ThinMint

Join us over at Shannon's Gaining Ground book club as we read The Two Towers. We'll be in it for 7 weeks and roll right into Return of the King after that.

Bear with me friends! I have a few more book posts then I’ll move on. (Honestly, I’m trying to bore the bots so they’ll leave the channel.)

“We’re in the middle of the world climbing into the handbasket. Why on earth would I need BookBuddy?!?” Because sometimes we just need to let the world be crazy outside while we are finding peace inside our home. And if you’re a book lover, you know exactly what I mean. Plus organizing can be quite calming and liberating. (Not my shelves. Organizing by color is beautiful eye candy. Unfortunately, the OCD side of me would never forgive me if I did this)

I’m a simple, pragmatic gal so I don’t have a lot of useless media apps just hanging around unused. A few years ago I downloaded BookBuddy for like $4 after trying the free version. I absolutely love it and rely on it! Super user-friendly and I appreciate all the features that come with it to customize my own database. Very handy to have access to my inventory when I’m out and about looking to purchase books, or even while browsing online. Most books can be scanned, and the information will automatically fill in along with a picture. If you cannot scan your book you can either search for it online (it will automatically fill in the info) or you can manually enter the book information. Though scanning will automatically provide the book’s picture, you can also take your own picture. The app allows you to add your own category (this is separate from genre), location of the book, and if you loaned it out and to whom. You can sort books by author, publisher, genre, series, title and date published. https://www.kimicoapps.com/bookbuddy

"In it [books] we should be suffocated. The man who is contented to be only himself, and therefore less a self, is in prison. My own eyes are not enough for me, I will see through those of others. Reality, even seen through the eyes of many, is not enough. I will see what others have invented.” CS Lewis

... my book-buying habit outpaces my ability to read them. This leads to FOMO [Fear Of Missing Out] and occasional pangs of guilt over the unread volumes spilling across my shelves. Sound familiar? But it’s possible this guilt is entirely misplaced. According to statistician Nassim Nicholas Taleb, these unread volumes represent what he calls an “antilibrary,” and he believes our antilibraries aren’t signs of intellectual failings. Quite the opposite... Taleb: ... "You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly. Indeed, the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books. Let us call this collection of unread books an antilibrary." ... unexplored ideas propel us to continue reading, continue learning, and never be comfortable that we know enough.... Jessica Stillman calls this realization intellectual humility.... People who lack this intellectual humility... may enjoy a sense of pride at having conquered their personal collection, but such a library provides all the use of a wall-mounted trophy... [it's not] a living, growing resource we can learn from until we are 80... Tsundoku is the Japanese word for the stack(s) of books you’ve purchased but haven’t read... the word carries no stigma in Japanese culture. It also differs from bibliomania, which is the obsessive collecting of books for the sake of the collection, not their eventual reading... Since people are not prone to enjoying reminders of their ignorance, their unread books push them toward, if not mastery, then at least a ever-expanding understanding of competence… Whether you prefer the term antilibrary, tsundoku, or something else entirely, the value of an unread book is its power to get you to read it.

Shannon Guerra shared this article today on her book club channel. For those not wanting to click, I put some highlights in the post below https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/do-i-own-too-many-books/

I captured this from the CS Lewis site awhile ago: Read to expand who you are… In An Experiment in Criticism, Lewis points out that good reading should transform us and shape us. “Those of us who have been true readers all our life seldom fully realise the enormous extension of our being which we owe to authors,” he says. “We realise it best when we talk with an unliterary friend. He may be full of goodness and good sense but he inhabits a tiny world.” When we have this stance about reading, we also begin to understand the joy in re-reading. “The literary man re-reads, other men simply read,” Lewis says in Different Tastes in Literature. “A novel once read is to them like yesterday’s newspaper. One may have some hopes of a man who has never read the Odyssey, or Malory, or Boswell, or Pickwick: but none (as regards literature) of the man who tells you he has read them, and thinks that settles the matter.”

In this world we have to contend with distresses and sorrows. A quote from CS Lewis: “Since it is so likely that they [children] will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage…” You know, I think that ought to be applied to adults as well. How do we fight an unseen enemy that manages to seep, ooze, infiltrate and leech all that is good, honorable, charitable? How do we stay encouraged when it’s all too easy to become preoccupied with what we see happening around us? Read. Read about the feats of the men and women of the American Revolution. Learn about their heroic acts; understand how they overcame a long line of abuses; empathize with them having snitches as neighbors; appreciate all the impediments they had to overcome; and apply their courage, their boldness and their resolve to liberate their children’s world from tyranny. Read the struggles, the angst, the glories that David shares in Psalms. If it’s pleasurable to you in any small way, read!

