Always have a TBR pile close at hand…it’s important that one is able to grab a new book instantly.
Photo: Cottonbro
Pexels
Posts tagged ‘books’
The passing of knowledge and experience…
How often do we see photographs like this one? I mean in magazines, or anywhere else, for that matter? Older people become invisible in our culture. Instead of drawing on their knowledge and experience, we ignore them, as if they don’t know anything.
When I see something like this I feel that a bond is being passed from one generation to another. Whether they are related or not, the adult is passing something important to the child. To me, it’s a beautiful thing that we rarely ever see. It seems as if images such as these, would go a long way to help people reach each other. Create a bridge between children and their elders. It might even teach respect.
My grandmother was magic. She gave me everything and taught me to fly. I was so very lucky to have her.
We might want to think about listening to the stories and advice of Native Americans and the elders of all races. To the animals and to the earth itself, if we are not only to survive, but in order to be whole.
Photo: Andrea Piacquadio
Pexels
Okay, so…Reading, Addiction
Two days ago, I realized my book addiction had reached a new high. I sat down and started reading a book I was into, and had to laugh because I was listening to a book on my headphones. I had been cleaning and listening to the book, but saw the book I had been reading and just picked it up and…well…I may have a problem.
I just read another 643 page book today and I can’t wait to finish another one and start the next one in the series and I’m getting two new books in the mail today, to add to the nine million in my TBR pile. And yes. I have always been like this.
Okay, so…
I don’t like book covers where the author’s name is bigger than the title. When their name is REALLY BIG, I wonder if the book sucks and they just want me to buy it because s/he wrote it. I don’t like that.
I don’t like it when you’ve been following a series for 13 books and the author suddenly turns the main character into a completely different person and you keep saying to yourself, “HE WOULD NEVER DO THAT.” Then you look at the reviews on Amazon and other people are saying the exact same thing. I don’t like that.
I don’t like it when there are a lot of 1 star reviews on an Amazon book and you go to write your own and all the 1 star reviews are GONE. They have been ERASED. I don’t like that.
I don’t like knowing that people who review a book on the back jacket, haven’t read the book. I really don’t like that.
I don’t like it when they say a book is like Harry Potter, Jim Butcher, Evanovitch, or anyone else, BECAUSE THEY NEVER ARE. I don’t like that and I don’t buy those books.
I don’t like that some Kindle books cost as much as they do ($14.95). Nope. Don’t like that.
I don’t like endings that don’t fit the book’s storyline. I don’t like that.
I don’t like books on artists that don’t have ENOUGH photographs. I really don’t like that.
I don’t like that people who get books free, for their honest evaluation of the book, never go below three or four stars. Hard to trust them. I don’t like that.
I don’t like it when a book on Amazon won’t let you look inside. I don’t buy those. I don’t like that.
I REALLY don’t like it when they put the same book out using a different cover and say it’s a new book, when it’s NOT. They put a new date out, because it’s being reissued, but it’s the exact same book as it was four years ago. You always have to check those things. I really hate that.
I don’t like it when you order a book and when it arrives, its corner/s is/are crushed. I don’t like that.
I don’t like books that are so awful I can’t read them, so I recycle them so as not to spread the ugliness around. I don’t like that.
I don’t like books where women or animals are kidnapped, tortured, or murdered. I hate those.
I don’t like authors who copy off of other authors. I don’t like that at all.
I like it when packages arriver earlier than expected. I do like that.
I like it when the books are even more beautiful than I thought they would be. I really like that.
I don’t like it when adults do stupid things and all I can think is: no one wold EVER do that. I don’t like that.
I like it when pages of coffee table books aren’t shiny but matte and full of wonderful photographs. I like that.
I like some YA books because they’re fun. I like that.
I like books about magic. I like that.
I like books where animals can communicate with their people. I really like that.
I like series with characters I’m happy to see again. I like that.
I like that Amazon keeps tract of some of the things I look at because I don’t, so it’s easy to go back and review something I might still want. I like that.
I like reading the reviews and start with the 1 star, because they often tell me exactly what I want to know. Women abuse, animal abuse, etc., so I know immediately that I don’t want to look any further. I like that.
I like it when the cover tells me the story is heartbreaking, so I don’t have to bother looking at the book. Life’s hard enough, as far as I’m concerned. I like that.
I like it when the cover tells me it’s a family saga, or about love, war, and all that stuff, so I can move on and not waste my time looking through the pages. I like that.
I like fantastic cover art. I REALLY like that.
I like first paragraphs that are so fabulous, I just order the book, or put it on top of the pile I’m already carrying. I like that.
