Another Post On My Love Of Books

 I bought a $600 Volvo wagon just before winter storms dumped several inches of snow here in Bloomington, Indiana.

Considering I had spent $500 during the summer to buy a brand-new extra large Schwinn bicycle, I thought the 1999 Volvo was a good buy once I peeped out of my bedroom window the first morning after an overnight snow storm. 

"No riding my bike to work today. Thank God!" The Volvo company was founded in 1927. I looked it up - really, really, really grateful that day.

The wintery weather has abated. My $600 Volvo is still running - despite the arm workout I get every day when I drive it. The power steering is going out. But this post isn't about how grateful I was to have a car during winter. Of course I was. No... this post is about the freedom having a car gave me to drive around my new digs here in Indiana. 

And... more specifically, this post is about how my car allowed me to visit my favorite bookstore: Half-Price Books. 

Here's a little background... Most of my books are in storage in Texas. When I moved to Indiana, I arrived here with one duffel bag of clothes and a backpack with a few magazines, books, journals and pens.

Since I moved to Indiana approximately a week before Covid hit in 2020, I wasn't able to travel back to Texas during 2020. All my favorite books are missing me. And, I have missed them, too.

The first day I drove to Half-Price Books here in Bloomington, I felt like I had returned home. I don't remember how long I spent inside the store. I started from one end of the store and went from section to section scanning book spines, eyeing the displays of featured books and finished at the other end of the store with a stack of books in my arms. 

My biceps, tired from steering my Volvo with the failing power steering, were aching even more from carrying all the hardbacks and paperbacks in my treasure trove of the written word.

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations - $3

The ScrewTape Letters - $1

An Incomplete Education  $1

Just a few titles I picked up that day. I spent less that $20 that day. Every book was either $1 or $3.

So now, I have a library in the making. I am reading... on a budget.

For that, I am thankful for my $600 Volvo. 

Now... I can possibly search the stacks at Half-Price Books and add to my exile library a few titles from 1927, the year Volvo was founded:

Elmer Gantry - Sinclair Lewis

The Story of Philosophy - Will Durant

To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf

Bridge of San Luis Rey - Thornton Wilder

Aspects of the Novel - E.M. Forster

At least I can carry all those books now that I workout every time I drive.

What I'm Reading Everyday

Yes... another acronym: WIRE.

But it works for me. So.... I've learned a lot the last few days. Here's what I've been reading this week:

Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All The Facts, by Annie Duke.

Listen Up Or Lose Out: How To Avoid Miscommunication, Improve Relationships, and Get More Done Faster, by Robert Bolton and Dorothy Grover Bolton.

Thinking In Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All The Facts, by Annie Duke.

Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance, by Alex Hutchinson.

Quirky: The Remarkable Story of the Traits, Foibles, and Genius of Breakthrough Innovators Who Changed the World, by Melissa A. Schilling.

These were among the books that Success Magazine recommended as Must-Reads for February. So... I'm reading them.

In case you missed it:

What You Must Do Every Day To Find Stories To Write About. If you want to be a writer, this is a must. Very basic advice, but something we don't really do... if we're being honest.

Trying to keep going even when your body doesn't.

An observation exercise on Valentine's Day. What do you see as you go about your day?

Let's Get Vulnerable: A Moment Of Truth

I'm truly excited again.

I'm writing. I'm seeing stories everywhere. Yet... for those who have followed me... if you're still here from years past, you may be curious about my lapse. 

I neglected this blog for awhile. Life got in the way. A move across the country. A separation. A divorce. The resulting depression and ultimate acceptance.

And here we are. What helped me rebound?

I recall one of my earliest memories. It was of my mother reading herself to sleep. It was after she and my father divorced. She was a single mom. 

I was often fearful at night... I'm not psychologist, but I figure I was trying to cope with my parents divorce. I didn't want to sleep alone for irrational fear that I'd wake up without either parent. 

So... I slept near my mother... in visual proximity. I had to see her bed or I just didn't feel safe. What did I see? It influenced me more than I or she could imagine.

She read. She read into the wee hours of the night. I only caught a glimpse of it. But... oh, what a sight it was. She read novels. Her favorite... It was the 70's after all... Stephen King. 

We didn't have much. Just mom and I. She read alone at night...
but she wasn't really alone. I was watching... and flash forward decades... now, her example from so long ago inspires me and helps remind me who I am or should remember to be... a lover of words... and a writer. 

