Book Haul

This last weekend was a three day event for me due to a Furlough Friday. That’s right, another day off with no pay. I spent it sleeping in and then schlepping around the house looking for some way to be productive and failing miserably.

Since I’m a Type A personality I can never really enjoy having fun. I always need to feel that I’m using my time wisely, either accomplishing something or earning money. If I can earn money while accomplishing something, then I’m just delighted to be in the tent. When I’m actually in the tent, camping or otherwise vacationing, I’m a nervous wreck. I’m either worrying that I’m not doing anything useful or I’m worrying that I’m not enjoying myself enough and wasting the opportunity. This mindset leads me to take long walks on the beach without ever looking up from the tide line. I can’t help feeling that if I can find a seashell or lovely object washed ashore, then I will have something to take away from the experience. Actually looking up at the ocean takes a willful act of self-nagging to enjoy the view.

I don’t like being like this and I don’t know why I am. Some have suggested that it’s my German/Dutch racial heritage and I’m trying to control my world until I have the opportunity to take over yours. I believe this to be rubbish but I’m careful to include the very slight dab of Irish heritage when discussing ethnic backgrounds. I do this in the hope that an Irish heritage with its reputation of drunkenness and casual approach to accomplishment will somehow cancel out the negative images of my other forebears. It doesn’t really work. When I drink I just want to go clean something. Maybe if I actually drank I would have a cleaner house.

So back to my involuntary three-day weekend. I did some housecleaning and went out for a short afternoon with my spouse. We went to the used book store and picked up volumes one and three of S.M. Stirling’s Island in the Sea of Time series. This is another alternate history series only this one blends modern culture with the Bronze Age. You’ll remember S.M. Stirling as the author of the Dies the Fire series where a ‘mysterious event’ pits mankind against a world where technology is rendered inert and the denizens of the SCA are as one-eyed men leading the blind. In this new series a ‘mysterious event’ drags the island of Nantucket into 1250 B.C. I’m guessing anyone with an SCA background will be as a one eyed something or other. There’s totally a theme working here, but I like reading about the pre-technology skills and figuring out how to make things work.  I’m still not going back to any Ren Faire; that CreditReport.com commercial is close enough for me.

I did get to accomplish something with my weekend beyond the squeegee arts. I hit a few yard sales, as I do most weekends, looking for books. Sometimes I find something I want to read but I’m usually looking for books in good condition that I can post at the online book trading site. I’ve tried trading books in for cash but I only get about a buck apiece at the used book store. Online I can trade each book for a credit and then choose whatever I want. This is how I’ve picked up most of my new software manuals.

This weekend I had a really spectacular day. I found maybe two books I want to keep and the rest will get posted. Just to show you what I mean I’ve included a list of the books I nabbed:

• Weight Watchers Meals in Minutes (I’m posting this because I have dozens of cookbooks already so it takes something pretty special to get added to the collection.)
• Understanding the Male Temperament by Tim LaHaye (This one gets posted because, come on, understanding the male temperament is easy. I’m thinking that cranky, hungry, and content cover a lot of territory here.)
• Who’s Better, Who’s Best in Basketball (Who cares? Not me.)
• The Notebook – Nicholas Sparks (Chic lit, pass.)
• Peace in a Flaming Storm (Christian studies.)
• The Bottom Line Book of Freebies
• Latin for Pigs (An Illustrated History From Oedipork Rex and Hog & Das)
• God’s Special Promises to Me – Clift Richards
• How to Custom Paint and Graphics (Vehicles)
• By Her Side – Kathryn Springer
• Minutes from the Great Women’s Coffee Club
• Time Annual 2004
• The Villa
• Irish Hearts
• Dream Makers
• Time and Again
• Table for Two
• Irish Dreams
• The Gift (These are all by Nora Roberts and again, chic lit.)
• Mount Vernon Love Story – Mary Higgins Clark (George and Martha get busy. I am so reading this one.)
• How to Clean Practically Anything  (You never know when you’ll need to clean something but it my house it’s usually always.)

That’s it, that’s my justification for time off. I already have some credits banked up and some books I want to order. I’ve got my eye on The Orchid Thief and Bel Canto (Anne Pratchett). Once I get them I’ll give them a write up here but in the meantime, I’ll be chasing around in 1250 B.C. with a MP3 player that no longer works and a serious cell phone withdrawal. Yummy.

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