The unloved

As we contemplate moving again (it's been a blissful five years sans haulage), I find myself thinking 'Oh, I should get rid of some of the hundreds of books I've acquired' -- but how?

How would I choose? Should I get rid of the ones I've never finished reading? Well, not reading a book all the way through is normal, if you are an academic. You milk them, like little buttercups, for the goodness in them.

What about the ones everyone has? The classics, especially classic paperbacks -- they're in every library, I can get them anytime (except late at night or when I am running for the train). Hm.

The old school books? Well actually, many of those are gone, and what remains represents those subjects I'm most interested in. If learning makes you who you are, then these are a part of me. Might as well lop off a toe, or a small digit.

Not the battered and beaten up old ones, they are battered for a reason: I've probably read each of them fifty-two times. Not the ones I was given but haven't read yet.

I know. I'll cut down my bookload. I'll stop going to the library, for at least a week.

Whew, glad we sorted that one out, then....

Bev

Words are living

Post 2. Sitting at the table this sunny afternoon, enjoying talking to my husband, relishing the full feeling of a really nice lunch consumed at leisure*.


So he's thinking of a blog, about books and writing, and the process of writing and being an editor. Okay. I do all those things.

But then, then he says -- you could write about food writing and the cookbooks you read all the time. (He carefully does not use the word 'obsessive', for which I've grateful.) And of course, I'm hooked.

Fancy a few wanderings into why? Why are some writers interesting and others a little cloying? I don't pretend to know the answer, but I'll come along to have a look. Why do we get crazy about apostrophes? They sure'ly do'nt count, do they?

So I have accepted my part in this challenge, which is all about reading and writing and what goes on in between. And if you're lucky, there will be lots of cookbook recommendations. Mmm.

Bev

* Take two slices of good ciabatta, drizzle them with olive oil and rub them with garlic and chopped parsley. Then grab a handful of the minced pork you're about to use to make meatballs (the tomato sauce simmering on the back of the stove), add some cooked grated carrot, onion and lemon zest, a pinch of chopped garlic, some salt. Form into patties, and fry nicely in a little pan. Toast the bread, layer it with the hot little patties, a dab of homemade aioli and a slice of a tomato from the garden. My, my!

Serve with thick carrot and cucumber sticks, and plenty more aioli for dipping. Beatific serenity will result.