6 posts tagged “books”

Thanks to marvelous neighbor, Idadi I fell into a rather awesome site called Good Reads - if, like myself, you are a book slut you may fall in love with it too. If you join, please feel free to add me as a friend - nic: Babble. I'd love to sneak a peek at your bedside table!

Mmmm ... if there is a heaven ... why shouldn't it be an endless series of phenomenal libraries?! See the above shot of the STIFTSBIBLIOTHEK ST. GALLEN library. The people in the photo are ethereal - ghostly bibliophiles. Throw in a latte and a comfy chair and that's my kinda  eternity!

Found a link to this amazing book -  "... a gorgeous book of photographs by Candida Höfer titled, Libraries, a title which pretty much says it all, because that is just exactly what it is, one rich, sumptuous, photo of one library interior after another. It’s like porn for book nerds. Seriously. They are gorgeous photos, nearly all without visitors and just begging to be entered."




Full-frontal objectification of the library itself. Oh yeah. This book is on my 'Must Own" list.

I'm re-reading Paulo Coelho's, The Alchemist. I seem to be stuck on pages 21-25 or so (it's not a big book, only 167 pages worth). I can't seem to get past the bit where The King of Salem explains to the shepard boy about the finding of personal legends ....

"It's what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their personal legend is" ...... people learn early in their lives, what is their reason for being", said the old man with a certain bitterness. "Maybe that's why they give up on it so early too."

I've been thinking about this ... I've got kids so I think about the things each of them have manifested as potential 'personal legends'. For instance, middle daughter came into the world with an enduring conviction that she was going to be an actress - 14 years later she's still emoting ... all over da place. I reckon her sense of personal legend is very strong, very compelling.

But for myself ... I am feeling bereft - grieving a bit. I'm a little embarrassed to say, I seem to have ermm ... misplaced my personal legend, if in fact I had one. The old man goes on to suggest that people sacrifice their personal legend to the Greatest Lie -- the lie that we don't have control and that life is governed by fate.

Fortunately I am not a believer in fate. As for control, I made recent posts about control ... some things I can, some I can't. I don't know if the Universe conspires to give us what we truly want ... if it does then I guess I don't 'want' properly and clearly need some "Advanced Want Training" - cuz this trip isn't quite what I had in mind when I bought the ticket.

My angsty, grieving feeling is probably exacerbated by my current circumstances - all the things, labels I usually define myself by aren't in  play at the moment. I'm in limbo and I confess I have no idea where I am going.

Is it just me that's in personal legend dark-dom? Do people get too old for personal legends? Do other people have an inside edge here, and somehow know and remember theirs? If I had one, how on earth could I forget such an important thing?! If I've lost my personal legend can I email a request to the Universe for the password to be resent to me?

Clap if you believe in personal legends .. go on, clap - perhaps you can save mine.

I keep stumbling upon articles about simplifying life by down-sizing material possessions. There's entire magazines and books devoted to the subject - so lotsa people must be thinking about it.

I was intrigued a little bit by this when I left Canada to live in the UK - I left a lot of 'stuff' behind, gave some away, sold some, trashed lots ... and oddly enough, didn't miss what I left behind. When I arrived in the UK it was months, over a year really, before I completely unpacked my things from Canada. While it was great to have them back - I can honestly say I didn't lose sleep over not having.

Now this move from the UK to Australia has been a fish of a different colour. Nothing has gone right with this move - not one damn thing. We were supposed to have all our belongings delivered to our door by November last year. It is now May and we still do not have our things. In fact, eight months later you could say we are .... still moving.



We arrived in Australia with one suitcase each, and the expectation we'd have the rest of our belongings in about 6 weeks. It's been nearly 8 months living with the contents of a single suitcase. There's down sizing and then there's ... having nothing.

Having nothing can be an interesting experience for a period of time ... after 7+ months of having nothing ... I am no longer 'interested'. I am angry, upset, disconnected, frustrated and absolutely SICK of the Shabby Chic meets St Vinnie's Charity look that has somehow manifested into my apartment, my life.



I miss my things, I want them. I want them NOW! I want my books, my music, my clothes - I want a sofa to sit on, my own bed, a night stand for my book and my glass of water. I want my shoes - all 47 pairs of them - I want my dishes, my mixer, my paintings.

The latest news is that our things are supposed to arrive in Australia on the 20th-ish of May - then it is a couple weeks clearance process through customs and quarantine. At the end of it all, we will maybe have our things by early June.

I know that this should be creating relief, I should see the end of the experience coming, the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel - but I cannot relax, cannot get past the anger, the frustration, the desire to drop a bomb on Fleet WorldWide Shipping head quarters. The writer in me wants to write articles of the worst defamatory nature with the intent to systematically destroy their shipping 'business'.



I do not believe Fleet World Wide Pirates emm ... I mean Shippers,  when they say 'it's coming - anymore than I'd believe the ol' 'cheque's in the mail' line.

FUCK MOVING!