Bethany Rogers

Bethany Rogers is a writer and author. Originally from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, many of her stories are influenced by her North East England upbringing. Her new book, Kaleidoscopes in the Dark, is a gothic short story collection (B.Press, RRP $19.99).

When good friend, editor and author Sara Litchfield challenged me to run all of the South Island’s Great Walks this year, I was handed a copy of Ross Edgley’s The Art of Resilience by one of my local bookshops.

Part memoir, part sports science philosophy, it’s about Edgley’s successful attempt at becoming the first person to swim the 1780 miles (2864km) around Great Britain. Despite swimming into swarms of jellyfish, his tongue falling apart and some serious chafing, Edgley kept swimming.

It’s not usually the sort of book I’d pick up, but its appearance is timely.

I’m enjoying Edgley’s mix of humour, storytelling and philosophical analysis.

He pulls from modern sports science and ancient philosophers alike to build a strategy for ‘‘an unbreakable mind and body’’ that’s convincing and encouraging.

Part of the reason I’m doing a lot of running soon is that many of the Great Walks are on our way to a writing retreat Sara and I are attending in Abel Tasman National Park.

The retreat’s facilitated by Elizabeth Knox, so I’ve been reading her latest work, The Absolute Book.

It’s a hefty volume, packed with a lot of love for reading, libraries, the imagination and the environment.

The world created in it is so rich and real I can smell it.

There are a lot of books on my ‘‘to read list’’. Catherine Chidgey’s The Axeman’s Carnival was launched at the recent Queenstown Writers Festival and I’ve been following Tama the magpie on Twitter ever since, so the book has naturally winged its way to the top of the pile.