I am a list maker. Always have been. There are countless lists all over my house, some of them crossed off, some of them not. On backs of envelopes, mostly. Sometimes I make lists to remind myself, other times I make them for the sheer pleasure of crossing stuff off.

But I realised this morning (as I was making a list) that there’s one thing I never write down.

‘Read.’

That’d be like adding ‘breathe’ or ‘eat’ to the list. The reading happens in the gaps, or if there are no gaps I chuck a couple of things off the list to make time for it.

Yesterday I read one of the best prologues I’ve ever read. It comes at the beginning of Scrivener’s Moon by Philip Reeve, and when I came to the end of the prologue I sat back and said ‘Wow!’ Too hard to explain why – go and read it for yourself.

Philip Reeve has also written one of the best opening lines of all time: ‘It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea.’ (from Mortal Engines)

How could you not sit down straight away and read a book like that? Forget those stupid lists – there’s important reading to be done!