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maltatoday | SUNDAY • 30 OCTOBER 2022 8 ALMANAC My essentials CARMEL SAMMUT 54, Senior Lecturer Theatre and literature are my passion. I love the musicality of words and how these can take you away with them into different fantastical worlds. As an educator, I feel responsible for passing on an appreciation of all that is artistic and beneficial to a holistic experience of life. 1 4 5 1. Book 2. Film 3. Internet/TV 4. Music 5. Place I use the internet daily, but mainly to keep up with cur- rent affairs. I tend to watch TV to help me unwind, and there are several good TV se- ries at the moment. As an av- id lover of anything related to the Lord of the Rings lore, I am presently hooked by The Rings of Power series. A ma- jestic and well-scripted series indeed. MY musical tastes are eclec- tic and vary from classical to industrial music with a bit of trip-hop in-between. But here I have to mention Kate Bush and Tori Amos, who have a leg- acy of innovative work in their music composition and lyrics. Their music is sheer poetry and should be part of any mu- sic lover's library. MDINA has to be my go-to place in Malta. I love its histor- ic little alleys and the silence that pervades them, especially in the evenings. Nothing bet- ter than walking through its dark, mysterious heart on a cold winter's night; the air is infused with history. More- over, a place very close to my heart abroad would be Kent in the UK, where I have studied and still need to discover fur- ther. ONE? Noooooo. Ok then. As a lover of the fantastical, I must mention a Neil Gaiman book, The Ocean and the End of the Lane. I tend to follow Young Adult literature a lot, and I feel that there is a lot of crea- tivity happening in this genre. The themes in these books are becoming darker and more relevant to the younger gener- ation with whom I constantly interact through my teaching. OH, there are so many. Where to begin? I love the gothic gen- re with a passion. The Light- house keeps coming to mind with its chiaro-scuro tinges and the slow spiralling of mad- ness in the two main charac- ters. Lovers of psychological drama and the surreal should certainly give this a watch if they have not already. 3 2