I use Overdrive to download ebooks from my local library.  The library very kindly keeps a history of all the books I have checked out. A few weeks ago I was looking for something to read and decided to look through the Alice Hoffman books the library had – I decided on The Rules of Magic but – not available, I put it on hold. Yesterday I was notified it was now available, I downloaded it and started to read. Hmm – I thought “This seems very familiar” but I kept reading. This morning I decided to check my library history and dontcha know, I took this book out in 2017.

I keep doing that. I scroll through the books and think “This sounds interesting” and then when I start reading I realize I’ve read it already. In some cases I didn’t like it the first time and the second time was no better and the book went back posthaste. Lately I am having a devil of a time finding something to read. Last month I re-read (on purpose) 3 books – I enjoyed them the first time and I enjoyed them the second time, actually one book I was enjoying for the third time. I suppose I should just buy a hard copy of the damn book because I’m betting I will go back and read it again at least one more time before I die.

On the other hand I think it may be time to purge my bookshelves again. I have a lot of books on theater and acting – why, I have no idea. I doubt I will be going on any auditions so books of audition monologues are hardly necessary. A few years ago I dumped a huge number of books, mostly 50 year old paperbacks that I hadn’t read in, well, 50 years! Tho I did replace my paperback JD Salinger’s with hardcover editions except for The Catcher in the Rye .  I discovered that Catcher in the Rye was a snore and a bore to a mature adult. But 9 Stories never gets old.

I suppose I should get rid of the Harry Potter books – I know I shall never re-read them. I don’t know if any of you are old enough to remember when they first came out. We waited with bated breath for each volume. We pre-ordered the books so we would get them the minute they went on sale. It was such a thing – the first book was published in 1998 in the USA – I was 52 years old and a super fan.

I was 17/18 years old when I read The Lord of the Rings trilogy, I even had a “Frodo Lives’ button. I tried re-reading those books a few years ago and I could NOT drag my brain through them. Nor The Hobbit either.  They all went out with my most recent purge. What appealed to the youth bore the crap out of the adult.It goes without saying that I have never seen the movies.

On the other hand, there are a few books that I have read but do not have personal copies of and I shall have to remedy that. It’s a short list:

“Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro – I have read this book, at minimum, 3 times. And I always go back to it when I am craving a good read. I really should have a hard copy.

“The Color Purple” by Alice Walker I have several books by Alice Walker but not this one. I’m often rummaging through my bookshelves looking for it only to realize (once again!) I don’t have a copy. (I don’t really rummage, my bookshelves are organized by subject – religion, philosophy, poetry, novels etc and within each category by author).

“The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry” by Gabrielle Zevin. I’ve written about this book so many times.

“Olive, Again” by Elizabeth Strout I gushed about this book recently here on the blog. I’m waiting for the paperback to become available because I need to read this again.

On a totally different note: I have been whinging about the weather and that I have not been able to have the windows open for months now. Today, glory hallelujah, the windows are open! Oh frabjous day, callou, callay!