Tweaking lyrics: “Up with the sun, readin’ “Gone With the Wind. She always said I was lazy…”
I’m still busy with the initial “settling” chores one must undertake when entering a new community. Yesterday, I checked out some more apartments, shook hands with the Rock Springs mayor, and most importantly, completed the paperwork to get a library card.
My family has long emphasized reading. Years before my mother became a school librarian, my sister and I were regularly showered with books. Instead of a video gaming system or other hi-tech toys, we got tomes. It is for that reason that I am a vociferous reader and remain an easy kill when playing Halo deathmatches with friends.
It was a good trade off, though that sometimes hard to remember when I get sniped for the fifth time in a row.
Disregarding my underdeveloped gaming skills, books continue to be important to me. When I visit a new place, one of the first questions I have concerns the local library system. How much a community puts into a library speaks volumes to me. I’ll still frequent a sub-standard library if that’s all they have, but it’s nice to be in a place that clearly values the public collection and dispersal of literature. And if they rent CDs and DVDs too, that’s a bonus.
I’ll have to wait a few days for my library card to arrive in the mail (I’ve been putting down the newspaper’s address on certain forms since the Holiday Inn won’t cut it for many people). In the meantime, I still have the books I carried with me from Missouri.
Those who have seen my book collection in the past shouldn’t be surprised I would attempt to cram an “exile bookshelf” amongst the various clothes and knick knacks I lugged with me. It’s the smallest collection I’ve maintained in many years. Some people would find it funny that I’m slightly embarrassed by its miniature stature, but it’s the best I can do.
For those of you who are interested, here are the titles from my abridged bookshelf:
“45 Simple Object Talks for Children” by Barbara Ebert and Ruth Shannon Odor
“Alfred Hitchcock Presents: More of My Favorites in Suspense”
“The Associated Press Stylebook”
“Battlestar Galatica 11: The Nightmare Machine” by Glen A Larson and Robert Thurston
“Bee Season” by Myla Goldberg
“Bobby Fischer Goes to War” by Dave Edmonds and John Eidinow
“Eric” by Terry Pratchett
“The Forest for the Trees: An Editor’s Advice to Writers” by Besty Lener
“The Holy Bible: King James Edition”
“How Angel Peterson Got His Name” by Gary Paulsen
“Idaho, Montana, Wyoming - Tourbook” by AAA
“It All Started with Columbus” by Richard Armour
“Long Live the King - The Wizard of Id #9” by Johnny Hart and Bret Parker
“Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis
“The Name of the Rose” by Umberto Eco
“Penn and Teller’s How to Play in Traffic”
“The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde
“The Question of Hu” by Jonathan D. Spence
“A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23” by Phillip Keller
“Stardust” by Neil Gaiman
“Supervision: Managing for Results - 8th Edition” by John W. Newstrom and Lester R Bittel
“Tilt: A Skewed History of the Tower of Pisa” by Nicholas Shrady
“The Ultimate Spiderman” edited by Stan Lee
“The Umbrella Man and Other Stories” by Roald Dahl.
“The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel” and “The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Work” both edited by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht
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I didn't know you read Terry Pratchett, Caleb, although I shouldn't be all that surprised. His _Going Postal_ is the last book I've read in a while. Also, don't feel bad about sucking at Halo; I'm no good at FPS either.