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Thursday, September 20, 2018

odd ball books and a lady too busy to read them

Fridays are good days.
They make us think about the possibilities of tomorrow.  They let us dream of warm cups of coffee, and relaxation.   I’m a mom with a 75 year old house that needs repair.  I don’t get much of that relaxation.  I used to paint pictures, dipping my brush in water and watching colours bloom on paper while I listened to soft music and sipped tea (or wine).   I used to read novels in the lamp light and breathe in the smell of paper and books.   I used to walk for miles just to feel the earth under my feet, and see the shapes of life springing forth in the damp climate I live in.  

Now I’m buried under mountains of laundry created by small dirty children.  I think based on the quantity of laundry alone that there are people in my house I’ve not yet met.   I try to diligently feed them, and make sure I spend some time playing with them although it think I spend more time cleaning up after them.  I also spend a lot of time doing things like fixing walls, installing baseboards, learning how to remove knob and tube wiring from my house.   I’ve acquired some tools, I’ve dug more than my fair share of holes trying to fix drainage (it RAINS here). Leisure time seems so foreign now.

That being said, today the library opened it doors for a used book sale. I was inspired to skip out on an hour or so worth of work and wander up to the library to see what I could find.  My thoughts were on children’s books as that is all I’ve read in years but the selection was poor, and so I drifted over into the adult fiction. I bought a book. I’m not sure when I’ll find the time to read it… but I liked the title.  A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar.  – it’s fiction, and likely have very little to do with cycling. But  I have a penchant for books with long winded and odd titles.  I can recall once telling my mother that I was reading a mystery – which was not my usual genre - called Mistress in the Art of Death.   She said – well that’s why you are reading it. 

A few of the titles that stick out in my mind include A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, The Cure For Death By Lightning, and Diary Of A Compost Hotline Operator….

Wish me luck.  Friday is sending me promises of a weekend. One in which I might crack a book.  The forecast is for rain.