Tuesday, July 31, 2018

So Many Books...

There's so many great authors out there right now, and so many great books to read - not just the classics, I mean great new books - that I'm finding it harder to get in and read a book and finish it right now.

Sure I'll start a book, then another book will come out on the market and I'll be like a kid in a lolly shop jumping up and down, wanting that book... and that one... oh look, that one over there too! 

But really, I don't have the space or the time to read them all once I get these books home; and I end up wondering why I bought them in the first place. I end up regretting the purchase and not wanting to read them... making them a bit of a waste of money.

That does sound like I'm sick of reading, doesn't it? But really, I'm not. I love to read and get into a good book when I have little to no stress in my life - and you know, that's what's stopping me from indulging in my favourite past-time right now; stress. When I'm stressed out, I stop reading as reading is a relaxing thing to me. It gets rid of my stresses and makes me forget what's going on in the outside world.

And isn't that what reading a great book is all about? You read a book and your mind goes into another world, the world away from the one you're currently in now? 

Yep, sure it is. 

But when your world is constantly a stress, it's difficult to get into a book and get away from it when you're more concerned about what's happening in the real world... when you're always looking back through those fur coats and the wardrobe and into the world you came from, instead of the fictional world you want to hang out in for a while.

So, when you've found you're not reading as much as you wish you could, what do you do about it? Do you worry about not reading and not escaping? Or do you read in small snippets as much as you can handle? Until my next post, happy reading!

Sunday, July 8, 2018

Gardening Books

Early last month, I jumped in and started redesigning my back garden... with great success. I pulled out plants I didn't need, plants which were dying and plants which were taking over the whole yard - and there were pots which needed plants, plants which needed new pots and a big space where I put in a greenhouse to house my more delicate plants.

Then, I  got stuck!

I wanted to grow a rose. This was to remember my friend who had committed suicide in May in the UK... but then I have been hesitating so much over that type of plant that the more I read about it the harder is seemed to grow where I lived. 

I needed help with my choice of plant to grow. I sat down and pulled out my entire library of gardening books and search through them last Friday night and found I kept coming back to one type of plant which put up with a lot of different types of weather and didn't have to be pampered - it was the Camelia. I had combed through five books and found it in every book but they ranged from differing colourings, heights and styles. 

Don't you love it when gardening books just can't agree on what the same plant is all about? I find it hilarious! Anyway, I went and closed up the books, wrote down on my shopping list for this week to buy myself an extra large pot and look at the Camelias - which one? Well, I think I'll see what colours are available - not hesitate. 

Gardening books are great to a point, aren't they? They can tell you only so much, though. But if we have too much information, it becomes overwhelming. This is the downfall of the internet and Google; and why I like to read the gardening books from the past - and why I collect them. Well, until my next post, happy reading. 

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Keeping Notes

It's the middle of Winter here in Australia and we're going through the wonderful and typical Winter of chilly nights and lovely cool days with some showers here and there.

It also means nice hot, stodgy meals with hot chocolate just before bed while reading a few pages of my favourite book - or a new one I have yet to read. 

Right now, I'm reading 'The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Society' by Mary Ann Shaffer; and it's a great book of letters which isn't stressful, and has a great pull on me every time I pick it up - it reminds me a lot of '84 Charing Cross Road' by Helene Hanff; but less modern, and more wonderfully written. However, from the start, it has more than two people writing to each other... which took a little getting used to.

And that's a great thing with this book, it's a society within a society... a society of letters within a society of people who love books writing to each other during World War II in the UK. 

While I'm reading this book, I'm also putting my little back garden into order... this is what I do when I mourn the loss of somebody in my life: I get out into the garden and really involve myself in Mother Nature. It's my way of hiding. And while I've been doing that I've been taking notes of what I've been doing out in the little garden - and my Gardening Journal is being filled up with every single thing I've bought, potted up, back-filled and cared for and built in the tiny backyard I call my garden. 

It's been only a month - and almost 2 months since my dear friend committed suicide - and I've spent more money on my garden than I do on books in a year. Yes I miss my sweet, dear, and troubled friend, Hannah, and this is my way of dealing with my loss. I guess everyone deals with loss in different ways, right? I read and get into my garden - taking notes along the way. 

But I have tried keeping a reading journal on what I've read; and it didn't really work out - except online. How weird is that? Well, until my next post, happy reading!