Outing trip report: errands accomplished

By Elizabeth Prata

After 5 days, I broke my reclusiveness and my silence by heading out this morning with certain errands to accomplish. Bank. Gas. Dollar Store for hard goods. Grocery store for fresh. Special Store for lampshade and bookends.

The grocery store was a pleasure! Few people were out shopping yet. I went early and the aisles were just devoid of the usual crush of people. The markdowns were being laid out in great quantity. I got several things I was hoping for; spinach, something gluten free (gluten free penne for $1.29!), and some picked roasted chicken. I ambled and meandered and took my time and had a relaxing foray into the land of food.

The Dollar Store was the dollar store. Aisles full of abandoned utility carts clogging the aisles, things in disarray, one clerk languidly hanging around. I got what I needed and left. Later I remembered that I was supposed to get Christmas wrapping paper etc. Sigh, I'll have to go back.

The Special Store was fun. The day is warm and sunny, so driving is a pleasure. Windows open, music on. Browsing around was comfortable, too. The owner had acquired a new estate and the furniture was a delight to view. All walnut bureau, a to-die-for huge farm table, marble topped antique doughboy...ahhh. Nevertheless, onward, I needed only two things: lampshade, bookends.

The lampshades are plentiful so it was only a matter of selecting the size and style I wanted. Uh-oh I forgot to check the style of lamp. There are lampshades called spider harp and needs a finial, lampshades called slip uno with a circle thingie that screws into the base of where the light bulb goes, and lampshades that clip to the light bulb. I don't have a finial for it and the slip uno was the one I had now and wasn't working because it didn't fit and kept flopping over and hitting the hot light bulb. Nope, fire hazard. I guess I can be sure with a clip. Eureka, I found a lampshade that goes on the lamp that way!

It's slightly short but I didn't do too bad eyeballing it and having forgotten to check the lamp for needed hardware! It's my reading lamp.

If you look closely you'll see tape on the coaster. Cats like to fling things off of things
and coasters are a special delight for Murray

I did not find any bookends. My problem was, when I bought the small bookcase and put it in the bedroom, turns out Murray likes to climb on it. He's a weird cat. He likes extra small spaces high up to perch on or even nap. Like this one in the living room:

It would not be long before Murray discerns that the bureau is only a small leap from the bookcase, and I do not want him on the bureau. I've had a pair of sneakers on top of the bookcase to prevent his perching there, but the Nikes are ruining the ambiance. I thought if I got some bookends and put a small array of books there it would do the job and be prettier. Sadly, I could not find any bookends. But the lady helped me look, which was nice. She suggested putting an artful array of books on top, stacked sideways. I'll try that.

Meanwhile, sigh, I found some books.

The Frederick Douglass one is providential, because I'd seen that on one of the Black Friday Sales online and wanted it for myself but withstood the temptation. Mainly the books I buy online are to give away, a book ministry. But this one at the vintage store was in fresh shape and only 50 cents! I added another Thomas Hardy to my classics shelf, and a Nora Roberts and Fannie Flagg to the recreational reading pile for Christmas break. Books were 50 cents.

I came away with another find. A brand new small casserole dish. It was pretty. It's a good size for making casseroles for one.

One of the reasons I don't make casseroles is that the baking dishes I have are huge and I'm stuck eating a LOT of casserole for the week. I don't mind eating a lot of the same thing but by the end of the week it's a stretch to choke down another slice of 4 day old casserole again for another meal. This one is just the right size and it was new, a key factor. I plan to make this recipe tomorrow in it:

Chicken, Cheese, and Penne Pasta Bake
https://www.thespruceeats.com/chicken-cheese-and-penne-pasta-bake-3053072

I happen to have some gluten free penne, some chicken, and some cheese! Yay! I am adding the above recipe to the list of things I'll make for Food Prep tomorrow.

Time for a nap, then I'll watch the new movie Pilgrim's Progress for the evening, and read. I hope you are all having a nice Friday afternoon on Black Friday, whatever it is you chose to do!

Summer is still in full force but...

By Elizabeth Prata

...it's winding down. I've got about 10 days left. Have I used it well? Yes and no, I think.

It took me a while to recover from pneumonia I'd had at the start of the summer, and to mourn the death of my 12 year old cat.

Meanwhile, I set myself the task of reading a bunch of books on my Annual Summer Reading Schedule. I've done OK reading them, though there's a few I haven't finished yet with one week to go. I think I could have done better. I did stall out for a week or so in July for an unknown reason. I just did. Notably, I finished the smaller books but I'm still going through the thicker ones. I'm only halfway through Paton's Letters, Story of Autism, and Selina Countess of Huntingdon. I'd begun reading Nathanial Philbrick's book to the mix (Mayflower), which was also a very long book, so that slowed me down a bit.

I bought the above books in hard copy as well as this one: a Kindle version of Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson by Mary White Rowlandson. It's just 55 pages. Review here.

The two Rome books were an answer to a frustrating trend I've experienced. I like reading about then writing on my blog about daily life of first century believers. It's hard to learn the context of what their lives were like with the books I have on hand here. My JI Packer Public Life In Bible Times is good but entries are short and scant. So I found these two and they were reviewed highly.

The Spurgeon Ploughman books were a gem to find. They are like a Christian Poor Richard's Almanack by Ben Franklin. They are full of Christian truths, especially wisdom about daily life, written for the man on the street in his language.

The 12 Rules book was a mistake. I accidentally bought the summary and not the actual book. I'm sending it back to Amazon (which in order to do for free I'll have to drive half an hour in the heat, deal with the UPS Store, and drive half an hour back. Not so free...) I don't believe I'll buy the hard copy after all, because...

