FAMILIARITY & COMFORT

By Tricia Rudder

Books have long been an important part of my life. Growing up, my dad was never really keen on buying toys for me and my four siblings, but every other month he'd take us to the local bookshop and let us pick out a few books for ourselves. It was the best. You can imagine, then, reading well into the night was the norm for me. And for my lifestyle publication, Tread Lightly Journal, I'm always drawing inspiration from any and everything, especially books I've read as a youth; since I'm a very nostalgic person I like our articles to give our readers a sense of familiarity and comfort.

Currently on my nightstand...

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
Known as a novel without a hero, this story follows the misadventures of Becky Sharp on her journey to enter the upper echelon of society. Some years ago after watching the movie starring Reese Witherspoon I became curious about the amoral nature of Becky Sharp, and I can tell you right now, she's much worse in the book than how she's portrayed in the movie. Needless to say, I'm enjoying every minute of it.

The Happy Reader
This quarterly literary journal is designed for the voracious reader. It contains interesting essays and interviews from the likes of Ethan Hawke and Aziz Ansari. I love the layout of this publication and it's great book reviews.

The Bible

Growing up the Bible was always an integral part of my family's core value system, and so now as an adult, I make it a point to read at least one chapter each night. It keeps me grounded. I just finished reading the account of Samson and Delilah in the book of Judges, it's one of my favorite stories and teaches great lessons in cultivating humility.

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

The Jungle Book is probably my favorite Disney movie (I always preferred the animal movies over the princess ones...), and when I read the book it helped me to understand the characters on a deeper level. The written story also has so much more substance. It's also a story I love to listen to as an audiobook.

Tricia lives and works in Long Island, New York. Follow her on Instagram, and check out Tread Lightly.