“I like BIG PICTURES in books. Not those tiny little corner shots. I buy books with BIG PICTURES. I know they’re expensive, but books shouldn’t skimp on the photographs. It can ruin a book. Go for big pictures every time. I like that.
I like books that are so good, I stay up all night reading them. I like that.
I like books with tough women who never need to be rescued. I like that.
Well, I could go on for hours…but you probably get what I’m trying to say. I’m sure there are lots of things you do and don’t like as well.
I never finish reading a book I don’t like. Never.
Okay, so…
If an alien came to earth to do field work, she/he/it would immediately think we were all stupid beyond belief. If she looked at the books that are out there, the talks on TED and all the other things, that NEVER STOP TELLING PEOPLE HOW TO LIVE, she would beam back up to the Mother Ship and tell the crew, “These animals aren’t worth researching. How about looking at mice? They seem smarter. Mushrooms?”
Having been around since the just after the dinosaurs looked up and said, “Oh, no. It’s coming right at us. Duck,” I can only assume that people have become not only more unable to think for themselves, but apparently they can’t live without someone telling them what to do.
I’m thinking the wagons moving west across the open plains, didn’t carry books on how to get your kid to sleep, how to PLAY with your baby, or anything else. No books on communicating with neighbors, bridging gaps, or whether carbs were good or bad.
What happened to us?
I was talking to a pediatrician years ago and he said, “Parents can’t think anymore. They are constantly calling for the dumbest reasons. Things everyone should know. It’s as if they’re terrified and think they will do something wrong and their kids will be scared for life. The phone never stops ringing.”
It’s not only that. People read books on social skills, marriage counseling, written by authors who have probably been divorced, Secrets, Creative Visualization, How to treat your dog. One author was able to find his soul mate four times. Married, divorced and rinse and repeat. He was popular for a long time.
I’m bad with dogs and books won’t help. I can’t be alpha dog. If my dog was on the couch, I would be sitting on the floor. My cats were always on the chairs and couches and our whole family was on the floor. So, I’m really a tough person with people, but not animals. I could read a million books, and it wouldn’t do any good at all. If a dog jumped down and said, “No, you sit there,” I tell the dog that it was okay and that she should take the couch.
I can’t see our ancestors EVER dreaming about not knowing how to live, or what to do in pretty much any situation. My grandmother had dogs and never thought she didn’t know how to HAVE a dog. She never once said to me, “I wish there was a book on how to have a dog, or how to talk to you.”
When did people lose their self confidence? When did everyone start to believe that they didn’t know how to live? Cave people, who had a pretty limited skill set, never thought they didn’t know anything. They didn’t sit around wondering when antibiotics would come onto the scene, when their larynx would change and they’d be able to speak. They knew what they needed to know in order to survive, or they learned pretty fast, just by living.
Cave women got pregnant, didn’t take vitamins, or do much of anything but walk a million miles across the earth, then stop to have the baby, get up, if they didn’t die, and keep walking. I can only imagine what they all thought when the first baby was born. “WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!”
How to speak up at work, How to talk to the anti’s, or the others, or those people, or these people, or ___________fill in the blank. There’s a book to teach people how to do every little bitty thing.
Seems weird. Like seat belts and helmets. Those are new things. Before they arrived, we all lived and never thought about being strapped to a seat or wearing a helmet. I’m not saying those things are bad, I am saying that before people were able to make money off of those things, a billion generations rode in cars and on bikes and never had either one. We are getting crazier and crazier, more and more dependent on others telling us what to do and how to do it. And OTHER people are getting rich because we’re being more and more unable to take care of ourselves.
People go to socializing classes, so they can actually SPEAK to another person. There was never a time that I can remember, when people needed a book for socializing. And you know what? I don’t think we’re any better because of it. All the books are doing is making people think that whatever THEY ARE DOING is wrong, or not good enough. It’s stealing self confidence and peace from humans, draining their common senses and leaving them afraid and lost. But maybe that’s just me. Or maybe it’s being done on purpose to make us weaker and more easily MANIPULATED. It’s also making others rich.
I think past generations were much better able to cope with life, no matter how hard it was, and it was HARD for a lot of them. Living through wars and The Depression. Life has never been a piece of cake.
Kids used to be free to play, not registered in activities until they had no time for themselves, or their imaginations. No one had to teach us how to play with our friends, or dogs, or anyone else, and you know what…if kids had problems with each other…THEY worked things out by THEMSELVES. That’s how everyone learned to live and get along. We learned how to compromise, or fight, BY OURSELVES. We learned it by LIVING and not by ratting anyone else out.
