature, science fiction, fantasy, crime and espionage with the odd smattering of horror thrown in for good measure. This often takes me off the well worn tiktok path, and I am completely okay with that. I’m not going to pretend to read spicy romantasy ACORAT style or whatever else is popular right now just for views.
_{*Disclaimer – I have NO problem with ACORAT and the spicy romantasy genres – they’re just not for me. You do you.}

And of course, COMICS. There’ll be comics.

Sometimes I’ll recommend a comic series that would suit fans of a particular book I’ve read – like a ‘further reading’ bibliography, or a series I’ve watched. “If you like that the you’ll love this ” sort of vibe.

What can we expect NOT to see?

No reading-speed shame piles.
Hey look, I read 8 books this month! How much did you read, loser? I bet you still move your lips.

Nope! I read at a pace that works for me and allows me to enjoy everything about the book in my hands. It’s not a race buddy – whoever made time made plenty of it. Slow down and enjoy the journey.

No hidden-spine shelf porn.
I love collecting books and comics. I have thousands and thousands of comics and if I’m going to post about them I fully plan on showing you the cover – so you can buy them if you enjoyed my review. I don’t have disposable income to splash around on special edition hardbacks with sprayed spines or whatever.

And finally, you’ll see a bit more about:

Me and where I live, and where I read.