Chilling Out and Reading

I've been forced to sit down and read lately - yep, not more running around like a headless chicken for me for a week.

Yes, I've been a clutz, and broke my pinky toe on my right foot! Now, who hasn't done a stupid thing like that before? I know some of you have, and doesn't it hurt! Of course, I swore like you wouldn't believe to start with, then afterwards (I was cooking and thought it was burning and when it turns out it wasn't, well...) I swore more.

Yesterday, I read some of Book IV of the Dark Tower Series by Stephen King and binged on a few movies on Netflix. I'm really hanging for movies about writers and books - but there's nothing like that on there. I'll have to angle it around to that, and see what happens with the selection.

Anyway, I'm going okay. I'm going back to the gym tomorrow and taking it easy - seeing I can get my foot into a shoe and walk okay now. I'm just thankful I can get around now. But tomorrow afternoon, I'll be taking it easy again and reading more; as the more I rest my foot, the faster it'll heal.

Yep, it takes the smallest things to make you stop, sit down and really get into your reading, doesn't it? Until my next post, happy reading!

Home Office Clean-out

I'm cleaning out the home office again... and I'm going to be giving away a lot more of my books. This is a painful thing for me to do, but I have to be realistic about them. I just don't have the room for them.

So, the ones I can't shelve are going to be sent away to a second-hand store and others which are from Bookcrossing are going to be sent off to other Bookcrossers. I think this is a good and fair thing to do... plus they're going to people who want them. 

Also, I've got to clean up the home office and make it a useable space. I've made a start on it, and it's looking great; and I'm looking forward to doing more on it tomorrow - Friday - and getting in and throwing out more junk from this room soon.

I'm hoping to have this room all sorted out and finished soon... how many books do you have in your collection? Is it a library like mine? Or do you have only enough room for a small lot of book cases in a corner? Until my next post, happy reading!

A Literary Twist

I love reading and writing - and on the same token, I also love gardening; as some of you know. So, over the past few months, I've been cleaning up and doing up my little backyard and thinking about the artworks which I'll be adding to it when the time is right... and well the time is coming up that I want to get in and work on that.

The artwork I'm looking into is the literary artworks - you know the type right? There's going to be a couple of doors, some keys, a few birds of varying sizes and types and a rabbit or two as well as a bird in a cage and maybe some farm animals (yep, Old MacDonald's Farm is going to be featuring in this here little garden; as it was a book as well as a song!). 

This little garden is also going to have a sign post filled with all the fictional, fantastical lands I've ever read about... all pointing in every direction for all to see! It's going to be a wonderful little garden fill with everything for the eye to see - some colourful, some hidden, some waiting for the person to find - and yet, it's going to be all about books and the written word; as much as my library of books... which are hidden upstairs in a room, locked away from the eyes of the people in the surrounding units.

The reason why I want to do this in my garden is because I've seen photos of parks and gardens overseas and across my own country doing this very successfully and, I thought: 'Why can't I do this in my garden?' 

Well... why not? 

It's a private garden and I should be able to get in and do this kind of thing in the very place where my Secret Garden grows - where I feel the most comfortable, where my growing little universe thrives and I can get away from everything and enjoy it.

Why, it sounds like my library of books doesn't it? Until my next post, happy reading.

The Joys of Re-Reading

I love to re-read the odd book. I know that sounds really bad to do as a reader and a writer, but sometimes when I re-read a book, I find I get details from it which I've missed out on in the previous reading.

This sounds kinda dorky, doesn't it? It's like watching a movie over and over to catch other details you missed - but it true. Try watching 'Rear Window' a few times and you'll see what I mean; there's big and little details in that film you'll see on the second and third viewing you'd have missed in the first one. The same goes for 'Back the to Future'... so much goes on in the three films when you watch them back to back that you miss out on in just one sitting of them when you watch them once.

The same thing goes for books I think. 

When I first read 'On Writing' by Stephen King, I thought it was kinda boring (sorry, Steve!). But then, I re-read it a year later and found some of it was funny and I came away from it with some tools he had imparted in the book. The following year after that, I read it yet again, and I found it was great book, and very informative. So, it took three reads and for me to get what Stephen was trying to tell me... and still I've picked it up a few more times since and I'm getting more and more out of that one book. 

So, re-reading a book isn't a bad idea really. But I think it depends on what you're like deep down. Do you get everything in one sitting? Are you a slow reader and pull in every detail as you read? Or are you like me, and read faster and go back and re-read it again and again to get more details from it all over and over? 

Personally, I think it depends on what you want out of a book at the time you purchase it. Do you want to get information from it your after at the time in your life right then, and a year later, when you go back and read it again, you'll get other information which is relevant to you for that part of your life then? I wonder about that too. What do you think? Is re-reading a book worth it? And do you re-read the classics? Or are they too complex and difficult to get into once you're done with them? Until my next post, happy reading!