Rambling Wednesday: The Gift That Is Easy To Wrap

(Or, Why Books Make Good Gifts)

When you are obsessed with books, it is at once very difficult and very easy to buy someone a gift. For someone like me, who is not too imaginative when searching for gifts, books are a natural choice. I find it near impossible to buy someone that doesn’t read a gift. See, for me things like books, chocolates and bubble baths are connected. When I receive a book, I am ecstatic. When I receive chocolate I am ecstatic because I can eat it – while reading. Or I can have a lovely rose/lavender scented bath – while reading. Take reading out of the equation and I am left with other hobbies. But something like paint or a DIY-kit is much more difficult to choose or buy for someone else. For instance – I buy only my own quilling paper, because I am very picky on the type of paper I use. I despise plastic crochet hooks. All paper crafting materials must be acid-free… see, very picky. And what if their hobby is fly fishing? I know nothing about fishing! How am I supposed to buy something fly-fishingy which they will actually use?

Seven reasons why books make good gifts:

1. They are easy to wrap.
2. You get books on any subject – even books on books. So you’re bound to find something.
3. They are easy to wrap. Even I can wrap a book without using a whole roll of sticky tape.
4. They are easy to carry around once wrapped.
5. It’s a lot easier to get a book to suit someone’s personality than choosing between Rose (too girly?), Lavender (am I saying she’s old?), Strange Spicy Scent (too masculine?) and Flower Smell That Will Give You Instant Migraine (stagger out of shop into pharmacy to get pain killers).
6. Did I mention they are easy to wrap? And easy to tie ribbon around.
7. Of course, if you’re buying them an ebook you don’t even have to wrap it. Or carry it somewhere. But I still like writing something inside books I give to people.

 Of course, if you can’t find that elusive book, written by that elusive author and printed by that elusive, independent press that your family member/friend simply has to have… go on, buy a gift card.

(An earlier version of this post was posted last year on Ramblings of a Lone Bibliophile.)

An Overload of Limn

Or, Travels without Rescue Remedy

I am a nervous person by nature – give me a couple of molehills and in no time you can have the Himalayas in your back yard. I blame my genes. I also blame living in Gauteng – but that’s another story. So, of course, I will look for hobbies that will sooth my frazzled nerves and give me some respite. Hence, you will not find me rock climbing, scuba diving, or eating something which contains nuts. I just don’t need that kind of adrenalin rush.

Mostly, I turn to books once the business hours have passed and the daily traffic jams are left behind. I have quite an eclectic taste – give me a good story and I’ll most probably read it. Give me good writing and I’ll indulge for hours. The problem comes in more when picking what to read first. This problem is compounded when walking into libraries. Not only can I take out just about any book in the building, but I can do so for a very minimal payment. For. A. Whole. Year. And only then need I hand over some more cash.

There is a rush all bibliophiles share – the rush of finding the book. The book which is just the kind of thing you were searching for. The book that makes your hand move to the shelf on its own accord. The book that hides in plain sight until you pass the shelf and then it suddenly grabs hold of your poor oculars, nearly tripping you as you try to walk by without taking them off the spine. The rush of a good book sale. Ah, the book sale; the bibliophile’s kryptonite.

The rush can make you do strange things. It can make the biggest nerd with the smallest stature carry around 20kg of books on one arm for the entire time it takes to search through the whole sale. It can make you spend your whole food budget before you even fully realize what you picked up. It can even let you make excuses about why you really, really, REALLY need ten more books right now. ‘Of course books have no side-effects,’ you stutter while one eye twitches as you spot a biography of Borges. And you get to swipe your club card on sales purchases. You’re actually saving money. And you were thinking of going on a water diet anyway. And one of the books is a gift for someone else. And your new mantra for 2011 is suddenly ‘limn… limn… limn…’. Before you know it, your New Year’s resolution to stick to your budget is bust, you’re using a credit card to buy food and you forget to go to work because the book you’re reading is just so good.

This year, rather stick to a couple drops of Rescue Remedy before going in search of new reading material. At least then you can go on a bread and water diet after buying another Bottomless Bag o’ Books.

