I realised I am a bit old fashioned when it comes to reading books, in that I like to start reading something at the beginning and finish at the end. I think this is linked to the fact that I feel I always have to finish everything I start (which is why I get a bit twitchy when I have too many books on the go, as it takes too long to finish them). So reading books that aren’t designed to be read from the front to the back is challenging for me. Skipping chapters in a dummies guide to whatever feels like cheating. Cookery books and books on houseplants suddenly become unexpectedly intimidating and I struggle to get my head around how to engage with them. Having failed to, they sit on the shelves largely untouched.

This is also why I find twitter quite difficult to get my head around. When it was first explained to me that it’s designed to dip in and out of, and that it’s just not possible to go back to where you were when you last dipped in and catch up on everything that’s happened since, I took a long while to come to terms with the bits I was missing.

I think it all comes back to my amazing realisation in my first year at university of the importance of structure and how to structure an argument or a story. Since then I expect everything to follow a structure with a beginning a middle and an end. That’s my excuse to sticking to my trusted repertoire of recipes and overwatering my house plants anyway.