Words
Words from the outside world. A list of semi-recommendations at end. Only “semi” because I liked them well enough to buy, but no idea if I will like what is between the covers.
~~~
As an Lenten discipline this year, I will give up buying books.
You’d think this wouldn’t be hard. After all, the books will still be there in 40 days.
HA!
Books are one of the few areas where I actually spend money. The other two are food & pets, which includes horses. Every so often, I’ll get a wild hair and record expenses with an eye toward writing up a budget. The answer is always the same: basic costs, books, food, pets. Every other category is statistically negligible.
Book shopping is the only recreational shopping I do. If I go nowhere else in a town, I will go to a bookstore. [Shipping, end]
What I Will Want Buy & What To Do About It
A new book from an author I like or a book from a new author will go on a book binge list.
Having nothing to read or seeking a comfort read. Read/reread what I have. Rereading a known book is the ultimate comfort read.
A rare find at a used bookstore or on AbeBooks. Voting with my feet/fingers and avoiding temptation entirely is going to be the key there.
So Why?
Why do this, particularly if I plan to buy the books anyway in April?
Years ago, I absorbed the idea that Lent should not be about giving up bad habits. One should be giving those up anyway.
Lent is a time for restraint and reflection thereon.
This will cause much consternation contemplation.
Book Mardi Gras
Looking for a book for an upcoming continuing ed class. First shop – an independent – didn’t have it in the edition I wanted. So I had to go to a second store. You know a chain will carry the Penguin Classic editions. Of course, I bought books at both stores. A last binge before Lent.
Sapiens, A Graphic History, Volume 1 – The Birth of Humankind & Volume 2 – The Pillars of Civilization, by Yuval Noah Harari (Harper 2020).
Run, Rose, Run, by Dolly Parton and James Patterson. (Little Brown 2022) preorder. In hardcover. Will donate to a library. In honor of Ms. Parton. Billboard: A Timeline of Dolly Parton’s Good Deeds, Aniftos, 11/20/2020. Did you know DP was involved with Buffy? Book info, DP: Dolly Parton’s First Novel Set For Release on March 7, 2022, With Accompanying Album of 12 Original Songs.
The Chain
Moby-Dick, by Herman Melville (Harper 1851, Penguin 1988/intro etc. 1992).
Being Peace, by Thich Nhat Hanh (Parallax, 2005). Plum Village.
Escape Pod: The Science Fiction Anthology, Lafferty & Divya eds. (Titan 2020). From the podcast Escape Pod.
Wish me luck.
Onwards!
Katherine
Virtual Brush Box 
I’ll be interested in your take on Plum Village. He has given us so much – life lessons I should have learned in Sunday School.
If we all followed him, the world would be a different place.
This post made me smile. (For my husband, who refused to learn how to use an iPod, it’s about CDs.)
If we were all monks would anything get done? Wpuld that be bad?
~~~
I think all of us have a streak of packrat.
So very true!