Books read in April

Actually, this should be titled "Books not read in April" for it was not a good month for reading.  I'm not certain just what it was about the month but the books stacked on my living room coffeetable... for the most part... developed a layer of dust as they lay in their untouched slumber.

I decided to set aside Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy to read later, probably next month.  I read the first couple of chapters and they were very good but the days were too filled with distractions to concentrate on such a large book.  My son-in-law listened to it in the audio format and enjoyed it very much.  He is the theologian of the family.  :)

I read Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider early in the month.  Stephanie had received a copy as a Christmas gift from her hubby and said it was an excellent book.  It is a book packed with good advice for simplifying your life, getting organized, and generally information about practical homemaking.

I can't believe how inexpensive the price is for this hardback (spiral bound on the inside) book.  It is packed with so much information.  It's a wonderful book for someone just setting up housekeeping as well as ummm... more mature homemakers like moi'.

I had only two complaints about the book and both of them were most likely a generational disagreement (Tsh being a young wife and mother) and neither distracting from the book's value.

First, she seems to indicate (and I could have just read this into the chapter) that one is not organized if they have what she calls "clutter" on their kitchen counters.  As I've mentioned before, I prefer all my stuff out where I can see it for convenience and because they make my heart sing... and I'm a very organized person.

Second, she gives advice that if one has not used their wedding china (as well as other wedding gifts) to sell them.  It was my own experience that I didn't use my wedding china very much when I was young but it was pulled out and used a lot as our family got older and had more celebration and holiday meals at the dinner table.

I did get rid of an awful lot of wedding gifts thinking I'd never use them and I regretted it later.  Sometimes wisdom comes when looking back instead of forward.  It was well worth moving that china from place to place over the years as well as our inherited china from my husband's mother.

I'm reading Calm My Anxious Heart by Linda Dillow to inspire as well as bring wisdom.  I think the title describes it well.  I've read other books by her that I enjoyed very much.  She's an excellent writer and very Biblically sound.  I read her Creative Counterpart over and over as a young wife and mother.

Wanting to "read something" but not in the mood for deep reading at the moment, I skimmed my bookshelf for a volume to reread and came upon a favorite old book called I Love Books; A Guide Through Bookland.  (This book is available used in many links to Amazon.)

I LOVE this old book and actually own two copies.  The first was found at a library sale long ago and although I picked it up to peruse because of the title, I ended up buying it when I saw the original owner's signature on the inside flyleaf showed someone with my maiden name (which is not common).

When I brought it home and started reading it, I was immediately taken with Mr. Snider's writing for this book is not a list of books to read as one would think.  It is all about "Booklove" (as he calls it)... the wonder of books, how they change our life as well as make us who we are, finding time to read, deciding what to read, etc.

Another aspect of this book which I noticed again as I was rereading it was how it opens the eyes of the person born after 1950 as to what society was like in the early part of the century (and talks about how it had changed since he was young!).  For Mr. Snider talks about the importance of the Bible and devotional books to develop one's character and as one reads about the world in which he lived, it is apparent it is very different then what even I grew up in.

A few years ago I came across a much fatter edition of this book, which was written a little over a decade later (this one in the mid-50's).  This is the edition which I reread in April but I continue to have the slender volume on my shelves, just in case it was owned by a family member whom I never knew.  This book is absolutely delicious for any bibliophile who loves old books!

Thank you again for entering Amazon through the blog's widget.  This month I used it to purchase grandchildren birthday gifts (we're in a few months with many birthdays) that I couldn't have afforded otherwise.  Consider yourself hugged.  :)

Picture:  A Good Book; allposters.com