I reorganized my book shelves to refresh to my memory what I have and also to fold into the mix my new books. Things are getting tight here at Casa Prata in the bookshelf department. I'm running out of room. Time to give away some or lend some. Hence the decision not to buy the 12 Rules after all.

All that said, I thought, hmmm, why not read some books I already have on hand? I plucked Lightman's Einstein's Dreams from the shelf where it's been languishing for 15 years or more, a little book about time I always meant to read. The time is now, lol, see what I did there. I am halfway through.

I had also bought these recently too:

I enjoy re-organizing the book shelves. I put the Puritan Paperback with my others, now I have 3 from the PP series. I put Moses with my other Moses book. Bunyan with Bunyan, etc. If I only have one author I shelve it by subject, Theology, Commentary, Christian Life, or Puritans.

As for streaming entertainment, this summer I got involved watching The Royal, a UK medical drama set in the 1960s. (Amazon Prime). It's a good show. Also Blown Away, a competitive show about glass blowing. (Netflix). Also good. The Waltons, Harrow: A Very British School, (Amazon Prime) Educating Yorkshire, (Youtube), and Monk (Amazon Prime).

Live entertainment or trips? None. No restaurant outings with friends, no concerts, lunches, road trips, or parties. Just church, Kroger, and home. Heaven!!

My friend Kelly managed to snap this real quick of a dragonfly that had briefly landed on a stalk, which she and the tow kids were at the Botanical Garden. Nice job Kelly, snapping a lightning quick insect while managing two lightning quick toddlers! Note the wing pattern, so delicate. God made all the insects in one day, so amazing. Creation beauty!

Photo by Kelly M

Classic and vintage books!

By Elizabeth Prata

My complete delight in finding some old books, classic books, and quirky books knows no bounds. Unless I find them for 50 cents or a dollar, then the delight increases. These are all from The Special Store, the lone vintage store that I haunt. Because with finds like these, why shop anywhere else?

Books there cost $1 for hardcover or 50 cents for paperback, unless there is a half price sale going on.

The Austen is hardcover with dust jacket. The Stevenson is paperback in mint condition.

I could not resist these next ones because of the titles. I mean, COME ON! "Outdoor Chums on a Houseboat"? you'd have to have a heart of stone to resist that. And "Master Meadow Mouse", how cute! The inside flap is covered with smaller hand colored illustrations. I was pleased to learn of Master Meadow Mouse's author of American children's stories I had not known about.

Arthur Scott Bailey was born in St. Albans, Vermont and was writer of more than forty children's books. The Newark News stated, "Mr. Bailey centered all his plots in the animal, bird and insect worlds, weaving natural history into the stories in a way that won educator's approval without arousing the suspicions of his young readers. He made it a habit to never 'write down' to children and frequently used words beyond the average juvenile vocabulary, believing that youngsters respond to the stimulus of the unfamiliar."

I wasn't familiar with this particular Kipling, so I picked it up. They are supernatural and ghost stories, which I'm not totally excited about. The writing is good, of course, but after having read two of the stories I might not proceed. The stories are unsettling. That is the other good thing about these books, if I dislike them I can happily disregard or even discard without having to mourn a lot of lost investment.

I am a sucker for an adventure sotry too. The great era of exploration yielded some super ones. Jack London comes to mind, of course And with a title like  "Up Among the Ice-Floes" i quickly put it in my basket.

The Nathanael West book, you might know one of the stories inside: Day of the Locust.

The children's book below of Pictures of Stories and Animals has a hand sewn binding. In 1902 travel was difficult and many people had not seen or known about many of the animals in the book such as elephants and camels and giraffes and polar bears.

The field guide to mushrooms is in German. A real mycologist was in the store when I purchased the field guide and he asked me if I could read German. I said no and he looked at me like I was crazy. It's an attractive book and the mushrooms are beautifully rendered. I also like to buy books in other languages to use in crafting. But the mushrooms are so pretty that I haven't had the heart to tear the book up yet.

Guy de Maupassant was a 19th century French author, remembered as a master of the short story form. He is a little depressing though so I may or may not read the book or I might just tear it up for crafting projects. Hey, ditch the pitchforks! It was only $1. And it's not rare.

A complete Sherlock Holmes for $1? Yes please. And the stories, jokes, & anecdotes in the railroad book are great, and there are lots of drawings and pictures.

See? I don't only buy teacups.

What have been some good finds of yours?

The Most Inconvenient Bookstore, Paper Planes, Bauhaus, and more!

By Elizabeth Prata

It has been a busy and hectic week, as it usually is at school with mere 16 student days remaining. We have field trips, State Assessment testing, changed schedules, pollen allergies and sinus infections making one last grip on tired bodies, final standards to achieve...

In our area, we finish the school year by Memorial Day. We begin the school year at the very beginning of August. I like the schedule, but it has taken some getting used to after a lifetime in New England starting school, both as student and a teacher, after Labor Day and finishing in Mid-June.

This is a great season of the year though. The green of a southern spring is vibrant and lasts a long time. I enjoy watching the buds burst and the myriad bushes flower into a riot of color.

The anticipation of a sweet summer at home the most powerful lure of my job as a teacher's aide. It's one of the reasons I re-entered education a second time. I love kids and I love teaching them to the extent my teacher allows me to, and being with them and seeing their growth, and their silliness. Kids are cute. But I also love staying at home in the summertime. It's true that I need to live for 12 months on a 9-month salary, but I make it stretch without having to get a second job.

