Monday, February 01, 2010

Make the Most of Your Listening

So.

Sweetie works at a paper recycling plant, and they get books. Oh, man, do they get books. And Sweetie? Brings a lot of them home. After Christmas, there were tons of children's books that were just tossed, and he must have brought home forty of them, which we gave to Autumn, Good Neighbor Nancy's little four year old. Both are delighted! Not all were just books, but some were activity sets, with paint and little things to paint. Also, models of cats, dogs, dinosaurs, etc., that showed their inner workings. Like the old models of men and women back when I was a kid. Do they still make those? I want to call them Invisible Man, but I know that is wrong. See-thru Man? Plastic Man?

Sweetie says that there are a lot of right wing propaganda that is not selling, and so is being shredded. (Maybe made into toilet paper? Heh heh.)

But there are other books, too; ones he thinks I might be interested in, and those get brought home, too.

Therefore, I have read three books in the last two weeks. I used to read All. The. Time. as a younger person, and I read a number a magazines now, but I don't read much fiction. He brought home The Lovely Bones, and I don't know if I can bear to read it. I am already sad and depressed much of the time as it is, without reading about a fourteen-year-old girl's rape and murder. I did read Ron "Tator Salad" White's book, I Had the Right to Remain Silent, But I Didn't Have the Ability. Slim and somewhat amusing. Before that, I settled in with The Medieval Heretics. What can I say? It is awful, though, to contemplate being burned alive at the stake for such things as not believing that the host and wine really do become the flesh and blood of Jesus.

Now, I have embarked upon the weighty tome of Cromwell, The Lord Protector. At least I know how this one turns out.

That's my problem with fiction, I reckon, the not knowing. I am one of those that sometimes reads the final page or paragraph of a book to see if I can commit to reading it.

Thanks to all who commented on the photo I posted of the Ice Willow! Mountain Man, it really was one of those once-in-a-lifetime scenes.