Book Addiction

I’ve acquired this ‘disease’ as early as I could borrow books from the school library. I bought books old and new, stamped it with my name and scribbled down the date I acquired each, with my young cursive writing. I built my little library from there. Yes, I had a stamp made especially for stamping my book. I was so much into the stamping that I stamped all three sides of each book. How silly. It was an embarrassment when I grew a little older. Haha. I couldn’t never lend my books (mostly classic books) because my name was all over it. There’s no way could you mistake it as someone else’s, and not in a good way.

When I got older, I didn’t even write my name on them. If I lose it, then hopefully it finds a good home. That was my philosophy for about two decades. Recently I began to write my name again on each book. And the date. It’s like my personal journey as you piece together each book I purchase. Each book represents where I was/am at. Thankfully, I don’t stamp my books anymore.

I buy books as I want them. I’ve never depended on the bestseller’s lists, or felt the need to. I don’t feel like I need to read what others are reading, although I certainly check out what my friends are reading to see if they interest me. I rarely borrow because books are so personal to me. I write on them. I highlight them. They’re my babies, as odd as that sounds. These days my books are a mishmash of spiritual, psychological, culinary, business, photography, design, and craft books.

Today I felt like getting some food writing books. When I searched the store’s online catalog, the only one I saw that was available was “Choice Cuts: A Savory Selection of Food Writing from Around the World and Throughout History” and it was in the Bargain Section. So off I went. I noticed another book as well, “How I Learned To Cook: Culinary Educations from the World’s Greatest Chefs“, which is a collection of essays from forty chefs.

I guess you can tell which one I’m reading (and thoroughly enjoying) right now.

Pay Yourself First

I woke up at 6:12am this morning, to be exact. Instead of trying to fall back asleep, I marinated half-awake in bed for a few minutes and stood up to make a cup of coffee (thanks Keurig, for effortless coffee) and warm up a slice of the banana bread I made over the weekend. I opened my window to the cool breeze, and the raindrops drumming like a soft symphony.

Monday’s rain (audio, 1MB)

The skies are gray and the grounds are soaking wet on a Monday morning. I’m grateful that instead of being hurried on a Monday morning, grumpy, and trying to get to work, I am actually enjoying a couple of hours to myself.

This reminds me of a very well-known series of personal finance book that weighs heavily on this advice: Pay Yourself First. Right now, I feel like I’m paying myself first not monetarily, but in time. I tend to just dive into work in the mornings, then hurry for appointments and out the door when I have to. But today, I’m giving myself the time first. And it feels so good. It’s just what I needed.

Un Garçon

I wanted to learn a new language and I’m finally working on it. It turns out that my dad has the Rosetta Stone’s Level 1 and 2 French lessons and he’s not using it. So I borrowed it. I just dove into it right away. I’m doing everything so well on the first few lessons, except for pronouncing the phrase “un garçon”. Yes, friends, the crux of my first French lesson is “a boy”. Could it be any more ironic? Le sigh.

More (mis)adventures in French to come. So far, the Rosetta Stone method works for me. :-)

In other news, I started Wayne Dyer’s book “Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life” again, after a falling out between travel. Lugging that book around from city to city was challenging, so it was left in AZ. When I saw it at Chapters at a whopping discounted price, I bought another copy. I finished the first chapter. Perhaps, I’ll journal a few sentences here hopefully each day as I finish them…give myself some sort of accountability…

Anyway, that’s it for now. It’s past 2 am, and my goal of getting more sleep for the month of August is already a fail whale in the world of Twitter.