Of course I have a stack of books to read through this summer. I'll do some crafting. Photography before it gets too hot. I refreshed my patio so I'll read outside during the cool mornings. That is about it for plans this summer. No plans to travel. No plans to attend any big events. I call it "Hermit Season." Just church and grocery store. Then home.

Here are some light stories I've read this week. I hope you enjoy. They are along the themes I like: books, art and design, and sweet movies.

Here is a story about The Most Inconvenient Bookstore

Tucked away off the highway in Perdue, Sask. (pop. 300), Crawford’s Used Books doesn’t have a website—but it holds twice the number of volumes as the main library in Guelph, Ont.

Crawford works his way through his book shop in Perdue, Sask. (Photograph by Mark Taylor)

Somehow, even 100 years later, Bauhaus is still fresh. That makes me think about how exciting and ground-breaking it was back in the day.

Bauhaus then:

The Bauhaus school didn’t shy away from the impact of change, but instead embraced it. Students were taught to embrace modern technologies in order to succeed in a modern environment. ‘Form follows function’ was the key teaching of the Bauhaus, and this was applied in the school’s approach to graphic design and typography, as well as architecture.

Bauhaus-inspired now:


I enjoyed this movie out of Australia, called Paper Planes. It's not rated, being a foreign film, but Common Sense Media reviews it as appropriate for 10 and up. See their review at the link. I like clean, charming, small, quiet, movies and if it stars a kid I'm  even more interested. I enjoyed the main (child) actor, Ed Oxenbould.



Here are some spring scenes from my backyard and immediate area I'd snapped this morning.

The mulch awaits...



The Golden Hour...



Good morning: moonset over pine trees at 6:30 AM:



My hosta is growing:



I enjoy the different shades of green across the yard into the pasture next door:



Enjoy the day everyone! Thanks for reading.

Load of books being delivered today!

By Elizabeth Prata

I've mentioned that I joined the Tim Challies 2019 Christian Book Reading Challenge. Challies lists genres and types of books ("A missionary biography"; "A Commentary"; "A Book Written by a Puritan" and so on) and the reader chooses their preferred books based on the types listed. Challies lists 4 different levels, each more numerically challenging than the last. I chose the second level, Avid Reader, which is 26 books this year or 1 every two weeks. I added several of my own books to the list, ones I've wanted to read for a while but haven't gotten around to. I dislike the 'haven't gotten around to', not just for books but for everything. So I added some classics on my own.

I love the Valley of Vision a book of Puritan prayers. They are incredible. They are so incredibly written and convicting and beautiful, I keep giving my copy away to anyone who says they never heard of it. I press them into their hands and urge immediate reading! LOL. That leaves me without a copy for long periods until I can buy another one for myself.

I decided to remedy the Valley of Vision problem. I bought the copy that is leather bound. I love leather bound books and journals and with this one being special and more expensive I'll keep it on my own shelves for my own edification. Sometime soon I'll buy another paperback copy to give away to the next person. I firmly believe that with the Bible being the number 1 book ever, the next to bestselling and amazing contributions to the faith were Pilgrim's Progress and Valley of Vision.

I also won a book! Yay! Allen Nelson IV wrote "From Death to Life" and I entered a draw and won it.

I'm a fan of dystopian books and there are many classics out there to read along those lines. I've read "Alas, Babylon", Carol Balizet’s "The Last Seven Years", and a newer book that became an instant classic due to its fearful accuracy about the effect of an EMP on America, William Forschten's book William Forschten called "One Second After".

So here are the extra books I bought for the challenge and just to have on my shelves:

Sinclair Lewis wrote one of my favorite books, Elmer Gantry. That was a tremendous and horrifying book about religious hypocrisy. It was so incendiary when it was published that it was banned in Boston and other places. It caused a controversy from coast to coast.

It Can't Happen Here is a Lewis book about the rise of a president who turns dictator.

"Heart of Darkness", according to Amazon synopsis is "a complex exploration of the attitudes people hold on what constitutes a barbarian versus a civilized society and the attitudes on colonialism and racism that were part and parcel of European imperialism." I'm not so much a fan of the cover art, and I do believe one can partially judge a book by its cover, (I mean do I want that scary evil looking cover on my shelves to look at forever?) but oh well.

EM Forster is more well known for his books "A Room with a View," and "A Passage to India" but less well known is "The Machine Stops". A pescient dystopian book, it "posits a technology-dependent humanity now living underground, its every need serviced by machines. But what happens if--or when--the machines stop? "The Machine Stops" was named one of the greatest science fiction novellas published before 1965 by the Science Fiction Writers of America."

Stephen King was writing so many books for a while that his editors told him to write under a pseudonym so that he wouldn't weary his readers and it would help diminish the glut. So under the name Richard Bachman comes The Running Man, "A desperate man attempts to win a reality TV game where the only objective is to stay alive in this #1 national bestseller." It is considered one of his best works.

Martin Luther's "A Simple Way to Pray" is a short book, more of a pamphlet. The synopsis states,

When asked by his barber and good friend Peter Beskendorf for some practical guidance on how to pray, Martin Luther responded by writing this brief treatise, first published in 1535. This edition is a modern translation that brings us Luther's practical instruction, using his ITCP method:

1. Instruction

2. Thanksgiving

3. Confession

4. Prayer

I'm on the way to finishing Disciplines of a Godly Woman by Barbara Hughes, and I borrowed Mrs. Pollifax #5 from the library. That one is CHallies' "Read a Book in a Weekend". I guess I better get going on my day so I have time to read all these lovely books! And a hearty THANK YOU to those who gifted me the Amazon Gift Certificates!