The Bibliophile

First published over at:
http://letterdash.com/lonebibliophile/an-overload-of-limn

Inspiration Friday: A Poem by One of the Great Masters

When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced
The rich proud cost of outworn buried age;
When sometime lofty towers I see down-razed
And brass eternal slave to mortal rage;
When I have seen the hungry ocean gain
Advantage on the kingdom of the shore,
And the firm soil win of the watery main,
Increasing store with loss and loss with store;
When I have seen such interchange of state,
Or state itself confounded to decay;
Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate,
That Time will come and take my love away.
           This thought is as a death, which cannot choose
           But weep to have that which it fears to lose.

-        

                                - Shakespeare, Sonnet 64

Ruins of tower at Kuskuam palace covered by vegetation

And now a bit of a ramble…

Although most people who have taken English classes know (or at least know of) Shakespeare’ssonnet 18 and 116, I firmly believe that most students do not want to study the Bard’s work (or even bother to read it) because they have been told that ‘it is too difficult’ (Not to mention ‘so not cool’ to like it).

I am very thankful for a mother who loved Shakespeare, told my sister and me the stories, and recited parts of the plays and sonnets. We both also received the Wordsworth edition of Shakespeare’s complete works (the grandest books I owned at that time; three hardback volumes in a slipcase). This was also a time when I really started to realise that most of what I was reading was considered ‘too difficult’ for my age (about 13) by some teachers and other adults. Classics like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Dickens, or Roald Dahl’s short stories and even The Neverending Story.

My point is not ‘give children a pile of thick books to read’ – although that is not really a bad thing. My point is children (or even teenagers) should not be told that something is ‘too difficult for them’ without even letting them try. Not to place that mental block there before they’ve had a chance to decide for themselves. Some books are not age appropriate, yes. But to base ‘too difficult for them to read’ simply on a book that looks ‘too thick’ or one containing words you have to look up in a dictionary is completely silly. 

Bennie Boekwurm

Thank God for tea (and coffee)!

 “Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea? How did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea.” (Sydney Smith 1771 – 1845)

I recently picked up a book called A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization by Kenneth F. Kiple at a warehouse book sale. That sale really was ‘overload’ even though I loved every minute of it. Piles of boxes stood at the door to the warehouse for you to take in with you. People were emerging from the inner labyrinth of books staggering under boxes filled to the brim, blinking in the bright daylight as if they forgot for a moment that there was a world outside which did not exist of isles and piles of books.

One thing that sales like these makes possible is for readers to easily – and quite cheaply – try out new genres, writers and basically anything that ‘looks interesting’. And if you end up not liking it? Well, you probably paid about R10 for it, so it’s much easier to part with at your local library. (I usually do this with books that I find are not quite in my taste – someone else is bound to like it and get some use out of it.) And The Movable Feast did look and sound interesting to me – how much do we really know about the history of the food we eat, after all?

Just a simple thing like my usual breakfast – muesli with yoghurt and coffee or tea with sugar and milk – turns into an exotic meal. The usage and spread of both tea and coffee (and the sugar that goes with it) is a fascinating read. (Though, I still prefer my coffee and tea with sugar and milk. Sugar I can still do without, but not the milk. No salt or butter for me, thank you, those are too exotic for my taste.)

On the days that I am unable to start with either a cup of tea or coffee, I always feel as if I’ve missed some important step in getting ready for work. And that nagging feeling will remain, leaving me to double check that I am not still wearing slippers, or forgot to brush my hair. I make my first cup at work while the computer is starting up and e-mail is loading. That way I can sit down, take a sip and focus my mind without any pesky coffee cravings drawing my attention away from the screen and towards the drawer where my stash of coffee and tea is kept.

And what better way to end a busy day than with a book and a mug of rooibos tea? 

The Rooibos plant

Where none can hear

My feet wander back

over dried winter grass

to turn my back on

the world, its shadows.

Your shadow beside me.

