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Sunday, May 22, 2005

Wanna help me spend my money?

I got $50 from Marcel's parents for my birthday, and now I get to spend money selfishly. Woohoo!

Wanna help me? My absolute favourite way to spend "selfish money" is to buy books. But I can't quite decide what to buy.

So... tell me what you think. What are the best books you've read lately? Which ones do you thing are absolute "must haves" for a lover of books? I mean the kind that you just can't bear to get from the library because you NEED to have them on your OWN shelf.

I'm looking for ideas - I'm sure you can help! (I'm open to different genres, but I'm not particularly fond of sci-fi or fantasy.) I'll tell you what I've read lately, so you don't have to include those in the list...
- right now I'm reading "The Red Tent"
- I just finished "Dance of the Dissident Daughter"
- before that I read "Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith"
- and in the last couple of months... "Generous Orthodoxy", "The Different Drum", "Prodigal Summer", "Good to Great", "Life of Pi" and some others I can't remember.

(On the other hand, once I finish with the baton Cuppa passed, I may decide to buy cds instead. But for now lets stick with books :-)

4 comments:

Anvilcloud said...

Or a speedometer/odometer thingie for your bike.

Don't be too impressed with our riding exploits. We try not to mention that 50k involves an overnight stay along with a hot spa. Otherwise, these old bods ... well you know. ;)

Cuppa said...

I really do struggle when it comes to spending my money on fiction. I would buy my own copy of "The Secret Life of Bees" though. I loved that book and wanted to underline many passages. I must get my own copy one day.

I enjoyed the "Red Tent". Let me know what you think of it when you finish it.

As I said in the "book" stick I tend to spend my money on Poetry books. If I lost my copy of Mary Oliver's "Leaf and Cloud" I would go right out and buy another copy.

"A Book Of Luminous Things" a poety anthology is another one I would replace promptly.

John O'donohue's books read like poetry and of the last three books of his I had home from the library, I have already purchased two for my own library and I want the third - "Beauty - The invisible embrace."

I have old tattered copies of "A Grief Observed" by C.S. Lewis and "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl that I wouldn't be without either.

Oh Goodness, I could make a list as long as my arm and yours put together. I do love my books.

AC just brought his coffee up to my studio to sit with me for a while and I asked him about the one book he would want on his book shelf. He said he would give them all up except for the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.

Anonymous said...

I hated The Red Tent. I'll go all ballistic about it at you someday if you ask, so consider yourself forewarned.

I loved a book that my friend Ellen gave me as a farewell gift when I left California, called Winter Wheat. A lovely lovely coming of age book. Lovely. The ending is so satisfying you want to go read the whole book all over again just to have that ending.

Linda said...

"The Prodigal Son" by Henri Nouwen is a necessity for your home library and a quick, simple read called "Life Is So Good" is another one I would buy. m told me about it. It's a story about the life of George Dawson as told by Richard Glaubman. George learned how to read at the age of 99 and the book is a sort of memoir of his very interesting life. You need this at home because it is so inspiring and your kids will enjoy reading it too. Don't be scared off by the first disturbing chapter. The rest of the book is nothing like that.