Summer Reading
The best thing that could ever happen happened to me this summer: I figured out how to use my library's ebook app to download summer reads. I have read more books in the last two months than I have been able to read in the last two years. I put e-books on hold. I download them when they're ready. I read them and return them within a couple of days. I look up new books to read. I bookmark books I want to read. I repeat the cycle. So SO much more fulfilling than Facebook. No late fees. No panic attack over misplaced books. No wishing I had a book with me during down times (thank you, iPhone).
I have also stopped being afraid to occasionally buy books. I was a little terrified that once I started ordering books on Amazon, nothing would stop me from filling my home to the brim with books. I try to be reasonable and self-disciplined about it, but with the library app, I barely have to be! I don't have time to buy too many books because I'm busy enjoying eight or nine library reads between each purchase.
I really really really recommend Whatever You Do, Don't Run by Peter Allison. It's a book of stories from the life of a Botswana safari guide, and you know those safari guides HAVE to be good storytellers. And Peter Allison truly is. I was so upset when the book ended, and my time at his fireside was over. If you like animals, Animal Planet, Planet Earth type documentaries, people doing a job they love, the zoo, Africa, summer, life, stories, humanity, anything, you'll like this book. I picked up We Bought a Zoo (having not seen the movie), and it didn't fulfill my craving for animal stories. It was too much business and not enough storytelling. It was good, but Allison's book was better.
I realize now that in my family people sat around telling stories from their lives or retelling stories they heard from someone else. That rarely happens now. What would my daughter learn sitting and listening to our conversations? Would she learn about life the way I did, from an oral tradition? Now I feel like I need to go re-read Whatever You Do, Don't Run, so I can memorize some of the stories to tell next time I am sitting around with a bunch of people.
My mother is the storyteller in our family. I would beg to hear her tell the same story (of an event I lived through) over and over. If I heard her telling one of our family members of the phone about something that happened to us, I would drop everything to sneak over and eavesdrop and hear my life through her brilliant storyteller lens. My problem is that I don't remember things in the right order, so I can mess up the punch line of a story going "Oh, wait, no, back up" three or four times. Maybe with practice, I can become the storyteller in my little church family, too.
Meanwhile, I'll go read some more books, so I can have material for my shtick :).
Update: Ahhh! I just found out he has a second book! Don't Look Behind You, But...