Books by Candlelight - The Fandom

Hello, and welcome to a brand new feature on my blog, Books by Candlelight.

Regular readers will know that I am generally a very emotional reader, I love books that engage a range of emotions and books that provoke strong emotional responses. For more of that, check out my Inside Out challenge posts.

This is something quite different. This is all about sensory reading, and engaging different senses when we read, in particular our sense of smell. It can be a fascinating sense, all too often we're not aware of it, unless it's something particularly strong, but smells have the ability to cut through layers of conscious thought and take us back to particular times or places, whether it's a reminder of a lover's perfume or a favourite food.

So what about when we're reading? Can we use scents to take us deeper into the world of the book?
I think we can.

Scented candles are easy enough to find. However, there are a number of different candle companies who specialise in handmade candles that have already been matched to particular books. My favourite is Taken Moons, a fairly new venture set up and run by Rebecca from This Booky Place. There's a link to her store in the sidebar of my blog, I love them so much. As we go forward though, I'm hoping to try candles from a range of stores.

What I'm Reading:
I'm reading The Fandom by Anna Day, because it was March's book for the Crone Book Club. You can check out my review here. 

What I'm Burning: 

I'm burning We're Not In Cosplay Anymore by Taken Moons.

What I Thought:

The Fandom mostly takes place across two areas, the ruins of a bombed out London where the downtrodden Imps live and the beautiful Pastures where the genetically enhanced Gems live.

The ruins of London are described as smelling something like an injured thrush that has been kept in a closed box in a wardrobe for several weeks. I'm thankful that Rebecca didn't try to recreate the scent of decaying bird!

The parts of the Pastures that we see in the book are filled with orchards, lawns and flower gardens. The candle, We're Not In Cosplay Anymore, has the scents of fresh cut grass and wild flowers. By the time I'd reached the point in the story where the characters enter The Pastures, my living room really did smell like the grounds of a beautiful stately home. It smelt fragrant and fresh, and yes, it really does add to the enjoyment of the book. It helped to transport me to the world of The Gallows Dance, without having to go to Comic-Con and have a bloody great scaffold fall on my head! I can definitely recommend this book/candle combination.

Please let me know what you think of this new blog feature either in the comments below or via Twitter. I'm hoping to do After The Fire and The Extinction Trials soon.