My many books spill off bookshelves into all nooks and spaces available, creating havoc and causing problems. Therefore, my first step in cleaning house had to be to sort through them to decide which I could part with, and who would want or deserve them. This painful process was somewhat mitigated when my long-suffering husband suggested I purchase an Amazon Kindle so I could still have access to all my favorite books, but also be able to give away all (most) of the hard copies.
As most readers will attest, there are some books that cannot be given away. For me, these include Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series (think "Master and Commander"), and a first edition of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' Cross Creek. But the rest must go!
So, my middle child went home with four boxes of books, and I have five boxes semi-filled for my oldest child and my mother.
But how does the Kindle fit in? Here's where it gets good.
Being a little leery of it at first, I decided to try a book I already knew well: "Handling Sin," by Michael Malone, which concerns the upheaval of a man's life and his gradual enlightenment regarding the negative aspects of being staid, respectable and predictable. A book about change seemed appropriate, considering the upheaval in my living room.
The upshot? The book was excellent in the Kindle! I could now give both my copies of Handling Sin away (but will keep one of them; after all, it would be impossible to read the Kindle if The Bomb came and we lost our electricity).
Next I tried an adventure/mystery - The Killing Floor, by Lee Child. Another excellent time was had! I loved my Kindle!
Over the next few weeks, I probably spent hundreds of dollars filling my Kindle with brand new books, well-loved and well-read books, and expensive books. I've since learned to look to the free ebooks to fulfill a voracious appetite for reading and for postponing housework.
At this time, my house is still a dreadful mess. The living room floor has the five boxes either filled or half-filled with books to give away. The bookshelves are still one-third full of books, but rapidly filling up with miscellaneous junk. I haven't even touched the books in the rest of the house, figuring that Cleaning One Room at a Time is, like Sin, all I can possibly Handle.
My highest hopes are that I will end up with a clean house or, at least, a respectable, adult living room. The caveat being, of course, whether I can make time to clean house in between finding and reading books on my Kindle.
An update to this blog: This article was originally published by the Yahoo Contributor Network at:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/7754962/how_getting_an_amazon_kindle_will_result.html?cat=9
I've since learned that I had 205 page hits and will be paid $.31.
Feel free to click on it and earn me a bit more money! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment