World Book Day rolled around again last Thursday and as part of the celebrations we were asked to talk to the students about our favourite book. Being who I am, I don’t have a favourite book – I have dozens of books that I love and return to, but no single favourite. Wracking my brain, I realised that I wanted to talk to them about Garion.

Garion is the main character from David Eddings’ novel, “Pawn of Prophecy”. He’s a young boy living on a farm who gets swept away by events outside of his control and eventually discovers that he has a destiny. Reading this when I was around 18 years old, I identified strongly with Garion and learned a few simple lessons about the power of novels to move us.

Sharing the book last week was wonderful – even if the students didn’t necessarily “get” what I was sharing, it was a gift to myself to revisit the novel. I’ve been re-reading it this past week and, although it’s no masterpiece of literature, the book has opened old parts of my soul that have been dormant for far too long.

The book speaks to me of purpose and design. It speaks of camaraderie and adventure, of journeys made with unclear destinations. It’s tale of wonder and imagination that resonates with the love of fantastic worlds that lies inside of me. I still recognise the Garion inside of my own experience and suspect that I will always feel slightly lost and ill at ease, just as that young man does in the story.

I think we owe it to ourselves to revisit old stories and experience them all over again.

Game on!