The order also includes 5lb of peanuts. I eat nuts for protein and fiber, and also make granola a lot, which calls for peanuts. I've been relying on Dollar General peanuts even though they aren't the best tasting. Usually the taste can be hidden as I add spices and honey and bake the peanuts into the granola. But the last batch was so off-putting I now abandon the Dollar store peanuts forever. I mean it! Sometimes price isn't everything, you have to actually enjoy what you're eating. Quality counts too.

I've gotten this order once before and the peanuts were fresh and large and GMO free, roasted no salt peanuts. Sometimes ya gotta bite the bullet and go for it.

For meals this week my main dish is going to be split pea soup. It seems a hearty dish for the cooler weather that's come in and the bright and crisp winter skies. And of course, granola. Beyond that I'm sort of in a rut. I've gotten a grocery store roasted whole chicken each week for the last three weeks so I'm kind of over chicken for a while. I like the shrimp, salmon fillet, and tilapia fillet I've been getting but I am ready for a change. I need to look up some recipes and expand my repertoire.

We have received so much rain over the last thee weeks it's ridiculous. Finally it stopped last night, it chilled down and got windy. We are supposed to get clear weather for the next week so I hope the ground eventually dries! Mud everywhere, rivers rising, ugh, gloomy weather begone!

My Book Reading Plan for this Year

By Elizabeth Prata

Tim Challies, blogger, book reviewer, pastor, has issued his annual Christian Book Reading challenge. The levels at which one can participate are

Light, Avid, Committed, Obsessed

Light readers choose to read 13 books in 2019. Avid readers choose 26, Committed Readers choose 52 books to read, and Obsessed readers choose 104.

The books you choose are based on the outline provided by Challies.

Though the "directions" suggest starting at Light and moving up to Avid then up again to Committed, etc, I decided to jump start right to Avid and probably stick there as I have other books I want to read as seen below.I decided on the Avid level this year. I found it helps me to have a plan, and even to schedule my reading. Otherwise, the time slips by and I don't read anything at all! Then the year is over and I wind up scratching my head, looking around at the piles of unread books, going, "Huh? It's December already?"

My choices are as follows:

Commentary: Lamentations, by Dan G. Kent
Book written by a Puritan: The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, Jeremiah Burroughs
Book by or about a missionary: W. Eugene Sallee, Christ’s Ambassador
A book about theology: Concise Theology by JI Packer
A book in a weekend: Mrs Pollifax
Book recommended by a family member: TBD
Book about aging: In a Different Key: The Story of Autism, by John Donvan and Caren Zucker
Book published in 2019: TBD
Book on Bestseller list: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Book about church history: Polycarp of Smyrna, the Man whose Faith Lasted by Sinclair Ferguson
Book of 100 pages or less: Einstein’s Dreams, Alan Lightman
Book of my choice: Sense & Sensibility, Jane Austen (subject to change)
Book about music or Musician: Nobody Knows: The Forgotten Story of One of the Most Influential Figures in American Music, by Craig von Buseck

Also in the mix:

Dystopian-

It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis
The Running Man Stephen King
The Last Man, Mary Shelley, 1826
The Machine Stops, E.M. Forster

Classic:

The Decameron, Boccaccio
Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad
How to Read a Book, Mortimer Adler

New
Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage: The Titanic's First-Class Passengers and Their World by Hugh Brewster

I had not known that EM Forster wrote a dystopian book. I like dystopian. I enjoyed Alas, Babylon, Carol Balizet’s The Last Seven Years, and William Forschten's One Second After.

We'll see how I do! I can get a head start by reading a few during the two weeks off I have at Christmas-New Year's. I own most of the books I've listed for Challies' plan, except for Crawdads, Polycarp, Contentment by Burroughs, and Differrent Key/Autism.

Do you have an idea of what you want to read this year? Do you have any "must read" recommendations for me?

Fall break and books

If I was an overtly emotional person, I'd be squealing like a teenage fangirl right now.

But I'm not, so I'll post a Gif instead, lol.

via GIPHY

Why the giddiness?

My Fall Break has officially started. I have the next two days off and also the weekend, of course. Four days of relaxation.

Even better, it appears Fall will finally arrive. The temps have been record-high, into the upper 80s and low 90s. Lots of humidity and heat. Ugh. With this terrible hurricane predicted to sweep through, on its backside is the longed-for Fall weather we usually get in mid-September. Highs of upper 70s and lows of mid 5os, and NO humidity. Yay!

I put all my winter lounging clothes in the wash so I'll have my pile of fleece-y pants and comfy oversized long sleeved tee shirts to wear for the cool weather. Which hopefully will start on Thursday or Friday!

I've got plans for my mini-vacay, I tell ya, plans. In addition to reading and napping, I plan to go to my favorite second-hand/vintage store and get another book case. Why? I have more books!

Several friends and online acquaintances had asked me how to balance Bible reading, pleasure reading, and life. There is just not a lot of time for pleasure reading when all is said and done, but our church is a reading community, and we like books. We also know that reading quality literature helps us with Bible reading and vice versa. So to answer that question I turned to books. I bought two books about reading books, lol. I'm incorrigible, I know.

How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading, by Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren is a classic on the subject.

