Silly me for listening to book podcasts. They make me want to buy books!

Besides Books on the Nightstand which I love because hosts Ann and Michael are such darn nice down-to-earth people, I also tune in every week to The Sword and Laser, a fantasy/science fiction podcast hosted by Tom Merritt and Veronica Belmont. (Btw, LOVE the new website design guys and did ya have to pick such an awesome book as The Windup Girl to read next?!!!)

Between the two, I get stellar recommendations from just about every genre of book out there. And that’s how I read. The number of bookshelves I have on Goodreads continues to grow as evidence to that.

I go where inspiration strikes me, rarely if ever thinking “I just don’t like that kind of book.” Ah, wait a second… I don’t do chick lit. Honestly, if a book is pink or has a stick pencil drawing of a fashionista on the front, it turns me off.

But anyway, the point I was trying to make is that so far 99% of my books are borrowed from the library.

We go probably once a week. It has such a fantastic inviting air to it. The second floor that houses the children and young adult collection is open to air, and the kids take off up the curling Gone with the Wind-esque stairs intent on finding adventure. I take a quick stroll through the adult graphic novels, never forgetting the new fiction and nonfiction selections, usually finding very juicy tidbits to my to-read list, before heading up myself to join them.

Last visit there was a real treasure, the new biography of Louisa May Alcott. If you are a Little Women fan, you will appreciate the context into which Harriet Riesen places Louisa’s whole life, connecting real life events to her fictionalized versions. I’m only a hundred pages in and it’s been extremely insightful and readable.

So, with so much free entertainment, how to justify purchasing new books?

I have to have criteria. Here they are:

1. Favourite authors with a new book and amazing reviews… thinking of The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt which I’ve yet to pick up. Her Possession is such a favourite that the tagline for my blog comes from it.
2. Books I’m highly likely to re-read or reference… like my favourites about writing
3. Treasures that are a real part of my personal journey… too many to pick just one
4. Brand new books I can’t get used. Goodwill has amazing 1/2 off sales which where I found Mists of Avalon!
5. Graphic novels that the library doesn’t have yet… aka Buffy Season Eight
   

That’s a lot of really good excuses to buy books, but I still don’t. I load them up in my shopping cart, drool over it a bit, look to my left at the stack of books I already own there, look to my right at the  latest library stack, both piling up and crowding the computer monitor on either side, sigh a little and try to forget about how something is only $15 online at Chapters.

My hope is to one day have a beautiful home library. The living room or maybe the dining room, besides the master bedroom of course, will be wall to wall bookshelves. (Can ya tell that I’m unlikely to ever be a Kindle girl?) An oasis, a beating heart, a thinking centre for myself and my family. Expanding our minds and thoughts with every word. A great chair or two, comfy pillows, a small desk with my journal. I can think of no greater heaven.

I simply can’t decide whether to keep building now or wait just a little bit longer.

How do you get your books? And which ones do you buy?

I’ve been giggling ever since I heard this story.

One of our local radio talk shows was commenting and taking phone calls about NBC’s recent enormous error in confusing Michael J. Fox for Terry Fox, one of Canada’s legends remembered yearly with The Terry Fox Run.

The theme to the whole conversation was easy to find: do the Americans really know so little about Canada?

And then a Texan got on the phone and confirmed all our worst fears.

He married a Canadian – like me – and moved to the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario – like me – and thought Canadians lived in igloos before his move – I wasn’t that bad, was I? – but was pleasantly surprised to find that they had an actual house upon arriving, that Canada was advanced enough to boast a Burger King and McDonalds and that the country had actual cities.

See, he knew way back in ‘88 that Canada had one city and it was called Calgary. Now, he joked, the Americans must surely surmise that Canada is growing as it seems to have sprouted yet another city, for a grand total of two, called Vancouver.

be careful how you define yourself. the past few weeks have brought monumental changes to my life, both of which I had tidily put in under the “that’s not me” place conveniently located at the back of my mind. oddest of all… I’m delighted!

#1. I got a great cut and color! walked out of there feeling like a million bucks. not that the shape was much different than usual — little past shoulder length, layered near bottom and around my face, thinned and long bangs for interest. but the way she styled it took my breathe away. rather than straightening it with a flat iron, she used a round brush and blow dryer. the effect was stunning. not that I’m trying to brag lol. but my hair was blessedly straight up top without frizz and yet it’s natural body hadn’t been stripped away and the bottom could flip and bounce and have fun. looking back at me from the mirror was the me I always hoped to see but never dreamed I could be.

I tell you I wanted to sing! so first thing upon leaving I march myself into a pharmacy to buy an identical brush and later found to my wondering eyes that with my old blow dryer and an extreme helping of patience, I was able to replicate the same result as my stylist. this from a girl who swore she never stand in front of a mirror for more than the ten minutes it takes to brush my teeth apply moisturizer and basic makeup.

#2 I got a job. a real one. with a salary and vacation time and benefits and security and everything. it’s my very first. seems like the girl who always falls asleep during movies does fairly well working graveyard. and that same girl who thought she’d never be able to work with so and so dearly loves her new work partners from Jamaica and Ireland.

so what does this mean? these things happening that I never thought would. it means my imagination is starting to believe enough to peep out of it’s little closet. it means life is still wonderful and least of all predictable. it means I’m starting to believe in miracles.

to top the day off, here’s one more thing i thought i’d never ever do….

My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the
hummingbird –
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there
the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the
speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat
torn?
Am I no longer young, and still
not half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,

which is mostly standing still
and learning to be
astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and
the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since
all ingredients are here,

which is gratitude, to be given a
mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give
shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the
sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over,
how it is
that we live forever.

~ Mary Oliver

Wish I could share this talk via actual video, but the best I can do is share the feed. Rabbi Harold Kushner visited Toronto at the end of last year to give a talk based around his latest book, Conquering Fear, Living Boldly in an Uncertain World. I really enjoyed the depth and breadth of his insight and spirituality. He covers many topics, though he starts with fear, but does not ever seem to be wandering. What he says regarding fundamentalism, fear, not being intimidated, God vs. nature and what God has in store for our lives all struck me deeply. I’ve yet to read his books, but his name keeps popping up lately and the quality of message in this talk makes me think long and hard about doing so soon.

The Rabbi’s talk was aired on a Canadian television show called Big Ideas. From their website,

“BIG IDEAS is a showcase of ideas that shape our public debates. At their best the lectures featured on the program expose us to the differing ways of defining what matters and how that affects our understanding of the world as it is and as it is likely to be… Each age has a set of questions by which it defines itself. If, 50 years from now, someone came across a list of BIG IDEAS shows, they would have a pretty good idea of what people thought about and debated in the early 2000s.”

From this link to the Big Ideas website, you can see the video or listen to the audio. We get the show in podcast form via iTunes each week. Expand your world view and have a listen. It certainly did for me.