Somethings About Mary!

People often say to me: "Oh, it must be lovely to work in a book shop. You're so lucky!" And I have to say, they're absolutely right. For the last nine years I have worked in the Dun Laoghaire branch of Dubray Books. It's the adult version of working in a sweet shop where the product, instead of rotting your teeth, is actually good for you.

I have always been a great reader but I used to find it difficult to source new reading material. I'd find myself wandering through bookshops fingering titles I'd read – as if seeing old friends – reaching out to admire a beautiful cover, being taken in by the ecstatic blurb on the back but often leaving with nothing. I had to rely on newspaper and radio reviews and borrowing from friends. Now I write reviews of books that I have enjoyed for the shop and help book clubs with their choices.

It's great to see book clubs springing up all over the place and they have become my area of special interest. I'm involved in an audio book club, a golf club book club, and the Dubray Dun Laoghaire shop book club. I'm often invited to visit clubs around the area in people's homes where I help with new ideas and supply them with book lists and recommendations.

I have been a contributor on Newstalk, East Coast Radio and on RTE with Marian Finucane. It's been a real privilege to go on air and talk about books and reading.

Apart from my huge interest in books and book clubs, I am mother to two sets of twins, two boys first, and then two girls. Great fun when everyone got on well and absolute hell when they didn't. At least I could escape, if only for a while, through the pages of a good book.