IPMS Column

Coronavirus has had many impacts on our lives over the past eleven months, many of them difficult, some of them tragic and most of them generally frustrating. To be faced suddenly with a situation where our lives are not our own to control, where we are unable to pursue the joys and pleasures we take for granted, and instead find ourselves all too often restricted to our own four walls is not something that is comfortable.

- John Tapsell

So what do you do to occupy your time, particularly all that extra time you were not expecting to have? Gone are the casual opportunities to go out and meet friends in pubs and restaurants. Cinemas, theatres and sporting venues are either closed or severely restricting audiences. Even a walk round your local National Trust parkland has to be booked in advance. Holiday opportunities are restricted and an overseas vacation is highly unlikely. Instead of being spontaneous by choice we have become structured by necessity.

Curiously, there have also been some changes in our tastes and habits. I was reading recently that booksellers have seen a major resurgence in book sales, and not just through online retailers. A few years ago, the death of the book had been widely touted as the growth in e-book readers and similar apps on smartphones seemed finally to have solved the problem of the physical size and weight of reading matter. A single, slim e-book reader can hold dozens of books and takes up far less room in the holiday suitcase, not to mention the need for less extensive shelving. This trend filled me with fear and loathing. I'm a hands-on book reader, not just for pleasure but for reference and research too.