Tales and banter of past times

fall in still whispers on

my thoughts as I stare to a time

when you sat beside

me.

It was a dark winter then

–        that lifetime ago  –

and shadows, like today,

streaked the dry grass.

Only the memory of your voice bring

calm and peace.

Today I’ll smile,

today I’ll whisper,

but only where none can hear.

I love you.

The Great Office Trek

In the year of Our Lord 2011, in the blustery and cold month of June, I attempted, along with various other colleagues, to brave the winter cold and move to another office[1]… We packed the meager belongings stashed away in desk drawers, loaded the bags on our backs and hiked a few hundred meters to our new home.

I, being the slightly strange, nerdy one in the office also carried about 10 pounds of large and very important (maybe even magical) volumes slung over my shoulder. The trek was so tiring, that I even had to stop for a cup of tea and a cup of coffee once I was settled in. Here are a few things that I have learned during this great adventure:

• 1.        Those little bookshelves fixed to the desk can take quite a few dictionaries and other language books.
• 2.      You can never have too many dictionaries with you – either to hide behind or to make you look smart.
• 3.      I have enough memo pads to at least last me the rest of the year – I adore stationery, especially if they are printed with cute designs. Somehow I can always make myself believe that I need another notepad when I see one I like. (Shame on you CNA and CUMbooks for taking advantage of my love of stationery!)
• 4.      I only have one pen from the office supply cupboard – I much prefer those with more than one colour and those which are decorated. It also makes it more difficult for them to ‘get lost’.
• 5.       A new cubicle means new decoration challenges. (Where do I put my family pictures? And my piece of petrified wood? Can I still sneak in the odd action figure? Decision, decisions…

I came across this a while ago – if you also like stationery, you’ll love this!

---

[1] OK, cubicle.

The Book of Lost Books by Stuart Kelly

For this week's Ramblings of a Bibliophile, I've chosen The Book of Lost Books by Stuart Kelly. Enjoy!

The Book of Lost Books - S. Kelly

The Book of Lost Books

While looking over the reference section in one of the local bookshops, the following title caught my eye: The Book of Lost Books: An Incomplete History of All the Great Books You’ll never read. I picked it up to read the back cover and knew I had to read this book – and it was a very good buy. Stuart Kelly goes about describing the books many well-known writers planned to write, but never got the chance to write and books destroyed by fire, water or other means.

“Widsith spoke, unlocked his word-treasure, he who of all men had most widely travelled among all the nations and peoples of the world.” (Kelly 2010:101- translation of the Anglo-Saxon poem “Widsith”)

Some of the chapters in the book are: “Homer”, “Sophocles”, “Saint Paul” and “Widsith the Wide-travelled”. Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dante, Cervantes, Charles Dickens, Dostoyevsky, Hemingway, Kafka and Philip K. Dick also make up part of the book, making it a treasure trove of the works of some of the greatest writers we only have a brief glimpse of.

Somewhat elegiac, the prose draws the reader in and makes every page enjoyable to read. Even if you are not familiar with some of the writers featured in The Book of Lost Books, Kelly still gives enough information to ensure that his readers are not lost between names and titles. When one looks at all the works that we know of that has been lost, it makes one more thankful for those works that have stood the test of time.

“This book, even in its expanded form, is still only the visible tip of the extravagant, glorious tragicomic universe of loss. That universe, like our own, is expanding.” (Kelly 2010:379)

I can highly recommend this volume from Polygon for any avid reader or bibliophile as Kelly covers so many different writers – there is bound to be at least one to suit every taste.

Goes perfectly with: A Caffé Latte on a rainy day.

Perfect size to: Keep in your handbag for those moments of stolen reading pleasure.

Rating: 4/5

Also visit: www.polygonbooks.co.uk

Kelly, Stuart. The Book of Lost Books: An Incomplete History of All the Great Books You’ll Never Read. New Expanded Edition, 2010. Polygon Books, Edinburgh.

What I’m also reading at the moment: Bart Nel, by J van Melle & Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett and for studies: Myths of the Pagan North by Christopher Abram.