#177: A Blind Date

In which I share how I pair up with books and the Kindness Calendar for August.

Hello and Happy August My Dear Friends! If you saw the pile of books on my bedside table and another near the couch you’d probably know immediately that I’m a woman who loves to read. I always have. Sometimes I even faked being sick when I was in elementary school so I could stay home and read. I visit my library every week to pick up books I place on reserve and I often come home with books from my local bookstore, too. At any given time, I have more than one book going. Today, I’d like to write a little bit about how I pick books to read.

How to Pick a Book or Let One Go

Embarking on a new read is a bit like a blind date—we don’t know what we’re going to find inside the cover or if we will want to have a second meetup.

*There are books that grab me right on page one. A few that come to mind are

• Blood, Bones, and Butter by Gabriel Hamilton’s

• Finding Freedom by Erin French’s

• The Scentkeeper by Erica Bauermeister

• The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

• Outlander Book 1 by Diana Gabaldon

*There are books that take more than a few chapters for me to get into the flow, so I give it a chance by reading up to my age in pages, seventy right now, to see if I want to continue. If it hasn’t caught me by then, I move on to another. In my 50s, a friend loved Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier and loaned me their copy. I tried, but after fifty some odd pages I was really having to work at reading it, and returned it. We weren’t a good fit. But, years later when I picked it up, it did fit me and I loved it.

*Sometimes I start a book and know almost immediately, that it’s not for me. Nope, not this one.

*Then there are the ones that get me hooked in just a few sentences.

Be brave. You never know what a first meeting might lead to.

These are the words first words I read when I opened up a copy of Big Panda and Tiny Dragon by James Norbury recently at my local indie bookstore. Oh yes, so true, I thought, and turned to the next page.

“A new day and a new beginning,” said Tiny Dragon. “What shall we do with it?”

Indeed, what shall we do, I thought? And the next page…

“Which is more important,” asked Big Panda, “the journey or the destination?”

“The company,” said Tiny Dragon.

After those words, I was totally hooked and immediately bought the copy in my hands. Feeling that I was in for a very special read, I decided to wait until I had finished all my chores for the day. Then I made myself a cup of tea, plumped up the pillows on the couch, opened the window a bit for some fresh air, and settled in for a very lovely read.

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

Big Panda and Tiny Dragon reminds me of Charlie Mackesy’s The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and The Horse, a book that has become a blockbuster. A movie short was made of it which won an Academy Award this year, too. In that story, what hooked me was the answer to Mole’s question.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?"

"Kind," said the boy.”

When I read that, it brought tears to my eyes. Did it to yours, too?

There is so much stress and worry in our world and Big Panda and Tiny Dragon, and The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and The Horse (both book and movie) center me and help me to remember that what is important is wonder, friendship, kindness, and love. Those are keepers.

P.S. Here’s the link to the Kindness Calendar for August (pdf).

Bake and Cook

• Next week, for my paid subscribers I’ll be sharing the recipe for a lovely summer salad that I’ve been serving at recent Art of the Pie Day Camps.

• As summer vegetables are upon us now in great volume, I’ll be teaching a Ratatouille Pie class on Zoom on August 13. If you would like to join me, here’s the link to register.

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