Bookstores: A Great Escape

Edith Wharton, author & poet
 

"We don't need a list of rights and wrongs, tables of dos and don'ts: we need books, time, and silence. Thou shall not is soon forgotten, but Once upon a time lasts forever."

 -Phillip Pullman as quoted on www.flavorwire.com.


It's a beautiful day here in North Carolina and the weather in general has been very good this week. Popping my own bubble, I checked the forecast and saw that tomorrow the rain returns once again and the high temperature will be in the 60s. Some of us haven't had a chance to work on our yards for some time now because it has been rainy on almost all of the recent Saturdays. Nevertheless, we will make the best of this one day of sunshine that we have this weekend.

This morning I stopped in our local Barnes & Noble store just to browse. I didn't see anything on the bestseller paperback shelf that interested me, so I wandered into the "classics" section as I often do. Before I knew it I had bought three classics. They were BOGO and I had a 20% off coupon plus my membership card, so I got all three books for $16. I'm looking forward to reading Thoreau's Walden and Civil Disobedience, plus This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. While I've read a small portion of Walden in the past, I'm looking forward to reading the entire book. I had good English teachers in high school and college, but I never had the opportunity to read these recent purchases. I won't be hard on myself about that though, because I've continuously been reading other things. Incidentally, if you love to read you should see the movie "Midnight in Paris." It's a romantic comedy of sorts where some very famous artists and writers appear as characters: Picasso, Hemingway, and others. You can get this movie at your local library as we did and I'm sure you will enjoy it.

The next few days will be very busy for us. Tomorrow we're taking a day trip drive down to our daughter's college, Gardner-Webb University near Charlotte, to visit her and to watch her in the homecoming parade and half-time festivities at the football game. Lydia surprised us when she told us on Monday that she was one of four candidates for homecoming queen. Only seniors are allowed to be nominated, so apparently one of Lydia's roommates nominated her. We will leave home at
8 a.m. and should arrive back home sometime after midnight. Unfortunately, the game doesn't start until 7 pm, and we need to stay at least through half-time to see our daughter and her fiance walk out on the field. It will be a fun day. We'll go preparing to sit through rain but we will make the best of it. We're so proud of Lydia and the kind soul that she is. We haven't seen her since she returned to college in August so a visit is long overdue. Gardner-Webb University is about 3 1/2 hours by car from our house, but it's mostly interstate. Her college town only has one traffic light so the students go to Gaffney, SC or Shelby, NC when they need to shop or get gas. We've been very happy with Lydia's college experience and she will soon be a proud alumnus.

On Monday I have the opportunity to take a day trip to the N.C. mountains with a group from our church. We will depart at 8 a.m. to drive to Boone where we will drive around and see the fall foliage, eat lunch, etc. I'm looking forward to this "mini-vacation." It's been a very long time since we've been to our mountains during the fall. We're hoping for a beautiful sunny day, of course.




For over a year now, I've been sharing the list of books that I've read since 1984. Today I noticed that my list is dwindling, so I'm almost caught up on them. Here is my list for today:

1. Yesterday I Cried by Iyanla Vanzant
2. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese (one of my all-time favorite novels)
3. Stuffed (Adventures of a Restaurant Family) by Patricia Volk
4. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
5. Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
6. The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren (this one will help you live a life that is meaningful)
7. Father, Son, & Co. by Thomas J. Watson Jr. (the history of IBM written by its founder)
8. General Washington's Christmas Farewell by Stanley Weintraub
9.  Quite a Year for Plums by Bailey White
10. In the Sanctuary of Outcasts by Neil White

Have a wonderful weekend,

Melissa Hill
Book Blogger: www.onegoodbookblog.blogspot.com
Used Bookseller on Amazon: MCH Seller