With half a million copies in print, How to Read a Book is the best and most successful guide to reading comprehension for the general reader, completely rewritten and updated with new material. Originally published in 1940, this book is a rare phenomenon, a living classic that introduces and elucidates the various levels of reading and how to achieve them—from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading. Readers will learn when and how to “judge a book by its cover,” and also how to X-ray it, read critically, and extract the author’s message from the text.

Yay, sounds promising.

For the unique challenges awaiting the Christan and books. The book by Tony Reinke promises to help here. Lit!: A Christian Guide to Reading Books is

A practical guide built on the gospel, Lit! models the skills needed to build a balanced reading diet of Scripture, theology, and devotional books, but without overlooking important how-to books, great stories, and books meant to be enjoyed for pleasure. Literature scholar Leland Ryken calls it "a triumph of scholarship," but mostly it's a non-pretentious book about reading from an average reader who wants to share important convictions and skills you can use for the rest of your luminously literate life.

I plan to (hopefully) arrive home with the bookcase Friday, and then reorganize my books. My commentaries have gotten separated...I want to put all the biographies together, and so on. Should be fun. I like organizing.

When I arrive home from school at the outset of a Break, I am wired and can't settle. I have a million things to do and I want to do them all at once. It takes a while for me to stop the go-go-go, as I do run up and down the halls at school at a thousand miles per hour. I need to accomplish many things during the day, and getting home on vacation I am still going.

I need to clean, of course, specifically vacuum and Swiffer the floors. Do the book thing I mentioned above, and then actually read some books. Also I need to sort through my Health care options, because Open Enrollment is here. The gas guy is coming to clean the gas heater and turn on the gas. It's supposed to turn cold so that is good timing. I'll hopefully do some crafts, needing to make more bookmarks as gifts. Christmas is coming. Maybe a movie, though with my renewed book passion I am trying to stay away from media.

Fall is a beautiful time. I hope you're enjoying your Fall!

Summer 2018 has been good to me

By Elizabeth Prata

Goodbye summer! My summer break officially ends tonight. I'm headed to church in a short while, and then afterward stopping at Kroger to get lunches for the week. When I return home this evening I'll be doing Sunday-night-school-prep-stuff. Tomorrow is the big day!

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone, and getting onto a different routine. I didn't have any drastic issues this summer. Charter internet went out for 14 hours one day and shortly after, it went out again for about 3 hours. I was sick for a day and a half. But that's it for negative things that happened! All was truly well overall.

 Meanwhile I can say that my favorite things this summer were:

1. Coffee in the morning
2. Being with my kitties
3. Naps
4. Books

What I'm looking forward to this school year is:

1. Helping a new bunch of kids
2. Doing a good job for the District
3. Meeting & growing with new staff
4. Seeing old staff again

Thanks for coming along in this My Day Summer 2018 journey with me. Bye, bed, books, coffee, cats, and naps. I'll miss you.

How happy

It's Spring Break. I'm off this week. No kids, no school, no bells, no duties. Just leggings and my oversize tee shirt and naps and kitties and BOOKS.

How happy am I.

Here is what I have been up to.

I have a pile of books I want to make serious headway in. Aside from blogging and answering technical theological questions from readers, both of which take up a lot of my day, I will be reading my Bible regularly in the Michael Coley Bible Reading Plan our church is doing together.

I also am 2 weeks behind in the Biblical Doctrine study I am doing with ladies in a Facebook Group. The study is authored by Jess Pickowcz, wife of Pastor Nathan Pickowicz, an author and a church planter up in New Hampshire.

I am listening to Dr Abner Chou's lectures in Exodus.

My duties and pleasures in the biblical realms concluded, I turn to the books I'm reading. I finished two of them, David Gibson's Living Life Backwards, lessons from Ecclesiastes, and Kris Lundgaard's The Enemy Within. Both were excellent. The enemy within is our sin nature, and it's a really convicting book.

I am still going through Reckless Faith and then someone gave me a book from my Amazon Wish List (I love Amazon Wish Lists, especially other people's- then I KNOW what to get them!), the book on Discipleship by Boice. I can't wait to start that today. Reckless Faith doesn't have a dust jacket, that's why I wrote the title on it. It is about having discernment.

Then there are the secular books.

A friend had recommended the Mrs Pollifax series, a grandma who winds up going undercover for the CIA, lol. Christy is about a 19-year old missionary to Appalachia in the 19-teens, a books I'd read as a teenager but missed the Christian parts. It is based on a true story but told in novel form.

Plants & Herbs of the Bible is browsable, meaning, each page is a stand-alone description of the plant featured on that page. Getting the Picture is a chronological overview of famed photographer John Naar's life.

Periodicals!

The Biblical Doctrine books is a monster, It's heavy and it's thick. I had a hard time handling it while reading it, so I bought this:

I was worried that the book would not fit, but one reviewer said his heavy Law Books fit on it, so I tried it. For $12.99 and free shipping it fills the bill!

I'm having tea from a china cup, because it's chilly outside. After 83 degrees yesterday, a cold front came through and now there is a freeze warning out for tonight. Go figure.

Well I better get back to it. Instead of writing about reading books, I should start reading books! Have a good one everyone!

Geeking out on organizing my bookshelves

My philosophy and commitment is to tiny living with low consumerism. Last month I wrote a piece about re-using what you already have to solve a problem, rather than running out to buy something new. The issue arose because I'd been gifted with a bunch of books, but living in a small apartment which I like to keep uncluttered, I'd run out of room and was unwilling to start making piles of books around. I looked at what I had and decided to use a CD tower I'd put outside for a plant stand, and bring it in and make an additional bookshelf. Problem solved.

