It’s Monday.
Not too long ago, it was suggested to me that I might be a little bit too structured. Now, this came after I’d described the morning routine that gets me out of bed and to the office (mostly) on time. A change in the workday routine can throw the whole thing out of alignment. However, days off are a different thing all together. There are very few constants on my Mondays off, but one has become my weekly trip to the local library. Considering how much money I’ve spent on books over my lifetime, it was a resolution this year to try and stem some of the financial outflow. So I paid up some outstanding fines and my local branch has become a weekly destination. (If I go every week, I’m less likely to forget to return something) This week’s picks included What was Lost by Catherine O’Flynn, Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth, and Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.
Anything by Tolle was suggested by my brother, and as self-help is not a category of which I’m abnormally fond it should be interesting to see if I a) make it through this book and b) care at all.
I’m finding getting books at the library very liberating. Since I haven’t spent a dime on the book, I don’t feel too guilty if I don’t like it enough to finish. And I’m more likely to try a book by an author that is new to me because really, what’s the risk? Jane’s reviews of these books are to come.
One of the most powerful books I’ve read lately is Jeanette Walls’ The Glass Castle: A Memoir. Truly amazing how Jeanette (and her siblings) could grow up all but feral, but manages to leave that all behind and begin a successful career as a writer in New York city. Even more amazing is how her love for her parents comes through even in her unflinching description of their foilbes and failures as people and parents.
What would Jane say? Walls’ parents were even more hands-off than parents in Jane’s day, and she would never approve of a caregiver preferring to create “art” instead of feeding her children. But Jane would definitely approve of the way Walls and her siblings care for each other and Walls’ own eventual rise, seeing as Jane was in some ways a self-made woman herself. In short, Jane would say “Brava, Jeannette, brava”.
