Choose life. Life is wonderful.

Saturday 21 January 2012

OVER RUN BY BOOKS

 The poor man is not he who is without a cent, but he who is without a dream.
Harry Kemp



I have so much stuff - and a lot of it is books I haven't looked at in years. I used to think that no matter what, books were sacred and you never got rid of them. But I am afraid I have too many for my house already but I want to keep acquiring them.

So at this stage I have decided that for every book that enters my house I will get rid of two. I have decided that this will benefit me in 2 ways:

Books stacked on the floor
  1. My books will return to a reasonable level where they fit in my bookshelves and I don't have to stack them on the floor.
  2. If I know I must remove two books for each one I collect, I will think very carefully about which books I acquire.
My books come from 3 major sources:
  1. Amazon USA and Amazon UK. If I hear about a book somewhere I will check out its price at both Amazon sites. UK Amazon generally has free postage with orders over $50, so I have an ongoing list and only buy books when the value of my list of books reaches $50.
  2. I buy second hand books at charity shops, mainly the Salvation Army Store in Wollongong.
  3. Books are given to me as gifts, and if any of my gift givers are reading this, please do not stop giving me books - I love them.
 I wish I had one of those houses with shelves and shelves for books, but unfortunately I do not. I do have a room with floor to ceiling shelves for books but these house my daughter J's books (or some of them. She has her main collection with her in her flat.).
Some of Daughter J's books
Daughter J has more books tucked away in a cupboard, not to mention those stored away from her childhood. 

Daughter R comes a close second when it comes to books. She has quite a few stored on shelves in her old bedroom.


The last 2 books I bought were from the Salvation Army Store.


The first, Who? Why? What? Where? , is actually a set of over 20 research cards, which look really useful for school, although some of them may be a little dated.


The second book, A Purpose Driven Life, by Rick Warren is a Christian book about finding your purpose in life. I first read this book about 6 years ago and it got me going back to church. I have since bought a number of these books for other people and when I saw one going cheap I decided it wouldn't go astray. I might even read it again myself as I found it very inspiring.


The books I am donating back to the Salvation Army Store are pictured below.

 The book on Mathematics is one I received over 40 years ago as a free gift with Life magazine when I was a teenager. Interesting, but not looked at for years - and falling apart. It my well be relegated to recycling. The other 3 books are related to teaching English Literature in the senior school. It is unlikely that I will ever do this again. The material is very dated. I bought these second hand over 20 years ago.


I hate to part with them - but I must be strong!


 Interesting sites

 1.
Photo credit
 Click here  to read about the Oak chapel of Allouville-Bellefosse in a hollow tree.





2.

Photo: Pokkisam
 Click here to see 60 cute pictures of Danbo the Robot.

3.
Photo by Klaus Leidorf
Click here to see some really fascinating aerial photographs by Klaus Leidorf.

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