Thank you, mother. Te amo.

One Writer's Goal - Read A Book A Week

Trying to get back into a regular reading habit...

My initial goal is to read a book a week. Today is Monday, and the book I started is "The Word Exchange," by Alena Graedon. 

Just like I do in my writing, I like outlining every step of the way before I begin so I know where I should be every day. In this case, I divided the book into 7 parts that way I have, at the very least, the number of pages I should read each day.

Six sticky notes placed at my benchmarks throughout the book's pages: "Daily Reading Goal #1," "DRG #2," "DRG #3," etc., etc...

We'll see how it goes.

Also...since it's said by goal-setting experts that it's more likely for someone to stick to a goal if he announces it to others, here - this blog post - is my announcement of my goal to read a book a week.

Now for the hard part....

5 Ways To Enjoy Creative Fun-Time With Your Kids

With only a few more weeks left of summer vacation the question on many parents' minds is: Now what do we do with the kids?

If you're like me, I don't want them glued to the television for eight hours, or stuck to the computer playing games or on Facebook. It's a huge challenge in my house because I have five children to "entertain." 

Being a writer and creative type has helped me come up with ways to stave off the dreaded sound of "Dad, I'm bored!" coming from the living room. Here's the first of five activities I have found to enjoy creative fun-time with my kids. Each of these five activities are inexpensive, too. 

Activity #1
Acting out our favorite book or movie. 

My kids really get into this - especially if there's a lot of action and cool costumes. Some faves have been anything Star Wars, Stargate, Harry Potter and Ice Age. The kids often will spend a couple of hours in their room planning out scenes to act out, setting up props, costumes, etc. Usually they do this in secret because they want to surprise mom and dad. We have a craft box with crayons, markers, cardboard and other materials for them to use, but we let them use the dining room chairs, bed sheets and whatever else they may need (as long as they don't ruin the furniture). 

If simply performing for mom and dad in the living room isn't exciting enough for the kids, we bring out the camcorder and film the entire production. Filming is usually the job my kids designate for me. We have relatives all over the country. So, I set up a YouTube channel where we can post these kids productions to share with family.

I keep it private allowing only family to access it. I recently found the My Kids' Adventures blog which gives parents ideas for having family fun. A recent post was titled: "How to Stage a Family Play With Your Kids." If your kids are anything like mine, acting out their favorite book or movie will provide hours (some times days) of free fun at home.

Next Post
Activity #2: Creative crafts with paper

How Much Did J.K. Rowling Get For The First Harry Potter Book?

If I could find a way to pay for seven tickets to the last Harry Potter movie, my kids would think I was the coolest dad.

Hmmm.... gotta work on that one. Before Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 in movie form, there were the books. And before Rowling was the writing success all writers dream of following, there was the unknown writer trying to get her first book published.

W-a-a-a-a-a-a-y back when, Rowling received approximately $2,400 in an advance from her publisher for the first book,  Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, according to a list of Potter-related stats on an Entrepreneur blog posting by Jason Fell.

The rest, as they say, is history.

That kind of an advance would be enough to make me happy. Well, a couple hundred bucks would make me (er... my kids) happy because I could take them to the movies.

Back to work.

What's Under Your Couch? Evidence of Your Twisted Writing Habits!

I was cleaning up last night when I got a sudden urge to check under the couch to see what might be hidden there. Here's what I found at 2 a.m. (Don't laugh):

Books
An illustrated history of America
A Jeff Foxworthy paperback (You might be a redneck...)
A poetry anthology
A volume of a 2-volume set on Epistemology
A Greek lexicon
A woodworking how-to manual
An analysis of the U.S. presidency during the 1960s
A guide to fruits (in Spanish)
A Calvin and Hobbes collection
And... a children's picture book (more on this later).

But wait... there's more. Hidden in the dark depths under the couch also were an old Star Wars calendar, a booklight (with batteries that worked!), a baseball, origami paper (oh yeah, and an origami book), two pencils, an unused green twisty tie, kneaded rubber (for sketching, or more for erasing my darned sketching errors), two plastic pencil sharpeners and three paper clips.

After reading that list, I don't even know where to begin with the explanations. How many of my writing projects are represented in this list? I can say they absolutely represent the fits of so-called writing inspiration that sometimes hit me at 2 a.m.

Don't you just love the manic art of writing!