That was the issue about the books in my Theology section of my lovely home library- too many for the bookcases. But half my books are secular.

I received a book about the early days of Winston Churchill I'm really looking forward to reading, and I bought this charming book from 1945 at the second hand store the other day. I had no room to put them on the shelves.

All my books are organized by topic or theme, including the secular ones. I have an Education section, Natural History, Reference, Novels, The American West, Medieval & Renaissance, and so on. My bookcases are all pretty well organized except for one, the one in the bedroom that I don't use a lot. This had become the catch-all, sadly. I also had not emptied and dusted it in quite some time. (OK, never). Every time I went into the bedroom I'd see it and my stomach would clench and the passing thought arose, "I really have to get to that."

Today was the day. I decided earlier in the week to make a fun project out of it and use the time not only to clean and organize but re-organize the topical sections that had slowly been split up as I carelessly tossed a book here or there.

Why is this important?

Because when you live tiny, everything has to have its place. Secondly, when you accumulate stuff, you have to know what you have, and you have to be able to put your hands on it when you need it. Those are basic Tenets of Organizing.

I have 5 bookcases in the living room, and two in the bedroom.

Below, Mythology, Poetry & Opera, Renaissance & Medieval. Some random Natural History and American West orphaned from the rest in the bedroom. This is untenable.

Below are theology books that could not fit in the main bookcase. And router and modem so I don't have to look at them. These are about church life, missionary biographies, discernment.

Main bookcase. It dominates the living room. Top shelf: Conchology, Art. The rest are theology: commentaries, devotionals, church history.

Below are a few theology books I can't fit into the other two bookshelves.

The bookcase in the kitchen next to my work table has my Bibles, the printer, pens and other office supplies, books I'm reading now, scanner, binders of notes from online classes, and pads of paper. It's all within reach so it makes for a very efficient work station.

Reference books. Big ones! This was the CD Tower/Plant Stand/Bookcase problem solved issue I mentioned up top.

So this afternoon I started with the top shelf and worked my way down.

I reunited the orphaned books and it feels so good. The basket on the middle shelf holds eye glasses and eyeglass cases, plus some hosiery that tends to get lost in the sock drawer. However, if I need the shelf space later I can always find new homes for those smaller items and put the basket in the garage until I need it again.

The books aren't so packed in that I can't even get one out. I threw away a few and made a pile of cookbooks and two others to take to school and give away or put on the swap shelf. A few things I put in the bin I have in the closet. The closet is for deep storage. When you live tiny, you want the available space maximized for things you need to touch more often. This calls for some decision-making, which is why I 'scheduled' it for this weekend instead of the evening after work.

Best of all:

The house is orderly. I've gone through my books so I've refreshed my mind of what I have. This is good if I need to reference something, or if a friend states a need and I can fill it by giving one away. Like, "I really want to read 'To Sir, With Love' but I can't find a copy." I can say, "Oh! I have one I can give you!" Also, the bookcase has been cleaned from top to bottom.

This blog post might seem unnecessarily detailed and/or mundane, but it's my part in attempting to promote the philosophies of tiny living/respecting and using what you have, and how to keep a home organized.

After I got done cleaning/organizing/re-shelving I took a nap. Of course.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Ten (15) Books I Can't Do Without

I follow the New York Times Magazine on Twitter. On their Twitter stream you'll see links to beautifully photographed articles from their Magazine. I love looking at pretty things, and their articles always feature nice photography, whether it's about fashion, art, architecture, or any other subject for that matter.

In one particular series, they contact a current celebrity and ask them to list ten books they couldn't do without. It's the old question, which books would you want with you if you were marooned on a desert island? As an aside, I remember in George W Bush's Presidential term (#43) he was asked in a different interview that same question. He'd replied "the Bible." It was 2001, and I was not saved yet, and his answer both confused me and angered me. The Bible?! That boring, dusty thing? I could not for the life of me figure out the attraction.

Now I know. But the question back then as well as this week's in the NYT to Michelle Dockery is a compelling one. It got me thinking about books that have had an impact on me one way or another. I couldn't winnow it down to just ten. My list has 15 books, and the era ranges from my high school years through to my fifties (now). They are all old friends, cherished and loved, having transported me to another place or challenging my thinking. If I read some of them now I might have a different reaction. But for who I was at the time of the reading, these books had a great impact on me.

My list will go in chronological order of when I'd read them. Here they are, my top 15 books starting with my faves from High School to now. My faves...apart from the Bible of course.

1970s

The Hobbit

I loved it. I read it. I re-read it. I read it to my little sister. I talked about it incessantly. I thought I was going to have a heart attack when Smaug departed his cavern and breathed fire in attack over Lake-town, it was THAT exciting. I enjoyed it tremendously. So did everyone else: the book has never been out of print since it was published in 1937.

The Once and Future King

Starting in High School, I had a long-lasting love of the medieval era, armor, weaponry, and most of all King Arthur that lasted well into my thirties. This book kicked it off in my sophomore year. It's one of the books on the syllabus in my English class, where I was first introduced to it. I read it afterwards many times and enjoyed it each time, getting something new from it with each reading. "Might doesn't make right."

All Creatures Great and Small

My best friend's mom gave me Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small when I was a freshman in high school. I did not enjoy animal stories at that time and I shelved the book. A few years later, being without reading material for the moment and desperate to read anything, I picked up and I'm so glad I did. I loved the book and it became a treasured companion while I read it and a cherished memory for years after. When the BBC TV series came out I watched that too.

