When you love something, you find a way to do it — dancers dance, singers sing, jugglers juggle, writers write, and readers read. I love all of those things, but I make time to read more often than most anything. And I have hundreds of books. I surround myself with books. I’ll admit that there’s a certain comfort in being in the midst of books; safety in the sheer number of stories and information potentially at my fingertips. I feel more alive being within hands-reach of all that thought, feeling, creativity, and knowledge (which may account for my recently getting a job at Schuler Books…Eastwood location!). However, it’s more about the reading than the having.
I consider myself to be an advocate for books. Both having them and reading them. I subscribe to the notion that people tend to read if there are good books around. All teachers and students benefit from having some sort of classroom library, all family members benefit from have a family library that morphs as children become teens and then adults. Books just accumulate in this house. They come from friends and family, from book sales, from students, from bookstores, from being found, from libraries, and other more mysterious places over time. When they start piling up on the floor, it’s time to buy a bookshelf or give away a few. When I was teaching, I would horde books so that my classroom library had a bit of everything. I didn’t want students telling me they couldn’t find a book they wanted to read from my room or the library. They needed choices and I was there to provide them.
To some extent, I’m still like that. I’ve given many boxes of books away over the last few months. Some to book sales and some to individuals that I thought would like to read the book. There’s a Little Free Library down the street from me and I have been supplying it with books for months; I really need to put one up in our yard/garden soon. When we were in Seattle this past summer, I was pleasantly surprised to see many Little Free Libraries in the Greenwood neighborhood where Rachel and Robbie live. I wonder if that would work in East Lansing? I’m all about getting books in the hands of readers, that is, you. I hope to catalog all of my books and start my own library…bookstore?…but until then, if you need/want/desire a book, feel free to stop by our house. Find a book you like and it’s yours. No charge. (No book report due on Monday either.) After you read it, give it to a friend.
In recent months, I’ve read (and recommend):
The Alchemist, by Paolo Coela
Inheritance by Christopher Paolini
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
Golf and the Spirit (finished after many months of reading it sporadically in the john) by M. Scott Peck
Bouquet of Red Flags, by Taylor Mali
Michigan: Four Seasons, by Bob Rentschler
Currently reading:
Strength to Love (digital version at archive.org), by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Neither Wolf, Nor Dog by Kent Nerburn
What I Know Now: Letters to My Younger Self, Edited by Ellyn Spragins
Social Thinking at Work: A Guidebook for Understanding and Navigating the Social Complexities of the Workplace, by Michelle Garcia Winner and Pamela Crooke
The Yes magazine
Upcoming events:
Saturday, Oct. 1, the East Lansing Public Library re-opens after renovation. Festivities all afternoon.
Sunday, Oct. 2, the 64th Michigan Antiquarian Book and Paper Show. 9:30 am. – 5:00 pm at the Lansing Center in Lansing. $5 admission (children 13 and under are free)
Sunday, Oct. 9, the CROPWALK in Lansing. I’ll be walking. Add your support at my page.
Friday, Oct. 21 – Sunday, Oct. 23, the People’s Church Men’s Retreat, Conversations about Race. $100 (includes five meals and lodging) or $75 just for the program on Saturday.