So many things have changed since Covid-19 showed it's ugly face. Most of the things I used to do I can no longer do. Or at least not easily. Or not safely. And I'm all about safety. And easy. I like easy. The museum and the library both closed so two of the things that filled up my time card were no longer available. No volunteering for me at least for awhile. Oh I still had cooking and baking and laundry and cleaning (laundry and cleaning are eternal). But while they are necessary and help to take up time and I honestly don't mind doing most of those things (mostly) it's not exactly nourishing the soul. Cleaning and laundry are especially dull. Necessary, yes. Interesting, no. I was very fortunate in that just before closure, I had visited the library and therefore had a small stack of unread books. I took my time in reading them so as to stretch it out. Then I started re-reading old books. And then I was considering re-re-reading old books. I was beginning to be able to quote some passages from memory when a fellow reader offered to do some book trading. Yay! I was saved! Naturally just because someone else is also a reader, it doesn't mean that they have the exact same taste in reading material. Of course not. We are all unique individuals. And that always is very cool because then I am 'forced' to read things I would not normally select. It's good to shake things up once in awhile. Probably if I wasn't in such a reading material drought, I would have declined the book offer specifically because these aren't books that, under normal circumstances would even catch my eye. Nope, I would glide right on past them on the shelf. But things being what they are, and they usually do, I had nothing else to read and so I gladly accepted the offer. And I am so glad I did! The first one I decided to read was by Joe Hill, "The Fireman". It's started out strangely and only got more and more weird as the story went on. I had to stop every few chapters to think about it, sort things out in my mind and get steady with it before moving on. In another time I most likely would not have bothered. But I could tell from the very first paragraph that the quality of the writing was absolutely top notch so I forged ahead. It was an excellent choice for the 1st read in a pile of book that are so unlike what I would normally read specifically because it was that fantastic quality of the writing that kept me going. By the time I was 3/4 of the way through the book I was seriously into the story. By the end of the story, I was sad for it to be over. So I dove with far less trepidation into the next book, Paradox Bound, by Peter Cline. And that book turned out to be really good too. This time I embraced the weirdness. I was prepared for something different, something unusual. I was ready for whatever strangeness the book was going to throw at me. And of course, it did. As I have read my way through this pile I am liking these unusual books more and more and I am so glad that I was sort of forced out of my usual reading rut. I have only 3 unread books left. And I am excited about all three of them. The library has re-opened now (although tutoring has not yet resumed) so once I have finished these last few books I suppose I can just go back there to feed my book addiction. But I'm betting that I will no longer hang out in the historic fiction and biography sections. Nope I am certain that, now that my mind is open to other, slightly stranger, different books, I will be bringing home a wider variety of reading material.
And that is a good thing. Opening my eyes and my mind to new ideas. Always a good thing. And it never would have happened if I hadn't been forced into it. Cool!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorYup, this is me. Some people said, "Sam, you should write a Blog". "Well, there's a thought", I thought to myself. And so here it is. Archives
February 2025
Categories |