Hawaii

I had a Michener run for a while in High School. I remember his book Hawaii best. The exotic locale, the interesting characters, the tsunami, and most of all my horror at what I considered evil work of the missionaries. Those bad, bad missionaries, trying to force a new god on those natives! They were just minding their own business! They were there first! Hawaii entranced me as a kid, I look back now and see it as a towering monument to a secular wold view held by a lost person very distant from God. But the writing was good.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Growing up in the 1960s & 1970s meant the cold war, Iron Curtain, and Russia dominated the news, our thinking, and our lives. Unfortunately as a kid of the 1960s, words like Gulag were part of our vocabulary. I tread Ivan in high school and was much impacted by it. I thought the writing was starkly beautiful in a way that even Hemingway would be envious of. Combined with the knowledge that the author, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, had actually served in the camps and that this was the first book the Communists had allowed to be published on the subject, made the impact on me even more deep.

The Stand

I had quite a Stephen King run in the 1970s and early 1980s. He is a Mainer, and he taught as an adjunct at University of Maine at Orono, my alma mater. I saw him frequently on campus and around town. His first book, Carrie, was published just a few years before I got to UMO. By the time The Stand was published in 1978, the year I arrived at the U, the King phenomenon had to taken off just locally in Maine but nationally, too. It was fun to read published books and then spot the actual author, say, at the mall. It was fun to have a writer for a celebrity in our midst. The Stand is considered his greatest work. It IS a great work, just great. It got me thinking about good and evil, what I considered equal forces battling it out. Plus it's just a gripping yarn.

1980s

Pillars of the Earth

Ken Follett's amazingly well researched and deftly written tale of the decades of building a massive cathedral in medieval times fed into my love of the era, as mentioned earlier. I also love architecture, great stories, and good writing, so this book had me at hello.

Bonfire of the Vanities

The 1980s was when was 20-30. I was a new married adult who owned a house, eyeing the American landscape of that era though grown up eyes. The excesses, greed, stock market, Reagnomics, money, finance, real estate were all words that populated the news and our lives as much as Soviet, Russia, nuke, and Gulag had when I was growing up in the '60s. Wikipedia describes Bonfire as a book "about a drama about ambition, racism, social class, politics, and greed in 1980s New York City" and so, it is a perfect mirror of the era. I'm not a huge fan of author Tom Wolfe but this book was excellent for the time.

Love in the Time of Cholera

I had a South American author run during my late 20s. I read Isabel Allende, Pablo Neruda, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Paul Coelho incessantly. This book of Marquez' contains my all time favorite opening line of any book (almost tied with Hardy's in Return of the Native.) "It was inevitable, the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love." Who wouldn't love such an opening sentence full of poetry, foreshadowing, and mystery?!

1990s

Lonesome Dove

Contrasting the magic realism of the South American Authors are the American cowboy writers I was into, Cormac McCarthy and Larry McMurtry. I liked the contrast of the lush S. American tropics to the AMerican dusty, tumbleweed west. During the '90s I traveled widely, including a VW camper van through all the American western states. I fell in love with West Texas. As we traveled through to Big Bend National Park, filming of the epic series based on McMurtry's book Lonesome Dove had recently just concluded. We stayed a couple of nights at The Gage Hotel, a historic and beautifully appointed hotel filled with furnishings that took you back to the 1830s, and occasionally a real cowboy would stride through and suddenly you were living Lonesome Dove life. As for the book Lonesome Dove, it's epic. EPIC.

The Shell Seekers

Wikipedia explains, "The Shell Seekers is a 1987 novel by Rosamunde Pilcher. It became one of her most famous best-sellers. It was nominated by the British public in 2003 as one of the top 100 novels in the BBC's Big Read." This book isn't profound or deep. It's just one of the best reads ever. If you're looking for a good story and quality writing, this is it.

2000's

Bowling Alone

The first half of the decade I was consumed with launching and running a weekly newspaper in my city of 7000 people. I had been greatly concerned with Robert B. Putnam's revealing of the decline of civic commitment, loss of political balance, and dearth of wise reporting. So I began a paper, and then along came this book, which mirrored my concerns and had sociological data and a well-researched thesis to support it. This non-fiction book made a tremendous impact nationally, as it did with me.

As for the rest of the first half of the decade, it was spent reading non-fiction about civic endeavors and citizen journalism. As for my private reading not associated with my work, I was being drawn to Jesus and spent any spare moments I had reading material that mirrored that confusing time, such as Buddhist and New Age books that attempted to explain the soul. (Noooo! Anything except Jesus!)  I was also selling my business and moving to GA and re-settling alone down south. Not doing a lot of reading.

2000's teens  

By now I'm saved, and so my reading material changed and the impacts on me changed too. My world-view had completely shifted from seeing the world and seeking answers about it through fiction, which really is what most fiction is about, to seeing the world through the mind of Christ.

Pilgrim's Progress

This book, written by John Bunyan in the 1600s, is considered one of the greatest books of all time. An allegory of a Christian's progress through life, with its joys, trials, and final glorified status, is a pleasure to read, even 400 years after its first publication. Edifying in the extreme, many people consider this book second to the Bible in terms of impact. I enjoyed it so much.

Elmer Gantry

The Lord's Spirit dispensed discernment to me and I have a heightened sensitivity to unorthodox doctrines, falsity, and hypocrisy. This fiction book by Sinclair Lewis is a devastating (and accurate) portrayal of hypocrisy in a pastor, from its first germ to full blown infection. Its insights were illuminating and fascinating to me, as much as they repelled me also. An incredible book for a Christian to read.

