I managed to throw away the article on the 1950's Science Fiction movies
but only by sending it to my sister, my partner in seeing them all back then,
for her birthday, coming up October 10.
Another step forward: I e-mailed David
Highsmith of Books and Bookshelves about the $200.00 he offered me for my two
bookcases when he was here measuring things for the wall unit. He said that yes, he had taken $200.00 off
the total cost for the bookcases, but he forgot to tell his delivery person to
take them when he delivered or installed the wall unit. He asked me to call him. So I plan to give him $100.00 and keep only
one of the bookshelves. The one you saw
in the kitchen nook will go.
Have you read Anne Fadiman's Ex Libris?
It's a collection of her essays on her relationship with books and
includes a chapter on how she and her husband managed to merge their books
after keeping them separate for the first few years of their marriage. Sometimes they had two copies of the same
book and had to decide which copy should be kept because of its connection to
the time it was read. In one case they
had to keep both of them because she'd lost her virginity at the time she was
reading it and something equally meaningful had happened to him when he was
reading his copy.
Now I'm going to tell you what I've managed to give up...I think! and how.
1,003 great
things about Friends because it seems like a quick and dirty book meant to be sold at checkout
counters of bookstores.
Yellow
Journalist/Dispatches from Asian America by William Wong because I bought
it at CCSF when the author spoke on a panel, and I don't think I'm going to be
reading it.
Harry Potter
and the Prisoner of Azkaban because it just can't compare to Alice and Wonderland, and I can't hide my disappointment when I'm reading
it.
Blues for
Mister Charlie by James Baldwin because I have another copy and I didn't lose my
virginity reading either one of them.
Contrasts, a book of
photographs by Daniel Frasnay and with "wise words" selected by Dan
Herr and Joel Wells, 1972. I may have to
read this one first.
The New
Yorker December 14, 2009, showing Obama bowing to Santa Claus (That was around
the time he was criticized for sort of bowing to his peers.)
The Beet
Queen and Tracks by Louise Erdrich because I don't appreciate
Erdrich as much as I should. (Tracks has an enrollment card I used as
a book marker in Fall 1993)
Better Homes and Gardens Home
Landscaping because I know I'm not going to do wonderful creative things
with my garden. (Would you like this?)
Reading Group Choice 1995.
Whoops! This has specific books
& topics to consider, so I'd better keep it
A Book of
Children's Literature compiled by Lillian Hollowe because I never really had a relationship
with this book as I did with Children of
Dickens and other volumes.
I Know Just What You Mean: The
Power of Friendship in Women's Lives by Ellen Goodman and Patricia O'Brien
even though I went to their reading and have a "To Tina" inscription
from both authors. It doesn't resonate
with me as much as What Did I Do Wrong?
and The Friend Who Got Away.
The Law of
Love by Laura Esquivel because it seemed to New Age for me--even before I
read it!
Like Water
for Chocolate also by Laura Esquivel because there are so many books I'd like to
re-read before I re-read this.
An Equal
Music by Vikram Seth because I've already read it and don't need a repeat
experience.
A Suitable
Boy by Vikram Seth because it has 1474 pages and I don't think I'm going to
read it even though I worship his Golden
Gate, a novel all in verse.
Girls at
Play by Paul Theroux because I thought it was full of stereotypes.
Half Moon
Street by Paul Theroux because I can live without him.
The
Understanding of Music by Charles R. Hoffer because I won't sit
down and listen to the records accompanying it--something I bought in
long-playing records, I think. Better
look that up. Oh, I could buy his new
book's CD for $145.00. I won't.
Great Tales
of Crime and Detection: The World's Most
Famous Detectives and the Crimes They Solved. I think I bought this when I was writing an
ESL Murder Mystery for a TESOL conference in 1994! (I called it Dead End like the jobs I thought we part-timers had.) Would you like this book?
Women of the
Silk by Gail Tsukiyama Hmm. I bought this at Green Apple in 1997, I can
see from the receipt inside, and I've never read it.
Lies and the
Lying Liars who tell them: A Fair and
Balanced Look at the Right by Al Franken Hmm.
Nothin' but
Good Times Ahead by Molly Ivins I loved her but
since I never read it , the book and I never went through anything together
even though Molly Ivins and I did.
Strangers
from a Different Shore: A History of Asians and A Different
Mirror both by Ronald Takaki because someone else may get around to reading
them. But I may look at the pictures
before I give them away!
The Power of
Light: Eight Stories for Hanukkah by Isaac
Bashevis Singer because I can't remember the stories.
More Joy of
Lex: a Celebration in Praise and Pun of
the English Language by Gyles Brandreth because of my own limitations
Teach
Yourself Cantonese because I won't. I bought this
when Jonathan was in elementary school at Argonne, and I didn't think the
teacher's method of teaching Cantonese was working very well. I was also less aware of my own limitations
then than I am now!
Loose
Cannons: Devastating Dish from the
World's Wildest Women Hmm.
This has a "senior" section.
Maybe I should keep it!
I think I'd better stop listing here, but I still have another tower.
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