About

Hello!

My name's Amy. That's me up there ↑

The Third Bookcase came to be on a wintry December evening over a steaming cup of cocoa and the final pages of a good book. As I closed the back cover of The Virgin Suicides, I realised I had no one to talk about it with. This was a problem because it made me feel all kinds of perturbed, dizzied. Without bookish friends to drool over Jeffrey Eugenides’ lyrical, offbeat prose with, I found myself clicking the ‘new blog’ button.

This isn’t purely a review website. I suppose it’s a sort of ‘book culture’ blog, with fun lists, hauls, university tips, travel, playlists, and personal stories about writing that have moved me.

So, a little bit about me...

I started my reading journey a little later than some. Neither of my parents are readers, and as such I wasn't raised on picture books and bedtime stories. In fact, I didn't discover the joys of reading until I started primary school and a kindly librarian introduced me to Enid Blyton books. I started on the Secret Seven series, but Famous Five was my favourite. The adventurous tales of George, Julian, Dick, Anne and Timmy unlocked a sense of wonder and excitement in my seven-year-old mind, and I was hooked. Later, like most nerdy preteens of the time, I became infatuated with the Harry Potter series, losing myself in J.K. Rowling's elaborate, quirky world.

Next came the classics - first Wuthering Heights and then The Idiot. The Picture of Dorian Gray was my gateway into gothic novels, which were my singular obsession for around a year. I've always loved a good ghost story. In college, the uncertainties of burgeoning adulthood led me to coming-of-age novels like The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, and to rites of passage books like On The Road and The Bell Jar.

I was introduced to all sorts of work while studying for a BA in Creative Writing; I found short stories (a revelation to my novel-centric brain) and creative non-fiction, beat poetry and avant-garde literature, and authors like John Cheever, Penelope Fitzgerald and Hermann Hesse.

I'd like to think my reading repertoire is well-rounded by now, and I've come full circle to appreciate the children's books I missed out on - I now collect vintage children's books.