Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Packing up the apartment, part one: BOOKS!

I'll be spending the last two weeks in the country with my parents, and so I'm packing up my apartment a little early. I got a bunch of heavy weight book boxes from my job at Carmichael Library, so I decided I'd start packing those first.

Sealing up those boxes with tape ending up being kind of emotional! I've been a huge bookworm since I was old enough to understand what a book was. Probably even before, since my parents loved reading us bedtime stories.

Books are heavy, and hard to take more than 1 or 2 with you when you travel, but I did leave a few out that I couldn't bring myself to pack up yet. Maybe I'll bring one or two with me? Maybe I'll read some before I leave?

The books that I couldn't pack up yet:

1. The Pema Chodron Collection: The Wisdom of No Escape; Start Where You Are; When Things Fall Apart


"I used to have a sign pinned up on my wall that read: Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible be found in us...It was all about letting go of everything."
— Pema Chödrön (When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times)

This is a bound collection of three of the Buddhist nun Pema Chodron's books. It's the kind of book you could flip to a page and get something out of it if you just have a few minutes of downtime, but you could also spend a couple hours just immersed in her down to earth wisdom! A friend gave me this book during a rough patch in my life four years ago and I still read it all the time. She told me to give it back when I no longer needed it, or to pass it on to someone. Maybe I'll pass it on in Germany!

2. The Portable Henry Rollins


"Life is full of choices, if you have the guts to go for it.
That's why I get immediately bored with anyone's complaining about how
boring their life is, or how bad their town is. Fucking leave and go
somewhere else. Or don't."
- Henry Rollins

This book is amazing. It's a paperback compilation of a bunch of books he's written over the years in various styles and on various subjects. Some are more journal like, others are philosophical or just plain crazy. Another book you can kind of skip around in but be blown away. I like his travel philosophy.

Also, here is a fill-in-Henry Rollin's tattoos coloring page my friend Eden found:
http://www.theworldsbestever.com/2011/07/26/morning-activity/

You're welcome.




3. Oryx and Crake - By Margaret Atwood


"He doesn't know which is worse, a past he can't regain or a present that will destroy him if he looks at it too clearly. Then there's the future. Sheer vertigo."
page 147

Margaret Atwood is my favorite author and I have been meaning to re-read this for about a year. While I don't see myself taking this with me to Dortmund, I think It would be a nice book to read while I'm getting ready to leave and living at home. It's the kind of dystopian sci-fi novel that grabs you and sucks you into the story. A contemporary classic!

4. The Garments of Caean- by Barrington J. Bayley

"Back on Old Earth there was a saying that clothes make the man. But on the world called Caean this became literally true. On that colonized planet there was a material called Prossim. If your body was in contact with Prossim your personality changed. You became handsome, you had vast charisma, you had total self-confidence - you were always the power center of every enterprise.

So throughout the inhabited galaxy clothing from Caen was the sure key to success and men would kill to get such a suit. Peder Forbath was such a man, prepared to turn space pirate to get his hands on some. But instead he found that - at the risk of worlds - the very secret of Prossim cloth itself was about to open before his eyes..." (The back cover)

I saw this paper book at a used bookstore in Ithaca, NY. I haven't gotten a chance to read it yet. People who fight over pimp suits and gowns to gain control over the universe? I'm in! Maybe I'll read this one before I leave. If not, It's small enough to bring with me but with overweight baggage fees I'm starting to think I'm bringing way too much as it is.

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