About Cosy Wee Reads
I’m Jen the founder and owner of Cosy Wee Reads. A very warm welcome - I’m delighted you’re here and that you want to hear a bit more about me and my business.
I live in Edinburgh with my husband and 2 kids – currently a 10 year old boy and 8 year old girl. Edinburgh is such a beautiful place to live with so much going on and in fact I have lived here my whole life – aside from the 4 years I was away at university in St Andrews. We live near the city centre – our street is quiet and peaceful, but we can still easily walk into the city centre which I find is the best of both worlds.
Now, you can probably guess already but my absolute passion is books and reading. I love reading books, I love talking about books, I love recommending books, I love hearing what other people have been reading, I love discussing anything and everything to do with books.
I have always been a devoted reader – from when I was really small reading has been my absolute favourite pastime. In fact, my mum talks about how she would entertain my toddler brother by asking him to go and find out what I was doing – knowing full well that the answer would simply be “book”.
The best gift I could receive was a book token and I clearly remember the joy of visiting James Thin bookshop (now it’s Blackwells) and the incredibly difficult decision of narrowing down which books to take home. I would take stacks of them off the shelf and gradually discard them one by one until I was left with the one or two I was going to buy.
It’s still the way I shop for books now – I pick up and look at every book that takes my fancy, but I do have to narrow it down or I’d be leaving with the whole shop every single time. I definitely acquire more books than I can read, but that’s part of the joy – knowing that there’s so many amazing books just waiting for me to read them.
After studying Biochemistry at university, I worked at a clinical trial monitor in Phase II and III drug trials until my son was born. I was then in the very lucky position to be able to take some time out to be at home with my kids whilst they were little. Once my daughter was starting school, I decided it was time to start something new and that’s when I decided to combine my love of reading with my desire to share that with others.
Anyway, this all brings us round to why I started Cosy Wee Reads. As I hope you can see, books are my passion and I just want to be able to share that with others. I take great pleasure in wrapping up each and every book that I send out. I spend time and care making sure that each one is beautifully wrapped and the tartan bow is perfect because I want your loved one to be wowed when they open their gift. I want to spark that moment of joy that a beautifully wrapped, thoughtful gift creates.
I wanted to create something which combines my enjoyment of reading with my affection for Scotland and make it a unique gift experience – a gift that begins as you open the wrapping, but doesn’t end there. Ultimately, I want to encourage people to make themselves a big mug of tea, grab a cosy blanket and curl up in their favourite corner with a good book.
I still make time to read every single day, I find it the best way for me to switch off and escape to another world. I spend lots of time researching and reading wonderful Scottish books to discover new books and authors to include in my gifts and it is an absolute pleasure to be able to do so.
If you have any questions about Cosy Wee Reads – or you even just want to talk books – you can always send me an email or find me over on social media. You can most often find me on Instagram chatting books & day to day life as a mum and small business owner.