At five years of age, I visited the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne for the first time and the Reading Room filled me with awe, validated my love of stories, and showed me the value and high esteem of books, reading and study.

In Grade 2 the teacher read aloud to the class The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton and I sat captivated and whisked away into the Enchanted Forest to discover fantastic lands and characters.

The teaching of the subject of English left me bored until in Form 4 / Year 10 a young English teacher prescribed the book of Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach. My excitement returned and I fell in love with the outstanding exploits of a common seagull. The notion that anything was possible nurtured the unsettled teenage mind.

As a Science nerd I loved Science Fiction and devoured the Dune series in meal breaks at boring first jobs.

Later I stumbled upon Illusions, The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach. My reality shifted and although I am yet to master walking through walls or vapourising clouds, the possibility remains.

I read other books by Richard Bach and enjoyed these too. There’s No Such Place as Far Away, One, The Bridge Across Forever.

Inspired by my early visit to the State Library to one day become an Architect, later in life I became a Librarian, and this was a perfect career for me, and I loved helping people to find the books and information they needed. And in these years of work, I visited the State Library many times in my capacity as a Librarian and Library Manager. So, a happy outcome?

I prefer to read Non-Fiction, and I have invented a genre that suits my favourite type – Travel with a Twist, or perhaps Personal Quest.

I struggle to read “The Classics”. Sure, I love 1984, Animal Farm, The Great Gatsby, Wuthering Heights, and many others, but I can’t seem to stay with books like One Hundred Years of Solitude, Ulysses, etc. Benjamin McEvoy provides interesting lectures about the Classics, but I seem to enjoy listening to him speak as opposed to actually reading the books.

Every year for the past 12 years or so I’ve set my GoodReads challenge target to 50 books and every year I fail. Still though GoodReads is the perfect place to list the books I’ve read and those I want to read.

I keep few books nowadays, preferring to send them onwards, or back to the library, for others to read. Here is a list of a few books that I treasure:

A Course in Miracles – Foundation for Inner Peace

Echoes of the Early Tides – Tony Moore

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance – Robert M. Pirsig

The Artists Way – Julia Cameron

A New Earth – Eckhart Tolle

Illusions, The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah – Richard Bach

Jonathan Livingston Seagull – Richard Bach

The Prophet – Kahlil Gibran

The Elegance of the Hedgehog – Muriel Barber

Chocolat – Joanne Harris

The Solitaire Mystery – Jostein Gaarder

So now as a retired Librarian in my mid-60’s and I reflect on this life of reading, the small book Illusions by Richard Bach remains my all-time favourite and has not been pushed off the Number 1 podium.

So, thank you Richard Bach, this little book reached into my heart and soul, nourished my intellectual and spiritual life, helped me appreciate simplicity, serenity, and kept me honouring my mission in this life.