Why oh why oh why?! I make a resolution, a very sensible resolution based on thoughts I’ve been thinking for a while, and then for no real reason I abandon it in a moment. I’ve mentioned many times that we’re trying to get rid of stuff – and indeed we’ve been trying hard to do so. The charity shop bolts its doors when it sees us coming with more bags and boxes (it doesn’t really, but I do see something in the expression of the lady who works there which signals that enough of our junk is enough!) We have tried to sell our books but we’re not very good at that, so the charity shop lady receives literary donations from us which we have to hide at the bottom of bags and boxes because I think they are over-run with books. There are charity bookshops, but none near us.
I still buy books, but try and stick to e-books, which of course don’t take up physical space, but my e-reader is almost overwhelmed even though I try to organise it.
You may have guessed what I’m about to reveal – and if I say I was in Waterstones this afternoon while waiting for an appointment to see my lovely optician, you will guess what happened.
I don’t want/need any more books, I haven’t read all the books I have (by a long chalk) and have piles everywhere, crying out piteously to be read – or at least picked up and opened. So I was hanging about, killing time in fact, picking up books and reading the blurbs, when unfortunately I found I had a book in my hand and I’d opened it and started reading it. The inevitable happened, the book was bought (in fact I didn’t buy it, I had enough points on my Waterstones card to get it without payment) and I left the shop to go to see Alison my optician with it in my bag.
“Dark and Magical Places” by Christopher Kemp, “ A modern look inside the brain, written as beautifully as a long-form poem” says David Eagleman on the back cover. I had made the mistake of opening it and reading the first page which began to tell the true story of Amanda Eller who went missing in Makawao Forest Reserve in Hawaii. It was impossible to put it down, so I took it to the till, exchanged my points for it, and left to go to see Alison with it safely in my bag.
I’m very pleased I have it – it has a nice feel, it’s going to be interesting and thought-provoking, but it is one more book when I have hundreds and am trying to reduce my library!
PS I think the title is bound to give me inspiration to write something, and not necessarily a true story about a young girl who gets lost!
Lois Elsden 