A question asking if I, "ever read a book twice? If so, what compelled you to do so?" Yes, many books and sometimes three and four times! Of course, characters are the heartbeat of a great story. Whether they are the antagonist or the protagonist, a side character or a passing through character, there is something relatable, or at least something you want to be relatable, that draws you in, captivates you, igniting your imagination. A stellar writer gives you words that your soul soaks up, descriptions that show you a new world or a new way to look at something. You may not remember the nuances the author left on the pages, but you remember how they made you feel. Reading a book again (and again!) is like visiting a friend you’ve known for a very long time. You know the kind: like no time has passed; you just pick up where you left off. They invite you inside their home and you reminisce over a cup of warmth and a plate of cookies. So it is with the stories of characters you love.

...the sun looks down on nothing half so good as a household laughing together over a meal, or two friends talking over a pint of beer, or a man alone reading a book that interests him..." - C.S. Lewis: Weight of Glory

Growing maturity is marked by the increasing liberties we take with our travelling... we made the discovery (some people never make it) that real books can be taken on a journey and that hours of golden reading can so be added to its other delights - CS Lewis

Since I’ve been longing to read more, it’s only natural that I’ve been wanting to talk about doing so, too. The first thing I want to encourage my friends to do is read –or reread, the classic books, such as those required during your high school years. I recently finished, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and To Kill a Mockingbird, thoroughly enjoying the jaunt through the lives of spunky, plucky, impetuous youths. The authors preserved a bygone Americana for us to savor, with characters and scenes we can relate to despite today’s nonsensicalness. Rereading the classics through adult eyes is marvelous as you’re doing so from a different perspective. It opened a whole new world to me, and I am grateful for the insights. I bet there’s something you’ve longed to read. What is it?

-2- Most New Year’s I come up with one thing to try, one thing to change. But, that usually means adding one more thing to my life. Right now, it feels like I cannot add one more thing. So I am going to try something different this New Year’s; I am going to give away, drop or abandon. What can I do to move closer to the Less Is More lifestyle I crave? ... A novel idea? Probably not compared to the whole of humanity. For me? Yes, it is. I will go to the Lord with this fresh idea. I will ask Him what He wants me to give away, drop and abandon. Think this is something you want to do, too? Let me know, and I will pray this specifically for you as well. Perhaps we start with recognizing What Matters Most. What is it for you?

-1- When you think of springtime, flowers come to mind. Summer is watermelon and swimming. Fall is for pumpkins and crisp air. Overcast skies and cozy fires dominate the winter scene. How about the New Year? What images unfold for you? For most of us, we imagine something new. New adventures, new relationships, new hobbies, new habits, new beginnings. One thing I long to do, one thing that brings up a sense of contentedness, is to read more. While it’s true for the book lover and faithful reader that there is never enough books, never enough time, I am keenly feeling the call to read more. How to make this happen when the laundry piles and four little bellies bemoan its emptiness means that something –something must be given away or dropped or abandoned. One simply cannot do it all.

Good morning! God is good!

👆🏻Signs you might be obsessed with Dr Fauxi: 10) You buy the same groceries he does. 9) You style your hair in the same pixie cut as his. 8) You believe everyone likes him, too. 7) You got his portrait tattooed over your heart. 6) You divorced your husband because he’s not Fauci. 5) You made a portrait of him out of cat hair and sequins. 4) You aren’t happy if he’s not happy. 3) You were depressed after the Rand Paul interrogation. 2) You named your cats: Anthony, Tony, Fauci Jr, Wuhan and Mr Spectacles. 1) You wear a mask with his ugly mug on it.

👆🏻 Is that a– pillow of Dr Fauxi behind her? Does she have a crush on him? Signs you might be obsessed with Dr Fauxi: 10) You make sure you are in the same social circles. 9) You own a lab coat. 8) You don’t mind people hating you either. 7) You both like the same evil psychotic people. 6) You sold your soul just like he did. 5) You made a portrait of him out of lima beans and sprouts. 4) You aren’t happy if he’s not happy. 3) You call him after every one of his TV interviews. 2) You named your pet snake Fauci. 1) You made a pillow with his image on it.

I see that Elon released information (just in time for Comedy Wednesday I might add) that Twitter has a Fauxi fan club. Looks like I need to share a couple of older posts I made about two of his fans 😏