I was going to write words about Eye of the Beholder & Other Tales by Karen J. Carlisle, but I’ve got a couple of things in my mind so I’m going to do a ramble unadulterated by any planning and accompanied by some cello music by The Punk Cellist. I’m quite fond of the cello and I’ve spent a lot of time listening to various cello players. This guy is my current obsession, he’s helping me write. Although, scrolling down to read the comments while I listen is doing odd things to the video. Maybe I should concentrate on writing.
Book club
Last year I started a book club through my synagogue. It went slowly for the first few months, but we must have done something right in the middle of this year and we had a number of people join us. We’re going to evolve, but I’m not sure into what, certainly not a bat. This month we joined the library. Did you know that was possible? I didn’t either. I made an appointment and three of us visited the library and spoke to the appropriate librarian. We left the building with a bag of books to share out to the group, excitement, and a library card. They joined our book club up to the library and I am now the custodian of the library card for our book club! Essentially, they’re pretending our book club is a person. I was so excited, everyone laughed at how excited I was. The next meeting is in February. I get to attend the library a couple of days earlier to pick up the next book. I’ll retrieve the first book at the next meeting and hand out the second book. I’ll have to visit the library again to return the books. And so the cycle will continue. We should probably reassess in a few months to see if people are happy with this. Some of us are in multiple book groups and are also slow readers so reading more than one book in a month might be a challenge for them. I’m neither of the above, but I do have a TBR Pile that is going to wear down my bookshelf.
Speaking of my TBR Pile
I shot a couple of videos for my YouTube Channel. One was full of the books I bought at the Book Fair Australia earlier this year. A second one focussed on the actual event. I didn’t do anything sensible such as shooting footage on the actual weekend. That would mean using some sort of video editing software to bring it all together. It’s far too much technical work for me. My videos have no editing, that may change in the future, but that means I’ll need far more time to learn the software. In the meantime I just talk to my phone, sometimes I stop talking because I forget what I was about to say. No editing means you get all of those hesitations and problems. Some time soon I’ll publish those videos for other people to look at.
But back to my TBR Pile
After shooting the videos I added all the books to my bookshelf. I feel there is a definite problem there. I ran out of space on the three shelves and had to start piles in front of the books on one of the lower shelves. How many books can I fit on the bookshelf before it decides to fall apart? I think the biggest problem is that I’m facing a reading slump. I know I’ll get over it, but I’m struggling to start books, and when I do I struggle to make myself finish them.
And then there’s my storage shelves
Not sure what to call them. They’re my regular bookshelves, and they’ve been over full for a few years. I’m going to have to go through and cull some books. I do have some in mind to get rid of. I have several possibilities of where to leave them for other people. There are a large number of Street Libraries around which can always use an injection of books. Op Shops are often happy to take delivery of books. Second-hand book shops are likely to take a donation. I know I could try selling them on any of the online markets, but the problem is having the time to do the work.
Time is not my friend
Maybe it’s not the time but that I’m over-committed. I’ve been working my way through writing the history of my synagogue. I’m now at 39,063 words. I’m sure it’s not long enough, but I’ve declared it a first draft. I’m now wading my way through the transcriptions of interviews and my other notes in an effort to fill in the gaps I’ve noticed, and also make sure I’ve got my facts right. I’m also starting to ask people more questions. It feels good to be at this point in my journey. But over fifty interviews and I’ve got gaping holes in my narrative. I’ve set up another interview for tomorrow which means I’ll have to stop and think of some questions, that’s a job for the morning. I’m also writing an email to send to someone who might know the answers. The problem is that he’s 90 and has been in hospital recently. I mean, I’m asking him questions from the 1950s and 1960s, but there’s always a chance I’ve waited too long.
I also have other things on my plate that I’m not prepared to talk about in public. Mostly, they’re not my story and I’m not going to share other people’s problems online. I don’t care that they impact me, I like to give people their privacy.
And there’s goes almost one thousand words of rambling. I’ll do my best to get back to books next week.