The Little Woman

I'd love for all the paper tiger feminists crying about how life just can't go on in a day without women (wah we're so persecuted) to take a look at some of these tremendous Christian women who just went out there and did it. The Little Woman is an autobiography by Gladys Aylward of her voyage to become one of the very first first female missionaries to inland China in the early 1930s. Traipsing mountains, facing jail riots, escaping armies (with 100 orphans in tow) ... all in a days' work. This book shows you what the Lord can do with a willing and obedient heart. It's a joy to read.

Honorable mentions, books that also impacted me and I couldn't do without, at least as far as my development at the point at which I was reading them:

• 1984, George Orwell
• Jude the Obscure, Return of the Native, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
• Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen
• Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
• Dune, Frank Herbert
• Watership Down, Richard Adams
• How Proust Can Change Your Life, Alain de Botton

How about you? What books can't you do without?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Further reading


30 Great Opening Lines in Literature

The Great Books Program and Foundation

Harvard Classics

Update on Reading Challenge

I started a new 2017 Reading Program that I almost as immediately abandoned. LOL, I'm not great at following an artificial schedule or on putting pressure on myself to reach a non-essential goal. The goal I'd set was Challies' Christian reading challenge, at the Avid Reader level. As opposed to the lowest level, The Light Reader plan, where you read 13 books or 1 book every 4 weeks, I'd settled on The Avid Plan, which increases the pace to 1 book every 2 weeks.

My goal was to read more. I'd stopped reading books with the exception of The Bible, and almost all magazines (with the exception of TeaTime Magazine). I know that as a writer, daily reading is just as important as daily writing. We need to immerse ourselves in language, employ the discipline of reading, and set before our minds new thoughts, new ways to state ideas, and to just enjoy and imagine through the vehicle of language. I'd stopped. Not good.

So I used the mechanism of the Reading Challenge to re-catalyze my reading habit. I have not scrupulously followed its set formula of reading a biography followed by a book by a Puritan followed by a best seller etc, but I have adhered to its principle by widening my usual genre niches to include some genres I have not spent a lot of time in, such as romance and historical. The list of books at Challies' site is helpful in sparking my creativity with regard to different genres I would not have thought of otherwise.

I've read:

The Art of Expressive Collage by Crystal Neubauer

Maude, by Donna Mabry

Memoirs of a Medieval Woman: The Life and Times of Margery Kempe by Louise Collis

The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Sanmartín Fenollera

Five Days in Skye by Carla Laureano

The Witnesses, a short by James Patterson (finished just before the New Year)
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis (finished just before the New Year)

And yesterday I started The Little Princesses by Marion Crawford and will begin The Things We Wish Were True by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen.

Not bad. And that's with the first two weeks of February being almost totally shut down, due to being tired and not feeling well. I think my interest in reading has reignited, helped by interesting books like the Medieval Woman and well-written books Maude. I'd despaired in the last couple of years, when picking up a book that was just terrible, badly written, or too profane, and I lost hope. I'd been saddened by my disappointment in the last two Grishams. I'd actually thrown away a new hard copy of Will Thomas' latest entry in my beloved Barker and Llewellen series, Fatal Enquiry, because of the unfortunate encroachment of a cultural message I simply did not want to read or expose myself to. I was disappointed in, or perhaps had outgrown, Jan Karon. So after those and other let-downs, I gave up and wallowed, adrift on a sea of booklessness.

But now I'm back! So for my overall purpose, the Reading Challenge has done its work.

I don't totally agree with this essay that says in the time you spend on social media you could read 200 books, in terms of the numbers, but I do agree with its principle that we waste more time that we realize on social media - and other activities - that could be used for reading. If you want to read (or do any other activity) you make time for it.

Here is the list, if you're interested.

I finished a really good book, now I'm bereft

You know that feeling when you have finished a really good book and you're at sixes and sevens? Your mind is still enveloped in the times and characters of the book you just finished and you're not ready to start another one?

I read Donna Mabry's book Maude, an oral history written down into a narrative that's gripping and absorbing. Mabry draws you wholly into the time frame and into her grandmother's life, 1894-1978 or so. The time frame itself has enough drama to sustain even the most boring of characters, which Maude is definitely not. There's WWI, the Influenza epidemic, the coming of automobiles and factories, women got the vote, Depression, technology, westward migration...and her grandmother experienced all of it. Some have said in their reviews that the book is sad, and it is, the times were sad. Maude's life did seem especially fraught with tragedy, yet her pioneer spirit soared above it all.

Some have said the book reminded them of the Little House on the Prairie books, but for me, it reminded me of Willa Cather's O Pioneers! But where Cather's Alexandra seemed remote and unreachable, Maude is vibrant and relatable. The book also reminded me, with its near-past permeatingly vivid atmosphere, Fried Green Tomatoes. You know that feeling when you're in a book and you feel like you're there? Maude does that. You don't even feel like you're reading, but living it.

The author said it took her ten years to write it, adding the stories from her grandmother as she told them, and filling in with other facts and history. The book was the Kindle version, and a free one at that. Sometimes the free books on Kindle mean that the quality isn't very high, but this one beat the odds, it's a stellar book. It spent weeks on the NY Times best seller lists and has high ratings on Amazon as well. Recommended!

I have being delivered today a hard copy of Five Days in Skye: A Novel (The MacDonald Family Trilogy), and on Kindle I already have  The Little Princesses: The Story of the Queen's Childhood by her Nanny, Marion Crawford, which I'll start next. When I'm ready to let Maude go, that is.