Like him, I had a somewhat erratic education (a comprehensive school in East London) and, although I went to University, am mostly self-taught. Most people experience this or similar and the pain is such that, in many different ways, they make preparations so that it either doesn’t happen again, and that can go as far as avoiding future relationships altogether, or setting down to themselves a clearly defined coping mechanism. These are just two examples of the many great scenes from this evocative memoir, redolent of late 20th century Northern England, but with an appeal that transcends it.

At the same time as he was absorbing fiction he was also learning to be a journalist, playing in a band and writing music columns. His dad kept it on top of a wardrobe with other items of great worth - wedding photographs and Mark's National Cycling Proficiency certificate. I lived in Manchester around the same time for a while and there's so much more I wanted to know (a sequel on football would be nice!

This is a book about the north; it is also about publishing, writing and music, but it transcends its subjects and meets the criterion Hodkinson sets out in his preface: “The best books, the same as the best days, skitter on the breeze. It’s easily done if you acquire books on a regular basis, seldom discard any and are lucky enough to live into your mid-fifties…. Until he moved house it hadn’t really occurred to him quite how many books that Hodkinson actually owned. I can within a couple of minutes bring up my saved passages from any e-book, something you just can't do with a paper book unless you a)deface it, and b)have it with you.

This is the starting point for a wonderful tale which embraces lots of inspirational and classic books, punk rock, Mark’s career, how he started his own publishing house Ponoma, the books he has written, journalism, and which ends with his musing on 21st century reading and publishing trends. They had an antique wooden clock on the mantelpiece with a loud tick; it was so peaceful in there, the rhythm almost counted me down to sleep. To begin with, Hodkinson adopts a familiar format: the books that made me a reader and this is interesting because it subverts the genre's familiar snobbishness.

Interspersed with this are accounts of family life; his mentally ill grandad and friendships made and lost. Mark Hodkinson is one of the great unsung heroes of literature … With verve, insight and perfectly-captured period detail, he reminds us that not only are books sacred objects that should be available to everyone, but also that working-class voices remain more marginalised and underrepresented than ever. I reserved his book for 75p in hardback not long after it came out, had to wait for a couple of people, then it was mine!

Books are very much the heart and soul of our library, but we do a lot more as well, although I’ve never put a cardboard box on my head abs pretended to be a clock… not yet anyway!

The book begins with the author moving home and realising he has more books than he could read in his lifetime. He once consulted a therapist (because he’d got a bit worried about having so many books), who told him they were his metaphorical friends. Delightful, part memoir of growing up in working class England and part love-letter to books and reading.