Paris during the Easter holidays, I was so absorbed in a novel that I stopped concentrating on the two overly excited children in my care

I ended up reading 151 books in six months. The dizziness of this experience was compounded by the extent to which I was travelling in real life. Stephen King once said that books are a uniquely portable form of magic, but – determined to read the old-fashioned way – I found myself lugging a heavy load of them around. Filming in Brazil, Senegal and Jamaica, for example, I checked in extra suitcases full of books, unwilling to put any limits on how many I might get through on each journey. The reality is that we had to read fast – very fast. If I were disciplined, it worked out at a book a day. If I were not, and lavished two or three days on a single novel, sleepless nights would ensue as I desperately raced to catch up.

Lês fierder by The Guardian