I am a "Book Girl"

 I have mostly finished perusing "Book Girl" by Sarah Clarkson.  I think I found this book by reading the blog "Modern Mrs. Darcy."  Both of these sources gave me suggestions to add to my "want to read" list on Goodreads.com.   

Last Wednesday I thought that I had absolutely nothing scheduled and no errand to run and no particular chores to do.  I know that for many that would be a blessing but in our retirement and Covid isolation, it is good to have some things to do.  Actually that wasn't quite true because I do a "choir gathering" (not rehearsal) via Zoom on Wednesday evenings.  But anyway, I ended up spending a couple of hours going through my  Goodreads "want to read" list and eliminating books that no longer had any appeal and then following up on several others so that I could enjoy reading them.   

I have three sources for accessing good reads.  We do not live in Princeton as such even though that is our postal address.  So I pay $70 a year to join the Princeton Public Library and that is money well spent.  I put many books on my hold list.  Several came available so Saturday morning I picked up another four books at the Curbside Pickup lane.  

Another source is Better World Books where I find out of print and older books for less than $5.  Shipping is free and within a week there is a packaged book in our mail box.  Not all the books are in pristine condition and sometimes I add them unread to the bag of donations I have ready to go in our garage, but it is not a big investment wasted.   Recycling books and employing people who need jobs is a business model I want to support. I have visited their Mishawaka, Indiana warehouse when they donated picture books to Family Literacy which I administered for several years in South Bend.   I "dove" into bins to retrieve treasures for our preschoolers. 

My third source is my Kindle app and purchases from Amazon--sometimes free (in order to get me hooked on a series?), but usually $2.99 or less--often only 99 cents.

I need good books to read as an escape.  But sometimes the escape motivation is not enough.  In the last two weeks I have finished three books that were really worth reading.  Jesus:  A Pilgrimage by James Martin was devotional in nature as it gave me a glimpse of the humanity of Jesus.   Tough Love by Susan Rice was an interesting account of her life and of the issues our government faced during the Obama presidency. Now that she has a role in the Biden administration I will be looking for her in the news.  Today's NYT tells that she is burning sage in her new office to clear it of the spirits of Mr. Miller who promoted some of President Trump's worst schemes.  I enjoyed a classic on my iphone app--Lost Horizon--and wondered why I had never read it before. 

And I did enjoy two mysteries:  Blood Grove by Walter Mosley and Final Arrangements by Rich Curtin.  Mosley's books have too many characters and too complicated a plot but I enjoy the "voice" of Easy Rawlins.  Final Arrangements was a story of revenge and terrible evil but I like the setting and Detective Manny Rivera.  But I abandoned Aspire to Die by MS Morris when there were multiple deaths, incest, and adultery--just too much degradation and sordidness.  Goodreads says that I have abandoned 66 books since joining and that I have read 294 mysteries.  

I just finished Latest Readings by Clive James.  When he was diagnosed with leukema he knew he did not have long to live so he decided that "if you don't know the exact moment the lights will go out, you might as well read until they do."  He writes about the books he never read and still wanted to read as well as the ones he wanted to re-read.  He motivated me to look for The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway but I noted on Goodreads that I had already read it and did not appreciate it as much as he did! One more reason I like Goodreads--to remind me that I have already read a book and forgotten!  

I am so thankful for the eyes to be able to read and for the sources to find good books to read and the ability to access them.  I have always been a "book girl" but during this time of social isolation it is even more of a blessing to have a stack of books ready for me to dig into.