Books

Score….

Did I score the other day at Goodwill!!!

Yes, I know I was supposed to be sitting here at home, deciding on photographs for a contest, but my head was swimming with all sorts of images….

I decided a little retail therapy was in order… to help clear out the cobwebs in my head, make it all a bit clearer; you understand, don’t you?? 

So, it had to be a mindless kind of shopping; not fabric shopping, because then my mind would only become MORE cluttered by other possibilities….

I headed to Goodwill. My absolute favorite store, outside of a quilt shop(and Ikea—don’t forget Ikea…) Now, I do have to say the quality of the Goodwill store seems to be regionally inspired.

In New York City, we didn’t have Goodwill’s while I was growing up. There was the Salvation Army, poorly located and trashy. Give me a good yard sale, any day!  And I’m not too proud to say I have shopped curbside many times in NYC either…not something that is really DONE here…(sniff…)

So when I moved here, I took a while before I ventured inside a Goodwill.  I tried shopping yard sales, but I didn’t know the lay of the land, and yard sales are more a Friday and Saturday thing here; and well, frankly, living on an island is different than NOT living on an island.

While plotting out a yard sale driving list I could easily find myself in Amelia county … that’s a long way to travel to see if anyone happens to be getting rid of something I want to own!

So I gave up on the yard sale.  And discovered a far better thing: Goodwill.

goodwill

Here is Sunday’s take. Someone was cleaning out their music library and their reading library. I had to Stop. Picking. Up. The. Cd’s. It was getting silly. I whittled the stack down to about a dozen. Old friends, listened to for years on LP, and new names I decided to try.

Then, hands filled to overflowing, I wandered to the book section. After I balanced the 4th book on top of my pile of CD’s I had to give in and get a shopping cart.

Again, the book choices this day were phenomenal. Books I have read and lost, authors I love, new and interesting titles….

This trip, I stayed out of the clothing section… I left spending under $50 and now have all these neat goodies!(no, not yard sale-cheap, but not retail either,…)

I buy most of my work clothes here. And a good deal of my non-work clothes as well. (Mostly because I enjoy the poking about, the finding something a bit more unique, and because I think I worked in shopping malls for so many years that I have a secret aversion to them…)

Our Goodwill (of Central Virginia) is a sharp organization. They are clean, neat, organized, large, bright and generally a pleasure to shop.

Oh, by the way, it worked. The photos all kind of sorted themselves out in my head as I meandered, and I came home and was able to choose three relatively quickly. (see them Here…. and here…   and here! ) Wish me luck!

What I am Reading Right Now..

Reading has always been an important part of my life. I can recall fondly sitting in bed late at night as a little girl, with a book about Jesus as a boy. It had him learning to walk, and a pillow tied to his bottom to keep him hurting himself when falling. It was liberally illustrated and someday I will look for the title, if only to prove I am not making it up!! (If YOU know the book, do tell!!)

 

My favorite story book was Pickles the Fire Cat, and the Magic Fish. I loved Harold and the Purple Crayon, and Little House on the Prairie, and Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew and ….

 

My tastes have changed some since then, but reading is still an integral part of my life. I go the gamut, from flossy historical romance yarns about frivolous heroines to far more literary options such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  One of my favorites of all time would be Douglas Adams Hitchhiker series, all 5 parts of the trilogy.

 

 

I got hooked on Stephanie Plum a few summers ago, totally not the thing I would lean toward, as the books were THIN. I am not much for thin books. I love a hefty 1000 pager any day. But, hooked I was, and after devouring the 12 that were existent, I found that I was unsatisfied with the lack of ending and thus began my journey into Fan Fiction (you can read more about THAT here)

 

 

But I decided last month, to revisit the Outlander series, by Diana Gabaldon. I read them once about three years ago. And I am so very deeply immersed in them (up to book five, The Fiery Cross, at the moment) that I dream Jamie and Claire. Really. Here we have SIX books, over 1000 pages a piece!!! Heaven!!! And a writer who has made everything so incredibly real that my mind can not turn off!

 

 

I have tried to explain to my husband, who thinks it very humorous indeed, that when get caught up in a book, I lose track of time. And I lose the ability to put the book down, for fear of missing something. You can ask Arlie about that. How many dinners were late because my nose was in a novel??

 

 

This is so humorous to Timmy that he tells it to people, embellishing to the point of me sounding slightly weird. He sees it almost as I believe that the book is a TV show, and I don’t have my VCR on. But that isn’t at all what I mean.

 

 

Surely one of you out there understands?? Surely someone can appreciate being so deeply involved in Ann Rice’s The Witching Hour that you would need to pull over on the road to finish the chapter that you had to put down before you were ready??

 

Support me here folks!!!

Sorry, no pictures to go along with this post…. And please, do respond!! I would love to know that people actually READ here!!!