And we all only had one voice. Not a single person I ever knew, had an inside voice and an outside voice. None of us were that insane. We also had books. The books we read had chapters. We did not have chapter books. Again…we HAD BOOKS. That’s what they were called. WE, even as children, could see that there were CHAPTERS INSIDE THE COVERS OF THE BOOKS. The dumbing down of children. Seriously. Do people have so much time on their hands that they have to change what we call things? A book is a book, whether it has chapters or not. If a kid opens it, that child will immediately know if there are chapter in it or not. And so, will the child’s parents.
“Do you have chapter books?”
“Why yes, sir, THIS IS A BOOKS STORE AND BOOKS HAVE CHAPTERS! HOW MANY WOULD YOU LIKE?”
I look at the titles of some books that pop up now and then and wonder how rich the authors are getting by telling people how to put their children to bed, in 300 pages.
“LOOK IT UP,” seems to be the answer to everything. Google it. Why? Doesn’t anyone know anything anymore? Take a chance. Lay the kid down. Some poor kids slept in a dresser drawer. It’s NOT THAT BIG OF A DEAL UNLESS YOU’VE LOST CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE.
I think we’ve lost something very important. We’ve lost the ability to think for ourselves, forgetting that the so called “experts,” not only lie, but they aren’t really experts for anyone but themselves and even then, they fail. Always remember Dr. Spock apologizing to the entire country, for thinking he knew what it was like to raise children. Once he had one of his own, he said he was sorry for all the things he wrote in his book. THE ONLY BOOK we had.
Maybe by asking someone else, people can blame them if things don’t work out. They can forego personal responsibility and just say, “Well, that’s what he said to do, so it’s not my fault.”
It just seems so strange. We all grew up wild things, I mean the dinosaurs were gone and no one had a phone that wasn’t attached to a wall. We turned out pretty good, if you ask me. All of us were, and still are, able to think for ourselves. We all put our kids to bed, our dogs were happy and fine. None of us worried about carbs and I only knew one person who had braces, because she really needed them. Was it better then? Sure seems like it. No one was afraid, that’s for sure. And even if we were, we just did what had to be done and that was that.
Even as kids we had to decide what to do, since our parents ignored us. We weren’t precious then. We were simply the next generation of a billion kids who came before us, including our own parents. Everyone seemed to realize that we were all babies once and the earth was over crowded. We were expected to behave in certain situations and other than that, we were on our own.
One thing I do know: As a kid, I got to read really cool books and not a single one was picked out by an adult, or about how to live my own life. I am forever grateful for that. They didn’t kill the love of reading when I was a child, the way they kill it now. We all read for fun. We were never forced to read horrible books about the holocaust, dead parents, abused children, or anything else that came from a list written by an adult. We got to read whatever we wanted to read, and we KEPT ON READING because of that.
Today, the stats say that kids out of high school and college never read another book in their lives. I don’t blame them. They kill the love or reading by forcing kids to read things they don’t want to read. They kill poetry and a lot of things that have to do with the arts. Kids who have the creativity and love of beauty taken from them, make better slaves. Nothing happens by accident. It’s done on purpose. They can’t break everyone, of course, but they do kill those things in most kids, whenever they can.
I can remember my grandson hating the books on the reading lists he received in grade school. He always picked the SHORTEST book, since the subjects were all horrible. He never reads now, except for classes. I told him not to read the books his teacher gave him. WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO FIGHT BACK, YOU KNOW. I told him to read something else and write a paper. But, of course, he wouldn’t do that. Brain washing works that way when grades are held over your head and the punishment for not obeying is fast and harsh.
I wouldn’t have read a single book on any of his lists, silver seals on the cover or not. Books are like perfume, not all scents are for everyone and no one wants to wear something that smells bad to them. Those books all smelled bad. Miserable, sad, horrible books. I was so angry and I still am.
I went to Chicago public schools and had the run of the grade school library. It was fantastic. I never stopped reading, because I got to read books I loved. Thank you Chicago. I may not have learned math, but I wouldn’t be sitting around doing division right now. I do, however, sit around and read. That library is burned into my mind. When I walked in one of the doors, AHHHHH, it was like heaven. Thank you to every librarian who sat behind the desk. Thank you to every grade school teacher who let me read whatever I wanted to read. You have my undying gratitude. I know it’s a little late and that you’re all with the dinosaurs now, but still. Thank you.
Yeah, it really was better back then.
Okay, the dinosaurs probably wouldn’t agree, but still…
Written
on March 28, 2021