Books (Reading / Resisting / De-amazoning)

christmas book <3

I mentioned at new year how I finally managed to work myself up to quitting the job I was unhappy in and I feel in my gut that this is the right decision (as a colleague pointed out: I've started smiling again. and put on about 10 healthy pounds) even if it means sacrificing for the time being a salary and the corresponding ability to buy stuff.

And it obviously does.

There's a part of that which appeals to me - the paring back of the unnecessary, simplifying, actually thinking about what I own. Getting rid of stuff is cathartic and I love seeing people shed their consumerist baggage and feel themselves emerge lighter from it. Since I am embarking on a shopping moratorium, I've decided to focus on using and appreciating the stuff I have rather than buying more. Belts will be tightened.

My weakness is books. More particularly, Amazon books. Late night one-click ordering is like catnip to me. I spent months nursing an infant at some ungodly hour, furtively clicking on the 'others who shopped for this' links by the blue light of the computer and hoarding a save for later basket in the dozens, sometimes hundreds.  Because buying, or at least bookmarking, them was a virtual tether to the me who used to stay up til 2AM reading, and because somehow book shopping isn't really shopping, you know? Except, wait, oh yeah it is.

So, I'm swearing it off - no more Amazon* and no more new books.  I'm planning to start actually reading the books I already own but haven't read. Shamefully, there's quite a few as it's a lot quicker and easier to order a book with a kid trying to climb up your face than it is to actually read it.

This is one I'm working on now: How Children Fail, by John Holt:


A cheap secondhand purchase and aside from the awesome sixties Pelican Book cover design, it is the precursor to Holt's How Children Learn which I found a thought provoking read a few months back about our prevailing attitudes toward education and schooling and how, by forcing children to develop strategies to 'learn to test' rather than fostering their natural curiosity and will to learn, we do them a disservice.

And this is one I am resisting:  Albertus Seba's Cabinet of Natural Curiosities**

Taschen, 2011

Described as "one of the 18th century's greatest natural history achievements" this is a reproduction of the colour illustrations of all manner of zoological and botanical specimens commissioned by Amsterdam-based pharmacist Albertus Seba in 1731. Pretty pretty pictures.

You should probably buy it.

happy reading

xxppxx

*and they don't pay their taxes. quitting them is a decision I can feel good about.

**I'm linking to Foyles, legendary independent bookstore, as I whiled away stupid amounts of time in the massive flagship Charing Cross Road shop as a student and love it still.