In the High Peaks
















Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Reading, Bushwhacking, and Book Weeding

As I discussed in Monday's post, I'm in the middle of two BIG books, War of Nerves by Ben Shephard and The Snowman by Jo Nesbo. But neither one is a work of German translation, so shouldn't I be reading one of those, too? I have one on tap, but I'm not sure I can read three books at once.

A big hiking/bushwhacking day. Sasha and I were out for three and a half hours exploring all over. For part of the time a friend and her yellow Labrador joined us. It was so sad to go to the wetlands and find all the yellow warblers gone. They are here only from May 3 until July 30 or so. Such a short time to breed and raise a family and then head south to Central America--Honduras and the Dominincan Republic, I think. Here's a photo to link to, so you can understand why I miss this cutest of birds. Warblers sing so beautifully--I'll miss their songs.

Sasha and I are happy because the biting insects are decreasing, making it easier to hang out in the woods and by the big creeks.

Book Weeding: I need to put some solid, committed, unrelenting effort into bookweeding. I must pack up some books I no longer need to make way for all the P.D. James hardcovers I picked up, as well as the other wonderful books I purchased this summer. I'm finally tossing the Plant Biology textbook I used at college back in the early 1970s! The science has changed totally. Why should I hang on to that? I know, I love plants and I don't have anything to replace it with. But I've tossed it. How much further can I go? When I was a kid and when the family was preparing for a move to another house, my mother told me to go to my bedroom closet and, "Be Ruthless!" That still makes me smile.

2 comments:

  1. I'm book weeding too and packing up the ones which I've already read but can't part with.
    I'm going to have to nag Jack to chuck his chemistry and physiology text books from the 70s. I'll try saying Be Ruthless!
    BTW the warblers look lovely.

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  2. Oh, Katrina! You're packing up the ones you can't part with? That sounds so sad and, according to my bookweeding habits at the moment, too drastic, too ruthless.

    Maybe you should put the ones you feel you can't part with in a box and hold onto it for a month. Perhaps your priorities will change, and you will find other book more suitable to pitch.

    You can see I'm no help at all in the book-purging department!

    Judith

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