Book Loot

When I travelled to the U.S. last May, I had 500 books on my "items to investigate" list. All summer long I accumulated books at yard sales, thrift stores and library sales. This was in addition to checking out 10 books a week from the two local libraries. It was embarrassing how many books I acquired. (So much for the pipe dream of having less books due to e-readers now that I know the importance of physical books for retention and understanding.)

After eight months I whittled the list down to 200. I read one to two books per week, but only loved a few of them enough to buy them. I didn't read them all. I skimmed some to see if they were worth reading. Many of those I discarded immediately.

A few of the titles I bought: Mission at Nuremberg, A Fugue in Time by Godden (because it's similar to China Court, which I loved.), Soul Keeping by Ortberg, Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert by Butterfield, One Corpse too Many by Ellis Peters and Singing Sands by Tey

I was blessed by two friends who gave me The Shallows by Nicholas Carr and Surprised by Oxford  (only 99 cents for Kindle today.)

Now that I'm back in Brazil, I enjoy alternating between my e-reader and my "real" books. The first boxes I unpacked in our new apartment were the book bins. They made it feel like home right away.